SHAZAM: FURY OF THE GODS – Christophe Beck
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The 2019 superhero film Shazam remains, for me, the best entry into the DC Extended Universe to date. At the time, I wrote that “its playful tone is a far cry from the grim seriousness of the previous Ben Affleck Batman and Henry Cavill Superman movies, it’s much more intelligent and nuanced than Aquaman, and the less said about Suicide Squad the better. What I love about it the most is how it captures the excitement and eagerness of how an actual kid would behave when given super powers, and much of that is down to Zachary Levi’s central performance, which appears to me to be a combination of Christopher Reeve and Tom Hanks from Big.” Unfortunately the response to this sequel, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, has been less effusive, with some critics calling it “more unfocused and less satisfying than its predecessor,” despite it still retaining much of the source material’s “silly charm”. The film again stars Levi as 17-year old Billy Batson, who transforms into a super hero when he utters the titular magic word; this time, Billy/Shazam finds himself in conflict with the three daughters of the Titan Atlas, played by Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler, who want to re-claim the staff that gives Shazam his power, saying it was stolen from them eons ago. Read more…
THE MAGNIFICENT YANKEE – David Raksin
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1949 MGM studio executives were seeking a biopic of a famous American for their next film. They decided that the 1946 play The Magnificent Yankee by Emmet Lavery, which had a Broadway theatrical run of 159 performances would be their choice. Armand Deutsch was placed in charge of production with a $1.03 million budget, Emmet Lavery was hired to adapt his play for the film, and John Sturges was tasked with directing. Veteran stage and screen actor Louis Calhern was cast as Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Joining him would be Ann Harding as Fanny Bowditch Holmes, Eduard Franz as Justice Louis Brandeis, and Philip Ober as Owen Wister. Read more…
SWING KIDS – James Horner
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Swing Kids is an interesting exploration of a sub-culture that existed in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s. These so-called ‘swingjugend’ were groups of 14- to 21-year-old Germans, mostly middle or upper-class students, who admired the “American way of life” and rebelled against the government by gathering in underground nightclubs in Hamburg and Berlin, and listening to and dancing to swing music – an activity that the Hitler Youth of the National Socialist Party hated, and tried to suppress. The film follows the fortunes of one such group of youths, who grow up surrounded by intolerance and violence, and find the ‘swingjugend’ movement to be a welcome distraction, until the ramifications of their action begins to impact their daily lives. The film is directed by Thomas Carter, stars Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, Frank Whaley, and Barbara Hershey, with an uncredited Kenneth Branagh in especially fine as an unexpectedly sympathetic Nazi SS-Sturmbannführer. Read more…
SHADOW OF THE WOLF – Maurice Jarre
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Shadow of the Wolf is a French-Canadian action adventure film directed by Jacques Dorfmann and Pierre Magny, set in the snowy wastes of the Arctic in the 1930s. The film stars Lou Diamond Phillips as Agaguk, an Inuit warrior who has a violent hatred for the white men encroaching on his territory. A series of incidents leads to Agaguk being banished by his shaman father, and he is forced to live in isolation in the most inhospitable parts of northern Quebec with his wife Igiyook. Things get worse for Agaguk when he gets into an altercation with, and accidentally kills, a white fur trader, an incident which brings the might of the Canadian police to bear on his tribal home. The rest of the story intends to be a serious exploration of themes related to the culture clash between white men and the Inuit, dressed up with an action-adventure police manhunt plot, but unfortunately it was hamstrung by terrible dialogue, poor acting performances, and a screenplay that erased all the nuance and subtlety of Yves Theriault’s acclaimed original novel. At the time the film was the most expensive Canadian film ever made, but it sank without a trace at the box office, and is mostly forgotten today. Read more…
WILD ISLES – George Fenton
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
For almost 70 years the BBC Natural History Unit has been, in my opinion, the world leader in making nature documentaries. Although it had been making smaller-scale programmes for quite some time, it was the groundbreaking 1979 series Life on Earth that truly cemented its reputation; further entries such as The Living Planet in 1984, The Trials of Life in 1990, and Life in the Freezer in 1993 built on this success, and then more recent things like Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Africa, Life, and their various sequels, have showcased the NHU’s spectacular wildlife footage to millions worldwide. However, despite how majestic and awe-inspiring these massive shows are – and they are tremendous – I have always enjoyed their smaller scale examinations of British nature and found them to be equally rewarding; Wild Isles is one of those. Read more…
THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO – Bernard Herrmann
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1948 20th Century Studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck made the business decision to adapt another of Ernest Hemingway’s novels for the big screen, The Snows of Kilimanjaro from 1936. He purchased the film rights for a hefty $125,000 and personally took charge of production, allocating a budget of $3.0 million. Casey Robinson was hired to write the screenplay and veteran Henry King was tasked with directing. Zanuck had already decided that Gregory Peck would star as Harry Street, with Ava Gardner playing Cynthia Green. Joining them would be Susan Hayward as Helen, and Hildegard Knef as Countess Elizabeth. Read more…
Academy Award Winners 2022
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the winners of the 95th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2022.
In the Best Original Score category composer Volker Bertelmann won the award for his score for the new version of the classic anti-war story All Quiet on the Western Front, based on the all-time great novel by Erich Maria Remarque. In accepting his award, Bertelmann said:
“Well, thank you so much, thanks to the Academy for this huge recognition. When I was working on the film I was thinking a couple of times of my mom, because she was telling me, every now and then, when you want to change humanity and empathy in the world, you have to start by yourself and with your own surroundings, because you learn by that and you can show actually where we all – how we all can live together. So, you know, by working on a film like that you always are deeply touched and sometimes you have to make the screen very small because there are so much explosions happening. I want to say thank you to my wife, Elizabeth, and my kids up there, Lotte, Paulina, and Lucas. To Malthe Grunert and Edward Berger, and the whole cast and crew, for their amazing craftsmanship. To Netflix for their huge support. And to my fellow nominees, Carter, John, Justin, Son Lux, that I can be a part of such a unique, human, and diverse group of talented composers, that’s for me a big gift. And last but not least I want to thank all of you, for this wonderful evening. Thank you so much!
The other nominees were Carter Burwell for The Banshees of Inisherin, Justin Hurwitz for Babylon, Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia, and Ian Chang (Son Lux) for Everything Everywhere All at Once, and John Williams or The Fabelmans.
In the Best Original Song category, the winners were M. M. Keeravani and Kanukuntla Subhash Chandrabose for “Naatu Naatu” from the smash hit Bollywood movie RRR.
The other nominees were Stephanie Germanotta (Lady Gaga) and Michael Tucker (Bloodpop) for “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, Ryan Lott, David Byrne, and Mituski Miyawaki (Mitski) for “This Is A Life” from Everything Everywhere All At Once, Temilade Openiyi (Tems), Robyn Rihanna Fenty, Ryan Coogler, and Ludwig Göransson for “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Diane Warren for “Applause” from Tell It Like A Woman.
ARMY OF DARKNESS – Joseph Lo Duca
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Army of Darkness is the third instalment of director Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series, and is a direct continuation of the story of 1987’s Evil Dead II. The plot of that film saw its protagonist, Ash, inadvertently summon a demon after reading passages from an ancient ‘book of the dead’. His girlfriend Linda is possessed by the demon, and attacks him, and in the ensuing battle he has his hand severed at the wrist with a chainsaw. Eventually Ash is able to defeat the demon, but in doing so he accidentally opens a temporal vortex to the Middle Ages, through which he and his car are transported. Army of Darkness follows the story from that point on, as Ash enlists the help of a medieval lord, falls in love with the lord’s daughter, and has to search for another version of the ‘book of the dead’ that will allow him to return home – all while battling more demonic ‘deadites’. The film starred Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, and Marcus Gilbert, and was a moderate commercial success, but unfortunately was not well-liked by critics, many of whom were disappointed with its campier, less horrific tone. It ultimately ended the Evil Dead franchise for more than 20 years, until it was resurrected and rebooted by director Fede Álvarez in 2013. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2023, Part 1
I’m pleased to present the latest instalment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world. This article, the first of 2023, covers five scores for projects from all around the world that especially impressed me during the opening months of the year. The scores include a trio from France – two children’s adventures and a broad comedy – plus another children’s adventure from Finland, and a serious historical epic from Japan. Read more…
THE MIRACLE OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA – Max Steiner
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
It had been eight years since the commercial and critical success of 20th Century Fox’s religious themed film The Song of Bernadette. Warner Brothers Studios executives decided that they wanted to explore the genre and decided that a similar tale, The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, would accomplish that end. Their resident producer Bryan Foy was assigned the project, James O’Hanlon and Crane Wilbur were hired to write the screenplay, and John Brahm was tasked with directing. A trio of children were hired to play the roles of the child witnesses of the vision; Susan Whitney as Lúcia dos Santos, Sherry Jackson as Jacinta Marto and Sammy Ogg as Francisco Marto. Joining them would be Gilbert Roland as Hugo de Silva, Angela Clarke as Maria Rosa de Silva, and Richard Hale as Father Ferreira. Read more…
SOMMERSBY – Danny Elfman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Sommersby is an English-language adaptation of the 1982 French film Le Retour de Martin Guerre, which was itself based on a real-life event that happened in the 16th century. The film was written by Nicholas Meyer, Sarah Kernochan, and Anthony Shaffer, and was directed by Jon Amiel; it transposes the story from medieval France to post-Civil War Tennessee, and stars Richard Gere as Jack Sommersby, a man who returns home from the conflict, six years after he was presumed dead. Jack’s ‘widow’ Laurel (Jodie Foster) has already moved on, and is planning to marry farmer Orin Meacham (Bill Pullman), but Jack’s return home throws her life into turmoil – not least because Jack appears to be a changed man, and is no longer the unpleasant and abusive husband he was when he left. As time goes on, Jack proves to be a hugely positive force for the community, and Laurel begins to fall in love with him again, but something in the back of her mind keeps nagging at her, and she has doubts as to whether the new and improved Jack really is who he says he is – doubts which become stronger when men from Jack’s past appear, and accuse him of murder. Read more…
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT – Volker Bertelmann
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The 1929 German-language novel Im Westen Nichts Neues – known in English as All Quiet on the Western Front – by Erich Maria Remarque is one of the most important anti-war novels ever written. It tells the semi-autobiographical story of Remarque’s own experiences fighting in the trenches of western Europe during World War I, and follows a young soldier named Paul Bäumer, who over the course of the book is transformed from an eager and enthusiastic patriot fighting for the glory of the vaterland, into a bitter, broken shell of a man, utterly devastated by the physical and mental anguish of war. It touches on several important themes, ranging from explorations of nationalism and blind patriotism, to the futility of war itself, especially the trench warfare of WWI where literally millions of soldiers, on both sides of the conflict, were slaughtered while trying to gain little more than a few yards of ground. The book was banned and burned in Nazi Germany, naturally, but has since become regarded as a modern classic, and is now one of the most revered pieces of German-language literature. Read more…
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN – Lennie Hayton, Nacio Herb Brown, and Arthur Freed
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
MGM Studios Director of Musicals Arthur Freed conceived of a new film that would be based on a catalogue of unused songs written by him and Nacio Herb Brown during the waning days of the Silent Film Age. The musical would be set during this time and feature dance legend Gene Kelly. Freed assumed control of production with a budget that eventually tapped out at $2.54 million. Gene Kelly was given creative control of the film and would not only direct and choreograph, but also star. Adolph Green and Betty Comden were hired to write the screenplay. The cast would consist with Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood, Debbie Reynolds as Kathy Selden, Donald O’Connor as Cosmo Brown, Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont, Millard Mitchell as R. F. Simpson and Cyd Charisse as the vamp. Read more…
GROUNDHOG DAY – George Fenton
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the best – and, with the benefit of hindsight, most influential and enduring – comedies of the early 1990s was Groundhog Day. Written by Danny Rubin and directed by Harold Ramis, the film stars Bill Murray as cynical television weatherman Phil Connors. Phil is sent to the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the local Groundhog Day festivities, along with his producer Rita Hanson (Andie MacDowell) and cameraman Larry (Chris Elliott); however, after completing a perfunctory report, the crew is stranded in town by an unexpected blizzard, and is forced to spend the night in a local inn. The following morning, when Phil wakes up, he soon realizes that it is Groundhog Day again – he has somehow become trapped in a time loop, and is forced to relive the same day over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over… Read more…
IFMCA Award Winners 2022
INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2022 IFMCA AWARDS
BEAR MCCREARY WINS SCORE OF THE YEAR FOR EPIC TV SERIES THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER; ALSO NAMED COMPOSER OF THE YEAR, WINS TWO OTHER AWARDS. SIMON FRANGLEN WINS TWO AWARDS FOR WORK ON AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. DOCUMENTARY TRIBUTE TO LATE ENNIO MORRICONE HONORED WITH SPECIAL AWARD
FEBRUARY 23, 2023 — The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of winners for excellence in musical scoring in 2022, in the 2022 IFMCA Awards.
The award for Score of the Year goes to American composer Bear McCreary, for his score for the epic Amazon Prime television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series, which has a main theme by composer Howard Shore, is based on the extended writings of author J.R.R. Tolkien, and looks at events that took place in Middle Earth millennia before those portrayed in director Peter Jackson’s massively successful and popular Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films.
IFMCA member James Southall called The Rings of Power “a real triumph, undoubtedly McCreary’s own career-defining moment,” and IFMCA member Conrado Xalabarder said that the score was “one of the best in the history of music for television series … a work made from intelligence, commitment, and above all respect for Tolkien and the audience. All its central themes work impeccably, coherently, and they develop and interact with each other, creating first-rate narration and dramaturgy.” IFMCA member Jon Broxton similarly praised the score, saying “the level of research and intelligent design McCreary has done in terms of creating the musical structure of The Rings of Power is absolutely astonishing, and is probably unparalleled in the history of television music.”
This marks the first time a score written for television has been named Score of the Year by the IFMCA. The rules were changed earlier in 2022 to allow television and video game scores to compete alongside films for the top award. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is also named Best Original Score for Television, while McCreary himself is named Composer of the Year, his first win in this category. McCreary’s other work in 2022 included the animated comedy Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, which is a re-imagining of the classic 1970s comedy Blazing Saddles; the epic video game God of War: Ragnarök (which also won the award for Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media); and continuing contributions to the most recent seasons of TV series such as Outlander, See, The Serpent Queen, The Walking Dead, and The Witcher: Blood Origin. These are the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth IFMCA Awards of McCreary’s career. Read more…
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