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Phfft. 'Where Eagles Dare' is the best war film, ever. Period.

There was a time when every new Horner score would have a piece akin to "Master Alarm" (Apollo 13). Driving snares abound. I wanted to force Horner to shut his snares up, since it is a boring technique we had to endure since the mid-80s. I don't want snares in medieval scores or in scores about ancient Rome or something.

With an expensive set of AKG-headphones, you can hear the counterpoint in 'Abandoned in the Woods'. How this piece passed Williams and Murphy's quality control is beyond me. The score is good enough in the string-only parts, but as soon as anything orchestrally more complex enters, it seems as if Murphy is trying to hide it. 'Minority Report' is the same...bass reigns...and drowns.

Good: any Newton-Howard Disney score ('Dinosaur'/'Atlantis'/'Treasure Planet') most Horner scores prior to the split of the pair after 'Titanic' Ugly: A.I. Minority Report I can live with the rest, but these get the ears bleeding....5.1 recordings in 24 bit quality...and you long for the analog days of 'E.T.'

Oh god, let the PC police come and arrest me because i haven't added the customary IMHO. I've read what you say and my verdict still stands: IF you found the story believable, you really can't complain that people are ribbing you about it, since 'Munich's story is highly unbelievable, period. The Mossad, as powerful as any secret service organiszation in the whole world, feels the need to contact Baader-Meinhof- terrorists from Frankfurt to knit contacts to a swiss weapon dealers, organize hide-outs and passports???? I beg you. The Baader-guy is the go-between between Avner and an italian leftist via whom they meet 'Le Group', an 'ultra-secret french private service (the Lonsdale story). 'Le Group' very well may be named 'SPECTRE' since their existence is as likely. Lonsdale has to tell them where PLO-Man Zwaiter lives. Since Zweiter lived carefree in Rome under his real name you can see that the Mossad obviously is ran by a bunch of israeli Maxwell Smarts. All these implausibilities just that Spielberg can show me blood and milk pouring together in the streets and i can finally see the light: yes, death and birth are some closely-tied things. The only character development of a protagonist is saved for Avner. Apart from that, violence and revenge doesn't solve anything...and you know what? Every other character is tailor-made to hammer this point home and does not have a pregnant wife. I don't see anything in this i would label as especially thought-provoking. Highly superficial seems more like it.

So it's another typical overlong oscar-bait movie. And for someone so leaned on the qualities of 70s films, you show a surprising lack of fantasy with this comment. They could make 'em short AND ambigious. So can Spielberg. But that would mean he would have to kill the little man in his right ear, who constantly tells him to overload his films with 'messages'. This may suffice for an american audience weaned on a steady diet of TV watching, for me, it's patronizing.

But Ted, that's the old 'it's too subtle for you, meeeh!'-garbage. I don't think i missed any subtleties and still found the film unconvincing. The basic story comes off as believable only to people who spend their whole life in darkened cinemas or have zero connection to reality ('we choose the soon-to-be father in his 20s as uber-vulnerable lead for the mission' - YEAH RIGHT!, the same goes for the strange, to say the least, subplot with Lonsdale). I repeat myself: take all the moralist bullshit away from Spielberg and give him exactly 112 minutes to make a taut thriller - the film would be a riot. So we have to wade through dozens of 'subtleties for 12-year olds' scenes, which come off rather contrived, at least for my rather european taste. The score's serviceable, though. A 'thriller only' film would have robbed us of the emotional content of the score....so at least, we have that theme.

This still doesn't explain why the themes from 'The New World', a score which reportedly gave Horner a really long timespan to muse, sound like any other epic Horner from the past 8 years. There certainly is another line of thought in the composer's head why he does what he does. I don't know if it's healthy but obviously it works to get million$ jobs. The biggest problem, apart from the above-mentioned, is the reliance on understated, themeless music. The writing has become more anonymous, the melodies very short and even a score like 'King Kong' which isn't exactly blessed with memorable music references the brass heavy Steiner approach and thus becomes a bit more interesting than it probably would have been without this 'temp in mind.

So what? Possibility A: you don't like a composer's style, you will foam at the mouth because he borrows Possibility B: you'll eat it up, because 100 Mars-bars are, in healthy doses, as delicious as just one. It's that simple. All this rubbish about evaluating these things only fulfills the geeks need to elevate the object of his (seldom: her) affection to some higher pedestal. I can live with Herrmann referencing himself if he creates a new soundscape, i can live with Horner referencing 'Titanic' in 'The New World'. I'll gladly admit that composers get boring very fast if they overstretch it (as Horner has done too often), but i doesn't get my veins popping out like with so many posters around here or FSM. Remember, it's not a witchhunt!

Do you mean the waterproof evidence of the 'i have it on good authority'-poster? 8O These clowns make the round on film music messageboards, trying to stir some pots. Just ask yourself a question: if that were the case (large parts of 'Zorro' written by Pope), who could possibly know? a) Horner B) Pope...Two people who have good reason not to discuss this matter too loud... Now a visitor of JWfan.net claims to have exactly this knowledge...did the cue sheets on the 'Train'-sequence said 'Pope'? Very unlikely. Did he, maybe, speak to some people of the music crew of said film and heard it in some hushed remarks? Possible...but how trustworthy is the information then, filtered through zig sources adding their own slant on it? It just adds up to nothing more then a storm in the teacup....and i've heard the cue in question and flat-out deny the accusations. Pope may have had a hand in constructing the last minutes, but most of the composition is unmistakable Horner.

Since it obviously is a possession of a large demographic of film music freaks to flog a dead horse mercilessly into the ground they shouldn't step too high on their little pedestals: it's not any better than the 'maestro' using that damn Gayaneh-adagio the zilcht time... I'd argue that Horner, how uneven his works may be, still can produce real music with a somewhat symphonic fervour. There's so much music released these days, the 2 or 3 Horner scores per year really can't be that hard on people's ears to produce so much vitriol. So it's the old 'put composer x down to elevate composer Y' (who that may be? :roll:) Just enjoy the actually good stuff he writes...and 'Zorro' is hands down the best adventure score of the past years, best orchestration and all.

But Morricone has written in a lot more idioms than Williams. The aleatoric and atonal stuff he regularly revisits is as far removed from the pretty melodies as you can get...check out the recent 'A Pure Formality', for instance. Additionaly, Morricone's wicked sense of humour often makes the music less conventional (think of the belching sounds in 'Beggar's MArch' from 'Giu La Testa' or 'When Woman had Tails'), which is a rather rare trait for american composers. I could provide you with dozens of other examples, but since i did list 30 Morricone scores in a rcent thread, i do not bother to repeat me.... And 'Schindler's List', of all things, doesn't sound like Morricone at all. It rather sounds like warmed-over Delerue.

That's where my 'nonsense' comment came from...it's always the same old american fodder people here are referring to...'last week i saw 'Mission'; 'In the Line of Fire'. 'Wolf'; 'Mission to Mars' etc. etc. Morricone is such a prolific composer that it's simply a disservice to reduce him like that. And how i can hear the cries if someone here would say the same about Williams (and certainly with a point, too). 'Images' would be dragged to the discussion, as would the atonal parts of 'Close Encounters' and so on...but Willliams certainly got the same amount of Prokoviev-sounding as Morricone got the Belcanto-romantic melodies...

NONSENSE! While 'Once upon a Time' is hardly a favourite of mine, i heartily recomend 'Marco Polo' or 'La Venexiana' for very different kinds of melodies. And no, Williams has not nearly written as many great AND idiosyncratic themes.

With a gun pointed on my head i'd say 'Lady in the Water' and 'Da Vinci Code' (although this one suffers a bit from repeating the 'Chevaliers de Sangreal' theme too often without much variation, at least in the movie) 'X3' i found run-of-the-mill and a bit obnoxious in it's loudness...although i did like the Williamsesque fanfare which pops up twice when the hermaphroditic guy takes off.... 'POTC 2' might have some fun touches (the organ music for Davy Jones, for example), but most of it is simply yawn-inducing Media Ventures, sorry, Remote Control stuff...with the fight on the wheel being an atrocious highlight. 'Superman Returns' is so slight, i can't even comment since i don't remember a note of it...and only a handkerchief full of chloroform could bring me into the any cinema playing this movie. Since i'm not aware of much else released this year, this has to suffice....

In the last 5 days: 'Donnie Darko' 'Charade' 'Have a good Funeral...Sartana will pay!' and last but not least: 'Ilsa - She-Wolf of the SS' Darko was a well-made, sometimes trying film with a blah-blah-finale which exposes the whole thing as (rather transparent) parable on teenage angst. Would have worked better if they constructed it as a love story, which of course it was, but all the shenanigans about the reactionary society surrounding Donnie should be toned down in favor of his first blossoming love. TV preachers, motivation trainers and the likes are twisted fucks...we get it already! I've never seen 'Charade' and even if it's slight, it still has tons of charm, although the plot itself is pretty labored. The comparisons to Hitchcock are moot, since the film lacked the darker underpinnings of Hitch's oeuvre, but simply used effective suspense 'flags' borrowed from the maestro, i. e. the subway chase. Mancini had some great moments, especially in the last quarter when the rhythm of the wooden sticks rocked the various chases! 'Sartana' is a recurring spaghetti western character with rather dubious motives, but since the genre was mostly self-referential parody by this time (early 70s), the lack of depth is a virtue here. The film itself is nothing to write home about, IF NOT for the german dub, which is so atrocious that it's great fun. Brought to you by the same people who dubbed various Spencer-Hill films and the (in)famous german version of 'The Persuaders', you can expect a very loose translation, to put it mildly. When the main character climbs into a room and is questioned by it's inhabitant, he claims to be from Bavaria, where he was used to 'lay the ladder on', while confronted with the bad guy at the final shootout he's spitting a barrage of untranslatable nonsense at him, which must be experienced to be believed. I could go on with my musings of 'Ilsa' but would certainly thrown off the forum, considering the 'daring' theme it exploits. Let me just say the trash in the 70s was miles better than most of the genre outing s of today. The film was shot in secrecy on the sets of 'Hogan's Heroes' - and it's depiction of nazi cruelty is certainly on the same outlandish level as the 'laughs' of this series.

That list can be arranged! I agree with Merkel: 'The Sicilian Clan' is one.... Sorry, but i don't have the time to search for the correct english title for every of these. I will mark those where you simply need the main themes, as a lot of Morricone scores, especially for thrillers contains one great lyrical meldoy and 30 minutes of hair-raising aleatoric and dissonant 'garbage'. Just try iTunes for some of it, but be aware that the short clips seldom say much. Westerns: 'Il Mercenario' 'la Resa dei Conti' 'Navajo Joe' 'Il Grande Silenzio' Giu' la testa Guns for San Sebastian (Love Theme, especially) Il mio Nome è Nessuno (The Wild Horde is a favourite) Two Mules for Sister Sara Vamos A Matar Companeros (main Theme+Il Pinguino) 60ies Easy Italiano stuff (FUN!) Diabolik (only 'Deep Deep Down', the main theme...the rest has vanished, unfortunately) L'Alibi L'Assoluto Naturale (Main Theme) I Malamondo Le Casse (go for the Astrud Gilberto song 'Argomenti', the main theme) Metti Una Sera A Cena (lot of belcanto pop 60s style, think of frothy lounge music with a spaghetti western twist to it!) Scusi, facciamo l'amore? (the same as above) Thrillers/Cop Movies: 'Le Marginal' (main theme) 'Le Professionel' (not for 'Chi Mai' but there some interesting Bach-variations!) 'Bird with the Crystal Plumage' (Main Theme) Cosa Avete Fatto a Solange? (Main Theme) Il Gatto a Nove Code (Main Theme) 'Citta Violenta' Exorcist II - The Heretic Una Pura Formalità (more intellectual, for fans of recent Williams concert works:) Dramas: 'Canone Inverso' Casualties of War Days of Heaven Il Prato (a hell of a beautiful theme!) La Califfa La Venexiana (very choral) El Greco (medieval liturgical...beautiful!) La Donna Invisibile (drama with more conemporary orchestration) La Luz Prodigiosa (recent and gorgeous) La Tenda Rossa (The Red Tent) Maddalena (this is just some strange hybrid of melody, avantgarde and pop which no Hollywood composer would ever be capable of producing...it's good and the famous 'Chi Mai' tune is first used here as a secondary theme) Mosè (Moses the Lawgiver) (try for the theme first, it crops up on a lot of compilations) Nostromo (gorgeous) Queimada (the famous chant 'Abolica') Sacco e Vanzetti What Dreams May Come Adventure: Marco Polo (one of the most gorgeous viola melodies i know) Orca Red Sonja The Adventurer (this is a great tragic one...there are several longer pieces with a classical twist)

Actually, it was James Horner. He composed the medieval-sounding dittie Sarah Jessica Parker sings in the film. In this case, i would have preferred the Horny One. Children's films are his forte.

That, as usual, betrays just a total igorance of the artist's output. It pains me to read sentences like this because a) Morricone was going through a lot of 'phases' after the 60s (the melodic style of the early 70s Giallo-films is the complete opposite to something like 'Orca' or 'Days of Heaven, which are late 70s, not to speak of 'Marco Polo'(1982) or 'La Venexiana' (1986?) etc., etc.,etc. ...and B) the notion that Williams, of all composers, tried always for something different is really stretching it, especially when you compare him to Morricone. If anything, Williams, for a long time of his career, was a reliable source for a certain kind of scoring approach and if you honestly tell me that polished routine like 'Spacecamp', 'Far and Away' or even 'Jurassic Park' shows us a composer hungry for new things, you will be punished with 10 days of incarceration with a continous loop of Saloon-music from 'Once upon a Time in the West'. Morricone's action music, i will admit, is really not something that makes the ears jubilate.

'Schindler's List' actually did that (falling flat on it's face) in the 'I could have done more'-sequence...and largely through the helping hands of Williams syrupy scoring.

Did 'Unbreakable' even manage a nomination? I still think that this and maybe 'The Village' are the strongest Howards, in the listen-to-it-out-of-the-film-context area. 'Signs' only has about 12-15 minutes of material that stands out, 'Sixth Sense' is about the same. And Howards way of writing themes is just an evolutionary step of toning-it-down for rejection-happy producers. They are more subtle then they used to be, but good nevertheless.

'Brick', for me. It's fortunate that the 'clever' approach (telling a film noir in a California high school setting) never outstays it's welcome, although the plot per se wasn't anything to write home about. It was just well made, had some great physical and sight gags - the stoned gang, the Tug & Pin families, the baddie's fall - and the young actors were right on (i had to read the credits to realize that Lukas Haas was in it). It lacked a laconic voice-over, though. The score was serviceable, 'Chinatown' it ain't.

Terrible 'academic' hogwash. He may have a 'thesis', but he never makes a critical evaluation of it. He just claims it to be and could easily be falsificated if only someone would bother. It's the old charade of presenting random citings as absolute proof. One just have to read through the passage where he 'cleverly' induces the Nazis deemed Korngold's music 'entartet' to go on how he would flee Germany to write real 'entartete' music for Warner Brothers. The irony! Conclusion: vitriolic comments are welcome if the rest of your thesis makes for a convincing case, in this case it's just pathetic.

Comments like this actually force images of reclusive guys with a not-too-pleasant outward appearance dancing naked while listening to 'Dobby the House Elf' into my brain.

If you like 'McDonalds'-held birthday parties for your kids, you'll certainly going to like 'Hook' I agree with Alex about 'The Descent'....it's not great art, but the film left me seriously worried about cave trips. Apart from that, my only claim to cinematic glory was watching 'Surf Nazis must die', which was my first and presumably last Troma film.