Coincidence? Movie titles and ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’
No. 1 on the charts for 10 weeks and the winner of six Grammys, Simon & Garfunkel’s final studio release “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (1970) yielded “The Only Living Boy in New York” and other songs that inspired movie titles:
“Baby Driver” (2017) — Edgar Wright’s recent action-crime-musical hybrid is wall-to-wall pop music, but it is the title track that conveys the most basic fact: Ansel Elgort plays Baby, and he is a driver.
“Cecilia” (2011) — The song’s refrain, “You’re breaking my heart, you’re shaking my confidence daily” aptly describes the situation for one frustrated young man in Francis Annan’s comic short. Look for it on Vimeo. And even if it wasn’t inspired by the song, Humberto Solás’ 1982 drama about the Cuban independence movement in 1830 Havana is also worthy of a peek. “Bye Bye Love” (1995) — Bit of a cheat here, since it is the Everly Brothers’ classic version of the Felice and Boudleaux Bryant song that appears on the soundtrack of this divorced dads comedy and not Simon & Garfunkel’s. “El Condor Pasa” (2012) — This Korean drama about a priest who travels from Busan to Peru takes as its title the 1913 Daniel Alomía Robles’ tune to which Paul Simon added English lyrics. “The Boxer” — Let’s face it: The title is generic, inspiring neither the 1997 Daniel Day-Lewis star vehicle, the 2009 Stacy Keach drama, nor any other film titled “The Boxer,” but the lyrics that end with “I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains” certainly fit the boxing movie genre.