Badlands (T. Malick - 1973)

The dark humor of Badlands (1973) is wonderfully enhanced by Orff's Musica Poetica for wooden xylophone-like, metal gamelan-like instruments, tympani, and occasional chorus vocals (with words from ancient children's rhymes to the poetry of Sophocles, Goether, and Hölderlin). The universal title Musica poetica was given to the series of ten records of the composer's Schulwerk, music to be played and sung by children, issued by the French label Harmonium Mundi between 1963 and 1975. The Orff-Schulwerk became renown in educational work throughout the world. It was based on the composer's belief that children should not be taught music in isolation from kinetic movement, theater, and speech. In Badlands, the character Holly's offscreen narration throughout the movie concerning her adventures with her gentle, sociopathic boyfriend Kit, whom she thinks looks like James Dean in blue jeans, is perfectly accompanied by the Orff music which combines a simple, direct naivety of harmony and rhythm with a conceptuality foreign to the badlands of 1959 Montana. Especially effective is the use of an old folk song-setting in Phrygian mode that highlights the burning of Holly's house after Kit has shot her father. Other music by Erik Satie, James Taylor, George Tipton, and Nat "King" Cole fill out the soundtrack.

Tony Scott's True Romance (1993) makes similar use of pieces from the Orff-Schulwerk to accompany the adventures of Clarence and Alabama in this crime-drama-romance.