As anyone who has ever thwacked a cymbal with a stick before can tell you, there’s something quite cathartic about sitting behind a drum-kit. You’re able to get a lot of stress out of your system, while you’re also able to look pretty damn cool doing it too. That’s why being a drummer has always leant itself quite well to the big-screen. To celebrate the release of Whiplash, Yahoo have compiled the greatest ever drum solos in movie history and it makes for pretty stellar viewing. Click the image below to check it out...
Told you! So who do we get to see laying down a great wallop on the drums? Well, of course, the clip starts and ends with Garth Algar from Wayne’s World, but it also incorporates probably television and film’s most famous ever drummer into the mix too in the shape of Animal from The Muppets, before then going on to show us the rhythmic talents of Hop’s E.B, Judge Reinhold in Vice Versa, Sal Mineo in The Gene Krupa Story, Taxi Driver’s unknown street drummer, John C Reilly and Will Ferrell in Step Brothers, and Miles Teller in Whiplash too.
It’s hard not to feel your toes tapping to the glorious beats being laid down by the above maestros, and it’s enough to make you even contemplate giving up your job and joining a band on tour. As long as you’ve got rhythm that is.
This entire montage has been inspired by Miles Teller’s virtuoso display in Whiplash, which will be released around the US on October 10. The dramatic thriller revolves around Miles Teller’s promising, young jazz drummer, Andrew Neyman, who enrolls at the country’s top music school and then comes under the wing of Terence Fletcher, a perfectionist music conductor who will go to great, and sometimes soul destroying, lengths, to get the best out of his students. But it would be doing a huge disservice to the film to just single out Teller for his mesmerising performance. J.K. Simmons is truly petrifying as Fletcher, the intense music teacher who won’t forgive a single mistake, while Damien Chazelle manages to capture the manic depression and orgasmic rush that come hand-in-hand with being involved in such a band in a truly engrossing fashion.
Seriously, it’s not only one of the best films of 2014, but of the last five years too. It will also give you a greater appreciation of the effort involved in the performances of each actor who has played a drummer. Don’t believe me? Then check out the trailer for Whiplash on the next page...
