Something for Thursday

A change of pace today, I think. Over on Twitter today we were discussing the great 1980s geek comedy Real Genius, in the context of Sheila O’Malley‘s piece about director Martha Coolidge. Real Genius somehow wasn’t a big hit when it came out in 1985 or so, but it should have been, and it is rightly seen nowadays as a classic comedy film of the era. Its story involves super-geniuses in the physics department at a California university and what they do when it turns out that their research project, a super-powered laser, is actually a stealth project for the Defense Department, and its humor is warm and witty and the movie creates a world all its own, eschewing a lot of the usual tropes and stereotypes about nerdy, awkward young people. All that is great; it’s a fantastic movie! But in terms of music, it’s for the most part a typical 1980s-pop song “score”, but again with a lot of good choices made in terms of the songs used. It certainly nailed the song for the end credits, the cheerfully goofy “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears For Fears, which fits the film’s mood and subject matter nearly perfectly. Tears For Fears was one of those quintessential 1980s bands, fronted by two odd-looking dudes who played synth-heavy pop music that was often oddly infectious.

So here is Tears For Fears, with “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”.

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