Movie Music Memories March 15, 2008
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , trackbackPerhaps the most intense cinema experience of my life was back when I was about nine or ten years old, when my Aunt (sadly gone, now, bless her) and Uncle took me to see JAWS. That was the wildest, scariest film… it shook me to the core. I had bad dreams for weeks. No small part of that experience was the music, the main theme of which became an icon of sorts at the time… still is, I guess, like the PSYCHO theme before it. In JAWS you hardly ever actually saw the shark, really the tension was from the unseen threat lurking under the water, and my imagination of what lurked out of sight, and the music was a major part of that. John Williams really was the shark.
What really got me into movie music though, like many of my generation, was the score for STAR WARS. Back then, films took a long time to reach our shores. Although released in May of 1977, it would be Christmas before it premiered in London, and early 1978 before it finally left the city to cinemas out in the country proper. This was the biggest film of all time, remember, so it might be hard to believe to contemporary cinemagoers that we used to have to wait so long, even for the biggest movies. So anyway, it was February of 1978 that I finally got to see STAR WARS, long after having devoured the comics. Naturaly I loved the film, havng being a space-geek all my then-short life and a devout STAR TREK fan.
Of course one of the big things about STAR WARS is the incredibly evocative score by John Williams. It was my birthday in February, and my parents bought me the soundtrack album on cassette as my present. Sobering thought, really- remember cassette tapes? I really am getting old. Actually I still own that cassette, a piece of my childhood that I can hold in my hands- anybody who also owned that cassette (moulded in green plastic, how weird was that?) will remember the inlay-card that folded out for what seemed forever with extensive colour photos from the film. Back then, any television airing seemed impossible, if not several years away (some films took over ten years to drop onto tv back then- at that point GONE WITH THE WIND had never been aired on tv), and VHS, and owning a film, as fantasy as STAR WARS itself. So young movie-fans like myself back then would remember a prized movie by listening to the music and looking at photos and re-reading the comics, over and over. Nowadays you just wait 3 months for the DVD. Thinking about those old days makes me feel postively prehistoric.
STAR WARS has an incredible score, romantic and full of energy and adventure, it takes the film to another level. Old buggers like me often remark about movies saying “they don’t make ‘em like they used to”, and the same is true about movie-scores… as movies have changed, so has their music. One thing I hate about many modern films (SPIDERMAN etc I’m looking at you) is that the film ends and we are assaulted by a rock song rather than an overture of the music score… it takes me right out of the movie. But back then the music itself was different, even STAR WARS has a slower pace than films now, and that pace gave composers an opportunity to write genuinely memorable music. Nowadays films are edited so tight there is little room for music to breathe or, it seems, for themes to develop, and STAR WARS has such wonderful themes. The Force theme, Princess Leia’s theme, I used to sit down listening to it fueling my own daydreams as well as images from the film.
So anyway, from STAR WARS, I was hooked on movie music. It helped that those times were great for movie music. On my next birthday my parents bought me the SUPERMAN:THE MOVIE album, this time a gatefold double-lp. Many feel that this is John Williams’ masterpiece, although I feel that title is deserved for a score that came out a few years later. SUPERMAN though certainly had amazing music- a memorable main theme that was so good it was used in SUPERMAN RETURNS decades later, and tracks like ’The Flying Sequence’ and ‘Leaving Home’, poignant, emotional music that lived beyond the movie. I used to love listening to ‘The Fortress of Solitude’, bewitched by its magical peace and then thrilled to ‘Chasing Rockets’ whilst daydreaming of super-feats.
It was, as I have said, a remarkable period for movie music- scores like CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, ALIEN, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, and my own favourite, the in-my-eyes-unequalled THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. My God, when I hear the Imperial March… I swear that film’s music is pure opera, full of William’s finest music. ‘The Battle in The Snow’, ‘The Asteroid Field’, ‘Hyperspace’… just incredible music. It’s probably no mere concidence that that the finest STAR WARS film also had the finest score. Listening to it today only confirms my belief that it is the finest score by John Williams, and probably the finest movie score ever. I love that music.
Truth be told, when I consider my favourite films, or at least, the films I enjoy, the common thread that runs through them is great music. Some people like films by certain directors or starring certain actors, for me though it seems to be films with great music. Even if a film is flawed in other ways, if it has great score, I tend to really connect with the film on an emotional level and enjoy the film. Films like CONAN THE BARBARIAN, John Carpenter’s THE THING, THE THIN RED LINE, BRAINSTORM, GLORY, GATTACA; some of my fave films are guilty pleasures but I really find they have extra resonance thanks to their superior scores. For me, music is as important an element in films as the actors or the visual effects. Do I owe that to listening to that STAR WARS cassette back when I was twelve years old? Yes, I guess I probably do.
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?