Exuberant Bastard

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Score! (or hot aural action)

Yes indeed score, not "GOAL!", but score. As in the orchestral score to a play or movie. Do you have a favorite movie score? I'm not talking about the hip-hop , rock-pop, or indie-darling song substitutes out there like the much praised "Garden State", or shame inducing "Wild Wild West". I'm talking about the kind of music that allows you to sympathize with the emotion being played out on screen wordlessly. I'm willing to bet that if the movies we know and love didn't have compelling music accompanying it, the modern film market would be much worse than it is today. (Not that gems like Gilgi actually help it). Can you imagine a Star Wars without the Imperial March? An Indiana Jones without his theme to get your blood pumping? For that matter what about television? I'm not sure if "Good Eats" would be the same without it's ten note theme running through in it in all forms ;-). Back during my short stint in college, I met a man we know and love as Das Monkey. He was actually part of a group that collected scores from movies in mp3 form way back in 1997. I actually have a CD with Das Monkey's top 100 tracks from film scores in mp3 format. What struck me was that some of the tracks he had were from terrible movies. Or in the case of "Starship Troopers".... TERRIBLY GREAT! But musically the songs did have merit. The selection from the maligned Starship Troopers, for you curious types, was "Klendathu Drop". My personal favorite track of all time from a movie, is 'Elk Hunt' from the movie "The Last of the Mohicans". In nine years, I wonder what greats Das Monkey has added to the top 100. Name a movie in the last 9 years that stuck with you aurally.

2 Comments:

  • Honestly, most recently it was James Newton Howard's score for The Village. (I'm a M. Night Shyamalan apologist.)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7/11/2006 10:20 PM  

  • Don't apologize for the Village. I loved every minute of it even when the ending was partly spoiled for me. Bryce Dallas Howard? Yes, please. Oh yeah, and Jo-asdljakfs Phoenix had a strong performance too.

    By Blogger Nevkil, at 7/12/2006 8:57 AM  

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