"I don’t tend to complain much when movies feature inspirational musical scores, but the score of “Harriet,” written by the jazz composer Terence Blanchard, has a surprisingly standard Jerry Goldsmith-meets-Aaron-Copland blandness that keeps getting in the way of what we’re watching. There are too many scenes where the music is asked to do the movie’s work for it: to create a rush of emotion, when the scenes, as written, should be doing that on their own."
Yes, GOD FORBID film music actually sound like music and add pesky emotion to a scene.
Monterey Jack wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2019 11:45 pm
Yes, GOD FORBID film music actually sound like music and add pesky emotion to a scene.
I've often found that when a movie is not working for a critic, they start picking at the score. If the script and acting isn't good, the score might help a little -- but it can't save the picture.
I'll never forget what Basil Poledouris once said when I was interviewing him -- "Music never sounds as good as it does on a really good movie".
Everyone loves the score for Titanic. No one cares about the score for Krull.
AndyDursin wrote: ↑Fri Sep 27, 2019 1:17 pm
Gleiberman has become a real bitch. Sorry, I had to say it.
Sadly, you're right...since EW canned him five years ago and he started writing for Variety, he's become something of a pill, jamming political rhetoric into reviews left and right. I still respect his skills as a writer, but I find myself disagreeing with his opinions a lot more these days, even on films we both like!
Paul MacLean wrote: ↑Fri Sep 27, 2019 12:20 pm
I've often found that when a movie is not working for a critic, they start picking at the score. If the script and acting isn't good, the score might help a little -- but it can't save the picture.
I'll never forget what Basil Poledouris once said when I was interviewing him -- "Music never sounds as good as it does on a really good movie".
Reminds me of Lukas using the example of how one magazine praised "James Horner's rousing music" for Apollo 13 in the summer of '95...then, a few weeks later, referred to Jerry Goldsmith's score to First Knight as "thunderingly banal". The difference being that Apollo 13 was roundly embraced as a film by critics, while First Knight was met by collective shrugs by critics and audiences. But I know for sure I'd rather listen to First Knight on CD than Apollo 13.
Not me! That's a YMMV situation and I'd totally disagree with Lukas. FIRST KNIGHT is one of Jerry's most painfully pedestrian scores of the 90s IMO. Bleeech. I definitely like APOLLO 13, though I never did get around to buying the Intrada release.
Apollo 13 might as well have come off of a library CD entitled "generic uplifting music". There's not a note of it that hasn't appeared in other, much better Horner scores.
You can say whatever you want about APOLLO 13 (and we all have already lol) but the score works incredibly well in the movie, and sorry Lukas, was more than deserving of its praise from critics. (Lukas also thought BRAVEHEART sucked too -- and he was wrong about that also).
There is nothing good I can say about FIRST KNIGHT -- a truly geriatric Jerry score. Labored and lifeless. FIRST KNIGHT is one of those formula 90s scores that some people think is a great orchestral score, simply because it IS a big orchestral score...but it's as uninspired as the film itself. IMO one of Jerry's biggest disappointments of the decade given the material. TIMELINE, THE 13TH WARRIOR have a lot more going on in them, and I felt unmoved by the romantic component of FIRST KNIGHT also.
But this speaks to what I've said before -- that some FSM staffers would prop up something as mediocre as FIRST KNIGHT while bashing Horner pretty much speaks to the personal agenda that was being driven at the time of the mag's publication. It went on in many issues and became ridiculous -- especially by the time APOLLO 13 and especially BRAVEHEART and TITANIC came out, ushering in a string of really wonderful Horner scores that were so far above the drivel Goldsmith was mostly turning out by then. It was juvenile then and is even more transparently so today when you actually look at the body, and quality, of Horner's work as the 90s progressed.
“Chariots of Fire,” of course, had its Vangelis synthesizer score to lend the stiff-upper-lip track races a gliding-in-time modernist sheen. “The Boys in the Boat” has a musical score, by Alexandre Desplat, that’s thick with traditional cornball valor.
Naturally, this was one of the three or four scores from a 2023 movie I would ever want to listen to outside of the movie.
Going back to your original post tho, I've since seen Harriet, and have to admit that Blanchard's score did not serve the dramatic interests of the film very well, and was its weakest link. However, Gleiberman's description of the score as "Jerry Goldsmith-meets-Aaron-Copland" was way-off base. No offense to Blanchard but I wish it was that good.
As far as The Boys in the Boat, I haven't heard it, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt -- but I've yet to hear a score from Desplat I've found satisfactory.
I still respect his skills as a writer, but I find myself disagreeing with his opinions a lot more these days, even on films we both like!