What Is The Last Score You Listened To? (older scores)

[crocodile 9,483]

9 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

That's one of the best scores ever written. 

You know,what, we are in a total agreement here. I don't think I know of many scores that merge the two periods of music writing quite as successfully. 

 

Karol

[Marian Schedenig 11,162]

39 minutes ago, crocodile said:

The Agony and the Ecstasy, then?

 

I should know that better, but my brain stubbornly expands that "North is hard, to you really want to play that now?" to all North scores. As a result, it tends even tends to mix it up with Shoes of the Fisherman.

[Marian Schedenig 11,162]

 

Hadn't played this in years. Nice blend between Olympic-y, fanfary stuff and some proto-Young Sherlock Holmes (that came one year later).

 

Edit: Wow, I should listen to the YouTube links I post before I post them… This is just a piece of source music. There doesn't seem to be anything from the actual score on YouTube…

[Naïve Old Fart 12,509]

  whatever I want, when I want, and as loud as I want. My neighbours are away for the weekend, and there's no-one either side of me.

Hell, yeah! 

[LSH 1,098]

 

A Newman favourite and there's a lot to like here. Everyone loves the finale - which is indeed superb, and Newman at his best - but one of my favourite cues is the one that accompanies the mouse squash and its subsequent revival. I just love that return to tenderness at 1:54 ...  breaks my heart every time. 

 

 

In context, it's even better

 

 

Anyway, it's a beautiful and haunting score. Newman has done  some fantastic stuff since, don't get me wrong, but this was the last time he genuinely gave me goosebumps.

 

I'm not sure if it's quite worthy of an expansion, though there are a handful of cues missing that I'd like to hear.

[Edmilson 11,439]

A magnificent score to a magnificent movie. Newman + Darabont was such a great duo.

[LSH 1,098]

5 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

A magnificent score to a magnificent movie. Newman + Darabont was such a great duo.

 

It really is. It was one of my father's favourite films and it's the anniversary of his death tomorrow. Hence why it sprang to mind tonight.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,614]

Every time I’ve tried to listen to most Elfman scores that aren’t NBC, I get bored after the main title cues. 

Which is to say, tried putting on Beetlejuice. Meh.

 

(before ya’ll spit at my contrarianism, I still like Edward Scissorhands)

[filmmusic 2,902]

8 minutes ago, Kasey Kockroach said:

Every time I’ve tried to listen to most Elfman scores that aren’t NBC

What is NBC?

 

[Kasey Kockroach 2,614]

AND SINCE I AM DEAD I CAN TAKE OFF MY HEAD TO RECITE SHAKESPEARIAN QUOTATIONS

[Tallguy 6,640]

Someone should put together "acceptable abbreviations that everyone knows" with a subsection for "TMP / TWOK / etc are only acceptable on Star Trek threads". (Nerds!) Surely it's clearer and nearly as few characters to type Raiders rather than ROTLA.

 

And The Nightmare Before Christmas would surely be TNBC just as Return of the Jedi is RotJ. Yes?

 

I listened to The Incredibles for the first time in ages the other night. I was actually blown away by a) how amazing it is and b) what a shameless Barry / Bond pastiche it is and yet how deft it is for all of its shamelessness. I had forgotten what nail biters both Kronos Unveiled and Missile Lock are. Especially given that Kronus Unveiled (KU) is obviously temped from Capsule in Space which is not nearly so suspenseful.

[The Score Cleaner 9,270]

5 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

 

And The Nightmare Before Christmas would surely be TNBC just as Return of the Jedi is RotJ. Yes?

 

 

NBC, T.

[Tallguy 6,640]

1 minute ago, The Great Gonzales said:

NBC, T.

 

That's why I like software that can sort around "a, the, an".

[Andy 6,899]

1 hour ago, Tallguy said:

 

I listened to The Incredibles for the first time in ages the other night. I was actually blown away by a) how amazing it is and b) what a shameless Barry / Bond pastiche it is and yet how deft it is for all of its shamelessness. 

Sorta related, I just finished David Arnold’s Godzilla (only my second time) and I hear lots of Barry-isms in there. The little snare rolls that loop during slow suspenseful passages. The long lined melodies. 
 

I can totally see why he got the job for Bond.   Was he a protégés of Barry or something?

[Tallguy 6,640]

2 hours ago, Andy said:

Was he a protégés of Barry or something?

 

Kinda at least. I know that he was at least friends with Barry in his last years. I don't know if that started before or after he did Shaken and Stirred. (It would be a near perfect album if only it had a good James Bond Theme.)

 

Godzilla was after Tomorrow Never Dies wasn't it?

[Andy 6,899]

4 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Godzilla was after Tomorrow Never Dies wasn't it?

Oh look at that, it was after TND. No wonder. 
 

Man, when he was great, Arnold was great. 

[Bespin Copilot 10,311]

Three Horner's best from the 90s.

 

[Tallguy 6,640]

I cannot think of Legends of the Fall without remembering one of the first issues of Film Score Monthly that I ever bought: "Score that Most Feels Like Drowning - Legends of the Fall".

 

The Rocketeer is arguably my favorite James Horner score. Apollo 13 is amazing as long as you didn't listen to Clear and Present Danger first. (I didn't, so I was fine.) And even then it's pretty darn great.

[Edmilson 11,439]

Ramin Djawadi - Clash of the Titans (recording sessions)

 

I was watching House of the Dragon yersterday and then I decided to go after Djawadi's other epic score that predated his work on the Westeros saga. I remember it got some pretty bad reviews back in 2010, with critics complaining that it was another derivative RC score and etc...

 

Oh boy we were happy back then and we didn't know it. Between this and Marc Streintenfeld's Robin Hood we were actually pretty well served of "generic RC epic scores" back 14 years ago.

 

Anyway, Clash of the Titans has some dull parts and the action music could be better, but it has great themes, some powerful choir parts and a heroic manly energy that reminds me of the good old days of Gladiator, King Arthur, Narnia, etc. Pretty good score, and flashier than his GoT/HotD material.

[Tallguy 6,640]

5 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Ramin Djawadi - Clash of the Titans (recording sessions)

 

I was watching House of the Dragon yersterday and then I decided to go after Djawadi's other epic score that predated his work on the Westeros saga. I remember it got some pretty bad reviews back in 2010, with critics complaining that it was another derivative RC score and etc...

 

Oh boy we were happy back then and we didn't know it. Between this and Marc Streintenfeld's Robin Hood we were actually pretty well served of "generic RC epic scores" back 14 years ago.

 

Anyway, Clash of the Titans has some dull parts and the action music could be better, but it has great themes, some powerful choir parts and a heroic manly energy that reminds me of the good old days of Gladiator, King Arthur, Narnia, etc. Pretty good score, and flashier than his GoT/HotD material.

 

I should check it out. I'm not really familiar with his Game of Thrones work but I loved his work on Person of Interest and Pacific Rim.

[Edmilson 11,439]

2 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

I should check it out. I'm not really familiar with his Game of Thrones work but I loved his work on Person of Interest and Pacific Rim.

This one is not quite like PoI or even GoT... But if you like the "ancient epic Remote Control" style of the 2000s you'll enjoy this 

 

I have some pretty nostalgic memories of this film. It's a crappy movie but I saw it during my 17th birthday with some friends from high school at the movie theater and then we went to eat some pizza at the mall 

[Tallguy 6,640]

5 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

This one is not quite like PoI or even GoT... But if you like the "ancient epic Remote Control" style of the 2000s you'll enjoy this 

 

I have some pretty nostalgic memories of this film. It's a crappy movie but I saw it during my 17th birthday with some friends from high school at the movie theater and then we went to eat some pizza at the mall 

 

If I remember it was a terrible movie (and not in a great way like the original) but this was the movie that made me a Mads Mikkelsen fan.

[Edmilson 11,439]

26 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

If I remember it was a terrible movie (and not in a great way like the original)

The 2012 sequel is even worse IMHO. A movie so bad it made me regret going to the theater and paying a ticket for it, and this time I didn't even have some friends from school to make fun of it lol 

[Bespin Copilot 10,311]

Extracts from three great Morricone scores from the '90s are present in the box sets of 'Écoutez le cinéma'."

[Naïve Old Fart 12,509]

2 hours ago, Tallguy said:

I cannot think of Legends of the Fall without remembering one of the first issues of Film Score Monthly that I ever bought: "Score that Most Feels Like Drowning - Legends of the Fall".

 

Is that good, or not? 

 

 

2 hours ago, Tallguy said:

Apollo 13 is amazing as long as you didn't listen to Clear and Present Danger first (I didn't, so I was fine).

 

I listened to BRAINSTORM - which APOLLO 13 rips off, shamelessly - so... I wasn't fine.

 

Personally, I find LEGENDS OF THE FALL an absolute crushing bore. Even John Toll's Oscar-winning cinematography can't save it.

I don't remember anything about the score, so I'll give it a spin, asap.

 

[Edmilson 11,439]

The movie is terrible, but Legends of the Fall is my favorite James Horner score of all time, and among my favorite ever, period. It's magnificent. There isn't a single second of score (whether on the nicely curated OST or the complete score) that is bad, boring or whatever.

[Tallguy 6,640]

12 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

The movie is terrible, but Legends of the Fall is my favorite James Horner score of all time, and among my favorite ever, period. It's magnificent. There isn't a single second of score (whether on the nicely curated OST or the complete score) that is bad, boring or whatever.

 

I know when I was in my twenties this was a loooooong form Horner that I just couldn't get into. (Yep, Braveheart goes into the same bucket.) I might have to give it a whirl now.

 

26 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

I listened to BRAINSTORM - which APOLLO 13 rips off, shamelessly - so... I wasn't fine.

 

Only the parts he ripped off from Goldsmith.

[filmmusic 2,902]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

The movie is terrible,

Terrible? Legends of the Fall? 

Far from it. I love that movie!

[crocodile 9,483]

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond by Michael Giacchino and Nami Melumad. Really enjoying this. I think going for a more character-centred approach makes for a quite nice listening experience and helps to distinguish this entry from a more setpiece-driven predecessors. I think Nami's great at fleshing out Michael's themes, both new and old. A lot of fun.

 

Karol

[GerateWohl 6,362]

17 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

I listened to BRAINSTORM - which APOLLO 13 rips off, shamelessly - so... I wasn't fine.

Brainstorm is for me almost the same score as Aliens. But Brainstorm came before, and already reused stuff from Wolfen. It seems like Horner thought, "Hm, I wasted these brilliant ideas on that unknown movie where they hardly got recognized. So, will reuse them until they get recognized and I win an award."

[tomsmoviemadness 4,580]

The Last Starfighter - Craig Safan

 

I have to be honest, but I never heard of either this film or the composer before today. This morning I was reading the Empire Magazine, which had a whole poece about this film and how it was made. Really enjoyed it all and actually made me curious to check the film out.

 

As for the score, I wanted to listen to that after the things Safan told about it in the interview. What an absolute blast from start to finish!!! Great main theme and some fantastic action cues!!

[Tallguy 6,640]

1 hour ago, JNHFan2000 said:

The Last Starfighter - Craig Safan

 

I have to be honest, but I never heard of either this film or the composer before today. This morning I was reading the Empire Magazine, which had a whole poece about this film and how it was made. Really enjoyed it all and actually made me curious to check the film out.

 

As for the score, I wanted to listen to that after the things Safan told about it in the interview. What an absolute blast from start to finish!!! Great main theme and some fantastic action cues!!

 

Nice to see the 40th anniversary love. Trust Centauri, my boy.

[crocodile 9,483]

 Mars Needs Moms by John Powell. A bit of a forgotten score from a forgotten movie. Undeservedly so. Along with the first HTTYD (and Happy Feet, to some extent), it helped to usher a new era of more mature Powell scores for animation. There's a sense of more coherence to writing that felt quite new back then. Recommended.

 

Karol

[Bespin Copilot 10,311]

John Barry's resurrection in the 90s.

 

[Edmilson 11,439]

4 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

"Hm, I wasted these brilliant ideas on that unknown movie where they hardly got recognized. So, will reuse them until they get recognized and I win an award."

He did the same thing decades later when he reused material from The New World and Apocalypto on Avatar 

[Jay 44,752]

The Last Starfighter is one of my favorite scores of all time!  Works wonderfully in its complete presentation as well.

 

I only wish I had been able to get into anything else Craig Safan did.

[BB-8 5,821]

Gave these a spin last evening...

 

 

 

[Tallguy 6,640]

5 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

Brainstorm is for me almost the same score as Aliens. But Brainstorm came before, and already reused stuff from Wolfen. It seems like Horner thought, "Hm, I wasted these brilliant ideas on that unknown movie where they hardly got recognized. So, will reuse them until they get recognized and I win an award."

 

Aliens is a mishmash of Hornerisms. I don't hear Brainstorm as much as other scores. And the most Goldsmith, er Brainstorm parts got dialed out or rescored. IMHO.

 

I'm pretty sure (more so than other composers) that Horner wrote one enormous score and he put bits of it into different movies.

[Tom Guernsey 3,485]

12 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Aliens is a mishmash of Hornerisms. I don't hear Brainstorm as much as other scores. And the most Goldsmith, er Brainstorm parts got dialed out or rescored. IMHO.

I'd be inclined to agree, Aliens is more of an action score than Brainstorm so while the horror aspects share quite a bit, Aliens goes off in a much heavier direction than Brainstorm. Both still excellent scores though.

 

14 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I'm pretty sure (more so than other composers) that Horner wrote one enormous score and he put bits of it into different movies.

It might be heresy, but I sometimes feel the same way about Ennio Morricone. Or rather more than both JH and Ennio have what you might call "anchor" scores at various points in their careers that sum up many of their key stylistic tropes of that period and other scores feed off.

 

For Horner, scores such as TWOK/Krull, Aliens, Cocoon, Legends of the Fall, Apollo 13/Sneakers, Braveheart etc. represent the apotheosis of his style at those times (acknowledging some crossover, notably A13 and Braveheart both being the same year). I'm sure there are a few others you could pick where the Hornerisms of the period are summed up in a particular score or scores. Of course, which score or scores you feel are prototypical at any particular point is personal, but around each of those scores, there's several others which pave the way for, or feed off, that prototypical effort (Titanic and The Devil's Own, for example, pick up the Celtic hues of Braveheart... that kinda thing).

[Tallguy 6,640]

It's funny to find the "beginning of" a particular Hornerism. Or even "I had no idea he was doing that as early as".

 

So at the recommendation of this thread I am listening to Legends of the Fall. And yes, it's gorgeous and luscious. I can see why it has its fans. It's also more varied than I was expecting.I thought I might have known it from a compilation but maybe I'm just thinking of Braveheart. This is part of where Field of Dreams turned into Titanic. (There's a teeny bit of Far and Away in here as well.)

 

I wonder which had more influence on Independence Day, this or JNH's Wyatt Earp?

 

I had to take a break because I got to this part (about 1:36)

 

 

 

and it was driving me nuts. Where I had heard something like it. I was pretty sure it wasn't even a Horner thing.

 

It was HERE of all places! (About 4:00.)

 

[GerateWohl 6,362]

25 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I had to take a break because I got to this part (about 1:36)

and it was driving me nuts. Where I had heard something like it. I was pretty sure it wasn't even a Horner thing.

It was HERE of all places! (About 4:00.)

Wow! That's a good catch. That's... pretty much the same music.

[tomsmoviemadness 4,580]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

The Last Starfighter is one of my favorite scores of all time!  Works wonderfully in its complete presentation as well.

 

I only wish I had been able to get into anything else Craig Safan did.

Really that is awesome. I'll definitely revisit it a few times after I've seen the film as well.

 

What makes it one of your favorites?

[Jay 44,752]

Great catchy main theme, fun action cues, good emotional passages, all culminating in a triumphant march.  It's like a John Williams blockbuster score made by someone else

[Naïve Old Fart 12,509]

10 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

It seems like Horner thought, "Hmm, I wasted these brilliant ideas on that unknown movie where they hardly got recognized. So, will reuse them until they get recognized and I win an award."

 

... which pretty much sums up his entire career.

He was the Zimmer of his day: hackneyed and lazy, yet, inexplicably getting maximum returns from minimum effort.

Jerry was right, saying that he had so much talent, but that he let it go to waste with an endless churning out of cut & paste scores. 

I was bored of his music by the end of the '80s; I was over his music by the end of the '90s.

[Tallguy 6,640]

2 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Jerry was right, saying that he had so much talent, but that he let it go to waste with an endless churning out of cut & paste scores. 

 

Did he actually say that someplace?

[Edmilson 11,439]

5 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

Did he actually say that someplace?

I think (hope) he meant Jerry Drax and not Jerry Goldsmith. Or Jerry Fielding.

 

Jerry Seinfeld would be acceptable though 

[Naïve Old Fart 12,509]

8 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Did he actually say that someplace?

 

Something very much like it, but I can't remember where.

He acknowledged Horner's obvious talent, but he made reference to him repeating himself time after time, as well as "borrowing" entire passages of classical music. He just thought that it was a waste of his talent.

 

 

 

1 minute ago, Edmilson said:

I think (hope) he meant Jerry Drax and not Jerry Goldsmith. Or Jerry Fielding.

 

Jerry Seinfeld would be acceptable though 

 

It was definitely JG. I only wish that I could find the quote.

 

Don't forget; Horner was closer to Jerry than a lot of people, as he dated his daughter.

[Edmilson 11,439]

10 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Don't forget; Horner was closer to Jerry than a lot of people, as he dated his daughter.

Actually, this was another reason for JG to trash Horner 

[Tallguy 6,640]

26 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Don't forget; Horner was closer to Jerry than a lot of people, as he dated his daughter.

 

I think Carrie disputes how strongly to have considered them "dating".

[LiterallyIconic 1,563]

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