The Big Chill - Lawrence Kasdan (1983)

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A movie about the differences between the '80s and '60s (and '70s) decades, the difficulty to grow and to face the real world maintaining youth ideals, and the never ending importance of friendship, a movie that has become a model for many other films in the whole world.

Director Lawrence Kasdan (1949) did have a good reputation in cinema industry being the screenplay author of important movies as "Raiders Of The Lost Ark", "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return Of The Jedi" and having got a big success with his first movie Body Heath (with Kathleen Turner and William Hurt). So he had the opportunity to find producers (nevertheless reluctant) to finance a movie completely new in his structure, the story being all compressed in a week-end and featuring eight co-protagonists, all at the same level of importance. Furthermore, none of them was interpreted by well known names, but the actors selected were more or less at their first steps.

The Music was one of the most important elements of the project, completely based on edited material, evocative songs coming from the '70s and the '60s, the ones the characters listened in their college years. This was the same period Kasdan too was in college at Ann Arbor University (Michigan, US), approximately 1968-1972.

Kasdan's choice was based on very well known songs (as Procol Harum's or Rolling Stones or Spencer Davis Group ones) together with other US R&B hits, perfectly inserted in the main moments of the story. The songs' list associated with the days and with the moments of the movie is now available for the first time (as far as we know) on our website Music Graffiti (Music & Memories).

The movie was a worldwide success, and it gave the opportunity to almost all the actors for the beginning of a brilliant career, from Kevin Kline to Glenn Close, from William Hurt to Jeff Goldblum. Not so for Kevin Costner, selected for Alex's character, the flashback in which he played his role was deleted after the film was completed, to avoid confusion and maintain straight and clean the movie, and so he had to wait few other years to become "Fame".

Song

Performer(s)

Author(s)

Day

Moment

I Heard it Through the Grapevine

Marvin Gaye

Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong

Before Friday

Credit titles

You Can't Always Get What You Want

The Rolling Stones

Mick Jagger, Keith Richard

Friday morning

Alex's funeral

A Whiter Shade of Pale

Procol Harum

Keith Reid, Gary Brooker

Friday afternoon

Chatting before the dinner

Tracks of My Tears

Smokey Robinson and The Miracles

Warren Moore, William Robinson Jr., Marvin Tarplin

Friday evening

First attempt of Meg with Nick

Wouldn't It Be Nice

The Beach Boys

Tony Ascher, Brian Wilson

Friday evening

After dinner, drugs and smoke

Tell Him

The Exciters

Bert Russell

Friday evening late

Coming closer

The Weight

The Band

Jaime Robbie Robertson

Saturday morning

Breakfast after a heavy night, same scene, many interpreters

Good Lovin'

The Rascals

Rudy Clark, Arthur Resnick

Saturday morning, later

Harold, Michael, Nick and Chloe driving on a jeep towards Alex and Chloe house in the wood

Strangers In The Night

Instrumental

Bert Kaempfert, Eddie Snyder, Charlie Singleton

Saturday morning, in the meantime

Ambient music in the supermarket, below Karen e Sam dialogue

Gimme Some Lovin'

Spencer Davis Group

Steve Winwood, Muff Winwood, Spencer Davis

Saturday afternoon

Football play in the garden, during the meantime of the TV championship game

Bad Moon Rising

Creedence Clearwater Revival

John C. Fogerty

Saturday afternoon, later

Sam e Harold going in jeep to the town for the dinner provisions

Ain't Too Proud To Beg

The Temptations

Eddie Holle, Norman Whitfield

Saturday evening

Dancing and cooking in the kitchen

When a Man Loves a Woman

Percy Sledge

Calvin H. Lewis, Erew Wright

Saturday evening

After the dinner of the renewed union between the seven friends

A Natural Woman

Aretha Franklin

Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Jerry Wexler

Saturday evening, late

New and old love affairs starting (Sara and Harold and Meg, Nick and Chloe, Sam and Karen)

In the Midnight Hour

The Rascals

Wilson Pickett, Steve Cropper

Saturday night

A love night for someone of the company

I Second That Emotion

Smokey Robinson and The Miracles

William Robinson Jr., Alfred Clevele

Sunday morning

Breakfast after the night of love and friendship.
Balance, greetings, promises.

Joy To The World

Three Dog Night

Hoyt Axton

Sunday

Last joke (Michael) and ending titles

Quicksilver Girl

The Steve Miller Band

Steve Miller

 

Background music

My Girl

The Temptations

William Robinson Jr., Ronald White

 

Background music

 

 © Alberto Truffi - Musica & Memoria  January 2007

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