Ellens post about reference DVD’s worth a purchase had me realizing that how I rate a movie in my personal library is extremely effected by the editing choices in the soundtrack.
Music can turn the tide of my opinion on almost anything I watch, if one or two moments of the scoring and how these are tied to a scene capture me. The movie shoots up into ‘worthwhile’, almost irregardless of content.

One of the reasons The Ghost &MM has stayed a favorite since I found it. Is Bernard Herrmann’s score, if someone would plop me down on a stormy beach with remote headphones and that score for a week I’d finally relax. The Prelude and The Sea perfectly captures the romance of the deep blue and sailor’s eternal struggle for survival upon it..

End of the affair: again I liked the music and a few good lines. Some few lines hich sounded straight out of a semi literate novel, which I discovered it is. First time I caught it on Sat, saw part, but some of the dialogue intrigued me enough to catch it mostly in whole on another night. I have not bought the DVD but did purchase the ST.

“The Red Violin” the concept of the storyline fascinated me. Because we all know instruments exist cherished and valued that have survived for 300 years. That’s older than most of the trees in our neighborhoods, and its extraordinary to contemplate what old trees and old instruments have stood mute witness to in history.

I’m nuts for Rob Roy Braveheart and Dances With Wolves partially due to plot but particularly the use of high drama scoring. My Irish/Indian roots love movies geared to those sounds. Band of Brothers while I think the series is very very good, what first drew me to it, and keep me watching were a few particular melodies, which stick like a burr to the humming portion of my brain. I believe Rob Roy has the most realistic sword fight ever depicted in cinema. The raw gritty unromantic use of more archaic weaponry often degenerated into the man who won did so simply because he could lift the sheer weight of the sword a few minutes longer than his opposer during the exhaustion of war. But the reason the movie sticks (and remains) a favorite hinges around moments where the scoring was extremely effective to the scene.

Ex: the very effective moments, violent and poignant, when Rob R’s representative is being waylaid in the woods. The scene starts fast paced, with Gaelic Reels, and dancing by the fire, and the track “Blood Sport” flipping between the village enjoying the evening fireside then to, - the increasing fast paced hunt in the forest. When Rob’s Man is finally slaughtered its to a haunting accompaniment of Karen Matheson singing Ailein Duinn.

If your like me, (and get into to music way too much at times) I had to find the translation of this piece and it gave me further satisfaction to discover, that all-though this song sounds like a love lament (and is) the last stanza translates to:

“I would take a drink, though everyone would be scandalized,
Of your heart's blood after you were drowned.
Ò hì I would walk with you
Hì ri bhò.... o hò,
Brown-haired Alan, Ò hì, I would walk with you”

He’s bleeding, of course and subsequently dumped in the lake. HOW apropos!

So are there others (as me) who realize that ¾’s of my satisfaction (with a get out of jail free card issued for poor acting, holes in plot etc) is directly related to my involvement and preference for the music scoring the film!? No wonder I ended in Outlaw, I guess it’s a fore given realizing how I rate movies by their sound, so its very important the sound is produced well.

Agree on those selections. I think the theme from Miller's Crossing adds greatly to the film. While not thematic I the song at the end of Waking Ned Devine moves me.

[This message has been edited by Garrett Adams (edited August 07, 2003).]

A side note, but interesting (to me).

My sis, on one of her many trips to New York (she's a Broadway musical star, and yes, lest she read this post, I MUST say 'star') met Liam (I don't know how to spell his last name). My Grammmaw MacGreggor, when she was alive, always told us that we were descendants of Rob Roy MacGreggor, so I did some research aways back.

My sis told Liam about it and he invited me to see the play he was soon to open in and talk about the subject, as he, of course, did research for the role. Actually, my sister told him that I said he wore the wrong plaid in the film. He's a very cool guy.

On subject, I bought the SACD soundtrack disc of A Beautiful Mind because I liked the music so much. It's really a great disc. There's no argument here that music amplifies the emotional content, and therefore greatly enhances the movie.

If you like soundtrack music, you should get into classical music listening. So much of soundtrack music (some un-named composers especially) is almost literally stolen from the classics. Example, the "Gladiator" soundtrack is mostly ripped off from Wagner's "Ring" operas, with liberal doses of Holst's "Mars, Bringer of War" from "The Planets". Shostakovich is routinely "borrowed" from by a very (VERY) well known film composer. The list goes on and on. Even the "old time" film composers did this; Dimitri Tiomkin routinely "borrowed" from Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Is it any wonder that John Williams is conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra?

Some other composer's music often used directly or the inspiration for movies... and my favorites...
The 3 B's... Bach, Beethoven & Brahms...
Mozart Jr...
Verdi...
Rimsky-Korsakov...
Shostakovich...
Puccini...
Ottorino Respighi...
Stravinsky...
Copland...
Bernstein...
Carl Orff (Carmina Burrana) WOW...
and you already mentioned Wagner.

... it's great music, it's familiar, and it's free... if these guys got royalties... holy Fort Knox!

...Which brings to mind the James Bond movie formula, which has had some significant pop hits. Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Louis Armstrong, Nancy Sinatra, Paul McCartney... quite another cup of tea.

[This message has been edited by AGAssarsson (edited August 08, 2003).]

Miss Lena, In that case, the soundtrack to 'Patriot Games' would be right up your alley.

Sanjay