Start Wearing Purple!
My daughter recently turned me on to the movie Everything Is Illuminated starring Elijah Wood and directed by Liev Schreiber. It is an adaptation of the book by the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer, which I read after seeing the movie. I was impressed by how good the movie was (and that my daughter has such good taste); so much so that I thought that it was one of those rare instances where the movie was actually better than the book.
But what I really loved was the soundtrack, an eclectic mix of traditional Eastern European folk music, orchestral scoring of same — and gypsy punk. Chief among the latter is a band called Gogol Bordello fronted by Eugene Hutz who also co-stars in the movie playing “the Ukranian dude in Puma” as my daughter put it.
Their song Start Wearing Purple, without lyrics, can be heard in parts of the movie and over the end credits (with lyrics). Apparently they have a lot of crossover appeal — Start Wearing Purple is also considered an unofficial theme song of the Baltimore Ravens football team.
That, my friends, must be one hell of a tailgate party. I’m just saying.
