Roll over Beethoven: Ludwig Van and 'The King's Speech'
"This will make Beethoven!" boasted Walt Disney while he put the finishing touches on Fantasia (1940), with its 20-minute passage from the composer's Symphony No. 6 ("The Pastorale").
Roll over Beethoven: Ludwig Van and 'The King's Speech'
Carrie Rickey, Film Critic
"This will make Beethoven!" boasted Walt Disney while he put the finishing touches on Fantasia (1940), with its 20-minute passage from the composer's Symphony No. 6 ("The Pastorale").
There's a stronger argument to be made that Ludwig van makes The King's Speech, the inspirational film about the pathologist who helps King George VI overcome a crippling stutter. The film builds to the thrilling sequence, scored to the second movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, where the stammering sovereign delivers a powerful radio address to Britain and the Commonwealth, rallying his people to fight Fascism. It's a synergistic use of music and film -- the king's political drive harnessed to the music's rhythmic drive -- that's exhilarating and inspiring. Colin Firth is superlative as the king, but the Beethoven Symphony -- and his "Emperor" Piano Concerto used as the movie's coda, where the King and his family greet the crowd before Buckingham Palace -- are so stirring that the composer should be eligible for supporting actor honors at the Oscars.
I would go as far to say that The King's Speech, which has a jaunty score by composer Alexandre Desplat, is the best use of Beethoven in the movies, more transporting even than "The Pastorale" in Soylent Green (I don't want to spoil it, but it involves the passing of the character played by Edward G. Robinson), Symphony No. 9's "Ode to Joy" in A Clockwork Orange. (As to the Beethoven's 9th segment in the Beethoven biopic Immortal Beloved with young Ludwig floating in a pond under a starry sky, let's just say that it's the first use of Ludwig van in a music video.)
Peter Weir uses Beethoven's Choral Symphony in Dead Poet's Society to nice effect, showing students reciting poetry and throwing footballs set to its music.
Your favorite movie Beethoven? Let's agree: No jokes about the cinematic St. Bernard or the use of the disco "A Fifth of Beethoven" in Saturday Night Fever. Alternatively, your favorite use of a musical cue in film?
I was expecting Handel. It was a marvelous use of the Second Movement where the timing of the actors in the radio address to the world meshed so well with that of the music. I've often found the music to be a compelling element in films that have really impressed me. Mustn't forget Beethoven's Ninth in, "A Clockwork Orange." Scorsese and Allen's selections of more contemporary popular music. "As Time Goes By," "Colonel Bogey March," "Mrs. Robinson," "Alfie's Theme," just to name a few more.— californiafan- There is A— Bob Ross
- As I was saying, there's a sweet Ode to Joy homage in The Beatles' "Help!," involving a Ludwig-loving lion in a basement. Only instance of the Liverpool lads whistling riffs from the Ninth.— Bob Ross
- I love that you can do a search for Beethoven at IMDb. (You get 510 titles, by the way. And "Moonlight Sonata" looks like the clear winner, among Ludwig's greatest hits.) I like the use of "Fur Elise" in "A Charlie Brown Christmas." I love the scene from "Help!" cited above. I'd be interested in seeing how Hitchcock used Symphony No.5 in C Minor, Op.67 in the opening credits of "Murder" (1930). And I'd probably be both amused and horrified by the use of the Egmont Overture in a little something called "Marihuana," from 1935.— wwolfe
- If I'm not mistaken, "Fur Elise" figures prominently in one of the "Bill & Ted" movies. And I love that the Beatles, who tweaked Ludwig van in "Roll Over, Beethoven," paid tribute to him in "Help!"— carrierickey
- In "Ironweed," Meryl Streep, alone in a hotel room, plays a record of the third movement of Beethoven's Ninth, which features one of the most romantic themes LVB (or anyone, for that matter), ever wrote.
And props to Bob Ross for remembering the singing of "famous Beethoven's famous Ninth" in "Help!"— Zak44 - My favorite use of Beethoven's music was a film I saw that helped turn me on to classical music as a youngster in the Forties called the "Long Night" that starred Henry Fonda: Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. I have been interested in film music since I was a child when I saw (or heard) the Long Night and particularly "Jungle Book".
So much so that I accumulated soundtracks from well over a thousand films on records and tapes which I have been in the process of getting rid of in my old age. I have to say that my favorite film music is not by a classical composer but a pop/rock composer: GETTYSBURG (wonderful, exhilirating goose-bump stuff)by Randy Edelman.— John Stead - Hollywood has gotten a lot of mileage out of Wagner's "March of the Valkyries," from "Apocalypse Now" to "The Blues Brothers."— jonc
"August Rush" was a great movie. Inspired me, like totally.- I disagree heartily with the review here. Playing Beethoven's 7th at that point in the movie was a cheesy attempt to manipulate emotions. It did a disservice to an otherwise admirable movie, and a disservice to the music of Beethoven. Instead, someone should have written some music worthy of carrying the scene. It's amusing to try to recognize the music in the sound track in a campy film, like "The Black Cat" (also Beethoven's 7th, 2nd movement). But, I thought that "The King's Speech" aspired to be a more serious film than that.— phillyphiend
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