Was Elmer Bernstein in the same league as Goldsmith and Williams?

[Hlao-roo 388]

In 1999, USPS released stamps honoring six of Hollywood's beloved Golden Age composers. In response, FSM's Lukas Kendall speculated about potential Silver Age stamps, listing the seven composers he would choose, based on the mainstream fame and popularity of their music: Henry Mancini, Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, and Maurice Jarre.

Leaving aside cultural significance, from a purely musical standpoint, I happen to think that all of these composers produced excellent work at least at some point in their career. A few of these names are of course regarded more highly than others within the online film music community. Mancini tends to be more associated with his jazz pop stylings and his collaborations with Johnny Mercer than with his orchestral work. While he has his devotees, Barry's early career was arguably more interesting than where he ended up, becoming one of the most predictable composers in Hollywood by the '90s before his de facto retirement. Here in the States, Clint Eastwood's debt to him notwithstanding, Morricone is perhaps more respected than he is passionately cherished, in part because of musical eccentricities and in part because so much of his career has subsisted outside Hollywood. Jarre, for his part, has proved to be a deeply polarizing figure.

But Bernstein is a particularly interesting case. Here we have a composer whose career was planted firmly in Hollywood, joined Rosenman and North in pioneering the use of jazz in film scores, favored the big orchestral sound that so many of us love, could write the hummable tune, was relatively versatile even amid typecasting, and continued to be active until his death. And yet he's rarely mentioned in the same breath as Goldsmith and Williams. In fact, I'm struck by how little his music is discussed.

So I ask you, is this man up there with Goldsmith and Williams? Or is he, as I suspect many believe, a guy who wrote a handful of classics (The Ten Commandments, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Magnificent Seven) before having a fairly "solid" career, to damn with faint praise?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

I have a huge respect for Bernstein and have seen many films that he scored, and often admired the music.

Yes I only have a couple in my collection.

I respect Bernstein's music enormously, but I don't want it, I don't have the passion for it I have for the music of Goldsmith and Williams.

[DarthDave 1]

I don't know if he's in the same league, but he's definitely great. His over the top, melodramatic score to Ghostbusters made that movie twice as funny as it would have been.

An image just popped into my head of Rick Moranis stumbling around the city accompanied by Bernstein's score. "I am the keymaster!" Ha ha....

[Ollie 859]

I do think the lack of discussion about Bernstein may have something to do with the limited availability of his music and unfortunately he's associated with the Golden Age, which for reasons I cannot understand, seems to be shunned by quite a few film music fans who didn't grow up during that era. The term "old fashioned" gets thrown around alot.

However, thanks to Robert Townson at Varese more of Bernstein's music is being made available for fans to hear.

Yes, I do think he was in the same league as Williams and Goldsmith. I don't think I could sum it up any better than Alan did. As far as I'm concerned his work speaks for itself.

[Koray Savas 2,095]

He's koo.

[Wojo 2,442]

Some of Bernstein's older, epic scores would be considered Golden/Silver Age, like The Ten Commandments and The Magnificent Seven, falling into the timeframe (plus/minus a decade) as ones like Ben-Hur. But when the big budget comedy movies started being made in the 1970s, Bernstein scored many of them. Thus, the general public knew of his work from classics like Airplane!, Animal House, and Ghostbusters, even if they weren't buying his score albums. I think he does suffer from not enough good material on CD to buy, but his caliber is unquestionable.

[Hitch 55]

Had The Age of Innocence not been nominated in the same year as Schindler's List, Elmer would have won the Oscar and in my own opinion, he was robbed of the Oscar for Far from Heaven. This coming from a Goldenthal fan.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,064]

Absolutely.

[Olivier 5]

He certainly was.

You may prefer one or the others, or consider a handful of composers as the very very very best for all sorts of reasons, many subjective, but talent cannot be defined and sorted out by "most popular", "most sell outs" or "top ten maximum" criteria.

Bernstein belongs in the "A List" / "Big League"; so do Goldsmith, Williams, Steiner, ...

The quality of his music, his strong melodies, his versatility, his strong influence are unquestionable.

As suggested, the lack of discussion may be due to some prejudice against / lack of taste for "Golden Age"-like scores such as The Ten Commandments and the belief all his scores were of that kind (the same holds true for Ghostbusters), and the erroneous notion that knowing the themes from The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape is enough when in fact there is much more to these scores and to him, just like Star Wars, Jaws, Gremlins, Star Trek have much more to offer than (one of) their themes (that's because of the constant referencing to these themes, which breeds a very deceiving over familiarity).

Anyone who likes Goldsmith and Williams' symphonic scores should try Elmer Bernstein.

[Neimoidian 13]

My knowledge of Bernstein is limited, because I only have his compillation album, but judging on that basis, the quality of his music is definitely top noch.

[crocodile 6,294]

Same here. I have to get more of these someday.

Karol

[King Mark 2,924]

No ,

Maybe early in his career when he was doing stuff like The Ten Commandements ,The Magnificent Seven ,The Great Escape and To Kill a Mockingbird . But then he started to score mostly mainstream comedies in the 80's and 90's...classic scores don't come out of that type of films. Ghostbusters is nice but sounds like a parody of normal film music.

[Williamsfan301 11]

I don't know if he was or not. He's a good composer, wrote the epic scores well, but he never seemed to launch the way JW or JG did.

If you read what excerpts are out of the Jerry Goldsmith biography, Goldsmith seems to elude to Bernstein knowing he was not considered in the same league, and really wanted to be. Lionel Newman used to call him "The Wrong Bernstein" I believe. So, who knows.

Interesting fact about Bernstein, though was that he got Blacklisted early in his career. I'm sure that had some impact too on his career and on him personally.

I would need an "undecided" option I think.

[King Mark 2,924]

why blacklisted??

[Williamsfan301 11]

why blacklisted??

He got tied up in the Red Scare/McCarthyism stuff.

[Nick Parker 3,017]

Hm. Interesting. Personally, I really like Herr Bernstein, from what little music of his that I have heard. I do not own any of his albums, as they are WAY too expensive ("The Ten Commandments" being a prime example, and his magnus opus, in my opinion). However, I think that I will be the first to say that I do not like his score for "To Kill A Mockingbird".

[Trent B 317]

I voted no. I've only got one score by Bernstein and that's Ghostbusters. Goldsmith was a far superior composer in my honest opinion.

[Hlao-roo 388]

However, I think that I will be the first to say that I do not like his score for "To Kill A Mockingbird".

I am so sorry to hear that. To modern ears, "Assault in the Shadows" may be a tad distracting, but my admiration for the rest of the score is nearly unreserved.

As for Bernstein's blacklisting, he explains in a 2002 interview:

EB:

I made my way on to a grey list, a black list even. That's something I'm very proud of, actually.

CM:

If you were on a grey list, did that mean you could not work?

EB:

Let me explain very simply. In the early days of the so-called black list, it was promoted by corrupt politicians like Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy. They made their living doing this kind of thing. At the very beginning, just the idea that you might be somebody left of centre was enough to get you blacklisted. By the time I was greylisted they made a distinction. If they thought that you had leftwing sympathies but were not a card-carrying member of the communist party, they greylisted you. If they thought you were a card-carrying member, you were blacklisted.

By the time I was caught, McCarthy had already been censured by the Senate. I was a beneficiary of this because I was not a card-carrying member. I was able to get through that without it ending my whole career. At the same time I was fingered, I was working for Cecil B DeMille. He was famously anticommunist. He was president of an organisation called the Motion Pictures Alliance which was devoted to keeping communist propaganda out of the movies. DeMille called me down to his office and said, "I am going to ask you a question. I know it's not my constitutional right to do so but I am going to ask you anyway. Are you a member of the communist party?" I said, "No, I'm not." He looked at me for a full 10 seconds. He made a decision in his head to believe what I'd said but then delivered a lecture to me. He said, "Be careful of these people. They only want to use you." But he kept me on the set. That was a very important step in saving me.

[Williamsfan301 11]

The grey-listing did hurt, though. He got stuck doing alot of B movies for awhile. DeMille was a good friend to him.

[Nick Parker 3,017]

Very interesting. And regarding "To Kill A Mockingbird": I may appreciate it better if I hear the score without the film, which I did not like ( I really appreciate the smybolism, though I find the film, and novel, to be boring). I remember that I did not like "The Terminal"'s score when I heard it in the film, as well. And then I purchased the album....

[Hlao-roo 388]

Very interesting. And regarding "To Kill A Mockingbird": I may appreciate it better if I hear the score without the film, which I did not like ( I really appreciate the smybolism, though I find the film, and novel, to be boring). I remember that I did not like "The Terminal"'s score when I heard it in the film, as well. And then I purchased the album....

To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite novel. I think the film is an adequate adaptation, with Gregory Peck in fine form, but I don't find it as exceptional as some (e.g., the AFI) do.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, the only decent extant release of the original soundtrack recording of the score is exclusive to FSM's Elmer Bernstein's Film Music Collection box set.

I voted no. I've only got one score by Bernstein and that's Ghostbusters. Goldsmith was a far superior composer in my honest opinion.

I'm not sure how informed your opinion is, then. Nonetheless, I will concede that, for me, Bernstein is more of an acquired taste than is Goldsmith or Williams. I would say that my patience has paid off.

[Ollie 859]

Very interesting. And regarding "To Kill A Mockingbird": I may appreciate it better if I hear the score without the film, which I did not like ( I really appreciate the smybolism, though I find the film, and novel, to be boring). I remember that I did not like "The Terminal"'s score when I heard it in the film, as well. And then I purchased the album....

To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite novel. I think the film is an adequate adaptation, with Gregory Peck in fine form, but I don't find it as exceptional as some (e.g., the AFI) do.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, the only decent extant release of the original soundtrack recording of the score is exclusive to FSM's Elmer Bernstein's Film Music Collection box set.

Elmer Bernstein also did a recording for Varese which is worth purchasing:

http://www.varesesarabande.com/details.asp?pid=vsd%2D5754

[Nick Parker 3,017]

I may purchase that after November....

[Hlao-roo 388]

Very interesting. And regarding "To Kill A Mockingbird": I may appreciate it better if I hear the score without the film, which I did not like ( I really appreciate the smybolism, though I find the film, and novel, to be boring). I remember that I did not like "The Terminal"'s score when I heard it in the film, as well. And then I purchased the album....

To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite novel. I think the film is an adequate adaptation, with Gregory Peck in fine form, but I don't find it as exceptional as some (e.g., the AFI) do.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, the only decent extant release of the original soundtrack recording of the score is exclusive to FSM's Elmer Bernstein's Film Music Collection box set.

Elmer Bernstein also did a recording for Varese which is worth purchasing:

http://www.varesesarabande.com/details.asp?pid=vsd%2D5754

I don't like what Bernstein does to the "Main Title" tempo, though. Taken that slow, it starts to feel almost cloying.

[Lurker 5]

Anyone that questions Bernstein's greatness should listen to Heavy Metal.

Neil

[Hitch 55]

One of my favourite main titles of all-time.