Clockers by Spike Lee

Spike Lee's film Clockers is a tale of young men selling drugs for a local kingpin in Brooklyn. Having only seen do The Right Thing by Lee previous to this (which was years ago), I was struck by the soundtrack used throughout the film. Being a huge soul fan, it was good to hear people like Chaka Khan and Seal's music.

But it was the way the music was used that interested me. For example the scene below, where the protagonist "Strike"(Mehki Phifer) was getting attacked by his local police officer in front of a lot of people. For me and my experience in watching films akin to Clockers, the music in scenes like this where something nasty is going on, it wouldn't be as soulful, smooth and dare I say it, relaxing? The music was almost the opposite of what you would expect in a gritty scene like this. I'd expect something like this to be playing, as it would fit the scene and the surroundings. But I guess that would be too obvious.

It did cross my mind that the music could be diegetic, but there was no evidence of diegetic music in any shots throughout the film. My theory as to why Lee used the song was that it was perhaps something that would have been ringing out of the close-knit houses on a summer day like this.

Either way, it's a good movie with an interesting choice of songs.