I remember queuing up scenes on some occasions just to listen to James Horner, John Williams, and Thomas Newman make me feel something vast. The scores formed the background oceans of the films I loved. They were always shifting, and always there, and I didn't always consciously acknowledge them. But, when I actually paid attention, they burst into a private life of their own outside the context of the movie. And then began that great escape we only dream of still being capable of.
So, here's my list of favorite epic film scores from childhood into early high school (which I still consider childhood, because "adolescence" is a ridiculous distinction).
Disclaimer: To any puffed up douche-rugs out there that think these films are bland, pedestrian pieces of mass culture/a-historical shit...well, I give you my innocent childhood's sugar-stained middle finger.
Top 10 Epic Movie Scores
1. Back to the Future
Back to the Future has a reserved seat at my memory's best 80's soundtrack Oscar party. I still remember the night my dad brought the VHS home from one of his military stints in X third world country. He bought the tape duty-free on his way back to the states, so we all watched it that evening, and I couldn't sleep because Robert Zemeckis and Alan Silvestri knew exactly how to create a world.
2. Gattaca
Gattaca was the first science fiction movie to give me chills. Maybe it was the fuck-all disarming gorgeousness, the intentionally stimulating film filters, the genius acting, the minimalist aesthetic, or the wonderful restraint in its tone.
All the above and also the soundtrack.
3. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
This was another father-bought favorite that made its way into our tribal canon. I still (more often than I think is natural) think about this theme song. Mainly when I'm grocery shopping.
4. Jurassic Park
My grandparents would record this movie on VHS from the NBC and TNT airings that seemed to happen every year for a decade. They had it ready for us kids to watch every time we visited them in god-forsaken northern Wisconsin each winter. I still appreciate the dedication involved in recording the same TV-broadcasted film every year, just to remain current with the latest commercials and not lose their critical 9-year old audience.
5. The Shawshank Redemption
This movie has summer haze, patience, and slow brushstrokes. Thomas Newman wrote the flawless soundtrack to lonesome thought for this movie.
6. The Great Escape
Steve McQueen was my first childhood hero. This was the first hollywood badass super group caper I ever saw, and it was fist-crammed with 60's Hollywood kickassery. The score still recalls days spent pretending to be as cool and resilient to punishment as Lt. Hilts.
7. The Fifth Element
This movie's brilliance need not be explained. I still quote it weekly, and let scenes fill my brain any time they are situationally relevant, which occurs frequently and speaks to how this movie has infected my mind. Best infection ever.
8. The Fountain
I saw this movie opening night with a group of friends that were scorching hard on psilocybin (circa November 2006). Their eyes were bleeding by the credits, but I was too straight-laced to partake. This only proved that the film and its soundtrack survived both sober and ultra-fucked scrutiny.
9. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
This movie was awesome, and the score makes you feel like a knight of all that is good and right in the world. I mean geez, look no further: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGoWtY_h4xo
10. The Last Samurai
Hans Zimmer will be the first living composer hired by the inevitable post-apocalypse American tyrant to train and indoctrinate his mutants for battle against the equally formidable Chinese horde. Mark my words.
Pedo-Cannibal strikes again. Good show, Jim! Good show, old boy.
ReplyDeleteExcept that: by my calculations, you were 20 when the Fountain was released. And 20 is post-pubes, which means you weren't a kid--which should have been evident to you when, in the theater, you were surrounded by other post-pubes 20 y.o.'s scarfing down magic mushrooms--which kids don't need because they have impeccable imaginations.
I would have also included the Billy Madison soundtrack. I don't know that it's good but it definitely has a place forever burned into my Adam Sandler-ruined sub-conscious, as I'm sure it does in yours.
I cheated.
ReplyDeleteI cheated.
ReplyDeleteAnd to be fair, I didn't grow pubes until last year.
ReplyDelete