HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA, CHAPTER ONE – John Debney
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It feels like Kevin Costner has been single-handedly trying to save the western genre from cinematic oblivion for going on forty years now, ever since he enjoyed his breakout role in Lawrence Kasdan’s Silverado in 1985. Since then Costner has been involved with numerous western or western-adjacent movies, either starring in them, directing them, or both, ranging from his Oscar-winning masterpiece Dances With Wolves in 1990 to more recent efforts like Wyatt Earp, The Postman, Open Range, the TV mini-series Hatfields & McCoys, and the now long-running contemporary western TV drama Yellowstone. His latest effort, Horizon: An American Saga, may be his most ambitious effort yet. It’s a sprawling tale that follows the stories of multiple fictional characters in pre- and post-Civil War America, detailing multiple aspects of the exploration of the American West. Costner began writing Horizon as early as 1988 – before he even started on Dances With Wolves – and it is planned to be a four-film 12-hour epic that covers almost the entire history of the United States in that period. Read more…
ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI – David Raksin
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
MGM Studios decided that Bernard DeVoto’s 1947 novel “Across the Wide Missouri,” which dealt with the lives of Rocky Mountain fur traders in the Upper Missouri River basin during the 1830s, could be successfully adapted for a big screen presentation. The film rights were purchased and Robert Sisk was assigned production with a $2.22 million budget. Talbot Jennings was hired to write the screenplay, and William Wellman was tasked with directing. A fine cast was assembled, which included Clark Gable as Flint Mitchell, Ricardo Montalbán as Ironshirt, John Hodiack as Brecan, James Whitmore as Old Bill, Adolphe Menjou as Pierre, and Maria Elena Marqués as Kamiah. Read more…
BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F – Lorne Balfe
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The 1984 action comedy Beverly Hills Cop was one of the cinematic cultural touchstones of the 1980s, a fish-out-of-water story about a motor-mouthed Detroit-based detective who comes to Los Angeles to investigate the death of a friend, and causes havoc amid the more straight-laced members of the Beverly Hills police department. It helped launch its star Eddie Murphy to global superstardom, grossed $234 million at the domestic box office – the highest-grossing film released that year – and spawned several sequels (although the less said about the risible Beverly Hills Cop III in 1994 the better). Now, thirty years later, director Mark Molloy and screenwriters Will Beall, Tom Gormican, and Kevin Etten bring us a third sequel, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Read more…
FORREST GUMP – Alan Silvestri
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.
It’s not a cool thing to admit any more, but at this point in my life I’ve stopped caring what people think about my taste, and I simply accept it for what it is. So here’s my statement: Forrest Gump is one of my favorite films of all time. I first saw it in the fall of 1994, when it came out in cinemas in England, and it affected me deeply right from that first viewing. Not only did I love the film for what it was, but the part of the story involving the relationship between Forrest and his Mama somehow became inextricably linked to the real life relationship I have with my own mother Christine, so it means a great deal to me on an intensely personal level. It’s one of the films I have seen the most in my lifetime; I know the screenplay beat-for-beat, and I never get tired of quoting many of its iconic lines. I still laugh in all the right places, and the ending always moves me to tears. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2024, Part 2
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 second of 2024, covers six more scores from a wide array of genres and countries: a Spanish animated short film, an Italian teenage fantasy romantic drama, two Italian romantic comedy dramas, an Indian drama based on a best-selling novel, and a French romantic drama, all of which feature superb and memorable thematic writing! Read more…
RIO GRANDE – Victor Young
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Director John Ford’s plan for his next project was “The Quiet Man”, a story set in Ireland. However, to secure the services of John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara from Republic Pictures he had to agree to CEO Herbert Yates insistence that he shoot the final installment of his now famous Cavalry Trilogy – “Fort Apache” (1948), “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon” (1949), and “Rio Grande” (1950). Ford grudgingly agreed and his Argosy Pictures and Republic Pictures would manage production with a $1.2 million budget, he would direct, and James Kevin McGuiness would adapt a Saturday Evening Post story “Mission With No Record” (1947) by James Warner Bellah to write the screenplay. His cast would consist of John Wayne as Lieutenant Colonel Kirby York, Maureen O’Hara as Kathleen Yorke, Claude Jarman Jr. as Trooper Jefferson Yorke, Ben Johnson as Trooper Tyree, and Harry Carey Jr. as Trooper Sandy Boone. Read more…
THE SHADOW – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!
When people think about classic superheroes people usually think of Superman and Batman as being the forefathers of the genre, but one other character actually goes back further than that: The Shadow, who was created by Walter B. Gibson and who first appeared on the radio and in print as early as 1930 – eight years before Superman, and nine years before Batman. Despite being such an influential early pioneer, The Shadow was curiously overlooked in film for a long time; there were a few B-movies and shorts in the late 1930s and early 1940s that were reasonably popular, but then there was essentially a 50-year gap where the character was ignored by the mainstream, up until 1994 when the character finally got his first big-budget cinematic adaptation courtesy of director Russell Mulcahy and star Alec Baldwin. Read more…
THE WATCHERS – Abel Korzeniowski
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Watchers is a new supernatural horror film, and is the directorial debut of Ishana Night Shyamalan, the 25-year-old daughter of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. She previously directed and wrote several episodes of the horror TV series Servant, for which her father was the showrunner, and also directed the second unit on her father’s films Old and Knock at the Cabin, but this marks the first feature film project of her own. The film is based on the 2022 novel of the same name by A. M. Shine and stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, an American artist living in Ireland, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest when her car breaks down. Seeking shelter, she eventually becomes trapped in a glass-walled bunker alongside three strangers, who reveal that they are stalked by mysterious creatures every night if they try to escape. Read more…
THE GLASS MENAGERIE – Max Steiner
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The Broadway stage play “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams opened at the Playhouse Theatre on 31 March 1945, and ran for 563 performances. It catapulted Williams to fame, and Hollywood took notice. Charles K. Feldman purchased the film rights and secured backing by Warner Brothers studios. Feldman and Jerry Wald would manage production with a $1.357 million budget, Irving Rapper would direct, and Williams and Peter Berneis would adapt his play and write the screenplay. For the cast, Jane Wyman would star as Laura Wingfield, joined by Kirk Douglas as Jim O’Connor, Arthur Kennedy as Tom Wingfield and Gertrude Lawrence as Amanda Wingfield. Read more…
THE LION KING – Hans Zimmer, Elton John, and Tim Rice
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It’s interesting how, quite often, you never realize in the moment that you’re experiencing a cultural touchstone. I went to see The Lion King at the cinema the week it opened when it came out in the UK with very little in the way of anticipation, and vividly remember being shocked at having to wait in line for almost an hour beforehand to get in (these were the days before pre-assigned seating), such was its massive popularity.
The Lion King is, of course, Disney’s groundbreaking animated feature film that follows the journey of a young lion named Simba. The story begins with Simba’s birth in the Pride Lands of Africa, where he is introduced as the future king. However, Simba’s uncle, Scar, covets the throne and conspires with a pack of hyenas to kill both Simba and his father, King Mufasa, in an orchestrated wildebeest stampede. Scar’s plan partially succeeds; Mufasa is killed, and Simba, guilt-ridden and believing himself responsible, runs away and grows up in the jungle with his new friends Timon, a meerkat, and Pumbaa, a warthog. Eventually, encouraged by his childhood friend Nala and the mandrill shaman Rafiki, Simba returns to the Pride Lands to confront Scar and reclaim his rightful place as king. Read more…
SIGHT – Sean Philip Johnson
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Sight is an inspirational real-life drama biopic about the acclaimed surgeon Ming Wang. Born in China in the 1950s during the rule of Chairman Mao, Wang and his family was threatened with being deported to a remote area of the country as part of the Cultural Revolution; in an attempt to avoid being sent to a labor camp, Wang learned how to dance and play the erhu. With the help of his parents he eventually made his way to America with only $50 in his pocket and, after many years of hard work, earned a PhD in laser physics and graduated magna cum laude with the highest honors from Harvard Medical School and MIT. Wang is now a world-renowned laser eye surgeon and philanthropist, and is a Clinical Professor at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, while continuing to be a competitive ballroom dancer and professional erhu player. The movie is based on Wang’s 2016 autobiography ‘From Darkness to Sight,’ is directed by Andrew Hyatt, and stars Terry Chen and Greg Kinnear. Read more…
NO SAD SONGS FOR ME – George Duning
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Columbia Pictures came across the 1944 novel “No Sad Songs For Me” by Ruth Southard and believed its sentimental tale would translate well to the big screen. They purchased the film rights, assigned production to Buddy Adler, tasked Rudolph Maté with directing, and hired Howard Koch to write the screenplay. Casting was problematic. Originally Irene Dunne was envisioned for the lead role of Mary Scott, but this did not pan out, nor did Olivia de Haviland. In the end, they secured Margaret Sullavan for what would be her final film. Joining Sullavan would be Wendell Corey as Brad Scott, Viveca Lindfors as Chris Radna, and Natalie Wood as Polly Scott. Read more…
SPEED – Mark Mancina
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s a bomb on a bus. What do you do? What do you do?
One of the landmark action movies of the 1990s, and one of my favorite action movies of all time, Speed is a hyper-kinetic thrill ride film directed by Jan de Bont, starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, and Dennis Hopper. Reeves plays Jack Traven, a young and resourceful LAPD SWAT officer, who thwarts a bomb threat in an elevator orchestrated by the vengeful ex-bomb squad member Howard Payne (Hopper). Infuriated by Jack’s interference, Payne then rigs a city bus with a bomb that will detonate if the bus drops below 50 miles per hour. Jack boards the bus and teams up with Annie Porter (Bullock), a passenger who takes over driving after the normal bus driver is injured; together, Jack and Annie must work together to keep the speed above the critical limit by any means possible, while figuring out a way to save the passengers and thwart Payne’s plans. Read more…
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW – Federico Jusid
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A Gentleman in Moscow is an 8-part British TV mini-series directed by Sam Miller and Sara O’Gorman, based on the on the 2016 novel by Amor Towles. Ewan McGregor stars as the fictional aristocrat Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov who, after recently returning to Russia from Paris, is arrested by Bolsheviks following the October Revolution of 1917, tried, and convicted for being a traitor to the Community Party. However, instead of receiving a death sentence, he is sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest inside a luxury hotel – the Hotel Metropol Moscow – where he subsequently spends several decades, banished to a small attic room. However Rostov – who is a brilliant conversationalist, with expertise in everything from evolution and philosophy, to art, literature, poetry, and food – finds himself becoming an integral part of the hotel, interacting with guests, while observing the development of post-revolution Russia and the birth of the Soviet Union. Read more…
ON THE TOWN – Leonard Bernstein, Roger Edens, and Lennie Hayton
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
When the 1944 ballet “Fancy Free” by Jerome Robbins gained critical acclaim, it was brought to Broadway as a play with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. It opened on December 28, 1944 at the Adelphi Theatre, running for 462 performances. Following this successful run MGM management decided to bring it to the big screen. It secured the film rights, Arthur Freed was placed in charge of production with a $2.1 million budget, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen were tasked with directing, and Betty Comden and Adolph Green would write the screenplay. Kelly would also manage the choreography. For the cast, Gene Kelly would star as Gabey, joined by Frank Sinatra as Chip, Jules Munshin as Ozzie, Vera-Ellen as Ivy, Betty Garrett as Hildy Esterhazy, and Ann Miller as Claire Huddesen. Read more…
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