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6 of the Best Uses of Pop Music in Movies
Stuck in the Middle With You — Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Arguably the scene which launched the career of director Quentin Tarantino. A moment of extreme violence, where we see much less than we think we do, played out with sinister cheeriness to upbeat 70s hit Stuck in the Middle (With You) by Stealer’s Wheel.
Juxtaposing cheery pop tunes with unsettling visuals isn’t new, check out Scorsese or Kubrick, for example. But in this scene Tarantino uses the device to stunning, brutal effect.
Mr Blonde’s (Michael Madsen) psychopathic credentials have already been established before the moment he says: ‘Alone at last’ to hapless, helpless cop, Officer Nash (Kirk Baltz). Already bloodied, bound and gagged to a chair in the stark warehouse hideaway of the colourfully named gangsters, Nash’s predicament is dire, and about to get considerably worse.
The use of the music, played via the fictional radio station Super Sounds of the Seventies brilliantly ramps up the terror and disturbing atmosphere in the scene.
Mr Blonde’s sense of fun, his playful dancing to the music as he casually waves the razor in his hand serves only to convey the helplessness of his victim, his muffled screams and pleas drowned out by the incessantly upbeat song. We know something…
