As a regular feature for those of us sitting in the third row, we’ve decided it worthy to not only pick apart film and cinema as a whole, but also the individual scene. This regular feature here at Row Three has been dubbed “Finite Focus;” an in depth look at a finite moment of time in a motion picture instead of the neverending stream of celluloid that graces our many multiplexes and repertory theaters across the globe.
Throughout my movie watching lifetime, I’ve found that quite often, a feature can be won or lost by one individual component; even if the other parts to the cinematic mechanism seem to be sticking a bit. That component might be the cinematography, an excellent acting performance or an extremely compellling and well thought out story line. Sometimes though, even if a film is sub-par as a whole, certain individual scenes may stand out as excellent for any number of reasons. While the particular film discussed within this (innaugural) edition of “Finite Focus” doesn’t fall within that category, I can think of several that do; which I’m sure will be discussed at some point in the hopefully long and illustrious life of Row Three.
Today’s “Finite Focus” feature film that carries the scene of which I’d like to mention is Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. There are few things in life I appreciate and love more than, or as much as, movies. Two of those things, however, are music and friends. The bus ride scene in Almost Famous embodies all three of those things magically and beautifully.
The film, if you’ve not seen it (shame on you!), revolves around a young journalist following a rock and roll band and touring with them as their career rises during the early 1970′s. After one particularly nasty and potentially band breaking fight, all the members split up for the evening and go their seperate ways. The camera chooses to follow the young journalist and the lead singer, Russell, to a party where Russell ingests massive amounts of drugs and alcohol. So much so that the band has to come searching for him in the morning. When they find him, they are still none too happy with him especially as he is still in a drug induced stupor and has put them behind schedule.
Here is where one of my most memorable and beautiful and smile inducing scenes begins to take off. As the sun rises in the distance and the tour bus travels along the countryside with its occupants on non speaking terms, the soft flow of a piano is heard slowly emerging seemingly out of thin air. As the volume grows, we hear that it is none other than Sir Elton John and his ballad, “Tiny Dancer.”
As the lyrics open, everyone on the bus is still bitter and hostile. Suddenly, the drummer starts bobbing his head and silently grooving to himself. Then another band mate starts to mumble along with some of the words and carry a slight tune. Soon, more voices spring to life and back up the drummer’s vocals with much more authority and volume. Various sleeping eyes slowly open around the bus as the memorable tune fills their collective heads. As the song begins to crescendo, more voices start to fill the air until when the song finally hits its peak at the chorus, the entire bus is filled with smiling faces and jovial singing. There are knowing glances amongst the band mates and manly shoulder grabs as the mood shifts from smug to joyous in mere minutes.
What makes the scene so memorable for me, is the message of the sheer emotional power of music. With a nice hook, some memorable lyrics and a slowly crescendoing tune, all the bad things in the world disappear and everything is right with the world. Even now, I can’t help but allow for a nice large smile to creep across my face just thinking about this scene.
Of course, Cameron Crowe is well known in the film industry as someone who knows how to pick just the right soundtrack; then how to utilize and time those songs perfectly to individual sequences within his films. In this particular case, Crowe’s choice to use Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” for the magical music is a big part of what makes the sequence work so well. It’s a great road trip song, it sounds lovely, it’s easy to sing along with and most importantly, while it builds its listeners in aural brilliance, it is a near perfect musical choice to help slowly build a scene; a scene that needs to be built deliberately, slowly and emotionally.
These types of scenarios, real or imagined, are the parts of life that make it so enjoyable. The little things: good music, good friends and good times. These are also the things that make life, and this scene, so damn memorable and pleasurable.
