Movie Maven

There's a lovely post by Neddie Jingo today... it's mainly about his experience listening to John Barry's theme from Midnight Cowboy, but he expanded to talk about Movie Music in general, and the sounds that define a film. Here's a juicy little excerpt:

When was the last time you heard Movie Music? When I was a sprout, it was completely ubiquitous. "Moon River." "Che Sera, Sera." "Lara's Theme" from Doctor Zhivago. "The Godfather." "Suicide is Painless." "The Sound of Music." "Born Free." "The Look of Love," from Casino Royale. "Never on Sunday." "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head." A major studio release was simply not made unless some hummable, radio-friendly, but ultimately adult -- what was then considered commercial -- piece of music could be identified with it. Poking around in preparing this post, I do find orchestral theme music associated with contemporary flicks, but can you hum a single bar of anything from, say, A Beautiful Mind? A hundred clams say you can't. There they all are. Say hi.

Neddie's enthusiasm led me to find more of Barry's work, which included the scores for Out of Africa, Casino Royale, and several Bond movies, including the original score from Dr. No. Unfortunately I am not a girl who can truthfully describe herself as a "music person." I am shamed to admit I haven't paid much attention to songs in film in the past, even though there are many who helped define the film. After all, what would Casablanca be without "As Time Goes By?" Or Star Wars without its pounding Darth Vader theme? Or, a bit more recently, High Fidelity without Jack Black's rendition of "Let's Get it On," or Magnolia without Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple and Jon Brion? But frankly, I remember High Fidelity because the film is about music, and I remember Magnolia because I have an unhealthy obsession with Aimee Mann. The only other recent films I remember the music from are biopics about musicians- Walk the Line, Ray, etc., which don't really count.

Just a thought to chew on along with your overpriced popcorn and Big Gulp.