Search the Community

We are now 20 years removed from 2004... But hey, I was thinking today and that was a GREAT year for film scores! Lots of wonderful stuff from JNH, Newman, Debney, Giacchino, Elfman and, of course, our John Williams, who after taking a break in 2003, returned on the next year with perhaps the greatest Harry Potter score. Some of the stuff that happened that year: After finishing 2003 on a high note with Peter Pan, JNH began 2004 with Hidalgo, a score that mixed Western and Arab music. A few months later, he released his magnificent The Village, one of his very best collaborations with Shyamalan. Alexandre Desplat entered Hollywood through the front door with Girl with a Pearl Earring (technically a 2003 movie, but it was released on the states in January 2004 lol) and Birth. John Debney tackled the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ with his powerful score for The Passion of the Christ. Jon Brion did a nice, sensitive job for the now classic romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Marco Beltrami had a great year with Hellboy and I, Robot, two of his best action scores; Alan Silvestri delivered a powerhouse Gothic score with Van Helsing and later a classic Christmas score with The Polar Express; James Horner replaced Gabriel Yared on Troy and got some hate from the film music community, but anyway both scores were great at their own way (and I confess I prefer Horner's work); Harry Gregson-Williams scored two of the funniest comedies of the year (who also happened to be animated): Shrek 2 and Team America: World Police. John Williams' Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was a darker departure from the first two HP scores and a wonderful work on his own, one of his best for the entire decade. Only two weeks later (!) we got another quality work from JW: The Terminal. Danny Elfman was done dirty on Spider-Man 2 and yet managed to provide a great score with a memorable villain theme for Doc Ock. Christopher Young's contributions shouldn't be overlooked though - I love his music for the train battle! King Arthur featured Hans Zimmer on epic mode similar to Gladiator and The Last Samurai before it and The Da Vinci Code and Pirates 2 and 2 after, and I adore it! John Powell's The Bourne Supremacy, for better or worse, was one of the most influential action scores of the entire millenium. Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers had Bruce Broughton on swashbuckling mode. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow may not have been a hit but it sure as hell had a wonderful adventurous score by Ed Shearmur. Rolfe Ken't Sideways is very celebrated by those who heard it - I plan to someday! Michael Giacchino's career took over with two great scores: Lost (which had begun its season 1 on September of that year) and The Incredibles. It's almost unbelievable to me that such a newcomer with not many scores under his curriculum (mainly TV and videogams) like he was at the time was given a chance to score Pixar's huge blockbuster - and he succeeded briliantly! Finding Neverland had a sensitive score from Jan A. P. Kaczmarek that eventually won an Oscar. Not bad, but the other nominated scores that year deserved more the award. National Treasure from Trevor Rabin continued his long tradition of action scores for Jerry Bruckheimer. I haven't heard it on album, but those who did really like it. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie had a surprisingly good score for such a silly comedy, written by one of the show's composers. The music for when SpongeBob and Patrick are almost dying and saying goodbye to each other is very touching! Vangelis wrote an epic score for Alexander that is controversial to this day. Shigeru Umebayashi's House of Flying Daggers was another great sensitive Chinese score for a martial arts/wuxia movie, not too different from Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero. Thomas Newman's blend of quirky and emotional on Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events worked really well. The Aviator was the closest Howard Shore ever got from his Middle Earth music in a movie that didn't feature Elves, Hobbits, Rings, etc. Here's some of my favorite film music compositions from that year: Feel free to talk about your favorite movies, TV shows, film scores, film cues and personal memories from 2004! PS: I have a strong feeling that every year finished with 4 is filled with amazing music, including 2014. I may do another threads like this when I find the time.