Thursday, January 23, 2020

Thursday Movie Picks #289: Unforgettable Film Scores



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Unforgettable Film Scores

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Today's theme is a suggestion from Brittani. I've been looking forward to today's theme. There's plenty to choose from. There's the classics and blockbusters of course like Star Wars, LOTR and Harry Potter. However my favourites, while not exactly small movies are not big blockbusters either and this time I can't help myself and am picking 6 movies...I know a lot....which is such a rarity.


 

Kissing in the Rain from Great Expectations (1998)
This is one my favourite movies of all time and I can't believe I almost forgot to add this track. This I believe was played when Finn was older and in New York...in you guessed it the rain, and the track has a sense of both magic that he sort of finally gets the girl and nostalgia I guess for when he first met Estella.


 

Surrounded from The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
I love the movie and the movie's score. This particular track I picked I think was played when the soldiers had surrounded the Musketeers and the man in the iron mask, it has a very dramatic action full orchestra sort of sound that expresses the valor and honor of the characters in the scene.  


 

In the House In a Heartbeat from 28 Days Later... (2002)
Love the movie. This track I'm pretty sure is the one that was played when Cillian Murphy's emaciated character wakes up and wanders into an empty London dazed and confused. The track is just so eerie and has this sense of increasing distress. 


 

Death is the Road to Awe from The Fountain (2006)
Unlike the other movies I've picked today, I don't like this movie. I find it much like Cloud Atlas, too ambitious with the whole interconnected-ness thing. But I do love this track which has this escalating tense shrill violins or maybe cello sound...I obviously can't tell instruments apart... anyway the track is just so beautiful and haunting.



Coronation from Stardust (2007)
This is another one of my favourite movies and I love this track that comes at the end. It is has a sort of grand epic sound that is also so joyous it's like the equivalent of seeing fireworks.




Jane's Escape from Jane Eyre (2011)
Once again love the movie. There's a line in the book, as well as in the movie, where Rochester speaks of a string within him that is connected tightly and inextricably to Jane. And this track which features taut straining violins that plays as Jane makes her escape from Thornfield Hall perfectly references that quote and expresses that what was between them is now being pulled apart.

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11 comments:

  1. I completely forgot about Jane Eyre's score!

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  2. I like that you included clips! I should've done that. Jane Eyre is my favorite here but I really like that 28 Days Later track too.

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    1. Yeah, I thought one could get a sense of a film's score if I'd highlight what I'd consider the best track out of it.

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  3. Stardust is suck an underrated gem in all the ways. I wasn't a fan of Jane Eyre and this track makes me anxious but I guess that's the way this movie affects me. :/

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    1. Jane Eyre - I suppose you are suppose to feel anxious. Jane is after all is escaping into something she is not prepared for.

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  4. I am so glad to have listened to them. I think my favourite is Stardust. Scores can really move people to tears, joy, anger....amazing

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    1. Totally. I can sometimes appreciate the score even when I do not like the movie like The Fountain.

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  5. I like how you went with individual pieces from the scores. Of your picks I liked Man in the Iron Mask best, I agree that The Fountain is a mess of a film. Even though I hated this version of Great Expectations that's a nice piece of music.

    There were so many ways to go with this. I went with three where the score really enhanced the storyline plus all won Oscars for those scores.

    The Wizard of Oz (1939)-Dorothy (Judy Garland) is “Off to See the Wizard” (Frank Morgan) “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” when she is told by Glinda the Good Witch (Billie Burke) to “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” with the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) who wishes “If I Only Had a Brain”, the Tin Man (Jack Haley) who wonders what would happen “If I Only Had Heart” and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) who tells them “If I Only Had the Nerve” what he would do “If I Were King of the Forest”. After being told by Munchkins how things were “In the Merry Old Land of Oz” they find themselves pursued by the Wicked Witch (Margaret Hamilton) who wants Dorothy’s ruby slippers and causes no end of trouble until the word can be spread that “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead!”

    Oklahoma! (1955)-“Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’” when Curly (Gordon MacRae) comes riding up on “The Surrey with the Fringe On Top” to court Laurie (Shirley Jones) who is hesitant to express her true feelings to him because “People Will Say We’re in Love”. Unsure she turns to her friend Ado Annie (Gloria Grahame) who tells her “I’m Just a Girl Who Cain’t Say No” but also tells her “Many a New Day Will Dawn” when she’ll have another chance with Curly if the dangerous Jud (Rod Steiger) who is pursuing Laurie doesn’t get in the way. But then “Pore Jud is Daid” but everyone else is happy because:

    “We know we belong to the land
    And the land we belong to is grand!
    And when we say
    Yeeow! Aye-yip-aye-yo-ee-ay!
    We're only sayin'
    You're doin' fine, Oklahoma!
    Oklahoma
    O.K. L - A - H - O - M - A
    OKLAHOMA!”

    West Side Story (1961)-“Something’s Coming” between the enemy gangs the Jets and the Sharks but “Gee, Officer Krupke” gets in the way before they can rumble. During the big competition dance at the gym which follows former Jet Tony (Richard Beymer) sees “Maria” (Natalie Wood) sister of Shark leader Bernardo (George Chakiris) and knows that “Tonight” is special. Later when Bernardo’s girlfriend Anita (Rita Moreno) tells Bernardo things are better in “America” Maria realizes “I Feel Pretty” and that she and Tony share “One Hand, One Heart” even as Anita tells her “A Boy Like That” will bring only heartache. But she believes and tells Tony “Somewhere” away from all the conflict “There’s a Place for Us”.

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    1. Hmm...well I think your picks are more soundtracks which are songs with lyrics rather than a score. Isn't a film score more of a series of instrumental tracks which sometimes may feature some background choir vocalizations.

      Anyway, I have seen Wizard of Oz though the only song I remember is Somewhere over the Rainbow. I remember more songs from the West Side Story and I do like quite a number of them.

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