Music renders a good film into a great one?

[Naphtali]

John Williams, again, for "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981, Harrison Ford, Karen Allen)

Ennio Morricone for "The Untouchables: (1987, Kevin Costner, Sean Connery). Without the haunting music, Kevin Costner is funny rather than interesting.

 

[kiltie]

Michael Mann's version of Last of the Mohicans.

 

[Naphtali]

I just watched "Local Hero" (1983) Peter Riegert, Fulton McKay, for the first time in several years. I couldn't understand why I enjoyed the movie as much as I do. This time, with some excellent brandy, I understand. The music by Mark Knopfler renders a quirky-character driven story as a pleasant dream. Without its music, the film is mediocre. Music, brandy, and tiredness improves it to very good -- best of all, pleasant.

 

[Diamondback]

Usually when an actor and a director work together for a while, they blend each other's stylistic quirks together in a way that makes the partnership better than the sum of its parts.

Like:
Steven Spielberg/George Lucas with John Williams
The Bond team with John Barry
Robert Zemeckis with Alan Silvestri
John McTiernan with Basil Poledouris

On the other hand, Jerry Goldsmith did just fine without a directorial partner, and James Horner has also.

 

[Quigley Brown]

Terrence Malick's 'Badlands' has a haunting track by Carl Orff.

'Picnic' has a few swinging tracks as does Kubrick's 'Lolita.'

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Usually when an actor and a director work together for a while, they blend each other's stylistic quirks together in a way that makes the partnership better than the sum of its parts.

On the other hand, Jerry Goldsmith did just fine without a directorial partner, and James Horner has also.

The Goldsmith/Franklin J. Schaffner partnership is among the best ever, IMO. Check out Papillon and the sequence when McQueen is sailing for freedom; there's nothing but music for six minutes. Not many directors would give a composer complete freedom like that, and not many composers today--except John Williams or Howard Shore--would be up to such a challenge.

 

[John in Covina]

Movie soundtracks that you like are a thread in the Radio section, I think. One of the radio talk show hosts said that the people that create movie soundtracks have surpassed modern / current classical music writers in creating enjoyable emotion evoking music.

Braveheart and Gladiator become very compelling because of the music as was Silverado.

Music sets the tone in "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" and "Raising Arizona" while the original "Magnificent Seven" soundtrack made that film a winner. The ABC Eyewitness News in NYC used the Mag7 theme for the opening of their news show!

My fav's are early Bond films, as they worked up themes for different types of "action" these musical themes were repeated in many films to color the moment, the anticipation, the action, or give the impression of the 'unseen' action.

One soundtrack that I like as one might like classical music is the soundtrack to "Total Recall" for the dramatic range the sweeping sounds and the ability to evoke futuristic and exotic places with out resorting to electronics. I reccomend it highly.

In the end, it was the early film makers that learned the effects of music when "talkies" came in. The early sound systems created a hiss when no sound was recorded, so the suggetion to cover the sound with background music comes in first, and then the idea the music could be used in an operatic style to re-enforce the emotion of the scene is quickly arrived at.

If you can find the Log Cabin series of VHS tapes for the Little Rascals (Our Gang Comedies) by Hal Roach, Lenard Maltin discusses the coming of sound and you can watch a couple of episodes where ther is no music but there is sound. Then in later shorts the music comes in and makes for a better presentation. Also the use of music blurbs to convey an action and the feeling gets its name from cartoons called "Mickey Mousing" by some. (the original King Kong uses these effects for kong in several places.)

If you can find the 2 cd's of Little Rascals music by the Beau Hunks on Amazon or Ebay you will find a gem of movie music used in many hal Roach shorts including often Laural & Hardy. Most is by Leroy Shields and these are extraordinary pieces of music that are meant to convey feelings and ideas to help the scenes on the screen. If you were/are a Little Rascals fan then these CD's should be in your music collection. Write to Koch International Music and tell them to do another run / pressing of them.

 

[Rachael]

in the catagory of the soundtrack distracting from the film, although I love Ladyhawke I just can't help but wonder why there are synthesizers in medieval France. It would be a joy to watch that film with an orchestral soundtrack.

 

[Lady Day]

I COMPLETELY agree on Ladyhawke. I generally mute it on the heavy score parts.

Back on point..
How grand would Superman have been without John Williams' score?
Same for Star Wars.

LD

 

[Nathan Dodge]

in the catagory of the soundtrack distracting from the film, although I love Ladyhawke I just can't help but wonder why there are synthesizers in medieval France. It would be a joy to watch that film with an orchestral soundtrack.

Yep, but that's the 1980s for you! Other films from the period that were distracting or just plain out of place would include Chariots of Fire, Gallipoli, and Thief. At least with Thief, it was a contemporary setting, but the score is layed on with a (electronic) trowel. The other two were period pieces (WWI and the 1920s) and are indicative of the time in which they were made than the time in which they were set.

 

[John in Covina]

I Just thought of another film that's pretty good, but the soundtrack is extraordinary and worth getting on CD: The Cotton Club, it would be worhtless with out the music and they were very faithful in recreating the sound of the orchestras / bands.

If you don't own a copy of this CD it's worth tracking down and usually goes for a low price. The movie (DVD) is kind of fun too.

 

[Fletch]

Max Steiner's scores for Casablanca, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, etc., are - to me - a perfect example of "Good to Great". Check out his bio; it's amazing!

Steiner was the pioneer of wall-to-wall film music - the first sound pic with a full score was his Symphony of Six Million, for RKO in 1932.

IIRC, doing a full score was David Selznick's idea (he was then RKO's chief and Steiner its musical director). It was a pretty syrupy photoplay - all about sentimentalized Jewish New Yorkers and their "son the doctah" - but the music gave it a stirring quality the actors and story couldn't.

Steiner also arranged and conducted the music Astaire and Rogers danced to in the 30s - and the music made those otherwise formula films move and breathe, even when there wasn't any dancing.