Oswalt and Siegel talk 'Big Fan' soundtrack

Patton Oswalt in "Big Fan" (Credit: First Independent Pictures)

The last time a film scripted by Robert Siegel hit the big screen, it came complete with a crowd-pleasing and critic-friendly soundtrack packed with monster hits and a Golden Globe-winning original song. (The movie was "The Wrestler," the hits included "Metal Health" by Quiet Riot and "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns N' Roses and the awards bait was Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler.")

So, it should come as no surprise that "Big Fan," the next Siegel-scripted work which also marks his directorial debut, also boasts a soundtrack music fans are sure to dig.

For a drama focused on New York Giants superfan Paul Aufiero (played by comedian and actor Patton Oswalt) who is known on local sports talk radio as "Paul from Staten Island," it's fitting that one of the driving voices on the soundtrack is the Bronx's own Dion DiMucci. The former of the leader of the Belmonts chimes in with a pair of haunting, hard-hitting and mood-setting oldies, "Two-Ton Feather" and "Daddy Rollin' in Your Arms."

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk "Big Fan" with Oswalt and Siegel, and at one point the discussion turned to talk of the film's soundtrack. (For more from that conversation, click here.) Since "Big Fan" clearly draws inspiration from the gritty character-driven dramas of the early-70s, it seemed appropriate that both the star and the director were quick to bring up the work of east coast auteur Martin Scorsese when discussing great soundtracks.

"The music was all (Siegel's) decision, and because the music itself was such a completely written vision, I didn't know all the music but I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he knows what he's doing and I think it's one of those soundtracks like ‘Drugstore Cowboy' or ‘Goodfellas' that is so perfect, it just perfectly tells the story of the movie underneath what is going on," Oswalt said.

"Right off the top, I knew I couldn't get ‘Bad to the Bone' and ‘Born to be Wild,' because I couldn't afford those," Siegel explained. "But also, I love really perfectly-chosen gem lost classic kind of thing in a movie, where you just get tingles down your spine when you hear (it)." Siegel then asked Oswalt, "Like, is it ‘Goodfellas' where they have ‘Atlantis' by Donovan?"

"Or (in ‘Goodfellas') when they're pulling in on (Robert) DeNiro and they start the guitar from ‘Sunshine of Your Love' when he gets the idea to start killing everybody," Oswalt added.

"If you watch stuff like ‘Repo Man' and ‘Dazed and Confused' and ‘Drugstore Cowboy,' they just use pop songs but they use them orchestrally, and I know that sounds really pretentious but they are these moments that actually deepen what we know about the characters," Oswalt said.

Other standout tunes to be heard in the film include John Prine's rock-country stomper "Sweet Revenge," Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale's "Big White Cloud" and "Bad Trails" by indie rockers Battles.

"As a music fan and a movie fan," Siegel said, "when those two come together it's just magic when you get that."

Big Fan opens Friday (Aug. 28) in New York and Philadelphia.