(Guest post by John FNWayne)
Tom Wolfe (the real “new journalism doctor,” not that Thompson guy) wrote an essay for the New York Times this weekend on the 40th anniversary of the moon landing.
Wolfe blames the lack of institutional imagination for many of NASA’s dismal bureaucratic conundrums. Wolfe’s taste of cynicism, something piling up as much as debt these days, left me desiring a bit of inspiration. With that, I was off to YouTube.
My query was “The Right Stuff” – the Phillip Kaufman epic based on Wolfe’s classic retelling of the Mercury seven astronauts. A movie Hollywood was born to make yet is no longer interested for various reasons, many of which covered extensively at this blog and others.
But somewhere between clips of Dennis Quaid’s voluminous smile, the end of the credits and my yearning for the films of yesteryear (even if yesteryear is only 1983), something else hit me. What happened to the epic film score?
As footage of Gordo Cooper’s capsule reaching the great unknown flashes across in technicolor, the real climax hits – Bill Conti’s rousing theme – an ear-buster, subtle as jumper cables to the audio nerves and nearly as adrenaline-inducing as lighting the candle yourself. Music, so powerful, with one listen the most ardent Huffington Post staffer would strap his hide to 20 tons of jet fuel and go rocketing toward the heavens while howling “America The Beautiful” and flipping the continent of Russia the bird.
Films have changed a lot, especially the last 20 years. Gone is the sheer magnitude of “Lawrence of Arabia” or “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” Now it’s CGI, green-screen backlots and video game graphics.
There are trade offs.
Not everyone can set up shop in the desert and begin shooting “The Ten Commandments,” but you can come close in your basement. But what should have been a democratization of the film process became an outlet for larger studios and directors to become lazy, in too many cases, claiming those that should be the most inspiring. The spirit of the modern epic isn’t so epic anymore.
Nowhere is that spirit more missed than the music that accompanies modern films. Watching the credits roll on “Stuff” I vainly thought of similar themes made this decade. Danny Elfman’s “Spider-Man?” Try comparing it to the original “Superman.” What of “The Dark Knight?” Christopher Nolan may be the last bastion of imagination left, and the use of sound was brilliant at times, but no theme to leave one humming for days after leaving the theater.
Not even “Lord of the Rings” or the Star Wars prequels, a franchise built entirely on an epic score, left anything catchy for the ears.
Maybe Hollywood no longer feels the need to make hearts soar. More important duties are afoot – green living, anti-smoking or not saying the word “gay.” Maybe those years of rousing themes fed too much of that rugged individualistic ambition.
Which is the joke on Hollywood. The ultimate Hollywood space fantasy isn’t adventure but of the perfect timid and alien taming our race, be it a Vulcan or a midget with a glowing finger and a penchant for Reese’s Pieces. When the mothership arrives, and all the world gasps as the door opens, what a surprise it will be when what emerges isn’t pointy ears but a cowboy hat with “The Magnificent Seven” emanating to the masses.
JohnFNWayne is part journalist, part semi-amateur movie buff and all Ohio born and bred. His thoughts on politics, film and life can be read, along with those of many others, at threedonia.com.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I thought the LORD OF THE RINGS theme had some sweep to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afY_Srf4xjk
It’s better than most as of late, but compared to the themes of the past like “The Right Stuff” and “Star Wars” I felt it didn’t stand up. But that’s my opinion. I didn’t feel the movies were as wonderful as many portend, but that’s me.
Of the past 20 years, the only films that I can think of that have the memorable tones and scope of years past are:
1. Glory
2. Last of the Mohicans
3. Jurassic Park
4. Lord of the Rings (honorable mention..the score grew on me the more I watched them)
You can really tell a scores impact if it is used in many movie trailers…
I totally agree. The one thing I felt was lacking from the Nolan Batman films was a great theme. The work of Zimmer and Howard is good and suits the film but can’t compare to Elfman’s theme for the 1989 version.
And believe it or not, Varese Sarabande just released the score for The Right Stuff a few weeks ago for the first time! It’s limited to 3000 copies.
http://www.varesesarabande.com/details.asp?pid=VCL%2D0609%2D1095
I have several pieces from the score of “The Right Stuff” on my iTunes. I play it when I need a pickup or inspiration. You are right on the money with your comments!
There’s snatches of good stuff…. like Kronos Quartet in The Fountain and even Carter Burwell in Twilight, but nothing of epic sweep. James Horner basically copies himself. Agree with The Dark Knight… some reat work, but no really sweeping score.
The Incredibles had some great moments too.
re Elfman’s Batman, I think Shirley Walker actually did a better job on improving the score: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgnDdBygMmY
my all time favorite score has to be morricone’s score for ‘Once upon a time in the west’
LION KING score had some sweep to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjM8tEW4_TY
Funny you should mention the effect Conti’s score might have on a leftie. When The Right Stuff was at the theater, a left-leaning friend made the same remark about himself, that at the end of the film he damn-near felt compelled to leap to attention and salute.
I actually thought the score for The Dark Knight was note perfect for the film, but alas, no great theme to hang onto.
I tried listening to the Lord of the Rings music today; it almost put me to sleep.
I enjoy Michael Giacchino and Marco Beltrami, but neither has cranked out that tremendous bit of film music that you simply must listen to. Not yet, anyway.
There are some film scores that stand out, but they are from niche films. Stewart Copeland’s work in “Simpatico,” “Wall Street,” “Rapa Nui,” “Rumble Fish,” and his TV work in the Equalizer deserve recognition. It’s Rock-Jazz based, very percussion/piano oriented, but quite compelling. There are several musical pieces in both the Equalizer series and Simpatico that stand out as amazing bits of composition in concert with the images and story.
There’s the neo-jazz stuff from Mulholland Falls by Dave Grusin was amazing, as was the music for “Last Man Standing” by Ry Cooder. The film score for Bourne Identity was at least distinctive and emotionally rousing by John Powell.
I think your major beef is that most film composers cannot compose classical scores or classical influenced scores to save their life save John Williams. Nearly all the composers I’ve mentioned don’t use the Symphony Orchestra as their preferred tool. Copeland, the best of them, uses piano, drums, and sound samples to make his scores (they all are recognizably from the same guy, even though Rapa Nui sounds as “polynesian” as you can get and say, “Silent Fall” is quite muted with piano mostly). James Newton-Howard (“the Sentinel” and Batman) uses synth, piano, and midi samples. The Batman soundtrack sounds like the Sentinel one only amped up a lot. But the same basic tonal structure and melodies. Ry Cooder makes excellent Texas-blues soundtracks, but can’t go to classical stuff for obvious reasons: it’s not his background or expertise.
To do a real moving classical film score that does not sound like repeated or recycled stuff from other work, requires a lot of guys who grew up as semi-classical composers. Branford Marsalis is an excellent musician and jazz composer, but he won’t give you the power of say, Bernard Hermann. We just don’t have classical trained guys around anymore.
I am moved to reflect upon the “real” score for Burton’s Batman — Prince’s soundtrack is haunting and stirring and perfect. It’s like an onion-peeling personality analysis (stay with me here!) of the title character.
More the soundtrack of a film geek than a film’s hero, I suppose.