Those of you reading my blogs may not know that I am a big fan of movie scores. If any of you are uncertain as to what a film scores it, it is the 'background' music that plays during the course of a film. For anyone who has studied film they will know this 'background' music as non-diegetic music; that is music that exists outside the world of the film.
Three of my top five movies of all time (which will of course change at some point during my lifetime) feature great musical scores. These films being 28 Days Later (music by John Murphy), American Beauty (Thomas Newman) and Memento (David Julyan).
John Murphy usually collaborates with Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) and has so for 28 Days Later, Sunshine, and Millions, but has also done music for Snatch and Miami Vice. His films scores stand out in the films that they are contained in and came be listened to on their own, as I sometimes do. "In The House - In a Heartbeat" from the 28 Days Later soundtrack has been used in promotional trailers for at least three films. I cannot remember which ones, so I have not stated them for that reason. It was however, used early on in the 28 Days Later sequel, 28 Weeks Later, which is also a great film. If any of you own or would like to see 28 Days Later, pay attention to the film score and I am sure you will also enjoy the great music.
Thomas Newman's score for American Beauty matches the mood of the film through its entire running time and helps to make the film memorable and great. I am not going to list the other scores that he has worked on but he did compose the theme for Six Feet Under. It you want to see his resume check it out on www.imdb.com .
David Julyan's music I first heard when I watched the film Memento, which became one of my top five favourites films once I had a general understanding of what the hell was going on in that movie. He frequently composes music for Christopher Nolan on his films; Following, Memento, Insomnia and The Prestige. When one listens to a composers music across a number of films, one begins to notice similarities between films scores, as I have between Julyan's scores for Memento and Insomnia. What is somewhat surprising about the score for Memento is that it is such a beautiful score for such a low budge movie (around 50,000 dollars). Julyan's scores are always great, but unfortunately he was not given the chance to do the score for Nolan's Batman Begins, instead this was left to Hans Zimmer and James Horner (who are both great composers but they are heavies in film scoring therefore they are somewhat overrated), leaving me more than somewhat disappointed. I can always hope that Julyan will be allowed to do the score for the upcoming Batman film The Dark Knight, but I doubt the studio will allow him to do it because they did not for the last film but also because they may want to go with a more established composer (i am just guessing here).
The bizarre horror comedy Bubba Ho-Tep features at least one piece of great music from composer Brian Tyler, who has also done music for 2 Fast 2 Furious, Paparazzi, War, Constantine and most recently for the new Rambo films called...you guessed it Rambo. The piece of music is what I would call a lamentation for Elvis (played in the film by Bruce Campbell). It is a beautiful piece that carries a lot of emotion behind it and is feature in a flashback sequence in the film, recurs briefly through the film and plays again at the very end of the film. This film is really off the beaten path. I would not have known about it if my friend Matt, had not been a big fan of Bruce Campbell and mentioned the film during an msn conversation.
Most of you probably have not heard of Canadian non-vocal rock band Godspeed You Black Emperor!, but a condense version of one of their songs was featured in 28 Days Later, but did not appear on the soundtrack, because the band chose not to authorize it for the soundtrack/score (this is what I have read; I might be wrong. I know that you are thinking, "No, Dave is never wrong" but alas this is untrue. Sometime I am wrong. Do not tell my wife I said that). They are really popular in the United States and have toured there a lot but I do not think that they tour much in Canada. They currently have 4 albums (I own 2), which consists of about 3 to 4 songs (their songs are like 20 minutes each). Each song usually begins with some sort of audio clip, fades/builds up into the song and the song ebbs and flows from quiet to loud and back again. I would consider their music film score music that is not for a film. I am hoping at least David (my cousin-in-law) has heard of this band. I hope that one day Godspeed You Black Emperor are approached to do a film score because I believe they have the talent and skill to put out a great film score and really add to a film that should already be pretty good.
I would also like to say that Godfrey Reggio did an amazing score for the documentary/visual essay Koyaanisqatsi. The documentary has no dialogue, but has Reggio's music over footage of urban life; people walking down city streets, skyscrapers being demolished, people at sped up speeds walking through grand central station. If anyone out there is interested in this film, rent it or you may be able to borrow it from me. I would say that they other two films in the qatsi trilogy, Powaaqatsi and Nayoqatsi are not worth seeing, so skip them.
Some other notable film composers are James Newton Howard (The 6th Sense, Unbreakable), who commonly works with M. Night Shyamalan, Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, Hannibal), who frequently collaborates with Ridley Scott, and Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings, The Departed), who has been known to work with David Chronenberg. James Horner (Titanic, Apollo 13), who composes for no one in particular (I could not find a common collaborator) , Danny Elfman (Batman, Spiderman) who composes a lot of TV show themes and works a lot with Tim Burton and John Williams who is of course responsible for the great Star Wars music and is no question, the best film composer in film history. If you have heard his music you will not consider this a bold statement. If you want to fight about my above statement, I will fight you, but I should not have to, because it is simply fact not opinion.
I hope that those of you reading this blog enjoyed it even if you are not familiar with most of the film music that I referred to. I suggest that If you get a chance to listen to any of the music that I referred to that you take that chance and reported back to me because I want to know what you, the readers think of that music that I have discussed.
Take Care Readers.
Fanboy Dave
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