Fast Cars and Good Music

On multiple occasions I have been driving down the road and wished I could start weaving in and out of cars while driving super fast like a racecar driver. I do not think everybody has had a feeling similar to this, but at these times my body fills with adrenaline and wants to do something crazy. I then control myself knowing that I cannot drive recklessly or I would put myself and others in danger. However, the Fast and Furious movie series provides a great way for me to get the dangerous-street-racing feeling without having to get off my couch. This is especially true for the action and car-chase packed sixth movie, Fast and Furious 6. Not only does this movie show lots of action, but it uses songs and music to help deepen scenes while adding ethos, pathos and logos.

Overall, the music in Fast and Furious 6 was all similar; it was all hip-hop/rap or dance/electronic music. The songs fit well in their respective scenes and two scenes stick out most-I will discuss them later. I was a big fan of the soundtrack and I remember leaving the theater telling my friends how much I enjoyed the songs in the movie. In the reading Chapter 5, Sound the book says, “A common assumption of this kind of music is that it merely acts to prop up bad dialogue or poor acting.” I agree with this because the majority of the acting in this film is low quality but the songs overshadow that and pull your attention away.

The first scene I thought had good usage of sound was the race scene where the characters Toretto and Letty race. The music in this scene was more of a electronic genre and I thought it added a great deal of suspense. Throughout the race there were fast beats followed by a bass drop and each bass drop corresponded to something significant in the race (one driver passes another, cars crash, police show up, etc.) There is also a short part where the music stops while the cars are drifting and it seems like the two drivers are showing compassion for each other. Overall, the music in this scene creates more action, drama, while building up to important parts of the race.

The other scene I thought had great use of music was the final scene of the movie. This scene portrays some of the members of Toretto’s crew sitting around a table and the character Roman leads them in prayer. A rap/electronic song is played in the background with no lyrics while he prays and to me, this adds tons of meaning. Not only does it make the words sound more powerful, but I feel like it makes Roman sound more genuine. Since this is the final scene of the movie, the song helped transition into the credits and end the movie on a high note.

Adding popular songs to movies is an easy way to add ethos to any movie. The soundtrack song “We Own It” by 2 Chainz and Wiz Khalifa was has full popularity on iTunes, adding tons of ethos right off the bat. The rest of the songs are all relatively popular, therefore adding more ethos. The songs did a very good job adding ethos to Fast and Furious 6.

Along with ethos, there was a good amount of pathos included in this movie. To start off, the songs incited an anxious/anticipatory emotion within the viewers. The music was also used as a cue to when something will happen, i.e. when cars will crash in a race or when police will appear. The pathos here really helped further the plot.

Finally, the producers added lots of logos to Fast and Furious 6 through music. The songs fit with the scenes perfectly and there was no contradiction from song to scene. The best example of this is the car chase I discussed earlier.

Overall, I believe the movie Fast and Furious 6 deserves four pickles out of five. The movie had great ethos, pathos and logos and used songs to overshadow the poor acting. The songs went along perfectly with the scenes and I believe four pickles is a fair rating.