4 Must-See Films That Inspired Famous Rock Stars

Rock stars often find inspiration through books, storytelling, other people’s music, and so on. Every once in a while, though, a film will grace their eyes and thus inspire whole pieces of musical work. Let’s take a look at just four times a few famous films inspired rock stars to make music!

1. ‘The Ten Commandments’ Inspired Metallica

The Ten Commandments is a 1956 religious drama film starring Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner. It hasn’t exactly aged well, but the core of the film is based on Prince Of Egypt by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, which is further based on the biblical description of the life of Moses.

James Hetfield was incredibly inspired by the film. So much so that he and the rest of Metallica got to work on the 1984 track “Creeping Death”. It’s a fan-favorite metal shred fest in which Hetfield shrieks his story from the perspective of the angel of death during the tenth plague of Egypt. “Creeping Death” is a go-to during their live sets, too.

2. ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ Inspired Elton John

This example of films that inspired famous rock stars comes as no surprise, especially to Elton John fans. John was massively into the 1939 Judy Garland film The Wizard Of Oz. So was John’s longtime collaborator and songwriter, Bernie Taupin. 

Taupin penned the song “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” in 1973, as well as most of the album of the same name. The duo decided to take the old-school story about a girl who is transported to a foreign fantasy world and change it up in the context of rock stardom.

3. ‘Romeo + Juliet’ Inspired Radiohead

Remember the 1996 modernized adaptation of Romeo And Juliet? This film, starring a young Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, is known quite well for its excellent soundtrack. Baz Luhrman got in contact with Thom Yorke about contributing a song to the project around the time he was working on OK Computer. 

Yorke wrote “Exit Music (For A Film)” after watching the film, penning the composition to play over the end credits. The rest of the band liked it enough to include it on OK Computer, and the song has been used in film and television quite a few times since.

4. ‘Badlands’ Inspired Bruce Springsteen

Without a doubt, Bruce Springsteen’s career-boosting album Nebraska has a dark, lonesome feeling to it. There are a lot of themes that contribute to that feeling on that album, but the record as a whole was also inspired by the 1973 film Badlands. 

This particular film follows the story of one Charles Starkweather, who went on a murderous rampage in 1958 with his young girlfriend. Springsteen did a great job at forcing the listener to relate to Starkweather’s descent into violence and madness.

Photo by Screen Archives/Getty Images

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