PSA: Daryl Braithwaite’s ‘The Horses’ Syncs Perfectly With Every Iconic Moment In Film And TV

Daryl Braithwaite’s ‘The Horses’ topped the charts 25 years ago today. Like ‘Khe Sanh’ and ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’, it’s the song Aussies just love to belt out at weddings, horse races, and at music festivals. When Australia becomes a republic, we have it on good word it will become our national anthem.

‘The Horses’ is truly a song for every occasion — confirmations, bar mitzvahs, funerals, dressage tournaments — so is it any surprise that it syncs up perfectly with some of the most iconic moments in film and TV? No. No it is not.

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‘The Horses’ vs Garden State

Remember that scene where Sam (Natalie Portman) and Andrew (Zach Braff) first meet in the hospital waiting room? “This song will change your life,” Sam says, before cueing up ‘New Slang’ by The Shins on her iPod Nano. Now imagine if Sam played Andrew ‘The Horses’. Pretty sure they would’ve ended up on a beach somewhere, instead of a goddamn quarry shouting nothing into the “infinite abyss”.

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‘The Horses’ vs Pulp Fiction

Yeah, classic surf rock is cool, but chucking ‘The Horses’ into the opening scene of Pulp Fiction makes it seem like you’re about to watch a feel-good rom-com that just so happens to open with a violent diner heist.

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‘The Horses’ vs The O.C.

Sydney’s Youth Group shot to international prominence when their cover of Alphaville’s ‘Forever Young’ soundtracked a pretty emotional moment between Ryan and Marissa. We’re not saying ‘The Horses’ would’ve improved that scene. Okay, yes, yes we are.

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‘The Horses’ vs The Graduate

Before nu-metal band Disturbed ruined it for everyone, Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound Of Silence’ was actually a pretty great song. It’s a recurring motif in Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, which stars Dustin Hoffman as an existentially challenged college graduate who has an affair with an older woman, only to fall in love with her daughter. Coincidentally this is what ‘The Horses’ is all about.

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‘The Horses’ vs Say Anything

It’s 1989. John Cusack holds up a giant boombox. ‘The Horses’ plays. The girl is won.

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Read the untold story of Daryl Braithwaite’s ‘The Horses’ over at FasterLouder