Archive
SLEEPERS – John Williams
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Sleepers is a dark crime drama directed by Barry Levinson, adapted by Levinson from Lorenzo Carcaterra’s controversial 1995 book of the same name. Set initially in 1960s Hell’s Kitchen, New York, the story follows four inseparable boys whose lives are destroyed after a foolish prank involving a stolen hot-dog cart ends with a man being badly injured. Sent to the Wilkinson Home for Boys, they are subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse by several guards, led by the sadistic Sean Nokes. Years later, two of the boys – now hardened criminals – unexpectedly encounter Nokes and kill him, setting in motion an elaborate scheme involving their childhood friends to manipulate the subsequent murder trial and finally exact revenge on the men who tormented them. Read more…
STAR WARS: GALACTIC RACER – Gordy Haab
GAME ZONE REVIEW
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the most exciting things about the continued expansion of the Star Wars universe into video games is the opportunity it gives composers to revisit the magnificent orchestral traditions established by John Williams, while simultaneously finding new ways of expressing the musical personality of George Lucas’s galaxy far, far away. Star Wars: Galactic Racer is a particularly enjoyable example of this, an exhilarating racing game that combines the thrill of the podracing sequences from The Phantom Menace with the high-speed action of contemporary arcade racers. Read more…
NEW WOMEN – Er Nie
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Director Cai Chusheng along with much of the Shanghai movie industry, was rocked by the suicide of star actress and writer Ai Xia in 1934. Ai Xia took her own life after being relentlessly hounded, hunted, and scrutinized by a predatory tabloid press prying into and exposing her personal life. Cai Chusheng decided something had to be done and so committed for his next project to take on “fùnü wèntí” (The Woman Question) with a dramatic narrative, which exposed the pernicious perils of stardom, with an unflinching critique of traditional gender roles, and the commodification of independent women by the media. United Photoplay Service agreed to finance the project and Luo Mingyou would manage production, Cai would direct and Sun Shiyi would write the screenplay. For the cast, Ruan Lingyu would star as Wei Ming, joined by Wang Naidong as Dr. Wang and Zheng Junli as Yu Haichou. Read more…
MICHAEL COLLINS – Elliot Goldenthal
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Michael Collins is director Neil Jordan’s sweeping historical drama about one of the most important and controversial figures in the Irish struggle for independence. Liam Neeson plays Collins, who emerged from the failed Easter Rising of 1916 to become one of the principal architects of the Irish revolutionary movement, eventually serving as Minister for Finance in the underground Dáil government and as Director of Intelligence for what would eventually become the Irish Republican Army. Collins was a key strategist in the guerrilla campaign against British rule, but he later became one of the principal negotiators of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, which established the Irish Free State while leaving Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. The treaty split the republican movement, led directly to the Irish Civil War, and ultimately placed Collins in opposition to many of his former comrades; he was eventually killed in an ambush in County Cork in August 1922. Read more…
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY – Roger Goula
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
There are few authors whose works have proved quite as enduringly popular with filmmakers as Jane Austen. For decades her novels have provided the basis for some of the most beloved period dramas in cinema, from the multiple adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Emma to Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and of course Sense and Sensibility. The latter was most famously adapted for the screen in 1995 by director Ang Lee, with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, and Alan Rickman starring in a film which won enormous critical acclaim and an Academy Award for Thompson’s screenplay. That version also boasted a magnificent Oscar-nominated score by Patrick Doyle, which remains one of the great romantic film scores of the 1990s. Subsequent adaptations have included an acclaimed 2008 BBC television version, but the story now returns to cinemas in a new production directed by British filmmaker Georgia Oakley. Read more…
THE BIG ROAD – Er Nie, Guang Ren
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Following the completion of the woman’s sports film Ti Yu Huang Hou in 1934, director Sun Yu decided that he wanted to contribute to the “National Defense Cinema” movement with a film, which showcased cinema stars actress Li Lili and actor Jin Yan. He conceived using the metaphor of ordinary citizens building a military highway to symbolize collective resistance against imperialist invaders. Challenges arose because the Nationalist Kuomintang government enforced strict censorship policies to avoid directly provoking Japan. As such Sun Yu cleverly substituted explicit references to Japan with generalized patriotic struggles of “weak nations” against an unnamed enemy. He secured funding from Lianhua Film Company, Lu Jie and Lo Ming Yau would oversee production, and Sun Yu would direct and write the screenplay. A stellar cast was assembled led by Jin Yan as Brother Jin, Li Lili as Jasmine, joined by Luo Peng as Little Luo, Zheng Junli as Zheng Jun, Chen Yen-Yen as Ding Xiang (Orchid) and Han Langen as Little Six. Read more…
THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Ghost and the Darkness is a historical adventure film directed by Stephen Hopkins and written by William Goldman. The film is set during the construction of a railway bridge in Tsavo, Kenya, in 1898, amid the Scramble for Africa, when a number of European powers colonized the continent. Val Kilmer stars as Irish engineer John Patterson, who arrives in Kenya determined to finish the job, only to find his workers terrorized by two man-eating lions. Michael Douglas plays Charles Remington, the experienced hunter brought in to help Patterson stop them. John Kani appears as Samuel, Patterson’s trusted colleague, while Tom Wilkinson plays the railway official Beaumont. Hopkins, whose earlier films included Predator 2 and Blown Away, turns the attacks into a mixture of old-fashioned adventure and creature-feature suspense. Read more…
DEEP IN THE HEART 2: TEXAS RIVERS – Noah Sorota
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Last year I wrote a review of the score for the nature documentary The American Southwest, composed by Noah Sorota. I described it as “awash in gorgeous melodic passages, expressive instrumental colors, and deep emotional content,” noted that it was “a series of interconnected vignettes that tell the stories of the creatures that inhabit a spectacular natural location,” and described the music as “sweeping and exhilarating, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes amusing and quirky, and sometimes darkly dynamic, but always captivating, engaging, and hugely enjoyable.” I could almost write the same review for Deep in the Heart 2: Texas Rivers, another feature documentary with music by Sorota that absolutely knocked my socks off. Read more…
CHAPAEV – Gavriil Popov
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Chapaev was commissioned by the Chief Directorate of the Film and Photo Industry as a propaganda tool to establish a relatable, mythological hero to champion the working class. In the early 1930s, the Soviet government was heavily promoting Socialist Realism, an artistic mandate, that required art to reflect both the realities and the ideological goals of the Communist state. As such, they created a unifying, accessible “people’s hero” in the person of Vasily Chapayev, a charismatic, self-educated peasant commander, who fought valiantly for the Red Army against the loyalist Whites during the Russian Civil War. Lenfilm would manage production, Georgi Vasilyev and Sergei Vasilyev would co-direct, and write the screenplay based on the 1923 novel Chapaev by Dmitry Furmanov. For the cast, Boris Babochkin would star as Vasily Chapaev, joined by Boris Blinov as Dmitry Furmanov, Vavara Myasnikova as Anka, and Leonid Knit as Petka. Read more…
BOUND – Don Davis
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Bound is a neo-noir crime thriller written and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski in what was their feature directing debut and, in retrospect, the first clear sign of the visual confidence that would explode three years later in The Matrix. Gina Gershon stars as Corky, an ex-con renovating an apartment next door to Violet (Jennifer Tilly), the glamorous girlfriend of volatile mob money-launderer Caesar (Joe Pantoliano). Corky and Violet begin an intense affair and devise a plan to steal $2 million in Mafia cash and run away together, framing Caesar in the process; naturally, almost nothing proceeds as intended, and the film turns confined spaces, shifting loyalties, sexuality, and escalating panic into a wonderfully controlled pressure cooker of a movie. Read more…
VERITY – Volker Bertelmann
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Verity is a glossy, sinister psychological erotic thriller adapted from Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2018 novel, directed by Michael Showalter from a screenplay by Nick Antosca. Dakota Johnson stars as Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer who is hired to complete the unfinished books of celebrated novelist Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) after a devastating accident leaves Verity incapacitated. Lowen relocates to the Crawford family’s isolated home, where she becomes increasingly entangled with Verity’s husband Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), while uncovering a manuscript that suggests the family’s tragedies may have much darker origins. Read more…
George Fenton, 1949-2026
Composer George Fenton died unexpectedly in London on October 5, 2026, at the age of 76.
One of Britain’s most distinguished composers for film and television, Fenton enjoyed a career spanning more than five decades, earning five Academy Award nominations for Gandhi, Cry Freedom, Dangerous Liaisons and The Fisher King. He was equally celebrated for his spectacular music for David Attenborough’s natural-history documentaries, including The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and Frozen Planet.
George Richard Ian Howe was born in Bromley, Kent, on October 19, 1949. His parents were both musical, although neither pursued music professionally, and he initially considered a career as an actor. In 1968 he appeared in Alan Bennett’s first West End Play, Forty Years On, alongside Sir John Gielgud, adopting his mother’s maiden name Fenton as a stage name because another performer was already registered with Equity under the name George Howe. Later he had a semi-regular recurring part on the soap opera Emmerdale Farm beginning in 1975.
Fenton’s early music career was rooted in the theatre. He began writing extensively for director Peter Gill and the Royal Shakespeare Company during the 1970s, while also composing for television. His early successes included The Jewel in the Crown, The Monocled Mutineer, Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, and the theme tunes for popular TV shows such as Shoestring and Bergerac. He also wrote familiar themes for BBC news programmes and became one of the most versatile composers working in British television. Read more…
LILIOM – Franz Waxman, Jean Lenoir
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The escalation in persecuting Jews, and Josef Goebbels banning his latest film “The Testament of Dr. Mabuse” elicited director Fritz Lang to flee Nazi Germany (he was half-Jewish) for Paris in 1933. He was warmly received by fellow émigré, producer Erich Pommer of Fox-Europa. Pommer was a legend of the German film industry who produced Lang’s film “Metropolis” (1927), and so he offered him to direct “Liliom”, a film that would adapt Ferenc Molnár’s 1909 stage play. Lang was renowned for his dark and futuristic epics, relished a departure to making a romantic fantasy and happily agreed. It would be the only French language film of his career, as he soon would depart for Hollywood. Pommer would personally manage production and Robert Liebmann and Bernard Zimmer would adapt the play, and write the screenplay. For the cast, Madeleine Ozeray would star as Juli/Her daughter with Liliom, Charles Boyer would join as Liliom, Pierre Alcover as Alfred, Maximillienne as Madame Menoux and Florelle as Madame Moscat. Read more…
THE FIRST WIVES CLUB – Marc Shaiman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The First Wives Club is a comedy-drama film directed by Hugh Wilson, adapted by Robert Harling from Olivia Goldsmith’s bestselling novel. It stars Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton as Brenda, Elise, and Annie, three college friends reunited by the death of a fourth member of their old circle, Cynthia. Each has reached middle age only to discover that the husband she helped support has left her, betrayed her, or traded her in for someone younger. Their grief and anger become a plan: expose the men’s hypocrisies, hit them where it hurts, and reclaim the confidence they have lost. The film has an astonishing supporting cast, including Stockard Channing and Maggie Smith, Dan Hedaya, Victor Garber, and Stephen Collins as the philandering husbands, and Sarah Jessica Parker and Elizabeth Berkley as two of the younger women the husbands leave their wives for, plus Marcia Gay Harden, Rob Reiner, a young Timothy Olyphant, and various real-life New York feminist icons and socialites playing themselves. Read more…
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