On 03/21/2006 10:12 PM, Roger Hecht wrote:
>Don Satz wrote:
>[...] but no music can make a poor movie into a good one.
>
>You'd think so, but I wonder.  What would Psycho have been without
>Herrmann's music?

Indeed.

One can make similar claims about Goldsmith's Oscar-winning score for
'The Omen', as well as his work for 'Alien', 'Total Recall' and 'Basic
Instinct', all of whose scores raised the class of those movies by several
notches.  Howver, even his heroic efforts on 'The Shadow' and 'The Burbs'
couldn't actually turn those into good movies, but I think it's no
coincidence that CDs for their soundtracks routinely fetch much higher
prices on eBay than the movies themselves ever achieved when they were
new.  Of course, when the film itself is of high quality to begin with,
such as 'Patton' or 'Chinatown', Goldsmith's (or anyone else's) score
doesn't have to work so hard.

Carter Burwell's work for the Coen Brothers also stands out, in movies
as diverse as 'Raising Arizona', 'The Man Who Wasn't There' and 'Fargo';
Thomas Newman's percussive score for 'American Beauty' helped gloss over
its more melodramatic moments; and Michael Giacchino's hugely energetic
score on 'The Incredibles' recalled the mark left by John Barry on the
Connery 'Bond' movies, which the current composers have, sadly, washed
away.

Frank Wales
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