The British pop-rock outfit Dire Straits charted with the single “Walk of Life” in 1985, unknowingly capturing the essence and sound of an era in four slim minutes. The sprightly organ melody and shrink-wrapped snare hits embody the ’80s spirit like few other songs can, excepting gems such as A-ha’s “Take On Me” and the like. It instantly leavens any situation, getting toes a-tappin’ and fingers a-snappin’. Just take a look at this commercial for the drug Farxiga — “Walk Of Life” makes having Type II diabetes look like a blast. Truly, there is no situation that could not be immediately made better with the addition of the tune, and now an ambitious new project has put that assertion to the test.
The Walk Of Life Project superimposes Dire Straits over the final scenes from iconic movies (and a few TV shows) new and old, uncovering surprising new dimensions to each film in the process. Peter Salomone‘s strange undertaking revises such classic finales as Ben and Elaine boarding the bus on The Graduate, Michael Corleone disappearing behind closed doors in The Godfather, and Norman Bates dissolving into insanity at the close of Psycho, turning them each into feel-good ’80s romps with the addition of the soundtrack cut. Watch these at your own discretion: after you hear the cheery organ line over Dr. Strangelove‘s montage of nuclear apocalypse, you may never be able to see the movie the same way again. What Salomone hopes to accomplish with this odd project — apart from definitively proving once and for all that “Walk Of Life” is, in his words, “the perfect song to end any movie” — is unclear. Perhaps he intends this as an illustration of the totality with which soundtrack determines tone, regardless of image? Or maybe he’s the world’s biggest Dire Straits superfan, and this will be his most monumental tribute to his heroes. Either way, it’d be just super if he could add the end of Melancholia to the backlog of videos. Just a suggestion.
