Movie Talk: Great Movie Music

When was the last time "Entertainment Weekly" or any similar magazine had a major article about movie music? Upcoming movies, sure... movie stars, definitely... directors, sometimes, if they're a big name... but nobody writes about the people who do the music. On the rare occasions when I read about it, it'll usually be something along the lines of movie music being most effective when you don't even notice it at all. I can't say that I really agree with that, although I also believe that the music should never overwhelm the visuals (as happens far too often in big action movies these days) or gets so over-obvious that it substitutes for good storytelling (the music tells the audience what to think and feel because the story can't). What do I consider to be a few examples of that kind of music? Well, those will follow shortly... but one item first: when I talk about movie music, I nearly always mean the musical SCORE. Movies with song-filled soundtracks tend most of the time to not even be movies so much as song-delivery devices or feature-length music videos. And as far as I'm concerned, there's only one director in existence who's been CONSISTENTLY able to use pop songs on a soundtrack in a way that actually adds to and complements the story of the film And that would be...

WONG KAR-WAI. The one and only, Hong Kong's greatest director, and one of the best in the world. In his masterpiece, "Chungking Express" (1995), he's able to take a pop tune as overly familiar as the Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreaming" and make it symbolic of the deep pain and loneliness of the lead characters, bringing out aspects of the song you might not even have noticed before. I have literally not been able to hear "California Dreaming" in the same way again since I first saw "Chungking Express". Then there's "Happy Together" (1997), named after the Turtles' 1967 hit. It's a highly ironic use of the tune, as the main couple is never really happy and only intermittently together, and Wong's use not of the Turtles' original but the version recorded by Frank Zappa when the Turtles' Mark Vohlman & Howard Kaylan were in his band adds just the perfect touch of sarcasm and irony, as does his use of a Zappa original, "I Have Been In You", to indicate pained longing. And of course there's "In The Mood For Love" (2000), about a romance that can't possible be, in which Brian Ferry's recording of "I'm In The Mood For Love" with its broken-hearted melancholy strikes the perfect mood. You have not seen pop songs used properly in a movie until you've seen a Wong Kar-Wai film.

Then we have a few modern composers. The greats of the past, like Alex North, Bernard Herrman, and Maurice Jarre, may be subjects of another piece. These are all folks who worked from the 1960's to the present, some of whom are still active:

JERRY GOLDSMITH. Best known for sweeping, adreniline-fueled themes for fast-pasced action films, including the World War II adventure "The Blue Max", Goldsmith's best-known theme has got to be the music he wrote for the first "Star Trek" movie, used again a couple of times in the films, and which became the opening theme of the "Next Generation" TV series. The original "Trek" theme sounded more like something from the credits of a game show, but Goldsmith's score left no doubt you were about to watch an adventure. But he wasn't limited to that alone: few who've seen the classic "Chinatown" could forget how effectively the music put them completely into the dark, twisted noir world of the film... and Goldsmith wrote and recorded that score in two weeks!

JOHN BARRY. People who don't recognize John Barry's name at all have almost certainly heard his music. The scores of all of the James Bond movies up until the 80's were his work. The musical style of a Bond soundtrack has become formula by now, but it was new when Barry was composing the themes of "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball". The big, dramatic orchestral sounds, with emphasis on the horns, had you primed for danger. But those same orchestral styles were also able to paint a picture of the open prairie that perfectly fit "Dances With Wolves", a score that won Barry a well-deserved Oscar in 1991. In more recent years he's concentrated more on period films, but his dramatic musical approach is as effective in these films as it was with Bond.

DANNY ELFMAN. Elfman, like the other composers here, has definitely demonstrated considerable versatility over the years, but has nevertheless developed a particular specialty that he's best known for. In his case, he's the go-to guy for any movie that's a bit (or a lot) strange, off-center, or as some people might put it, just plain weird. If you need sounds that will indicate that we're definitely no longer in our old familiar world anymore, this is the man you want. But as a general rule, as off-kilter as his scores may be, they almost always have a playful sense of fun to them... he doesn't go in too much for films of dark, evil menace, just fun in what might be thought of as strange. It's no wonder that in addition to his work with other directors, he's been the regular composer for Tim Burton almost since the beginning of his career. No other composer could be more appropriate for filmic worlds like "Edward Scissorhands", "Beetlejuice" or the current "Alice In Wonderland".

ENNIO MORRICONE. Saving the best for last, at least as far as I'm concerned. Morricone first became a film legend with his musical scores for the classic spaghetti westersn of director Sergio Leone... nobody who's heard his music for "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" will ever forget it, with its weird mix of orchestras, electric guitars, harmonica, bullwhip and the occasional vocal chorus. But in the years since then Morricone has composed literally over 400 scores for films of all sorts from all around the world... not just Italy, but England, Ireland, the U.S. and other countries. And his music ranges from those spaghetti western tunes to the dark suspense-inducing music he's written for director Brian Depalma (including :"The Untouchables"), the fast-paced thriller themes for movies like "In The Line Of Fire" (once again starring Clint Eastwood), and in particular, my single all-time favorite film score, Giuseppi Tornatore's "Cinema Paradiso". He's become Tornatore's regular composer for most of his films since, and this score shows you why: the beautiful, nostalgic sadness of his "Cinema Paradiso" themes make for emotional listening even if you haven't seen the film (something that almost never happens), and if you have, listening to the score is almost the same as watching the film again... it brings it all back that vividly. The film was released some 20 years ago, and to this day there still isn't a 2 or three week period that goes by that I don't indulge once again in Morricone's score.

Just a very few examples, there, but at least some names whose work you can check out through use of the links below. And maybe next time you're watching a movie, you might notice the music a little bit. If you're lucky, it will be by someone on the level of the composers listed here. And then think about what the movie you're seeing would have been like without it.