Johann Sebastian Bach + Sharks

I watched The Spy Who Loved Me (dir. Lewis Gilbert, 1977) a few days ago and absolutely fell in love with this scene (surprisingly, I could not find it on YouTube, so I put it up myself):

EVERYTHING is perfect about this scene.  The mise-en-scène, the cinematography, the editing, and the non-diegetic—or perhaps diegetic—soundtrack… ahhhh, they all add up to a flawless piece of cinema.  But, the beautiful soundtrack was particularly the most enticing.

Once Bach’s “Air on the G String” began to play, I knew that what was to come was going to be some serious business.  And indeed, it was some serious business.

After watching the scene several times, I wondered whether the music was diegetic or not.  By diegetic, I mean music that actually plays/occurs within the movie-world.  I actually prefer it to be diegetic because it’s bad ass!  Anyone who programs “Air on the G String” to play as they feed someone to a shark and watch it on a hidden jumbo screen definitely gots some style.

I’ve mentioned somewhere in this blog before that “Air on the G String” is probably my most favorite song in the universe so if you dissed it, you’d be dead to me.  I’m extremely picky about it being used in films and fortunately, films that have used it do it justice (i.e. Se7en’s library scene).  I guess the main reason why I just LOVE this scene from The Spy Who Loved Me is the Bach-meister and I can’t seem to get over it.  It is a timeless classic.

Then Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 21 Andante” follows—another excellent choice for the soundtrack—and we witness Stromberg’s hideout, the Atlantis, rise from the sea.  If you are a fan of Mozart and underwater hideouts, then you and I both agree that this is just simply beautiful.  And again, I would prefer that Mozart is diegetic in this case as well.

Aside from the soundtrack, what better way to end the scene than with the metal smile of Stromberg’s monstrous henchman, Jaws, arguably the greatest villain in the 007 series (sorry Oddjob, you are just an Asian midget and you ain’t shit without your top hat).

So in this “whopping” three minute scene, we learn this much about the evil and awesomely sinister Stromberg: he has superb taste in music, he feeds his unloyal assistants to his fishies, he secretly lives in a huge spider under water, and he loves dining on big ass lobsters.  Then to top it all off, we have a “wtf moment” when Jaws smiles at the thought of murdering someone.  This.  Scene.  Succeeds.  At.  The.  Art.  Of.  Film-making.  BRAVO!!!!!!