Please welcome author and blogger, Nathan Crockett to Reads & Reels!
He and I have a lot in common, we both are devoted cinephiles who believe that the music makes the film! What about you guys, would you agree? Think about your favourite movies and tell me what first springs to mind!
When many of us think about our all-time favorite and most cherished films, we not only remember the characters and story but we remember the MUSIC. Sadly a lot of people overlook this. Some might even ask “Is the score of a film really that important?” To answer that question I would point to George Lucas. When he received the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award he said, “I would like to thank John Williams, without whom, I don’t think the Star Wars movies would have even worked.”
Considering how massive Star Wars is that’s quite a statement and to be perfectly honest, I 100% agree. One of the best examples in my opinion is when the Millennium Falcon is being pulled towards the Death Star. Then scene is almost a minute long and it’s very simple. It’s just one ship slowly moving closer to another ship. But that John Williams score makes it feel so big and epic, like something really important is happening.
This is the case with several other movies. Do you think Jaws would have been as suspenseful without John Williams’s music? Do you think watching Christopher Reeve fly across the screen would have been as magical with John Williams Superman march? Do you think the reveal of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park would have been as jaw dropping without that beautiful score by John Williams?
As you may have noticed, I like John Williams. However he’s not the only one. Several other movies have been taken to a new level by great music such as Back To the Future, Tim Burton’s Batman, and Terminator 2 just to name a few.
There’s a great video on YouTube that shows the shower scene from Psycho, one of the most iconic movie scenes ever but this version is without the music and frankly, it doesn’t work. I’m sure you’ve also noticed that all these films I’ve referenced so far are pretty old. There are some modern films that have really great scores such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Wonder Woman, but it is becoming less and less common. I believe that’s a big factor in why it is becoming less and less common for people to really remember and really talk about films that are 10-20 years old.
Yes I’m sure part of that is because our society has changed and people’s attention spans are much shorter than they used to be but once more I believe the other reason is because few films, even really good films, truly take advantage of having a great score. If you’re a big movie fan I challenge you. Think of your all-time favorite scenes. The ones that really hit home, the ones that are truly special, the ones you really remember. I would be willing to bet most of them if not all of them are accompanied by a great score.
I’m not suggesting music alone can make the movie great. The Star Wars prequels proved that. Say what you will about those films but the music is fantastic! I’m also not implying that the current films that are coming out aren’t good. A lot of them are amazing. I just feel there are less and less truly iconic films that are coming out. If you want that iconic film, the one that’s talked about more than 20 years later I believe you need a great story, great characters, and last but certainly not least, great MUSIC!
About the Blogger
Hello everyone. Thank you for taking an interest in my passion. I’m not going to bore you with trivial information about where I went to school or anything like that. Instead I’m going to offer something that hopefully you will actually find interesting.
I like a lot of older fashion things. Although I understand the need for machines to mass produce I still miss the idea of items being hand crafted, I love my typewriter, I like record players, I prefer watching movies on DVD or Blu-ray rather than stream (Mostly because I like the behind the scenes stuff), and I love older music. For all you young people, I don’t consider the 90’s old. I’m talking 50’s and 60’s which is even before my time. It’s a shame, I would have loved to see Bobby Darin live.
I never thought I would become a writer. For a good part of my life I actually avoided it because I have always been horrible with grammar. When I was eighteen I started to really get into comics and wanted to write my own. t started out just as a hobby but I was beginning to love it more and more.
One day I was at the mall with my mom and I suddenly felt this urge to write. My ideas were calling, yelling, demanding that I attend to them immediately. (Most likely only other writers will understand what I’m saying.) Neither my mom nor I had a pen and this was before smart phones. So I spent my last three dollars buying a ridiculously over priced Disney princess pen then went to the food court to write on napkins. That’s when I knew…
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