Composer Threads Carter Burwell

[fenrik 36]

My favorite Burwell score is GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN. 

Man, its beautiful!

[Thor 7,471]

ROB ROY is mine. Interestingly, one of the least "Burwellian" of his scores.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I find it difficult to separate my feelings for Burwell scores from the films they were written for, so Fargo will always be my pick for his best.  All 28 perfect minutes of it.

[Bespin 8,480]

Like Rachel Portman, Burwell is not a fan of "wall-to-wall" scores, so directors really hire him to score the "things" which are not "shown in the movie".

 

He does that pretty well.

 

I also loved his score to that movie about Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, which is about, well, three billboards outside... 

[Richard Penna 3,672]

I believe I've only got two Burwell scores in their full albums - Fargo and The Alamo. Bits from a handful of others too.

 

The latter must be the closest thing to a 'traditional' score that I've heard from him, as he does take a music-only-where-needed approach.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

You'd probably enjoy his score for Missing Link, an animated film from a few years back.  Really nice, traditional stuff!

 

 

[filmmusic 1,823]

Well, whatever Burwell I have listened to, is good, easy listening music, but something is missing to make it truly great. I don't know.

By the way, I really like and I'm moved by his score for Before Night falls. Maybe I'm influenced by the film too.

[thestat 348]

Everyone needs to go on Burwell's website and read his absolutely to-the-point comments on his projects (there are no punches pulled here)

 

https://www.carterburwell.com/projects/Conspiracy_Theory.shtml

I remember talking with Mel Gibson before the New York premiere of the film, and he said he wanted to make a Bible movie. He was quite serious about it. Years later, after he’d shot The Passion Of The Christ, he called me to ask if I’d like to work on it. I was in the middle of a big project at the time, The Alamo, and couldn’t find the time so I didn’t really have to face the question of how I’d write such a score or how I’d work with Mel. I appreciated the seriousness with which he approached the subject, but by the time we spoke about the project he was already making extreme comments about whether the Mossad would let him live to finish the film (at least that's what he said to me). These hopefully were jokes, and his politicization of the film certainly made for good PR, but I’m sure it would have been a strange ride if I’d taken it.

 

There's some fantastic detail about the perennial Don Davis involvement in 90s films: https://www.carterburwell.com/projects/A_Goofy_Movie.shtml

 

I spoke with Don (whom I've never met) very cordially about a potentially difficult situation. I told him I understood his assignment and just hoped that my themes would survive in some form. The music as you hear it now is mostly my thematic material, but honestly some sections sound much more like Don Davis than Carter Burwell.

[mstrox 6,647]

9 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

You'd probably enjoy his score for Missing Link, an animated film from a few years back.  Really nice, traditional stuff!

 

 

Just came into this thread because we watched this tonight!  What a nice score.  Makes me wish for more kids’ scores that aren’t just Zimmer Jr.s following the template.

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

Randomly came across this at the New York Museum of the Moving Image, 14 April 2024... 

 

https://movingimage.org/event/carter-burwell-on-fargo/

 

(I was actually trying to see whether the similarly named museum in London still existed, it doesn't, but happened across the NYC one and saw this...).