I have a confession. I have a weakness for swashbuckler films. Especially those that are old-fashioned in their scope and storytelling.
My wife and I went and saw The Legend of Zorro Sunday afternoon. First of all, I absolutely love the first movie. It's a fine example of old-fashioned swashbuckling. It had just enough camp to make it fun but still had a certain gravitas that made it entertaining beyond the humor.
That being said the sequel is quite fun, too. Ultimately the plot was a little thin, but on the whole the movie was an entertaining yarn very much in the vein of the original.
I have another confession to make. When it's at its best I really like James Horner's music. There I said it. I know I've crapped on a lot of his music but let's face it: he's the second richest composer in Hollywood (like #1, who also doesn't actually live in Hollywood). I haven't been this impressed, though, with one of Horner's scores since...well the last Zorro film (Troy was above average for having been composed in 2 weeks). I was pleasantly surprised that he somehow chose not to lean quite so heavily on the "Hornerisms". We all know them. Naturally the "Russian" motif appeared. That was more-or-less to be expected. There were a couple times he leaned on the love theme a little too much, mostly in places where I didn't think it was dramatically appropriate, but who am I? After The Perfect Storm I made a rule: I'll never buy a James Horner score without seeing the film to which it's attached first. That being said, I'll be purchasing the soundtrack album for The Legend of Zorro.
So I was hoping that maybe we could use this particular setting to speak intelligently about some of Horner's music. Let's face it; there some of his scores that we all like. So let's talk about it. Kind of like a 12-step program.
7 comments:
Um... I'll start first...
Hi, my name is Tim, and I like James Horner.
"Hi, Tim!"
I own and love Aliens, Willow, Star Trek II, Braveheart, Titanic, and Troy. I also want a copy of The Rocketeer. I like his stuff, but nowadays I'm actually disappointed any time I see his name attached to a project. Irritated, even. I like Horner's heavier stuff, that just grinds away on intensity, especially in Titanic. I also love the rough-around-the-edges sound of Aliens. It's just so darn good. Yeah, it seems my favorite Jimmy is all from the 80s.
I think that, with the inclusion of Titanic, Braveheart and Legends of the Fall so is Brad (a fan of 80s Jimmy). Sneakers is also a legitimately great score.
Gaaaaaawd I love Aliens even with the Khachaturian, um, borrowing. Do you have a legitimate copy of the Deluxe Edition from Varese yet? Or are you still listening to that copy I made you?
So I was thinking that an addendum here about what I think the "essential" James Horner CD collection would further (or fuel) both the Horner and "great film scores" discussions (where have you all gone?). So here's what I think the James Horner List looks like (in no particular order, except maybe somewhat chronological).
Battle Beyond the Stars
Star Trek II
Brainstorm
Krull
Cocoon
Aliens
Willow
The Land Before Time
Glory
Field of Dreams
The Rocketeer
Sneakers
Legends of the Fall
Braveheart
Titanic
The Mask of Zorro
The Legend of Zorro
I'm open to suggestions, but really I think that's it. Granted I have twice that many, but they're not all worth owning it seems.
That's still a buttload of music to be considered "good." See, Horner isn't so bad. He just needs to work a fourth as much as he does.
I think that Jimmy's music kind of tends to have this quasi-Russian sound with it's modern orchestration and strong harmonic progressions. Enemy at the Gates is bombastic and all but it's difficult listening for the entire album (as are many of Horner's scores). I think that the opening battle cue (all 15 minutes of it) is amazing. Anyone who writes 1 uninterrupted battle cue like that to start a film deserves a medal. My biggest difficulty with Enemy is that its theme is just waaaaaay too close to Schindler's List for comfort.
Well I just took my first listen to The Legend of Zorro sans the film and...it's pretty good!!! In fact I almost think that it might be better than the original. Well it's tighter, anyway.
When listening to the original there was always this nagging feeling at the back of my mind that something wasn't quiiiiite right. I think after listening to the sequel score I've determined that the first one kind of meandered a bit, seemed to have little focus. Perhaps this was intentional as a musical reflection of Alejandro in the first film. He didn't really know his way, what his path was. Perhaps Jimmy was just composing as fast as f@#king possible. In Legend he's fully aware of who he is. Hmmm...might have to rethink the original now.
The Pikey reminded me that I forgot to include his Apollo 13 score from my list of essential James Horner scores. This after I harassed him for almost 10 years about not having it!
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