Back To One: Film Scores

15/9/21 Lymond 37

As far as music goes, I mostly listen to classical over most forms of contemporary music – which is why I love film scores. What’s the difference between a score and a soundtrack? A film score is the sweeping pulse of thematic music that moves the story along usually composed specifically for a film – while the soundtrack is the whole group of music which could include pop songs from musicians outside the film. The music from Footloose or Saturday Night Fever would be considered a soundtrack because it’s mostly pop featuring songs from a variety of musicians. Lara’s Theme from Dr. Zhivago or The Shire from Lord of the Rings are considered part of the whole film’s score.

Scores are mostly orchestral, giving characters or events their own musical themes that play throughout the course of the film mostly as background but can sometimes come to the forefront, setting an emotional cue for a scene. Most film composing happens in post-production during the editing process with the music cues timed to a rough edit of the finished film. Occasionally, like in the case of Ennio Morricone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or John William’s E.T. – some of the editing was matched to the music. Of course I’m drawn to it because it’s basically contemporary classical music. Film scores really help set the tone and add emotional resonance to a scene and the the film as a whole. Would the original Star Wars be the juggernaut it is without John Williams amazing score? Would The Good, The Bad and The Ugly be just another western without Ennio Morricone’s haunting whistle? Here is a very small sample of some of my favorites.

Although, the main theme for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is incredibly iconic – I actually prefer this part of Morricone’s infamous score – The Ecstasy of Gold. It even has its own liquor commercial.

Another score I listen to a lot is Last of the Mohicans by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman. The score was originally going to be electronic but Michael Mann changed his mind late into post-production so Randy Edelman was brought in to help Trevor Jones. Because there were two composers – the film was ineligible for an Oscar – which doesn’t seem fair.

I also love this score by James Horner for Willow.

And this one by John Barry – Out of Africa

So Deadsplintalorians – what movie music moves you to tears or gets those creative juices flowing? Thanks for your support of DS and checking things out.

The answer to last week’s poll is finally D) Ian Somerhalder – he played Boone in Lost and was on the CW show The Vampire Diaries for those who aren’t familiar with him.

This week’s poll:

Which female actor was the crew most afraid of talking to because they thought she was just like some of the on screen roles she was famous for?
18 votes · 18 answers
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37 Comments

  3. I should also have mentioned Angelo Badalamenti. I love everything he did with David Lynch. I’m walking Fanny now that rain has stopped so I can’t post any examples from my phone, dammit.

  4. Oh, lovely. There’s so much to say about film soundtracks that I hope we have a post–whether it be Back to One or DUAN–to go wild with our favourites some time soon.
    This may be cheating, but I love the score to Bleu from Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Trois Couleurs trilogy. 


    In the late ’90s, someone I know loved The Matrix and accidentally bought the score instead of the OST. They kept it anyway because they also liked it. 

    Recently, I tend to like Alexandre Desplat’s work. But if I were to stake my Oscar hopes on a score composer working today, I’d say it’s about damn time Nicholas Britell takes home a statuette. He scored Moonlight in this wonderful “chopped and screwed” approach, and went on to work with Barry Jenkins on If Beal Street Could Talk . He also scores Succession and did Whiplash (and Cruella, but we won’t talk about that movie). 


     
     

    • Not related to film scores, but The Last of the Mohicans, though it does have memorable music, irked me when I saw it. I’d recently read the book in school and felt they took too many liberties in changing key events. [Spoiler alert.] For example, Duncan doesn’t die in the book, but he sacrifices himself in the film. The wrong Munroe sister dies in the movie, etc. I loved Wes Studi, though.
      Speaking of Wes Studi projects, Reservation Dogs features a main character whose name is Elora Danan (played by Devery Jacobs). Someone with a better memory than I pointed out that she’s named after the baby in Willow (the score track posted above). Tee hee. (BTW, it’s a great show and this is my weekly reminder to everyone to watch it.)

      • I still love the movie – even with all of the changes – and I love the book, too. I’m going to start Reservation Dogs tonight – Elora Danan is such an incredibly obscure reference that it’s genius. 

        • @Hannibal That’s my favourite episode, too. It touched on so many things (like the fact that the federal cops often don’t show up when called for backup) and showed that despite appearances at his thankless job, Big is a principled guy doing the best he can with limited resources, and still focused on going after the “real” bad guys. The Redbone song just tugged at my heartstrings. I listen to it all the time now. 

  5. I worked, very briefly, with a scoring engineer whose name appears on a shitload of major films over the past 40 years or so.  He’s even won a couple of Oscars for his recordings.  Some very interesting tricks of the trade when recording a film score versus a simple orchestral recording (in terms of microphone placement and sound staging).

    Whenever the Modelo commercials would come on, I would think to myself, “where in the hell have I heard that before?!”  So, thank you for satisfying my curiosity.  I have a copy of The Good The Bad and the Ugly.  Quite possibly the longest film in human history.  I haven’t seen it in ages, but I should break it out this winter when I’ll actually have some days with nothing to do.

    Also, I voted for Kathy Bates because she did some straight crazy shit in her earlier roles.

    • That’s right – you probably know way more about this stuff than I do. The Modelo commercials drive me crazy because it’s not the full song. 

    • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly clocks in at a brisk 2 3/4 hours. The aforementioned Dr. Zhivago at a more leisurely 3 1/4 hours. Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander (the uncut version; a version was released that is merely 3 hours) runs (or crawls) at 5 1/4 hours and, as a bonus, is not exactly action-packed. But very moody and contemplative, in The Swedish Way. 

      There is an extended version of the greatest movie ever made, Earthquake, that is 2 3/4 hours. This reminds me that The Greatest Story Ever Told is 4 1/4 hours, and if you catch it uncut on something other than TCM, with the commercial breaks it can easily last for 8 hours.

    • I had that up but at the last minute switched out to Last of the Mohicans – so I didn’t have two Morricone ones. I listen to both The Mission and LOTM equally as much.

      • It is a perfect piece of composition.

        So much so that the one scene in Jurassic World where the theme starts but in minor key while the two dumb brothers are walking around… I remember being in the theater and most of us having that lurch from nostalgia hearing it. 

    • Every thing John Williams does is iconic. I know what you mean about the brass section getting the best parts – I played clarinet and then the xylophone. 

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