By Travis Johnson
The final confrontation between Neil Cauley and Vincent Hanna in Heat is a soul-searing and cathartic moment that perfectly encapsulates the themes being juggled in Michael Mann’s crime opus. It’s an almost perfect moment of cinema, marred only by the absence of mid-80s soft rock. That flaw has now been corrected. Behold:
Similarly, the ending of last year’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which saw the wasteland hero once more walk away from the civilisation he has saved to battle his personal demons in the blighted desert, becomes so much more trenchant with the addition of some Mark Knopfler guitar action:
This is the work of freelance editor Peter Salomone, whose thesis is that every film is improved by the addition of the song Walk of Life by Dire Straits. From what could have been a one-and-done shower musing has sprung The Walk of Life Project, wherein Salomone tests his theory with a wide range of films. You like arthouse classics? Here’s Truffaut’s The 400 Blows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcxNHPHpcj4
Or if modern blockbusters are more your jam, there’s The Dark Knight Rises, Gladiator, or Inception:
It goes on and on – there are dozens of clips at the official site. Lord knows what Salomone’s end game is here but in the meantime, if you’re looking to lose a couple hours to classic cinema and less-than-classic music, click away.
