Thursday, September 8, 2011

Thursday Token Themes

Welcome a weekly feature here at Movies With Abe. I’m a hugely enthusiastic fan of film scores, and music is far too often an element of cinema that goes unrecognized. Therefore I present a platform for a look – or rather, a listen – to some fantastic film scores. I’ll be selecting a composer and one or more of their film scores for your listening pleasure, embedded from YouTube.

This week’s featured composer is James Horner. Perhaps best known for his collaborations with director James Cameron, Horner has an eclectic resume with many compositions, a good number of them epic in nature. His score for “Avatar” helped supplement the visually astounding experience of the film. His music for “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” was appropriately solemn and probably the strongest part of an otherwise lacking film. His stylized score for “Apocalypto” was just right for the messy Mel Gibson film, and I personally love the main title theme for “All the King’s Men” even though the film was inconsolably horrendous. His scores for action thrillers “Flightplan,” “Troy,” and “The Missing” were also strong, while a more somber theme for “House of Sand and Fog” proved effective. His suite for “Iris” is wonderful, and the music of “A Beautiful Mind” was one of its defining aspects for me when I first saw it in theatres in December 2001. There’s not a person in the world who doesn’t known the music of “Titanic,” and listen to it at your own risk of getting it stick in your head for weeks. His score to animated film “Balto” may not be as well-known, but it’s still powerful and moving. Prior to that, he composed the music to three majorly epic films: “Braveheart,” “Glory,” and “Aliens.”

Avatar (2009)



The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)



Apocalypto (2006)



All the King’s Men (2006)



Flightplan (2005)



Troy (2004)



House of Sand and Fog (2003)



The Missing (2003)



Iris (2001)



A Beautiful Mind (2001)



Titanic (1997)



Balto (1995)



Apollo 13 (1995)



Braveheart (1995)



Glory (1989)



Aliens (1986)


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