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Great films where music is a central theme.

I'm a film lover for as long as I can remember. There's nothing like a film that combines my passion for music and film. I'm going to leave out concert films from this, as there are plenty of threads on that. Lets stick to other films - dramas or documentaries - that use music as a central theme, or have it as a key element in the narrative. Here are a few of my own favorites to get the ball rolling.

As it is in Heaven
The Bands Visit
Schultze Gets the Blues
Troubled Water (the Erik Poppe film)
Sweet and Lowdown
Bird
'Round Midnight
I'm Not Here

Documentaries:

Throw Down Your Heart
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Lets Get Close (Bruce Weber)
Buena Vista Social Club
Bob Dylan: Don't Look Back
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man

So it's really could be split into two threads; Narative films and Documentaries. But lets try leaving it open to both, just no concert films. What are some of your favorites?
jax2
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Jax, I think you may be running out of "great" films, now to the "B" ones as follows.

The Benny Goodman Story
The Gene Krupa Story
The Glenn Miller Story

The only really great one left that I can recall that isn't included in the above "Yankee Doodle Dandy"
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,232 posts
 
OK. Don't watch those or listen to the music if you do then.

A movie guide would be a good source of info for movies with a pure music theme.

Would "Walk the Line" qualify?

Mr Holland's Opus comes to mind. HAven't seen it in a while but I recall a strong central music theme that reached me.

I think "A HArd Day's Night" qualifies. This is a good one to watch with closed captioning on to really be able to understand the bantering humor behind those heavy Brit accents.
jax2 OP
3,031 posts
 
Mapman - yep, you got it. Exactly. Both those films are exactly what I'm after. Where the subject or some key aspect of the plot has something to do with music. It does not have to be the entire story, though that's fine too, but some aspect of it must include music as a key element.

Tubegroover, I think there's plenty of films out there that still have not been mentioned. No need to go to the mediocre selections (though I've never seen any of those you posted I'm taking that as your inference).

Certainly you could go to a movie guide and look up examples. I guess I was interested in films folks had seen and might recommend to others here, since we're all a bunch of music lovers here. This applies to everything I've mentioned thus far - I'd recommend any one of them, some more than others, but not a dud in the bunch, IMHO.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,232 posts
 
Blatantly obvious but the sound of Music has to be on the list. Also "The Music Man" I suppose.
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Oh yeah

The Fabulous Baker Boys
"10"

Though neither of the above necessarily place music as the central theme, music IS a major part of the movie theme if not the central plot.
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