IRAN MAIDEN… FINDING METAL WHERE YOU LEAST EXPECT IT

Nothing cracks me up more than finding some reference to heavy metal in movies. Usually, it’s pretty goofy or mocking of metal such as Axl’s recent post here about Metallica in The Darwin Awards with Winona Ryder or that ridiculous Steve Buscemi/Adam Sandler/Brendan Fraser turd Airheads.

Every now and then, however, you might find an extremely cool tie-in such as the use of several Metallica songs in Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills or the masterpiece known as This is Spinal Tap. (Yeah, it’s goofy and mocking of metal, but it is still a brilliant, all-too-real depiction of a washed-up ’80s hard rock/metal band.)

I recently came across another heavy metal/movie tie-in in a film where I never would have expected one.

The film is Persepolis, which received an Oscar nomination in 2008 for Best Animated Film and was also a Golden Globe/Independent Spirit Award nominee for Best Foreign Film. The black-and-white 2-D animated feature tells the true story of a girl who flees the tyranny and suppression of females in her home country of Iran.

She also has an infinity for heavy metal and, in particular, Iron Maiden.

Check out this clip:

Unfortunately, the song played is not Iron Maiden. According to director and creator Marjane Satrapi (whose life the movie is based upon) in an interview in the DVD extras, Maiden wanted way too much money to use their song in the film. Since the movie was very low-budget, the filmmakers could not afford to pay for the rights so they created their own song.

As Satrapi added, “too bad for them.”

Too bad, indeed.

-CM