Too often, the best thing about a movie is the music. It is almost impossible to imagine a great film without the music. The closest thing to ‘classical music’ being written today is for the movies. Those three thoughts have occurred to me so many times through the years that I am surprised at myself for never having thought to construct a list of my favorite movie music until now. But then again, until recently, I did not have access to Spotify.

I grew up, for the most part, in and around New York City in the 1950’s and 60’s. That fact, and the six television stations we clearly received off the roof antenna, combined with the desperate need for those stations to fill air time and sell commercials, meant that we were blessed by the Late Show, and then the Late Late Show on the CBS affiliate channel 2, Saturday Night at the Movies on NBC channel 4, The Movies on WNEW channel 5, Sunday Night at the movies on ABC channel 7, The Million Dollar movie on Channel 9, assorted ‘B’ movies on WPIX channel 11 and an endless variation of presentations across the broadcast hours which at that time went late into the night.

Movies were mercilessly cut to fit the available procrustean time periods, maximizing the number of commercials. There were no DVDS, no tapes, and no alternatives — all while my desire to avoid homework had no bounds.

In the late 1950’s, Columbia, Paramount and Twentieth Century-Fox, strapped for cash, sold the broadcast rights to much of their then recent product to television. Other studios followed suit — selling their own children to feed the ogre — and what we got to see of those films had to fit into less than the 90 minutes available after commercials were sold. Often, the most coherent part of a given film remaining once key scenes were lopped away was the recurring score by a Max Steiner (Casablanca), Erich Korngold (Captain Blood), Franz Waxman (Flash Gordon), Bernard Hermann (Citizen Kane), Victor Young (Roman Holiday), or Elmer Bernstein (The Man with the Golden Arm).

Using the website, Spotify, to listen again to the original music alone for those many movies that I have loved over many years, and in context to the music of other films I have little affection for, but without the distraction of visual images, dialog, story, much less the work of the actors, offered a whole new perspective.

Most disturbing was my discovery that many composers reused so much thematic material again and again. Even worse, some that I remembered as being great, were only so-so by comparison to many fabulous and more recent efforts

At first, the list became enormous and just as unwieldy.

I set some guidelines. Reasonable ones, I think.

I eliminated all musical scores written for the stage. The Sound of Music is a great score, but it wasn’t written for film. Certainly much great film music was written for another medium, and was re-used for film. A borrowed song or two may be fine, but I could not credit an entire score molded elsewhere.

In a chicken and egg sort of way, which came first to the Beatles — the music for, ‘A Hard Days Night ‘ or the film story of ‘Hard Days Night,‘ and how does all of it hold up against that one song ‘Jailhouse Rock,’ by Leiber and Stoller?

There were many fabulous pieces of music written for the movies which, by themselves, did not constitute a film soundtrack, or alone, were the best music of an otherwise fairly mediocre score. I think of Chaplin’s gorgeous Limelight, repeating over and again.

Much of what constitutes most soundtracks is simply boring or uninteresting — filler — or worse, an attempt to add significance to moments which are otherwise lacking in sufficient cinematic power to tell the story. Some of it is painfully repetitive over the course of a film and loses the initial effect before the house lights come up. After all, it was the other stuff, the acting and the images, etc., that we originally came for, wasn’t it?

I can’t really enforce my guidelines on anyone else, but I ask you to consider: are two great musical pieces like ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’ by Richard Strauss and ‘Blue Danube Waltz’ by Johann Strauss enough to make the soundtrack for ‘2001, a Space Odyssey‘ a great film score no matter how well adapted they are? If so, Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia ‘ has a better score.

Or, alternatively, can you sit down to enjoy the music for ‘Psycho,’ just about any time at all? I suppose that is a state of mind, like enjoying ‘Purple Rain.’ I just can’t or don’t. Or both.

And what about October, by Shostakovich? I’ve never met anyone who has seen the film, so it’s hard to judge. The music is available and it’s pretty good, as you might imagine.

And I admit, I do give extra weight to symphonic music over songs. Still, some songs are just great music.

I love Morricone’s score for The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, but it reaches parody so quickly. As much as I love Horner’s The Rocketeer, when I listened to it again, I found I could not put it above his Braveheart. Besides, I’m one of only six people I know who ever saw The Rocketeer and three of those are in my own family, but EVERYONE has seen Titanic, except me. And so it will continue to be. I am the kind of fellow who has waited thirty years for Tom Waits to clear his throat after seeing One From the Heart.

Now, having constructed such a list, what am I to do with it? Share it, of course!

I have been sharing my opinions about books for about fifty years. Trouble is, so few people actually read for pleasure these days, and those who do are often in such narrow ruts. Movies are more important to the pop culture than my mouldy auld books, anyway. Why not just go with it? After all, everyone has the right to my opinion. And what better thing to argue about? Politics? Forgetaboutit.

I don’t think it is any accident that every score I adore is composed by someone(s) who has written more good stuff. Think of Miklos Rozsa’s ‘Spellbound,’ and then ‘Double Indemnity,’ and never mind the singular works of ‘Ben Hur ‘ and ‘El Cid.’ But then there is ‘Ivanhoe,’ where the music is easily the best part. Do you like John Williams’ score for Star Wars better than Indiana Jones? Does his borrowing of motifs from past composers bother you? How about his borrowing from himself? But then, the great Hans Zimmer does that too.

When I decided to cut my list to 12, I also decided to eliminate any duplication of composers so that I could cover a few more of these great artists who have given me so much pleasure. Yes, there were other scores by the same composer that I liked better than the best by someone else, but then I could say the same thing if I offered a list of my favorite authors rather than my favorite books.

Trouble was, I couldn’t fit all my eggs in the egg box.

And what about For Whom the Bell Tolls by Victor Young? Where is Chariots of Fire by Vangelis? Did I ever hear How to Train Your Dragon by John Powell? Don’t I like the Steve Jablonsky score for The Transformers better than Hans Zimmer’s King Arthur, over all. (Not over all.) And, am I out of my mind–what about Nino Rota’s The Godfather ? And even better, Godfather II ?!?

At last, I cut it down to a lit major’s dozen . . . plus five.

Here is my list (alphabetically, not preferentially):

 

Adventures of Robin Hood : Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1938)

Braveheart : James Horner (1995)

Cinema Paradiso : Ennio Morricone (1988)

Dances With Wolves : John Barry (1990)

Giant : Dimitri Tiomkin (1956)

Gladiator  : Hans Zimmer , Lisa Gerrard (2000)

Gone With the Wind  : Max Steiner (1939)

Last of the Mohicans : Randy Edelman / Trevor Jones (1992)

Lawrence of Arabia  : Maurice Jarre (1962)

Lord of the Rings : Howard Shore (2001)

Magnificent Seven : Elmer Bernstein (1960)

North by Northwest : Bernard Hermann (1959)

The Quiet Man : Victor Young (1952)

Singing in the Rain : Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown (1952)

Spellbound : Miklos Rozsa (1945)

Star Wars :The Empire Strikes Back : John Williams (1980)

The Wizard of Oz : Harold Arlan and E.Y Harburg (1939)

So now tell me, what have I forgotten? Where did I go wrong? I’d really love to hear it . . . Really.

 

 

 

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