Frank Sinatra an inspiration?
I was listening to Frank Sinatra playlist on Spotify when I suddenly came across this amazing song which I think would work with the world that I am forming in my mind. The song is Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) covered by Frank Sinatra in 1966. The song was originally sung by Cher. There were a lot of singers who covered this song and used in a few films such as Kill Bill Volume One (2003). I was hooked when I heard these lines:
Bang bang, she shot me down
Bang bang, I hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down
I could imagine a world where a young lady kills her boyfriend and she suddenly keeps seeing him. He came back to haunt her but not for revenge. He keeps encouraging her to kill people for pleasure. She falls for that and goes on a killing spree. She becomes mental when no one is around. She is in this underground basement where she does her murderous acts. Fast forward to the end, when the police find out that she was behind all of these acts, they found her dead boyfriend body preserved in a coffin or wrapped in clear plastic. That was the reason why she keeps seeing him as though he was still “living” in her life. The lines above will reflect how her boyfriend died. The way the boyfriend died is viewed from his perspective. The story is actually from the boyfriend perspective all along and he was telling the girlfriend to stop. The girlfriend happened to be delusional thus she kept making things up in her mind. The reason that triggered her to kill her boyfriend is still unknown because I have not gone into all the details just an outline of a story that came to me when I heard this song.
I choose Frank Sinatra version to Cher original song is because it is from a guy point of view. I can really imagine when the boyfriend is being shot this song fades in. Also, Frank Sinatra version sounds more calm and dramatic at the same time which brings out the contrast to the lyrics.
I also looked through how Kill Bill Volume One uses the song covered by Nancy Sinatra (1966). The song was used in the opening sequence of the film. The song comes in after Bill shot fire to the bride and then the title sequence appear on a black background. You can hear the lyrics very well and how the music falls nicely after the gunshot. In the beginning of the sequence, you can see that she is a bride from the veil she is using though her face is all beat up. Right before the gunshot, she says “Bill, it’s your baby”. Without any prior knowledge about what the film is about, from that line and assuming that she is wearing a wedding dress there seem to be an intimate relationship between those two. The song reflects how betrayed the bride feels.
In conclusion, I was really inspired by this song and how Kill Bill Volume One uses the song in the opening sequence. The song can be interpreted differently from the way I used it and how Kill Bill did it. This song has helped me create the world that I am building though I am still unsure if I should go ahead with this story or create something better.
References:
Youtube. (2015). Frank Sinatra “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY0jB7mwT3c
Youtube. (2016). Bang Bang (Kill Bill’s scene one) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJI-wjbfh9Y
Wikipedia. (2017) Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang_Bang_(My_Baby_Shot_Me_Down)
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