Soundtracks To Moments in Time

Turning Point Themes

I’m not sure what the movie industry calls it, but there is always that one song that marks the point when the main character has his/her moment of realization. These moments were a common occurrence in John Hughes and Cameron Crowe movies. When I think of these types of songs, I remember the iconic moment when John Cusack lifts his “boom box” above his head in the movie “Say Anything”.

A young lovestruck boy trying to get the girl he loves to “Say Anything”. He holds up his “boom box” and plays the song “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel, hoping she will hear what he is feeling. Lloyd Dobler was a High School Senior without a life plan of what to do after high school. Eventually, he wins the girl when she is betrayed by her father.

Movies today concentrate on special effects and computer-generated imagery (CGI), not leaving much substance to the stories. It’s all about wowing the audience and the movies that turn out to be great, despite the special effects and CGI, are based on books. The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit movies were massive hits based on the J.R.R. Tolkien novels. But then there are these Disney movies that leave the world lacking.

The world needs more movies with epic songs and revelations in movies. Light bulb moments where the heroes have that groundbreaking realization that they know exactly what they have to do. Sadly, these are not as common as they once were.

Guy Richie is one of my favorite directors. He created the movies: Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Rock ‘N Rolla, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and a Game of Shadows, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, The Gentlemen, and Wrath of Man. His name is also on the “live-action” Aladdin with Will Smith as Director, but I cannot say that I have actually watched it.

The movies I listed are ones Guy Richie directed, wrote, and produced. He has a very interesting way of showing events and his characters processing them. In the movie Snatch, he shows the bare-knuckle boxing champion being knocked out to the mat. The character has a surreal experience when he goes through the mat like he’s fallen underwater. The character is slightly aware of the events, but he’s underwater watching the events. Mickey, the bare-knuckle boxing champion, rallies, overcomes the mystical barrier, and rises up to knock out the person he’s fighting.

The main character, who tells the story of Snatch, believes that he and his colleagues are about to die. You see, the bare-knuckle boxing champion was supposed to take a fall in an illegal boxing match. The only problem is that the bare-knuckle boxing champion isn’t just a boxing champion, he’s a traveler (or gypsy). What the main character doesn’t know is that this traveler has made his own plans.

The movie King Arthur: Legend of the Sword takes the viewer on a very different ride. One that deviates from all of the romantic stories about King Arthur. It takes the viewer to a post-Roman Britania. Where magic and mages are banished after powerful, mage named Mordrid threatens Camelot and falls at the hands of Uther Pendragon weilding the power of Excalibur.

Mordird does die early in the story, but the reason behind his attack on Camelot comes from a bargain made with Uther’s brother Vortigan. A brother hunger for both magical and political power seeks to end his brother’s reign. More magic, more plots, and a young Arthur is left orphaned in a row boat sent downriver. Before Uther dies, he leaves Exclaibur in a very special stone, himself. This stone breaks through a dock and sinks to the bottom of the river.

When Arthur comes of age, the waters reciede and the sword awaits to be pulled from the stone by its rightful owner. Arthur having been raised in a brothel is not a squire. He has learned how to fight, and how to black-market business with a King who is ever vigilant and overtaxes his people.

I won’t cover all of the details, but the important turning point is when Arthur finally opens himself to the power of the sword and faces his repressed memories.

These turning points bring the heroes up and they prepare for victory against their foes. These turning points can be found in books too, but I think that they can be found in life too.

My Turning Point Theme

I believe that people have turning points in their lives. I am very connected to music and sometimes there is music in my head for the different things that are happening in my life. My turning point theme was “Laid” by James. It seems like an odd song for it, but it marked the moment that I realized that I had finally found someone to love that was all in for me.

Someone who was going to be there no matter what. That someone is my boyfriend. My revelation was, “I’m going to be ok if something happens, I have him.” This realization lifted so much off of me and I felt something that I never felt with my ex-husband, security.