OUR 10 FAVORITE FILM COMPOSERS

BY THE FRISKY FELINES AT FREE KITTENS🐈‍⬛

We won’t bother catsplaining the importance of music to a movie. Instead, we’ll just sugeest you try watching Halloween without John Carpenter’s urgent keyboard-driven score. That being said, Carpenter didn’t make our list, but the legends who did are responsible for diverse bodies of work that not only greatly contribute to the films they were composed for, most of them are also impressive pieces of stand-alone music. 

The following consists of 10 composers, along with 10 of the scores that best represent their range and talents (from iconic to underrated), as well as the one we feel is their greatest overall and has us purring the loudest. Feel free to disagree, but like your dog, you’d be wrong.😸

10) HANS ZIMMER - Thelma & Louise; The Lion King; Broken Arrow; Crimson Tide; Gladiator; Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl; Black Hawk Down; Inception; Dunkirk; Dune. BEST SCORE: Interstellar

9) JOHN BARRY - From Russia with Love; Goldfinger; Thunderball; You Only Live Twice; The Lion in Winter; Midnight Cowboy; Mary, Queen of Scots; The Black Hole; Dances with Wolves; Chaplin. BEST SCORE: Raise the Titanic (it’s almost the sole thing that makes the movie watchable)

8) DIMITRI TIOMKIN - The High and the Mighty; Gunfight at the O.K. Corral; High Noon; The Alamo; Duel in the Sun; The Old Man and the Sea; The Fall of the Roman Empire; The Thing from Another World; Dial M for Murder; Lost Horizon. BEST SCORE: The Guns of Navarone

7) JAMES HORNER - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; 48 Hrs.; Aliens; An American Tail; Willow; Field of Dreams; Braveheart; Titanic; Deep Impact; Avatar. BEST SCORE: Apollo 13

6) MAX STEINER - King Kong; Gone with the Wind; Angels with Dirty Faces; Jezebel; Dark Victory; Sergeant York; Now Voyager; Rhapsody in Blue; The Caine Mutiny; The Searchers. BEST SCORE: Casablanca

5) ELMER BERNSTEIN - Sweet Smell of Success; To Kill a Mockingbird; Birdman of Alcatraz; The Magnificent Seven (1960); The Great Escape; Hawaii; Thoroughly Modern Millie; National Lampoon’s Animal House; Airplane!; Cape Fear (1991). BEST SCORE: The Ten Commandments

 

4) JERRY GOLDSMITH - Planet of the Apes; Papillon; Chinatown; The Wind and the Lion; Logan’s Run; Alien; Star Trek: The Motion Picture; Gremlins; Total Recall; L.A. Confidential. BEST SCORE: The Omen 

3) ENNIO MORRICONE - For a Few Dollars More; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Once Upon a Time in the West; The Bird with the Crystal Plumage; Exorcist II: The Heretic (the movie is balls, but the score is wonderfully eclectic); The Thing (1982); Once Upon a Time in America; The Mission; Bugsy; The Hateful Eight. BEST SCORE: The Untouchables

2) BERNARD HERRMANN - Citizen Kane; The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951); North by Northwest; The 7th Voyage of Sinbad; Journey to the Center of the Earth; Psycho; Mysterious Island; Cape Fear (1962); Obsession; Taxi Driver (the guy certainly left on a high note). BEST SCORE: Vertigo

1) JOHN WILLIAMS (who else?) - The Poseidon Adventure; The Towering Inferno; Jaws; Star Wars (and its sequels); Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Superman (1978); E.T. the Extraterrestrial; JFK; Schindler’s List; Saving Private Ryan. BEST SCORE: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Revisiting PURPLE RAIN in 4K

PURPLE RAIN 40th Anniversary Edition (4K UHD)

1984 / 111 min

FROM WARNER BROS / #InPartnershipwithWB

Review by Mr. Paws😼

Man, talk about your period pieces…

In the time honored tradition of pop stars making that jump to the big screen, Purple Rain was the feature film debut of Prince. And for all intents and purposes, it remains his only significant contribution to American cinema. But what a contribution it was.

As “The Kid,” Prince certainly doesn’t embarrass himself like Neil Diamond did a few years earlier with The Jazz Singer. Nor do I think he was reserving a spot on his shelf for an Oscar (at least for his acting). What he does do is turn his style, persona and music into a pop culture phenomenon. Even today, 40 years later, when we think of Prince, it’s the music & imagery from Purple Rain that generally comes to mind…

 

…perhaps even more than the film itself, which has always been sort of a mixed bag. Arguably a bit darker than the typical “soundtrack” movie of the 80s, it’s nevertheless a derivative story that’s sporadically engaging, with an overall aesthetic which dates it far more than the music. Speaking of which, the music overshadows every other aspect of the film (as it should), mostly presented through dynamic performances, not just by the Purple One himself, but Morris Day and Apollonia 6.

When the stage is littered with Legos.

The musical numbers are also the best reason for Prince fans and lovers of all-things-80s to check out Purple Rain in 4K. These sequences are visually vibrant and colorful, greatly enhanced by the remixed 5.1 audio track (the original 2.0 audio is also an option). But considering this is the film’s 40th anniversary and Prince is another musical icon who died way too young, some new retrospective bonus material should have been included, Sure, the videos are nice, as is the brief featurette, but how about a little something on the film & artist’s legacy?

Watching Purple Rain today is kind of like opening up a time capsule that you personally remember burying. While the soundtrack album is arguably more iconic (and timeless) than the movie itself, the latter captures a moment in time when Prince’s cultural impact extended beyond the music. As such, this is one of those 80s films that's probably best appreciated by those who were there.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTE - First Avenue: The Road to Pop Royalty.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director Albert Magnoli, producer Robert Cavallo & director of photography Donald E. Thorin.

8 MUSIC VIDEOS

DIGITAL COPY