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Re: Arnold/Alford (Reply to this comment)
by seth25
Agreed. The Mission is him (perhaps) at his best- and that's saying much with the diversity of his compositional and scoring skills.
Mike
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Mar 10 '08
9:38 am PDT
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Here's another score to add to the list (Reply to this comment)
by colonialpara
Doctor Zhivago by Maurice Jarre or his score for RYAN's DAUGHTER.
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Feb 06 '07
2:52 pm PST
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Missed a couple... (Reply to this comment)
by beesquare
I like your choices, but am sorry you missed McCabe and Mrs. Miller (great Leonard Cohen songs), Black Orpheus (Orfeo Negro), and of course the sound track to A Man and A Woman (Un Homme et Une Femme) from 1966... the movie is a lightweight, but the soundtrack is great; get the French version.
Worthy of a mention, but uneven: Mambo Kings, The Long Riders, Henry& June, and Wild Orchid.
Great topic... thanks for directing my thoughts along this pleasurable line of reflection!
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Feb 01 '07
4:21 pm PST
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Re: Arnold/Alford (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Dear Steve: Thank you for the informative note, but I never wrote that Arnold composed "The Colonel Bogey March," only the theme -- in other words the arrangement(s) of the march -- in THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. I hope you will agree that those are two different things.
And as I am at pains to state, it is not the march that makes me pick it for my Top Ten List.
See:
"It is 'The Colonel Bogey March' theme that we remember, but the rest of the score delineates with restraint the shifts of mood in this World War II epic black comedy."
In Morricone, though, you may have me.
I've never sat through an entire Spaghetti Western, and I identify Morricone with them.
A few months ago, I saw a restored version of THE LEOPARD at the Castro Theater, and I was blown away by everything in it, including Morricone's score. I need to sit down with some of the recently issued CD's of his work, and perhaps I'll come to hear what you mean.
Meanwhile, I would say that both Herrmann and Rosza were more versatile composers than Morricone. Herrmann, in particular, seems to have done everything in music -- film scores, concerti, incidental music, opera, radio, song cycles, etc -- with a considerable sense of structure and passion.
Now . . . Steve . . . you get me thinking more about Nino Rota. Now there --
No! No!
Thanks a lot, kiddo.
Alex
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Jun 15 '05
1:27 pm PDT
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Arnold/Alford (Reply to this comment)
by Stephen_Murray,  in Music
The Col. Bogey March was written in 1914, not by Arnold.
Nothing by Morricone? the most prolific and very versatile...
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Jun 14 '05
2:28 pm PDT
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Re: How About (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Dear Paul: You have found a score which I should not have overlooked. Alex North's score for SPARTACUS is one of the best of the big ones. Still, I fudged in this list a number of times, as it was.
But . . . I should have at least mentioned it. I have a CD of the complete score.
I have never seen THE ALAMO. Tiomkin's problem (and some would say Rosza's) was that his scores were bigger and sometimes better than the pictures they served. I'll have to try to see the picture or, at least, listen to the music.
Thank you for the suggestions.
Alex -- Macresarf1
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Jan 18 '05
12:47 pm PST
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How About (Reply to this comment)
by colonialpara
SPARTACUS by Alex North and The Alamo, also by Dmitri Tiomkin?
Paul
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Jan 17 '05
2:11 pm PST
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Re: Hm. (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Dear Paul: I'm glad you liked my choice of Brian Easdale's RED SHOES score.
I really have not seen either THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (almost, at a recent revival) or Tom Waits' ONE FROM THE HEART work in really first class settings. I promise to remedy that soon.
Thank you for the kind comments.
I appreciate them.
[Macresarf1]
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Jul 21 '04
4:34 pm PDT
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Hm. (Reply to this comment)
by hkoreeda
Naturally, with a list of this kind there are many worthy choices, and everyone's bound to find a favorite that isn't listed here. That said, I like most of your choices, especially THE RED SHOES, a gorgeous orchestral score that, unlike most of its kind, actually works on its own accord, though admittedly not as well as it does in its filmic context.
The two soundtracks I would include on a list of this nature are both original song scores that I've listened to many times over the years. I noticed that in your blurb for MAGNOLIA you said that most modern vocal scores "generally play against the images," but two notable exceptions are Michel Legrand's operatically-minded THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG score and Tom Waits' bluesy work on ONE FROM THE HEART. Both of these scores serve similar purposes in their respective films, to give the humdrum lives of their characters a more eloquent mode of emotional expression, although tonally the two works couldn't be more dissimilar- UMBRELLAS doesn't shy away from passion, while HEART leans heavily on boozy regret. Still, both work extremely well both in the films and by themselves, and even people I know who don't like ONE FROM THE HEART still dig the music.
Anyhoo, nice work, as usual.
PauL
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Jul 19 '04
4:46 am PDT
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Re: Comment (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Dear Neal: Karas' theme is certainly memorable, but I find that it is not entirely satisfactory as an entire score. The whole thing consists essentially of two pieces which are repeated, alternated or sometimes cued in part.
The score is one of those examples of a trend which gained currency in the late 1940's and 1950's (as I note in my review), where the music became almost as profitable as the film.
Anton Karas, I believe, had composed the two pieces and was performing them in Viennese coffee houses when he was discovered. It was Alexander Korda, the aggressive producer, who insisted that Karas music be used. I have read somewhere that Director Carol Reed and Screenwriter Graham Greene hated it, feeling that "less would be more."
Certainly, the music, as it was promoted, made almost as much as the picture when THE THIRD MAN was released in 1949. Because it was a largely a British production sponsored by David O. Selznick ("one of them pictures where the people talk funny," as a college acquaintance said at the time), it had a relatively limited first release in America. (I saw it at the one theater in Cleveland that showed any foreign films at all then.)
The 45 rpm record, however, was heard and bought by people all over Western Europe and America. Anton Karas became a celebrity on early TV, and the zither, for a time, was elevated to a major instrument.
I like the theme. I remember it's jagged use a couple of times in THE THIRD MAN (the introduction of Harry Lime, for instance), it certainly evokes Postwar Europe, but the score, as a whole, does not make my list. Sorry.
But thank you, Neal, for your thought provoking question.
Regards.
[Macresarf1]
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Aug 06 '02
10:58 am PDT
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Comment (Reply to this comment)
by weirdo_87
Don't worry, this one will be straight to the point, unlike my comments on "Citizen Kane".
Great work, as always. Your background knowledge amazes me. Thanks to you, I now have some items to get like the movie "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" and the music score to "The Magnificent Ambersons".
But, just one little question: Was Anton Karas' zither score to "The Third Man" one of the ones you couldn't find a place for? Surely, few who have seen the movie have easily forgotten that infectious, eerie main theme.
Take care,
Weirdo_87 (You can also call me Neal).
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Aug 05 '02
10:24 am PDT
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Re: Bravo, Maestro Macresarf! (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Thank you, grouch. Yes, I have that Salonen recording: "Bernard Herrmann -- The Film Scores."
I'm glad we share these tastes, too.
[Macresarf1]
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Oct 02 '00
12:49 pm PDT
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Re: I know (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Dear ssjulia: I prefer John Williams' scores for JFK and NIXON to his STAR WARS. The March is famous, of course, but, for me, it is too obviously a parody.
I can not remember the score to THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR. (That may be a good sign -- I just remember that circling camera in the love scene).
The score for PULP FICTION is good. Why have we not heard more from Sekula?
Thank you for making me think.
[Macresarf1]
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Jun 17 '00
1:15 pm PDT
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Re: Bravo, Maestro Macresarf! (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Yes, Grouch, I agree. The CD is simply called THE FILM SCORES. I have it and enjoy it. However, if you have not come across the complete score of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, please find it. It is, I believe, a major work in film and music history.
I always enjoy your comments.
[Macresarf1]
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May 04 '00
11:23 am PDT
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Bravo! (Reply to this comment)
by guy_des_rosiers
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Apr 25 '00
8:05 pm PDT
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I know (Reply to this comment)
by zzJulia
you were striving for the best of best here, but I offer two modern tracks that I think have managed to escape the pop craze - The Thomas Crowne Affair and Pulp Fiction.
Great review,
Juls
ps - Where's Star Wars? :)
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Apr 15 '00
1:01 am PDT
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Bravo, Maestro Macresarf! (Reply to this comment)
by Grouch
I applaud you heartily for purposefully ignoring what the industry laughably calls "soundtracks" these days--really just poor, pitiful excuses to slap together pop tunes in a callous marketing ploy.
I much prefer "scores" by most of the composers you mention here...and then some.
I'm sure you've heard it, but a great recording of Hermann's work was conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the L.A. Philharmonic a few years back. In fact, you've put me so much in the mood, I'm gonna put it in the CD player right now.
Again, I say, Bravo for this list!!
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Apr 15 '00
12:38 am PDT
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Re: Ah, McCabe and Mrs. Miller... (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Dear juliette: CHINATOWN is the last one I eliminated. Let's see, if I went back . . . 1z. CHINATOWN. I'll think about it. Great score by Jerry Goldsmith (again!), and I was just listening to it the other night, edging up to doing a review of the Movie.
Thank you for the incentive.
[Macresarf1]
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Apr 12 '00
9:11 pm PDT
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Ah, McCabe and Mrs. Miller... (Reply to this comment)
by juliette
and then there's "Chinatown"
Great review. Thanks.
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Apr 12 '00
12:37 pm PDT
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Re: You Had to Fudge A Little? (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Thank YOU!
[Macresarf1]
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Apr 11 '00
1:33 pm PDT
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You Had to Fudge A Little? (Reply to this comment)
by DAnneC
My friend, you've got the whole darn candy shop! Well done, nonetheless. Thank you for the care and thought.
--DAnneC
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Apr 11 '00
7:28 am PDT
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Re: Geepers! (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Dear singsaw: I did not include one for Ennio Morricone or his colleagues because I welcomed the move toward realistic Westerns, harbinged by Altman's McCABE AND MRS MILLER (1971), while the Italians were going crazy stylizing the Western even more. I did consider Morricone's score for DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978).
Thank you for commenting. I'm just a new boy on the soundtrack block.
[Macresarf1]
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Apr 09 '00
6:34 pm PDT
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Geepers! (Reply to this comment)
by singsaw
Aweeee, but you left out my most favorite soundtrack! Uh oh Spagetti o's....
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Apr 09 '00
2:49 am PDT
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