Archive
THE FOUNTAINHEAD – Max Steiner
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The genesis of The Fountainhead lay with actress Barbara Stanwyck. She had read the 1943 novel by Ayn Rand and coveted the role of heroine Dominique Francon. She sold Warner Brothers Co-CEO Jack Warner on the story and he purchased the film rights for her. Henry Blake was placed in charge of production with a $2.375 million budget, Mervyn LeRoy would direct, and Ayn Rand was hired to write the screenplay with a contractual stipulation that not a single word would be changed. The project floundered for three years due to intervention by the War Production Board. LeRoy left the project and was replaced by King Vidor. Creative control proved problematic with Vidor, Rand and Warner Brothers often at odds. Casting was also problematic as Vidor wanted Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall for the leads, Rand wanted Gary Cooper. In the end Stanwyck was passed over as too old, yet Cooper who was also too old (two decades older than the character) was selected to play Howard Roark. Patricia Neal would play Dominique Francon, joined by Raymond Massie as Gail Wynand, Kent Smith as Peter Keating, and Robert Douglas as Ellsworth M. Toohey. Read more…
THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT – Marc Shaiman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Looking back now, considering where we are today in terms of what the American political landscape has become over the past decade, it seems almost unbelievably naïve and quaint to think that, in the 1990s, people were still making films about US presidents who were good, upstanding people who cared about their jobs and the electorate that voted for them. The American President is one of those films; written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Rob Reiner, the film is a romantic drama set in the White House. Michael Douglas plays President Andrew Shepherd, a widower nearing the end of his first term. He is well-liked, pragmatic, and politically savvy, but cautious about jeopardizing his public image. Things change when Shepherd becomes romantically involved with Sydney Wade (Annette Bening), an environmental lobbyist who comes to Washington to push for a bold emissions-reduction bill. Their relationship quickly becomes serious, but because it unfolds under intense media scrutiny, it also becomes a political liability. As Shepherd’s approval ratings fall, his opponents – especially conservative senator Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss) – exploit the situation, framing the relationship as unpresidential. Shepherd initially tries to keep politics and romance separate, hoping the story will fizzle out, but before long public pressure forces him to choose between maintaining power and standing up for the values he claims to represent. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2025, Part 5
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
I’m pleased to present the latest installment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.
This article, the fifth of 2025, covers another six scores released in the first half of the year from a wide array of genres and countries, including spooky sitcom from France, a gorgeous nature documentary from the Basque country of Spain, a French-Canadian comedy-drama, a Chinese military action film, a Japanese animated romantic drama film set during the French Revolution, and a French comedy-adventure film set in North Africa, with music by a recent Oscar-winner! Read more…
COPYCAT – Christopher Young
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Copycat is a psychological thriller directed by Jon Amiel, starring Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, Dermot Mulroney, and William McNamara. Weaver plays Dr. Helen Hudson, a brilliant criminal psychologist and expert on serial killers who becomes agoraphobic after being attacked by one of her former subjects, Daryll Lee Cullum, played in an extended cameo by jazz singer Harry Connick Jr. Years later, and now living in near-total isolation in her San Francisco apartment, Helen is drawn back into criminal investigation when a new serial killer begins terrorizing the city, and she is asked to consult with the lead detectives, M. J. Monahan (Hunter) and Reuben Goetz (Mulroney). Eventually the trio realizes that the killer appears to be copying famous murderers, mimicking the methods of killers such as the Boston Strangler, Son of Sam, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ted Bundy. However, things quickly become personal when the killer begins targeting Helen herself, forcing her to confront her trauma and step outside her apartment for the first time in years. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2025, Part 4
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
I’m pleased to present the latest installment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.
This article, the fourth of 2025, covers another six scores released in the first half of the year from a wide array of genres and countries, including a Japanese drama TV series set in a high school, a British true life period crime drama about the last woman to executed in the UK, a Ramadan TV drama series from Syria, a German children’s fantasy adventure film, a Norwegian period drama TV series about the Norwegian royal family, and a French comedy-adventure film about a high-flying air hostess! Read more…
ANNE OF THE INDIES – Franz Waxman
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Writer Herbert Sass wrote a short story “Anne of the Indies” for the Saturday Evening Post in 1947. It made an impression with the public and his New York publisher asked him to write a screenplay. Sass did so and it caught the eye of producer Walter Wanger who bought the film rights, intending to showcase his star Susan Hayward who he had under contract. Wanger however could not finance the film, and so the rights were sold to 20th Century Fox. Arthur Caesar and Philip Dunne were hired to rewrite the screenplay, which was well received by the studio. As such, George Jessel was placed in charge of production with a $1.5 million budget, and Jacques Tourneur was tasked with directing. By time production began in 1950, Susan Hayward had dropped out. So, the cast was reimagined, and Jean Peters would star as Captain Anne Providence, joined by Louis Jourdan as Captain Pierre Francois La Rochelle, Debra Paget as Molly La Rochelle, Herbert Marshall as Dr. Jameson, and Thomas Gomez as Blackbeard. Read more…
GOLDENEYE – Éric Serra
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Six years after Timothy Dalton vacated the role, in the wake of the comparative commercial flop of License to Kill, and after several years of protracted contract negotiations, legal disagreements and financial disputes at MGM, and stalled screenplay ideas, James Bond returned with a new face, a new style, and a new sound in 1995 with GoldenEye. Having been previously thwarted by the fact that he was contracted to play Remington Steele on American television in the 1980s, the producers finally cast Irish actor Pierce Brosnan as their preferred 007, and the main supporting cast was rounded out by Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, and Judi Dench as M, the new head of MI6. New Zealander Martin Campbell was hired as director, and the screenplay was credited to Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein, based on a story by Michael France. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2025, Part 3
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
I’m pleased to present the latest installment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.
This article, the third of 2025, covers another six scores released in the first half of the year from a wide array of genres and countries, including a couple of Japanese TV series – one of which is an adaptation of a beloved piece of classic Canadian literature – plus a French romantic drama film, an Italian historical drama film, a French historical drama TV series, and an epic fantasy film from China that is the sequel to one of the best scores of 2023. Read more…
DISTANT DRUMS – Max Steiner
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
United States Pictures served as a production company for Warner Brothers. For their next project they were assigned production for a film that would showcase Warner Brothers marquee star Gary Cooper. A screenplay was tasked to writers Niven Busch and Martine Rackin, who decided to use the backdrop of the Second Seminole War for their story. Milton Sperling was placed in charge of production, and Raoul Walsh would direct. Cooper would star as Captain Quincy Wyatt, joined by Richard Webb as Lieutenant Tufts, Mari Andon as Judy Becket, Arthur Hunnicutt as Monk, Carl Harbaugh as Duprez, Robert Barrat as General Zachary Taylor, and Larry Carper as Chief Ocala. Read more…
LONG DISTANCE – Steven Price
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Long Distance is a science fiction action-adventure movie directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, starring Anthony Ramos, Naomi Scott, Kristofer Hivju, and the voice of Zachary Quinto. Ramos and Scott play Ramirez and Calloway, a pair of astronauts who crash-land on different sides of a remote planet after an asteroid destroys their space mining vessel; the pair try to find each other and await rescue, but in order to do so they have to survive the harsh environment of the planet, while avoiding the deadly spider-like alien creatures who roam its surface. Read more…
POWDER – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Powder is a science fiction-drama film written and directed by Victor Salva, starring Jeff Goldblum, Mary Steenburgen, Lance Henriksen, and Sean Patrick Flanery in the title role as Jeremy “Powder” Reed, a reclusive young man with albinism and extraordinary intellectual and psychic abilities. Jeremy was raised in isolation by his grandparents after his mother was struck by lightning while pregnant with him, but after their deaths Jeremy is brought into the wider world by the kind local sheriff Barnum (Henriksen), school counselor Jessie (Steenburgen), and science teacher Ripley (Goldblum), who recognizes Jeremy’s genius-level intellect and apparently paranormal abilities, which include reading minds, sensing emotions, and even manipulating electrical energy. However, despite their efforts to help him adjust, Jeremy faces alienation, ridicule, and even violence from his peers due to his appearance and strange powers. Read more…
PLAY DIRTY – Alan Silvestri
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A fun action-thriller crime caper from writer-director Shane Black, Play Dirty is the seventh film based on the ‘Parker’ series of novels by author Donald E. Westlake, writing under the pseudonym Richard Stark. In this film Mark Wahlberg steps into the cinematic shoes previously occupied by notables such as Lee Marvin (Point Blank, 1967), Robert Duvall (The Outfit, 1973), and Mel Gibson (Payback, 1999) as the titular hard-boiled professional thief. In this story Parker gets a shot at a major heist, but to pull it off he and his team must outsmart a South American dictator, the New York mob, and the world’s richest man. The film co-stars LaKeith Stanfield, Rosa Salazar, Keegan-Michael Key, Gretchen Mol, Thomas Jane, and Tony Shalhoub, and premiered on Amazon Prime Video in October 2025, to mostly positive reviews. Read more…
THE SCARLET LETTER – John Barry
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 work The Scarlet Letter is widely considered one of the greatest American novels, blending psychological depth, historical setting, and moral allegory into a story of sin, adultery and redemption. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, the story follows Hester Prynne who, while estranged from her cruel husband Roger, had an affair, conceived out of wedlock, and ultimately gave birth to a daughter, Pearl. Convicted of adultery, Hester is punished and forced wear a scarlet letter “A” sewn onto her clothing as a constant reminder of her sin. Hester refuses to publicly reveal the identity of Pearl’s father, but the reader eventually learns that the father is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a young and respected local minister. Dimmesdale is consumed by guilt over what happened to Hester but lacks the courage to confess; things are then made worse when Roger returns to Boston and vows to uncover and torment the man responsible for what happened to Hester. Read more…
DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE – John Lunn
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
After 15 years, 52 TV episodes, and two theatrical movies, the Downton Abbey saga comes to a close with this third and final film, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. For those who don’t know, Downton Abbey is a sprawling British period drama set in the early 20th century, following the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their household staff at the grand Yorkshire estate of Downton Abbey. The series begins in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic, which disrupts the line of inheritance for the Crawley estate. From there, it traces the interplay between the family’s upstairs world of privilege and the downstairs world of the servants, showing how their lives are deeply intertwined. Across its six seasons the story spans major historical events – the First World War, the Spanish flu pandemic, the decline of the British aristocracy, women’s suffrage – and looks at how everyone at Downton adjusts to these social changes. The Grand Finale is set in 1930, is directed by Simon Curtis from a screenplay by the ubiquitous Julian Fellowes, and sees Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, and Michelle Dockery all returning to their famous roles. Read more…
THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST – Noah Sorota
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Nature documentaries have always provided fertile ground for film composers. From the epic scores by Elmer Bernstein and Jerome Moross for National Geographic in the 1960s, to Georges Delerue and John Scott’s work for Jacques Cousteau; from the groundbreaking work by composers like Edward Williams and George Fenton for the BBC Natural History Unit, to more recent international works by composers like Panu Aaltio, the world and its wonders have inspired some truly compelling orchestral music. The latest title to join this list is The American Southwest; directed by Ben Masters and narrated by indigenous environmentalist Quannah Chasinghorse, the film examines the astonishing beauty and biodiversity of the Colorado River as it flows through the U.S. states of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. It looks at the uncertain future the river faces as is it threatened by environmental destruction from dams, and features never-before-seen wildlife sequences such as beavers building wetlands, condors recovering from the brink of extinction, and jaguars returning to American soil. Read more…
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