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THE RAINS CAME – Alfred Newman
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Darryl F. Zanuck 20th Century Fox Studios vice-president of production came upon the 1937 novel The Rains Came by Louis Bromfield and decided its story of redemption set in India would translate well to the big screen. He purchased the film rights, assumed oversight of production with a budget of $2.5 million, tasked Clarence Brown with directing, and hired Philip Dunne and Julien Josephson to write the screenplay. For his cast, Myrna Loy would star as Lady Edwina Esketh, with Tyronne Power as Major Rama Safti, George Brent as Tom Ransome, Brenda Joyce as Fern Simon, Nigel Bruce as Lord Albert Esketh and Maria Ouspenskaya as Maharani. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2023, Part 7
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
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 seventh of 2023, covers five scores from across genres and countries: a documentary about female conductors, an animated short film in the classic Disney style, a Spanish romantic comedy, a French political comedy, and a bloody horror film about sloths on the rampage!
PHILADELPHIA – Howard Shore
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
In terms of its subject matter and how it relates to the social issues of the time it was released, Philadelphia is one of the most important films ever made. It was released in the winter of 1993 and, at the time, it quickly became notable for being one of the first mainstream Hollywood films not only to explicitly address both the HIV/AIDS crisis and the then-prevalent societal homophobia, but also to portray gay people in any sort of positive light. The film stars Tom Hanks as attorney Andrew Beckett, a senior associate at the largest corporate law firm in Philadelphia. In order to maintain his career, Beckett conceals his homosexuality and his status as an AIDS patient from others in the office, but eventually his symptoms become too obvious to ignore. However, rather than treat him with sympathy, Beckett is summarily fired by his bigoted boss Charles Wheeler (Jason Robards). Refusing to accept this, Beckett seeks out personal injury attorney Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) to help him sue his former employers, which requires Miller to overcome his own latent prejudice and homophobia. Read more…
THE PIPER – Christopher Young
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
There’s a concept in film music, which doesn’t have a name, in which a film’s score is so much better and more technically accomplished than the film it accompanies, that you wonder how the two things go together at all. It has happened so many times over the years; some composers spend essentially their entire careers stuck in this world, writing astonishingly brilliant music for a series of less-than-stellar films, such that the composer in question never receives the accolades or acknowledgement that their musical talent actually merits. The Piper, by Christopher Young, is one of these. The film is a somewhat gruesome horror film loosely based on the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, which was subsequently turned into a folklore story by the Brothers Grimm. This film is directed by Icelandic filmmaker Erlingur Óttar Thoroddsen and stars Charlotte Hope, Oliver Savell, and the late Julian Sands in what would turn out to be his last film prior to his tragic death on Mount Baldy in California a year ago. The plot on IMDB reads: ‘when a composer is tasked with finishing her late mentor’s concerto, she soon discovers that playing the music summons deadly consequences, leading her to uncover the disturbing origins of the melody and an evil that has awakened.’ Read more…
MACARTHUR – Jerry Goldsmith
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The genesis of Macarthur lay with Frank McCarthy, who served as aide to General George C. Marshall during WWII. McCarthy became a producer at 20th Century Fox Studios in 1949. He was a supreme patriot, and he sought to extol some of America’s greatest generals of WWII. His first project was the biopic Patton in 1970, which explored the life of the brilliant, irrepressible, and profane general of the 3rd Army. Following the great success of the film he selected his next project, a biopic of another iconic, brilliant and rebellious general, Douglas MacArthur. Casting and production challenges derailed McCarthy, but he rebounded and found backing from Universal Studios. He was placed in charge of production with a small $16 million budget, Joseph Sargent was tasked with directing, with Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins hired to write the screenplay. For the cast, the titular role was turned down by George C. Scott and Marlon Brando, and Sargent eventually recruited Gregory Peck. Joining him would be Ed Flanders as President Harry S. Truman, Dan O’Herlihy as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ivan Bonar as Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, Ward Costello as General C. Marshall, and Marj Dusay as Jean MacArthur. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2023, Part 6
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
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 sixth of 2023, covers five scores from five very different projects from Japanese film and television, plus a delightful Christmas score from Norway.
TOMBSTONE – Bruce Broughton
THROWBACK THIRTY
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Very few events in the colorful and sometimes fanciful history of the American West capture the imagination like the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The event did take place, in the boom town of Tombstone, Arizona, on October 26, 1881, and it did see the brothers Virgil, Morgan, and Wyatt Earp, plus their friend Doc Holliday, shooting it out with a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys, led by Ike Clanton. The real gunfight lasted just seconds, resulted in the deaths of three Cowboys, and was probably no different from many of the other gunfights that were regular occurrences in the old west. However, for some reason, the Gunfight, the story of the Earp family, and the subsequent Earp Vendetta Ride, have become near-mythical events in the romantic history of the period. Tombstone was at least the eighth film to depict these events on the silver screen, after such legendary western movies like 1946’s My Darling Clementine starring Henry Fonda, 1957’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, and 1967’s Hour of the Gun starring James Garner. Read more…
GOLDEN BOY – Victor Young
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1938 Columbia Pictures bought the film rights to the play Golden Boy by Clifford Odets for $100,000, intending to showcase their star Jean Arthur with Frank Capra directing. However, when Capra was unavailable, Rouben Mamoulian was tasked with directing, which resulted in cast changes. William Perlberg was assigned production and the team of Lewis Meltzer, Daniel Taradash, Sarah Mason and Victor Heerman wrote the screenplay. Barbara Stanwyck was cast to star in the film as Lorna Moon, with Adolphe Menjou as Tom Moody, Joseph Calleia as Eddie Fuseli, and Lee J. Cobb as Papa Bonaparte. In an audacious decision, Mamoulian decided against studio wishes, to cast the young William Holden (21 years old) in his first acting role as Joe Bonaparte, a decision that ended up launching his career as a young heart throb. Read more…
LA SOCIEDAD DE LA NIEVE/SOCIETY OF THE SNOW – Michael Giacchino
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
In October 1972 a plane carrying a rugby team from Montevideo, Uruguay, who were on their way to play a game in Santiago, Chile, crashed high in the Andes mountains. 15 of the 45 passengers and crew died on impact but the others – some of whom were badly injured – quickly had to figure out how to survive. During the following 72 days, the survivors suffered extreme hardships, including exposure, starvation, and an avalanche, which led to the deaths of thirteen more passengers; famously, but reluctantly, they were forced to resort to cannibalism to stave off death due to lack of food. Eventually two of the rugby players – Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa – decided to strike out for help. They climbed a 15,000 foot mountain without gear, and then hiked almost 50 miles. It took them almost 10 days, but they finally stumbled into a remote village, where they could obtain help and call for the Chilean Army to rescue the other survivors. This incredible story was turned into a book, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read, and then into an acclaimed film, Alive, in 1993. This new film – La Sociedad de la Nieve, or Society of the Snow – is the first Spanish-language film version of the story, and is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona. Read more…
STAGECOACH – Richard Hageman
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Director John Ford came upon a short story, “The Stage to Lordsburg” by Dudley Nichols, which inspired him for his next film project, and whose film rights he purchased for $2,500. Yet he had difficulty securing financial backing as the studios believed “A” western pictures were out of vogue, and they had no confidence that John Wayne could carry the film. Ford was insistent on retaining Wayne and eventually hammered out a deal with independent producer Walter Wanger who would manage production with a $531,374 budget. Ford would direct and Dudley Nichols was hired to write the screenplay. A fine cast was assembled, including Claire Trevor as Dallas, John Wayne as Ringo Kid, Andy Devine as Buck, John Carridine as Hatfield, Thomas Mitchell as Doc Boone, Louise Platt as Lucy Mallory, George Bancroft as Marshall Curley Wilcox, Donald Meek as Samuel Peacock, Berton Churchill as Henry Gatewood, and Time Holt as Lieutenant Blanchard. Read more…
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT – Alexandre Desplat
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Boys in the Boat is an inspirational real life sports drama which tells the story of the University of Washington’s eight-oared rowing crew, who overcame enormous physical and social obstacles – not least the impact of the Great Depression – to represent the United States at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, and win the gold medal ahead of the heavily fancied and Hitler-backed German crew. The film focuses specifically on Joe Rantz, a kid from a poor background who was essentially homeless before he went to university, and initially saw his rowing career as a means to an end to put food on the table more than he did a chance to achieve sporting greatness. The film stars Callum Turner as Rantz, and Joel Edgerton as the college’s rowing coach Al Ulbrickson; it was written by Mark L. Smith, adapting the non-fiction novel of the same name by Daniel James Brown, and is directed by global movie star and filmmaker George Clooney. Read more…
THE PELICAN BRIEF – James Horner
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Pelican Brief is a legal thriller directed by Alan J. Pakula, adapted from the best-selling novel by John Grisham. The film stars Julia Roberts as Darby Shaw, a law student at Tulane University, who becomes romantically involved with her professor, Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepard). After two Supreme Court justices are assassinated, Darby writes a legal brief speculating about the possible motives behind the murders. In this document – which she calls the Pelican Brief – she suggests a theory involving an intricate plot to control the balance of power in the United States Supreme Court; however, after it is published, it quickly becomes apparent that Darby’s speculations are very close to the actual truth, and before long she finds herself targeted by assassins hired by the perpetrators, who are determined to eliminate anyone who may know about their plans. With nowhere else to turn, Darby contacts Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington), an investigative journalist, and together they race against time to uncover the identity of the people behind the murders and bring the conspiracy to light. Read more…
POOR THINGS – Jerskin Fendrix
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The latest film from the unconventional cinematic mind of director Yorgos Lanthimos is Poor Things, which if you were to distill it down to its core could be best described as a feminist take on the Frankenstein story. The film is set in Victorian London and stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a child-like young woman in the care of Godwin Baxter, an eminent surgeon with horrific facial scars (played by Willem Defoe, doing an excellent Edinburgh accent). It is revealed to Godwin’s student Max McCandles (Rami Youssef) that Bella is actually a resurrected suicide victim whom Godwin revived by transplanting her brain with that of her unborn child, resulting in her literally being a baby in a woman’s body. Initially Godwin and McCandles teach Bella as one would an infant, and McCandles falls in love with her and asks for her hand in marriage; however, as Bella matures, she starts to desire more freedom, and eventually leaves on a grand tour of Europe with Godwin’s lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo). This leads Bella on a journey of philosophical and sexual self-discovery – a journey which is interrupted when her past begins to catch up with her. Read more…
IF I WERE KING – Richard Hageman
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1937 Paramount Pictures studio executives were seeking a period piece as a vehicle to showcase studio star Ronald Coleman. They found their story with the 1901 biographical novel and play titled “If I Were King” by Justin Huntly McCarthy. Frank Lloyd was placed in charge of production with a $1 million budget, would also direct, and Preston Sturges was hired to write the screenplay. Ronald Coleman would star as Francois Villon, joined by Basil Rathborne as King Louis XI, Frances Dee as Katherine DeVaucelles, Ellen Drew as Huguette, Bruce Lester as Noel le Jolys, and C. V. France as Father Villon. Read more…
HEAVEN & EARTH – Kitaro
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Heaven & Earth is the third in director Oliver Stone’s trilogy of films looking at the Vietnam War. 1986’s Platoon followed the exploits of the young soldiers who were shipped off far from home and forced to endure the most horrific conditions. 1989’s Born on the Fourth of July looked at what happened to those same young men when they returned home to America, maimed and traumatized by what they had seen and done. Heaven & Earth looks at the same events from the point of view of the Vietnamese themselves. Stone’s sprawling, sometimes confusing, sometimes compelling movie stars débutante Hiep Thi Le as a simple Vietnamese woman, Le Ly Hayslip, who finds herself caught up in the violent upheaval of the Vietnam war and, inexplicably, falling in love with a kindly American soldier played by Tommy Lee Jones, who eventually takes her home with him to San Diego. Unfortunately, the film was not as well-received as its two predecessors, and today has mostly fallen into obscurity, which is a shame, especially from the point of view of its music. Read more…
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