Film Composers of Note

Hello and welcome to Cinema Wellman. I am your host, David, and today we’re going to celebrate some of the greatest composers in film history.

We here at Cinema Wellman love movies and music and movie music! We know how important music can be to a film, so this is our 4th episode dealing with movie music, with others in the planning stages.

Before we begin, a quick reminder as to the difference between a movie’s soundtrack and a movie’s score.

The soundtrack of a movie is ALL of the sound in the film; dialogue, songs, sound effects, foley effects, AND the score.

The score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. It’s music composed for the film by a composer.

The film’s score is “non-diegetic” sound; it cannot be heard by the characters. “Diegetic” sound in a film is sound that can be heard by the characters. 

Scoring a film is a painstaking process involving a great number of people. It all starts with the composer who then brings in the orchestra, the sound engineers, mixers, editors, and other folks whose tasks I do not understand.

Even though the score is one of the most important pieces to a film’s “puzzle,” it’s often one of the last pieces to be added.

I’ve heard film composers tell stories of seeing posters and ads for a film they’re working on, along with a release date, and they aren’t DONE with the score yet!

Composers are often shown films by directors with “temporary” soundtracks “Frankensteined” from existing sources and even other films. This is done to have some sound behind the images while they’re being worked on in other phases of the production.

This sometimes proves difficult when directors become enamored with what’s temporarily added and ask the composer for “something like that.”

In the early days of silent movies, orchestras played music sent with the film, or improvised on their own if they didn’t have the music for a specific film. 

Having live music accompany your movie in the theater on a regular basis must have been amazing back in the day.

As I’ve mentioned before, Dakota and I were lucky enough to experience a live orchestra movie event a few years ago when we saw JAWS accompanied by a symphony orchestra.

It’s one of my all-time favorite movie experiences. Goosebump stuff. Great movie, great music, and we all know who wrote that music.

More on him later.

I have great respect for the men and women who provide the music that helps make our movie going experiences so unforgettable. 

My student film scores were just cuts from the Thief soundtrack album or other cuts by Tangerine Dream. 

Good enough for Michael Mann, good enough for me. 

We have eight film composers lined up today. The first four are part of an “honorable mention” category before we get to Cinema Wellman’s Mt. Rushmore of film composers.

Our four film composers in the extremely honorable mention category are Danny Elfman, Maurice Jarre, Franz Waxman, and Max Steiner.

We’ll begin with a composer you’ll be familiar with if you enjoy the films of Sam Raimi or Tim Burton, OR the music of “Oingo-Boingo!”

Danny Elfman (b. 1953)

Yes, he was the frontman of Oingo Boingo (think Weird Science) before starting a very successful career as a film composer (and some TV; theme from “The Simpsons”). 

He also found time to marry Bridget Fonda!

To date, Elfman has four Oscar Nominations; Milk, Big Fish, Men in Black, and Good Will Hunting. 

Elfman has zero Oscar wins to date, but I’m confident that will change sooner rather than later.

Before I mention other films scored by Elfman, I want to let you know that I’ll be throwing out a LOT of movie titles during this episode, and many of them are films that are considered all-time greats and classic cinema.

This is not coincidental in any way since each of those film’s scores were huge reasons why those films are so well regarded.

Music really is that important in movies!

So here are some other Elfman scored movies you may know (and love!): Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Spy Kids, Silver Linings Playbook, and one of my favorites, Midnight Run. 

Releasing next month is Elfman’s latest project, director Luc Besson’s Dracula.

I have a feeling I’ll be seeing that.

Next up is a film composer who was part of eight (8) films to be nominated for Best Picture; Maurice Jarre.

Maurice Jarre (1924-2009)

French born Maurice Jarre was a late bloomer who didn’t become interested in music until he was in his late teens. 

Against his father’s will, (we hear that an awful lot in success stories!) he enrolled at a music conservatory.

Jarre, as mentioned, was part of eight films to be nominated for Best Picture. He also earned nine Oscar nominations for his composing, and his three wins were all epic films; A Passage to India, Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia.

Jarre also composed the music for Dead Poets Society, Fatal Attraction, Best Picture nominee Ghost, a favorite of mine, Judex, and to prove that these film composers are as versatile as any actor/actress/or director…Top Secret!

So the person who scored five-time-Oscar-winner Doctor Zhivago ALSO scored  the Val Kilmer slapstick parody film Top Secret!

And Omar Sharif was in BOTH of those films!

Jarre’s final project before his passing in 2009 was a 2001 TV movie about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943.

Next up is a composer who worked with Billy Wilder four times and Alfred Hitchcock four times, so I’m sure he had some stories to tell. 

Franz Waxman (1906-1967)

Franz Waxman was born in 1906 in a part of Germany that is now part of Poland. He worked as a bank teller and paid for music lessons with his salary. 

If he worked with Wilder and Hitchcock so often, I’m sure it’s fair to say Mr. Waxman was a very patient man.

He earned a whopping 12 Oscar nominations during his career and won twice for A Place in the Sun, and the sensational Sunset Boulevard.

Waxman also scored the classic horror film Bride of Frankenstein, and one of my all-time favorites, Mr. Roberts.

Two of his collaborations with Hitchcock, Rebecca, Suspicion, were Best Picture nominees, while another, Rear Window, was NOT NOMINATED FOR BEST PICTURE?!?! How on earth does that happen? Hitchcock gets a Best Director nomination, but the film gets snubbed for Best Picture?!?  

Waxman’s final film was also a TV movie about WWII, which may be a thing for retiring composers?

Our final composer in this extremely honorable mention category is a true workhorse in every sense of the word.

Max Steiner (1888-1971)

Max Steiner was born in Austria-Hungary, which is now just Austria, in 1888. He was extremely musically gifted from a young age and even studied under Gustav Mahler which is a name that even I recognize. 

In 1934, Max Steiner composed the music for 36 films. THIRTY-SIX! 

And I’m thinking that his New Year’s Eve resolution at the end of ‘34 was to not be so damn lazy and apply himself since in 1935 he composed the music for 37 films!

Steiner earned 24 Oscar nominations over the course of his prolific career, and won three Oscars for Since You Went Away, The Informer, and Now, Voyager. 

Other classic Steiner scored films include the O.G. King Kong, my father’s favorite movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, and two of our all-time favorites both of which were Best Picture nominees; Casablanca and The Caine Mutiny.

Mr. Steiner’s final project before his passing in 1971 was 1969’s short family drama Hang Your Hat on the Wind which was about a Navajo boy rescuing a horse. 

Now on to:

Cinema Wellman’s

Mt. Rushmore of Film Composers

We will begin with a man who once said, “You can’t save a bad movie with a good score.”

Amen.

Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome, Italy in 1928 and he died there 92 years later leaving us with some of the most memorable movie scores in film history.

Morricone was a classmate of director Sergio Leone and they went on to collaborate on six films including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,  and Once Upon a Time in the West.

He received six Oscar nominations, Days of Heaven, The Mission, The Untouchables, Bugsy, Malena,  and The Hateful Eight.

Morricone’s only competitive Oscar was for The Hateful Eight which is along the lines of Martin Scorsese’s only Best Director win being for The Departed and Paul Newman’s only win for The Color of Money. 

He also won one of those “Honorary Oscars” for his “magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music BEFORE winning his “legit” Oscar, which is even more curious to me. 

Other films scored by the great Morricone include La Cage aux Folles, The Thing, Bulworth, State of Grace, Cinema Paradiso, and Orca, of all things!

One of the final projects Morricone worked on before his passing in 2020 was a short western comedy titled The Good, the Bad, and the Hungry, which is about three New Yorkers having a standoff for who can get the last donut in a “fee donut” box.

Well done, my friend. Well done. 

Our next Mt. Rushmore head belongs to a composer who is heavy on electronics and synth music and has scored some of the biggest blockbusters in recent history.

Hans Zimmer (b. 1957)

West German born Hans Zimmer is recognized as one of Hollywood’s most innovative talents and his innovation is one of the reasons a documentary about him is titled; Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel.

Zimmer has earned 12 Oscar Nominations to date; Rain Man, The Lion King, The Preacher’s Wife, As Good as It Gets, The Thin Red Line, The Prince of Egypt, Gladiator, Sherlock Holmes, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Dune: Part One and has won two Oscars, for The Lion King, Dune: Part One. 

 He also scored True Romance, Crimson Tide, The Dark Knight, Blade Runner 2049, and F1: The Movie.

Hans Zimmer is completely self-taught, which is mind blowing to me. I can’t imagine how that would even work.

Zimmer is older than me, but he’s showing no signs of slowing down. He’s working on the score for Dune: Part Three, and has also scored this season of "Euphoria," and will score the upcoming Harry Potter TV series. 

He’s also composed the music for such diverse projects as Twister, Thelma & Louise, Backdraft, The Rock, The Simpsons Movie, The Boss Baby, No Time to Die, and a bunch of Kung Fu Panda movies.

There’s no question of how eclectic Zimmer’s credits are.

Next up is a composer who came out of dramatic radio, and it certainly shows.

Bernard Hermann (1911-1975)

Bernard Hermann once said, “There’s one rule to film composing, and that is there are no rules.”

Hermann talked the talk and walked the walk on that statement since he was responsible for some of the most daring film scores of all time by not following the standard rules that seemed to apply at the time. 

He was a major influence on Danny Elfman and earned five Oscar nominations during his career. Those five films were Citizen Kane, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Anna and the King of Siam, Taxi Driver,  and Obsession.

Hermann’s lone Oscar win was for The Devil and Daniel Webster, and I do not recall any of that music.

He also scored Vertigo, North by Northwest, Cape Fear, and Psycho, and I remember a LOT of that music, so the Academy muffs it once again.

Alfred Hitchcock loved Hermann’s score for Psycho so much that he doubled his salary! Cha-ching!

I mentioned earlier that Hermann came out of dramatic radio, and one of the radio broadcasts he scored was Orson Welles “War of the Worlds” broadcast.

You may have heard of that.

One of Bernard Hermann’s final projects was scoring the horror sequel It Lives Again about an epidemic of monster babies sweeping across America. 

He was supposed to score Carrie, but died before post-production on the film began. I like to think that Pino Donaggio, who did score Carrie, tipped the baton to Hermann since the music when Carrie is “looking around” is a lot like the knife wielding music in Psycho.

And that leaves just one film composer left to talk about today, and that is the undeniable G.O.A.T. and Friend of Cinema Wellman…

🐐John Williams (b. 1932)🐐

There is no doubt that John Williams is the greatest composer in film history. When all is said and done, he may be considered one of the greatest composers in “history history,” not just film history. Not sure why there’s a difference, if a difference exists. 

Why can’t John Williams be mentioned in the same sentence as Bach, Mozart, and Ludwig van?!

Not in the “strict classical-era sense,” but Williams’ music is just as recognizable at this point. 

To date, John Williams has earned 54 Oscar nominations, second only to that hack Walt Disney’s 59.

I’m not going to list all 54 of those films, but when I start reeling off his films, your head will be spinning.

There are so many amazing accomplishments to mention that I’m just going to go “old school” list of facts!

*Williams is the ONLY person ever to be Oscar-nominated in seven consecutive decades.

*He played piano for Franz Waxman AND Bernard Hermann movie scores!

*He played piano on the film scores for The Apartment and West Side Story.

*He likes to use the term, “musical grammar,” so…a fan!

*Five of his Oscar nominations are in a hated category of mine; Best Original Song, including the song from the terrible movie Yes, Giorgio!

*His son, Joseph, is the lead singer of TOTO! Did you know that?!? TOTO!

*John Williams was awarded an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, well deserved and much more meaningful than one of those honorary Oscars.

*He scored the “Holy Trinity” of Disaster Movies; The Poseidon Adventure,  Earthquake, and The Towering Inferno!

*Williams scored  JFK, Home Alone, The Patriot, The Eiger Sanction, Black Sunday, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan,  and 3 Harry Potter films!

*He scored Kubrick’s The Killers as “Johnny” Williams!

*I mentioned the 54 Oscar nominations, and wanted to add that 5 wins came from those nominations, and the total could have been five times that and no one would have complained. Williams’ five Oscar wins were for Fiddler on the Roof,  E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler’s List, JAWS, and Star Wars.

*Before JAWS there was Gilligan’s Island (20 episodes)!

*Before Star Wars there was Lost in Space (5 episodes)! And he wrote that theme on a ukulele. 

*John Williams has worked with directors Chris Columbus, Brian De Palma, Clint Eastwood, John Frankenheimer, Alfred Hitchcock, Ron Howard, Barry Levinson, George Lucas, George Miller, Alan Parker, Arthur Penn, Sydney Pollack, Don Siegel, Oliver Stone, William Wyler, and, of course Steven Spielberg.

*With the upcoming Spielberg film Disclosure Day, Williams will have provided the music for 30 of Steven Spielberg’s 35 films.

*Williams has scored ALL of Spielberg’s films except Duel, The Color Purple, Bridge of Spies, Ready Player One, and West Side Story.

Steven Spielberg once said of ‘Johnny’; “It’s the purest form of art I’ve ever experienced from any human being.”

And THAT is good enough for us.

That’s a wrap from here at Cinema Wellman as we did our best to celebrate eight of the greatest film composers of all time.

A special thanks to Dakota who suggested today’s topic making this kind of a “request” episode. I loved putting it together and I’m happy to say that there are at least three more “request” episodes in the works for this season. If you ever have an idea you’d like to see us explore here at Cinema Wellman, don’t hesitate to let us know!

We hope you join us again next time as we break down the Top 10 and Bottom 5 for the month of January. As of right now, that’s a total of 28 movies, and yet not much has registered on either end, so that may be a shortie of an episode!

I won’t take up too much of your time so you’ll have more time to work on those New Year’s resolutions.

Until then, take care.