John Williams. Jerry Goldsmith. Danny Elfman. John Barry. James Horner. What do these guys all have in common? They're film composers. But not only are they film composers, they're great film composers.
This blog entry isn't going to be about gushing on these guys but rather asking a question that has been on my mind for the last ten years: "What happened to film scores?" I mean, seriously, when exactly did the art hit a plateau and then sharply decline? Danny Elfman hasn't made a great score since the 90s with Sleepy Hollow, John Williams' output has declined in his older age, and James Horner... who knows where that guy is? With John Berry and Jerry Goldsmith dead, the three remaining guys are the greats that we have to rely on to deliver us great film music. Elfman's more recent work has reduced itself to being a generic caricature of himself. John Williams still manages to deliver solid material, but as I mentioned earlier, he's getting up there and not taking as many jobs.
The newer (or new-ish) guys don't seem to show much promise. I've yet to encounter anyone who says that their favorite film composer is Elliot Goldenthal or Hans Zimmer. You know why? Because they really aren't that great. Hans Zimmer's work on the Dark Knight Trilogy doesn't hold a match, much less a candle, to Danny Elfman's work on Batman and Batman Returns. The only people that I can think of that are potentially great film composers are Howard Shore and Michael Giacchino , but that still remains to be seen. It's depressing to think that there aren't any iconic, defining film scores and that we have to put our hopes into Hans Zimmer, the Nickleback of film composition, to fill this void! Ugh... it's agonizing when I think about it.
So where does that leave us? We can't really influence Hollywood to stop hiring an established composer in favor of someone that has a fresh perspective but might be lacking in credentials. And we have no shortage of high-concept summer blockbusters to excuse the absence of grandiose and memorable music from being given to us. I watched a video of footage from Batman Begins put to Danny Elfman's score from Batman from 1989. And it's amazing. I'd pay for a copy of that film with Elfman's score in place of what's originally there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVzXwZuWFaU
Do you notice a difference? There's a presence in the film instead of just being background noise to fill any moments where there would just be dead silence. And that, my friends, is what we need in today's cinema.
