James Horner

Hello dear reader, this will be a first. It’s now been over three years since I started blogging about films and my little trips to the cinema. There have been over forty films on which I have given my humble opinion. There has been good, Whiplash. There has been bad, Prometheus. And there has definitely been ugly, A Good Day to Die Hard. There has however never been a blog solely devoted to a person. That is about to change. 

I woke up today and like many days, I was on autopilot for the first five minutes. Lying in bed at just after seven o’clock in the morning, trying to snap the world into focus and then it happened. At the end of the BBC news on Radio 5, and almost treated like a ‘we have ten seconds to fill, lets chuck this in to make up the time’, it was announced that composer James Horner had died at the age of sixty one. He’d been killed in a plane crash and then they moved on to the sports news.

It was now safe to say that I was awake…

Sometimes you hear things that really upset you. News stories that sneak up behind you, tap you on the shoulder and then sucker punch you straight in the stomach as you turn around. After I heard the news about James Horner my first instinct was to double check what I’d just heard on the internet. Surely they couldn’t be talking about ‘that’ James Horner. As I picked up my phone with the intention on blitzing through my overnight twitter feed I was hoping against hope that I was culturally unaware of some great twentieth century composer who also happened to carry the same name as my favourite film score author. A different James Horner that had silently passed me by. Perhaps a man who occasionally filled the Royal Albert Hall with powerful and moving concertos. A man who’s newest opus would have garnished a two hour special on Sky Arts or the Southbank Show, had it still been running.  

A slight wave of panic that had been floating of shore was now headed at full tsunami speed towards my consciousness and a large part of my childhood memories.  The first tweet I found was from Empire magazine, the second was from IMDb. Then came tweets from Russell Crowe and Ron Pearlman. It would seem that there is and was only one James Horner and he was now gone. 

I think the reason this news has upset me so much is because Mr Horner played a very large part in me becoming interested in film and becoming a fan. I can remember watching films back when I was still in single digits and being totally swept away by their musical scores. The very first film score I remember is John Williams ‘Star Wars’ and I am old enough, or lucky enough to have heard it in the cinema when I was five years old. However the second and third film scores I can actively remember thinking ‘I want those records’ were Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond the Stars and Nicholas Meyer directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Now Battle Beyond the Stars is a great film. Released in 1980, It’s basically The Magnificent Seven in space. It has Ricahrd ‘John-Boy Walton’ Thomas in it. Along with John Saxon, Sybil Danning, George Peppard and Robert Vaughan, who was also in the original Magnificent Seven film. It also has a claim to fame as being one of the first films James Cameron ever worked on. This films triumph however, is its music. It complements the film perfectly. Glorious space combat and cheesy dialogue are brought to another level by this orchestral masterpiece. It won’t be a film that many people have heard of, let alone seen but if you ever see it listed on your TV schedules, make time to see it. It will be 104 minutes of your time well spent. 

Then we get to The Wrath of Khan. Quite simply the best Star Trek film there is and if you don’t’ think so, I’m sorry you’re wrong. From the opening credits to the closing funeral (Spoiler alert, someone dies) its music grabs you by the scruff of the neck and pushes you through nearly two hours of the greatest Space Opera you are ever likely to see on the big or small screen. The Soundtrack only has nine pieces of music on it and there’s no filler. All nine tracks, from the ‘Main Title’ to ‘Enterprise Clears Moorings’ are perfect and heighten the story of a cold and vengeful man that time forgot. 

Then we get to Aliens. In 1986 James Cameron released a follow up to Ridley Scott’s Alien. Now Alien and it score, written by Jerry Goldsmith, was and is a completely different animal to its sequel and comparing them isn’t exactly fair. Alien has a haunted house in space feel to it, whereas Aliens is a full blown ‘them vs us’ war movie. In fact Aliens tag line is ‘this time its war’. If you like Alien, and why wouldn’t you. It has the War Doctor suffering from some serious indigestion problems, that’s fine. But if you like Alien more than Aliens then I don’t think we can be friends. For its soundtrack alone it wins hands down. From its hypnotic opening lullaby to its ‘Resolution and Hyperspace finale, I have yet to come across a soundtrack that complements a film as much as James Horner’s does here. It’s quite simply breath taking at times and when you consider the time constraints James Cameron forced him to work under because of editing issues and reshoots, his final score is even more impressive. If you get the chance listen to the track called ‘Bishops Countdown’. Since its original use in Aliens It’s been used in at least three more films that I can think of, including the first Die Hard film. I’ve seen it used in adverts and even a computer game. Aliens was the first soundtrack on CD ever bought and I still own it today. The covers broken and the case is cracked but I’m never going to replace it or download the digital version from iTunes. It’s a soundtrack that I can listen to again and again without it feeling repetitive and the only other soundtrack that I can even come close to saying the same about is John Ottman’s ‘ The Usual Suspects’. Although I may be slightly biased there.

He also wrote the soundtrack for the two biggest films in box office history. Avatar and Titanic, both James Cameron films. Now leaving aside the charming Celine Dion (wont somebody please leave aside the charming Celine Dion) Titanic is another soundtrack that fits the mood of the film perfectly and when it effectively turns into an action movie for the last hour (Spoiler alert, it sinks) the soundtrack comes into its own. There’s not much that can be said about Avatar that hasn’t already been said before. I’ve heard it described as ‘Dances with Wolves’ in space and even ‘an exercise in ego’ but the next time you watch it, assuming there will be a next time that is, don’t’ concentrate of what you’re seeing on screen. Listen to what you’re hearing on screen. You maybe in for a pleasant surprise. 

James Horner has been my favourite film composer for as long as I can remember. He always came across as passionate about what he did in interviews and magazine articles. From soundtracks as diverse as Field of Dreams to Braveheart, he always tried to bring something new to the table and saddens me a lot that there won’t be any more. His Titanic soundtrack has sold over thirty million copies alone, he composed music for over one hundred and fifty different films, TV programs and documentaries and he won two Oscars for his work.

Goodbye Mr Horner, you will be missed…

Useful Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlzkGd7qaMY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpW2AjQbdbs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOFHi7SRMoU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFcfHSOti9s&list=PLwrjzV6EdAwxSq0DQQAAZ06ZnuzXuSgfK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdoMajMVFQk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVssxumkHI4

Whiplash

Hello dear reader. I need to start by facing up to a problem. Over my recent blogs I have been extolling the virtues of various actors that seem to be trying to raise the bar, when it comes to talent and performance, so high that you'd need to pop down to your local B&Q (other D.I.Y. stores are available) and buy yourself a sturdy stepladder to even get close to them. First came Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game playing Alan Turning flawlessly. Then up popped Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything playing Steven Hawking better than the man himself. Then Steve Carell decided to get in on the act playing John Du Pont in Foxcatcher. A character that takes verbal intimidation and the premise that money and the power that comes with it are really not the best of bed fellows. Now apart from the fact that these three roles are about real people they have nothing in common apart from the brilliance of the acting and the quality of the script. My problem is that J K Simmons may have just pulled the rug out from underneath all of them.

Whiplash tells the tale of a young drummer Andrew Nieman, played by Miles Teller. Nieman has managed to land a place in one New Yorks best and most cut throat music schools, Shaffer. Nieman is a focused and driven young man. He spends hours practicing and is determined to be remembered as a music great, if not genius and not to slip away into the annals of ambiguity and banality. There does not seem to be a sacrifice that he will not make in order to achieve his goals. So much so that he ends a relationship with a women for no other reason than she's not as import as his music. Nieman is the product of a single parent family. His mother having left him and his father when he was young. The father being played here by Paul Reiser is nothing special and that may well be the point. A high school teacher or if you believe others 'a failed writer' with seemingly no aspersions of grandeur. A father who just tries to provide for his son and spends his days mostly looking down instead of up. Paul Reiser is very much 'acting by numbers here. He really isn't given that much to do. But that said there are only so many ways you can sit in a cinema and eat popcorn or give a supportive shoulder to cry on...

Then we get to the villain of the piece. Most of you until now will have been unfamiliar with the name J K Simmons but you will almost certainly remember his face when you see it. Simmons is one of those supporting actors who have the talent to play very diverse characters. Everything from J Jonah Jameson, the hyperactive editor of the Daily Bugle in the original Spiderman films (if you need your memory jogging just think grey wedge haircut and very loud) to the supportive and understanding father in Juno. Simmons has never been the leading man. He's never been given a script before and told to just take the brakes off and see what happens. In Whiplash he is nothing short of (Insert superlative here). Simmons is the perfect fit to play Fletcher and It’s been a long time since i saw an actor play a roll this well. In fact I'd go so far as to say that this performance could be mentioned in the same breath as Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross or Kevin Spacey playing Buddy Ackerman in Swimming With Sharks, it's that good. Fletcher's main purpose in life, as a teacher at Shaffer, is to hand pick the best students at the school, put them in his studio band and then drives them to point of breaking. His rationale being that unless the students are pushed out of their comfort zone then they'll never know if they have what it takes to be considered great. The other reason for the constant bullying and verbal executions that he delivers is that Fletcher will not except anything other than perfection from his musicians. He has such a hold over his class that even after being involved in a very big car crash on the way to a competition, that leaves the car totalled and on its roof and with Nieman left covered in blood and bruises, he still runs to the building in order not to miss his opportunity

Fletcher feeds on fear and ultimately this becomes the weapon that changes his life. (Slight spoiler alert ahead) Nieman fart and Fletcher both end up leaving Shaffer. They are fundamentally two sides of the same coin and although they don't want to admit it they need each other to be the best at what they do. 

Both Miller and Simmons are at the top of their game here. They both leave everything on the screen and have an intensity about them that a lot of actors just can't replicate. I think I'm right in saying that Miller is in every scene and he plays the drums himself. Simmons also plays piano in this and plays it well. For a film that was shot in nineteen days then edited together and shown at the Sundance film festival less that ten weeks after is nothing short of remarkable. Turn around on a film of this quality is just not done in Hollywood. There will always be investors that want input in the creative process. Then there are test screenings and the inevitable re-edits. Whoever it was at Sony Films that had faith in writer director Damien Chazelle to just leave him alone and let him get on with it should be commended. Whiplash should be on everyone's viewing list. If you have reservations about watching it because you don't like jazz or you think that it's just not the sort of film you'll enjoy. Take those reservations, put them in a box and then leave them in a cupboard somewhere. Then go and see what is almost certainly going to be one of the best films released in 2015 or any year for that matter. 

Twitter Review:

There are no two words in the English language more harmful than ‘good job’.

#J

#K

#Simmons

Useful Links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582802/?ref_=tt_rec_tti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d_jQycdQGo

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?FID=138922

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2SLAgrouiw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McqCf1MsM-A