The Cue Sheet

So the Pikey threw down and I have accepted the challenge. It's hard to wittle 450 film score recordings down to your 10 favourite cues. Unlike the Pikey, though, mine are in no particular order as the aforementioned task was difficult enough. Miklos Rozsa got kicked off the island for crying out loud!

Anyway, here's my list, some thoughts on each and some of the runners-up.

The Big Rescue – Superman (John Williams) – This is the moment that would make or break this film. The entire cue (fugue and all) is captivating and brilliantly paced with a near-perfect dramatic shape.

The White Tree - The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Howard Shore) - First of all, let's call it what it really is, the Lighting of the Beacons. I nearly wet myself when I first saw this scene in the theatre. Is there really anything that has to be said here? It's one of the most beautiful blends of music and picture ever run through a projector.

Journey to the Line - The Thin Red Line (Hans Zimmer) - As has been discussed before, I'm no huge fan of Zimmer. I care for this movie even less (don't say I don't get it, either, unless you really want me to pounce). But it is necessary to give credit where it's due. If you were to tell me that I had 10 seconds to come up with the single greatest cue Hans has ever written I would only need 2 and this would be it. All comparisons to Barber's Adagio for Strings aside this is probably one of the most subtle, detached (therefore emotionally heightened) and gorgeous pieces Hans has ever written.

The Hand of Fate, Part II - Signs (James Newton Howard) - This won't be the last one the Pikey and I have in common. This is a perfect complement to the climax of the film. Few directors think about their films the way Shyamalan does. He eschews convention. Even in this instance he chooses not to use the opening stinger in the film because it's "obvious" and a cheap scare tactic. One of the things I think is so brilliant in this particular cue is the way it more-or-less encapsulates the camera movements in the film. For much of the film Shyamalan ignores fancy camerawork and quick editing and let's his film breathe through the performances of its actors. The first real sense of motion in the music is reflected in the first real motion of film where there's that beautiful, swooping crane shot that covers Graham and the kids and moves into the house with Merrill and the alien. Can you tell this is one of my absolute favourite films?

Overture (Main title) - North by Northwest (Bernard Herrmann) - I know the accepted attitude is that Vertigo is Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece and that there are few greater marriages of music and film in the history of cinema than the scene d'amour when Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) finally makes over Madeleine (Kim Novak). That being said, North by Northwest is my favourite Hitchcock/Herrmann collaboration. The suits at MGM originally wanted something jazzy and "Gershwinesque" for the opening title sequence (by the perennially brilliant Saul Bass). Instead Herrmann incorporates South American dance rhythms into the overall substance of the score. Somehow it works brilliantly.

Riding the Fire Mares - Krull (James Horner) - This is one of the standout cues of the score. In it Horner demonstrates his full powers as a master of variation technique and orchestral colour. It was a bit of a toss-up between this and The Widow's Web from the same score with its cascading arpeggios and Herrmannesque orchestral crashes but ultimately this won out. I know that Krull is bad. Really bad. It's one of my absolute favourite bad movies. It is, though, my absolute favourite Horner score. Nowhere in his entire output is he as melodically inventive and full of orchestral colour as he is here. Also there seems to be some sort of internal logic that holds the score together very nicely where it seems to have a feeling of inevitability at every climax point. I have done no analysis to back my claims up, though. It's more of a feeling.

Valhalla/Viking Victory - The 13th Warrior (Jerry Goldsmith) - Again the standout cue of the score despite the fact that Crichton had Goldsmith rescore the actual battle music in favour of a more atmospheric, electronically-dominated approach. Don't get me wrong, I love the battle music here, but it's actually the music that bookends the battle that really does it for me. The prayer sequence in particular demonstrates Goldsmith's mastery of building tension. So much so that Ridley Scott would dump the very good cue that Harry Gregson-Williams wrote ('Rise a Knight') in a similar scene in Kingdom of Heaven and use Goldsmith's music.

Toccata and Dreamscapes - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Elliot Goldenthal) - I think that if I were asked to cite my favourite example of modernist film music that could instead have been written for the concert hall this would be it. I know the Pikey chose the 'Adagio and Transfiguration' but that's because he likes Richard Strauss.

The Demise of Mrs. Baylock - The Omen (Jerry Goldsmith) - This is sheer choral and orchestral terror. 2 minutes and 42 seconds of it. I can't imagine how much fun it must have been to write this piece and just unleash all hell's fury.

The Battle of Hoth/The Asteroid Field - The Empire Strikes Back (John Williams) - I'm with the Pikey on this one. They may be separate cues, but it's essentially one continuous cue. And it's a (thematic!) 20-minute orchestral tour-de-force (pun intended). I'd just like to see one of the Zimmer boys attempt to come up with something like this! And just to be clear it's 6(!) cues on the 1994 boxed set strung together as one forming a coherent, unified and dramatic whole.

Runners up, or, Those that I could live without but would be grumpier to do so:

The Mission - The Sum of All Fears (Jerry Goldsmith) - Easily the highlight of this score and wretched film performed by up-and-coming soprano Shana Blake Hill.

Theology/Civilization, Wifeing - Conan the Barbarian (Basil Poledouris) - Because there should be pretty tunes somewhere on one of these lists. I guess. If I have to.

Prelude/Outer Space/Radar - The Day the Earth Stood Still (Herrmann) - This is simply brilliant and one of the most amazing orchestral combinations you'll ever encounter anywhere. Electric violin and bass, high and low theremins, four pianos, four harps and 30 or so brass make up the orchestra. The energetic, propulsive staccato piano figures capture the foreboding and the mystery of what is to come.

Ontological Shock - The Matrix (Don Davis) - Everything about this cue feels right. It did absolutely what it had to do in capturing the inevitability of this moment. Using wonderful modern techniques I might add.

Desert Chase - Raiders of the Lost Ark (John Williams) - Perfectly (and entertainly) photographed and edited in nearly every way, this isn't a chase, it's an 8-minute ballet.

The Flying Circus - The Rocketeer (James Horner) - Another wonderful cue that demonstrates Horner's mastery of variation technique and orchestral colour.

Those We Don't Speak Of - The Village (James Newton Howard) - Tense, gutwrenching and, ultimately, one of the most gorgeous pieces in the entire score.

Tournament Speech - Shrek (Harry Gregson-Williams/John Powell) - This cue makes me laugh every...single...time...I listen to it. Why? Two words: falling brass.

Main Title - The Great Train Robbery (Jerry Goldsmith) - A fun-filled and entertaining romp through Victorian England. Goldsmith perfectly captures (as usual) the charm of Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland's characters and clearly as a good time with the score. It's amazing that he wrote this score in the same year as Alien and Star Trek: The Motion Picture simply because their diversity.

Battle in the Mutara Nebula - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (James Horner) - Once again Horner creates an early splash before his ideas (those that were actually his) became tired and worn. This cue, though, captures everything this movie is about and sounds like an epic seafaring adventure that just happens to be set in outer space adventure (Horatio Hornblower in outer space is how Nicholas Meyer described it).

Exiled - The 13th Warrior (Goldsmith) - Two from The 13th Warrior?!? He must be off his rocker for sure now. Listen to it. Behold the glory that is 8 French Horns playing in unison! Not to mention it's rousing as all hell.