Can Dire Straits’ ‘Walk of Life’ Be Used as the End Music to Every Movie?
The end of The Godfather is one of the most famous closing scenes in movie history, with Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) surrounded by his henchmen while his wife Kay (Diane Keaton) watches from another room in isolation as Nino Rota's score swells. Now imagine if Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" had been used in its place. Think no more, because it's embedded above.
Paleofuture has discovered something called the Walk of Life Project, where a video editor and writer named Peter Salomone is adding "Walk of Life" to the end of many films under the premise that it is "the perfect song to end any movie." In addition to The Godfather, to date he's tacked it on to the end of such past and modern classics as Casablanca, Easy Rider and Mad Max: Fury Road. Even Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which -- spoiler alert -- ends with the world being blown up in a nuclear war, gets the treatment. We've also embedded the ending of The Graduate below, but you can see them all at the Walk of Life Project's YouTube channel.
“My friend joked that ‘Walk of Life’ would be the perfect funeral song,” Salomone told Paleofuture. “So then I just sort of melded that idea with my love of movie endings. I tried a few (Star Wars, 2001, and The Matrix) and I was surprised at how well they synced up. I didn’t re-edit the movie clips visually. I just found a good starting point for the song and the rest just fell into place.”
"Walk of Life" appeared on Dire Straits' 1985 blockbuster, Brothers in Arms. The fourth single from the album, it reached No. 7 in the U.S. and No. 2 in the U.K.
Watch 'The Graduate' With Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" as the Closing Music
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