See, while Iron Man 3 was a pretty good popcorn flick with some actual intelligent themes thrown in, the music was pretty much a non-entity. I had never even heard of the guy who did the music when I glimpsed his name in the credits. And this got me to thinking that it has been a long time since I have run into a film score that was actually good, or even memorable (I think Howard Shore’s scores for the Lord of the Rings movies were the last decent batch that I’ve heard and that was what – 10 years ago?). Amongst the many faults of the new reboot Star Trek film series (and that is a whole other post that I don’t want to do because I try to be a positive person) is the music or lack thereof, and I remember feeling disappointed that the score for a film series that should contain great music was instead bland, generic and forgettable. Likewise, everyone oohed and awed over the Nolan trilogy of Batman movies and I found them entertaining enough, but the Hans Zimmer scores did nothing for me. I don’t necessarily need catchy hooks at every point in the score – that’s not what film soundtracks are necessarily for – but even the main theme was forgettable… I literally could not hum for you Zimmer’s main Batman theme (same goes for Giacchino’s Star Trek theme). If you can’t even give the main theme of your movie a memorable melody, then people, you got problems.
I think the main problem is that a lot of film composers are just that – film composers… they don’t attempt to do any music outside film music. They are also influenced by previous film composers *only*, and that is a huge problem. See, the whole thing is that the movie composers of 25+ years ago (the generation back from the current crop) is that they were directly influenced by the classical composers (and sometimes jazz and folk music of various cultures) like Wagner, Strauss, Stravinsky and so on (but mainly Wagner). I actually watched a documentary on TV a few months ago about film music and they had interviews with some of these new movie composers, and these guys were going on and on about how they were influenced so much by these other film composers (most of whom weren’t even dead yet) and they weren’t mentioning any other forms of music and I thought, “it figures… all these new scores sound like rehashed scores from twenty years ago, which in turn rehashed classical music from a hundred years ago.” So what we have today (for the most part) is composers getting music filtered through a filter of a filter.
That’s why the film scores of yesteryear are better (god, I sound like a total geezer). See, the composers actually listened to classical music and jazz and other stuff and it directly influenced how they wrote music. Yeah, their stuff is derivative but it still sounds good, dammit.
So to end this post on a positive note, I'm gonna share some of my favorite film scores and explain what they mean to me (I'm a selfish bastard).
Conan the Barbarian (1982) - My favorite film score of all time. Yes, it is derivative of Wagner (there's something new), Orff's Carmina Burana and Richard Strauss amongst others, but you know what? Basil Poledouris' music moves me. I feel anger, love, joy, tragedy, triumph and even a few emotions I can't name. I love it so much that I bought it twice. You wouldn't expect that from a score to an eighties barbarian fantasy epic, would you?
Ben-Hur (1959) - Poledouris was also influenced by Hungarian composer Miklós Rózsa, who scored this film (in fact Rózsa was his music teacher). And what a score! This is another one that moves me emotionally. I get tears in my eyes when I hear the overture. The overture! And the Rowing Of The Galley Slaves theme has become the mental soundtrack to my menial work over the years... every time I work retail I can almost hear "Battle Speed!"
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) - Now this is Star Trek music. Jerry Goldsmith is the greatest American film composer who ever lived. He knew how to score a scene and give the audience an emotional and musical punch in the stomach. TMP actually becomes a better movie because of its music. Yeah, large swaths of it are ripped off from Daphnis et Chloé, but that's an awesome piece of music so I'm not gonna complain too much.
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - Old-timey goodness from Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Korngold was also an opera composer, and it shows in his film scores. Again, massive Wagnerian influence (detecting a theme here....). When you hear this music you will want to leap up and wave a sword around Errol Flynn style. Don't do it though because you will never be as cool as Errol Flynn. The quieter bits are great too. All-around near perfect.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Already covered this one in my love letter to that movie. John Williams is an overrated composer who liberally rips from the classics (more than others, anyway) but this score is one of the greatest ever. And my favorite moment isn't even the rousing march or the exciting action music - it's the theme for the ark itself. Ancient, eerie, enigmatic and powerful... when I hear that theme I am transported back 3000 years into an ancient world of mystery. It sends shivers down my spine.
Alexander Nevsky (1938) - Another movie from '38. This one is by an actual classical composer: Sergei Prokofiev, who basically invented the action movie score with his music for this Stalin-era Soviet propaganda pic. The Battle On The Ice theme is awesome, and massively influenced movie scoring for years to come. It was actually used in the teaser trailer for Conan the Barbarian... oh yeah, I forgot to mention Prokofiev as an influence on that score earlier. Oops.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) - Cue Ennio Morricone. Another classic film, another classic score. An interesting thing about Morricone's take on the music for this classic western is in his use of the leitmotiv. While most composers (including you-know-who) use a certain melody for different characters or ideas in a piece of dramatic music, Morricone uses the same melody but played in a different way for the three eponymous main characters, symbolizing how each alike they all are at the core and how all three are aspects of humanity in general. Ooh, deep.
Well, that's it. Seven scores I love. There are more, but I'll save gushing about them for another day.
Until then....
