Somewhat incongruously, the ghosts of Miles Davis and "The Wizard of Oz" haunt director Gus Van Sant's new film, "Finding Forrester." Yet those ghosts are hardly there by chance. Van Sant is an exacting filmmaker who employs music to accentuate and amplify aspects of his films. In this case, the director tells a story of two very different men who suddenly find themselves dependent on each other. One is old, the other young. One is black, the other white. One has retreated from the world, while the other is just starting to engage it.

It's a story of opposites, to be sure, but "Finding Forrester" is also a tale of common ground, one not incidentally set in New York City. To set that scene, Van Sant relies largely on jazz, and on Miles Davis in particular. Six separate Davis tracks enhance Van Sant's film.

"Gus had a yearning for jazz as far as this score was concerned from the beginning," says Laurence Mark, one of the film's producers. "I guess because he felt jazz was the best way to get New York across, to suggest various culture clashes."

But why Davis in particular, when so many jazz musicians might suggest the Big Apple just as effectively? "Gus felt a connection with Miles Davis," Mark says. "As he was doing all this listening, he said that Miles seems to be the right guy."

Jonathan King, the film's executive producer, suggests that Davis' music also brought a certain inaccessibility that appealed to Van Sant. "Not all the Davis songs are totally approachable, and I think that works particularly well in this movie, with Forrester (the title role played by Sean Connery) not being totally approachable."

To this end, Van Sant and music supervisor Hal Willner rely less on Davis' so-called classic quintet period of the '50s than on his late '60s, early '70s electric phase, when he was experimenting with dense rhythmic textures and sparse, atmospheric solos. This is the time of "In a Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew" -- music that repelled his traditional fan base as much as it gained him new converts.

Despite Davis' legendary appeal, the use of his music throughout a film is rare. The exceptions are few: he wrote and performed an original score for Louis Malle's 1958 film "Elevator to the Gallows," and wrote subsequent scores for "Siesta" (1987) and "Dingo" (1992). Otherwise his music has been used sporadically but evocatively in such films as "Lenny" and "Basquiat."

The "Wizard of Oz" is another matter altogether. In "Forrester" it's recalled in the closing credits, as the late Israel Kamakawiwo'ole offers a suitably wistful yet singularly personal interpretation of "Over the Rainbow." The song also makes an appearance earlier in the film, but far more subtly in Bill Frisell's spare, somewhat deconstructed guitar account.

According to Mark, Van Sant's use of Kamakawiwo'ole's version of "Rainbow," which was brought to his attention by exec producer King, is just another example of the director upending convention. "Yes, 'Over the Rainbow' is sentimental," Mark says, "but not the way it's used here. Gus didn't want to go the standard route, so he took the most sentimental song imaginable and used a unique arrangement. Gus has always been fascinated by the slightly odd."