Of all the soundtracks I have reviewed so far, this is the only one that has not already been listed in the database. I had to ask for help from a category lead and Dr. Faustus was kind enough to assist. Thanks. I figured there may be one or two Cds I wasn’t able to immediately locate, but I was very surprised when the first one turned out to be NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. The movie earned its budget back 100 times over, gained a friggin’ huge cult following, has been parodied dozens of times, and introduced the world to one of the most recognizable lead characters since E.T. But somehow the soundtrack slipped through the cracks. Nice.

As we’ve seen before (Juno), sometimes I buy a soundtrack because it has one song I love. Never mind if the rest of it may suck. That was the case with NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. During the end credits, When in Rome’s “The Promise” played as Napoleon and Deb played tetherball and I remember thinking, “God, that song sounds really familiar. I like it!” I only found out later it was a pretty big hit back in the late 1980s, which may explain why it was familiar. And it was awesome. I love that song. At the time I finally broke down and bought the soundtrack, I was hearing “The Promise” on the radio a lot, but always from about the mid-point on, never the whole song. Then it hit me one day like a thunderbolt: The Soundtrack!

I bought it that weekend. It’s been a favorite ever since.

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, the Soundtrack contains a whopping 42 tracks! It’s like the ultimate movie soundtrack in that it contains not only the songs featured in the movie (and 1 or 2 not featured, like Rogue Wave’s “Every Moment”), but a lot of the best lines of dialogue as well as the incidental background music. Granted most of the background stuff composed and performed by John Swihart comes in around 30 seconds or less, stuff like “Granny ATV” and “Suitwalk”, and a lot of it blends together.

I’ve never been particularly impressed by the song choices, When in Rome notwithstanding. Consisting mostly of throwaways from the 80s, the soundtrack definitely has a theme. It’s just not an especially strong selection. Bow Wow Wow’s “I Want Candy” is an old favorite, of course, but stuff like “New Mate” by Figurine or “Design” by Fiction Company took a while to grow on me and even now I still can’t recall the tunes without the songs playing. English duo Yaz’s “Only You” has 1982 written all over it, and while it’s no 㧏 Luftballoons”, it’s pretty good. “Forever Young” by Alphaville is another 80s tune. Tame stuff, really. Sparklemotion’s “Time After Time” cover pales in comparison to Lauper’s original. Some songs are sacred and just can’t be covered. The only other truly awesome song on here is Jamiroquai’s “Canned Heat” which is just about impossible to sit still through. It’s just too funky. I never did jump on the “Virtual Insanity” bandwagon, but damn this is a great song.

Swihart’s incidental music is harmless stuff. Someone got a Yamaha home organ for Christmas one year. He’s actually got quite a resume, and in my opinion a good ear for playing to what the scene calls for, whether the light bouncy ditties of “Granny ATV” or “Summer’s Cake”, the bass-heavy funk of “Here’s Rico” or the percussion-driven groove of “Suitwalk”. “Kip Waiting” carries a subtle hint of Barry White groove while “D-Qwan Boogie” is pre-programmed techno brilliance in only 17 seconds.

But let’s face it, anyone paying for the NAPOLEON DYNAMITE soundtrack probably isn’t interested in John Swihart. If they’re not looking for “The Promise” or “Canned Heat”, what they really want is this:

K: Hi.
N: Is gramma there?
K: No, she’s getting her hair done.
N: ugh.
K: What do you need?
N: Could you just go get her for me?
K: I’m really busy right now.
N: Just tell her to come get me.
K: Why?
N: Cuz I don’t feel good.
K: Well, have you talked to the school nurse?
N: No, she doesn’t know anything. Will you just come get me?
K: No.
N: Well, will you do me a favor then?
K: What?
N: Can you bring me my chapstick?
K: No, Napoleon.
N: But my lips hurt real bad!
K: Just borrow some from the school nurse, I know she has like 5 sticks in her drawer.
N: I’m not gonna use hers, you sicko.
K: See ya.
N: Ugh! Idiot!

That never gets old. The dialogue selections for the soundtrack are many, and for the most part act as a segue from one song to the next, one line here (“You do understand English. This isn’t that complex”), one line there (“It’d be really nice if you could pull me into town.”), but the longer selections are perfect and hilarious and serve as a constant reminder why we love this movie (and if you don’t love NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, then you hate America!). Love it or hate it, you have to admit Jon Heder owned that role. And this soundtrack may not be perfect, it may not be something you can return to time and again for awesome songs that remind you of a great movie (other than “Canned Heat”, “Time After Time” and “The Promise”, I couldn’t tell you when any of these songs play during the movie), but with the music, the score, and the numerous dialogue clips, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE the Soundtrack does something not many other soundtracks can: it acts as a surrogate form of the movie. Aside from PULP FICTION I don’t recall another soundtrack that comprised so many of the memorable scenes in audio form that it was like carrying the movie itself around with you.

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, the Soundtrack is at once nerdy, funny, nostalgic, and heroic, all the things I loved about the movie in the first place. If you loved the movie, you should definitely own the soundtrack as well.



Other Soundtracks in My Collection:
10 Things I Hate About You
300
Boogie Nights
City of Angels
Daredevil
Death Proof
From Dusk Till Dawn
Garden State
Godfather Trilogy
Grosse Point Blank
Independence Day
Jackie Brown
Juno
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Kill Bill Vol. 2

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: At Work