Film Scores, Composers and Themes

I am one that likes a good film score (Williams, Goldsmith, Bernstein, Morricone, Poledouris, Silvestri, etc.). However, it seems lately that Hans Zimmer and his minions at Remote Control (formerly Music Ventures) have been taking all of the film score jobs. As a result, all film scores have been sounding the same (or ripoff other film scores). And it only seems to be getting worse.

The reason why I decided to create this thread was from watching the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides trailer. Right after it started, I started hearing the Hans Zimmer/Klaus Badelt (one of Zimmer's minions) piece "He's A Pirate" and began getting a headache. Not just because of the overuse of the piece but also because when the first movie was being made, Alan Silvestri was supposed to score the film (he had worked with Gore Verbinski on Mouse Hunt and The Mexican). However, his music got rejected by Jerry Bruckheimer...just because it had flutes. Instead he got Zimmer's team on and gave us the rehashed material heard here.

Recently, I had read about Verbinski's new film Rango. I had really hoped that Silvestri would reteam with Verbinski for the score. Who did Verbinski get? Hans Zimmer again. Seriously, have filmmakers gotten to the point where if they have a film score they just let Hans Zimmer do it because that's the only person they can think of?

At least Zimmer isn't doing Superman.

i like Zimmer theres lots of things he does well... his work on Christopher nolans films is particularly good

Trent reznor/Atticus ross's score for the social network was amazing...as was Clint mansells score for the black swan... Michael Giacchino seems to be ubiquitous in hollywood now

edited 13th Dec '10 11:06:20 PM by faradayangel

I actually wished Nolan had gotten David Julyan for Inception's score. Julyan has composed Nolan's less mainstream films (Memento and The Prestige) so I feel that him scoring Inception would have not only been Nolan thinking outside of the box but also a way to give a non-Remote Control guy a shot.

Recent scores that I've enjoyed:

• David Hirschfelder's Legend of the Guardians score. This is the guy that should score Superman, seeing that Snyder and him have already struck gold once.
• Victor Reyes's Buried score. Quite good for an unknown composer on a low-budget Spanish film.
• Michael Giacchino's Let Me In score. Entertaining throwback to the films of the 1980's.

I hadn't really thought of that... I associate Zimmer with Nolan but hadn't noticed him elsewhere. Blergh I feel like I'll remember as soon as I get out of this thread.

I liked Tyler Bates. Morricone's tracks from Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Once Upon A Time In The West I like best.

I really liked what Zimmer did for Inception, though. Not to say that I don't like the other guy, but the "Non je ne regrette rien" theme was

edited 13th Dec '10 11:13:24 PM by melloncollie

Speaking about Morricone, Zimmer is pretty bad at ripping off Morricone. Listen to At World's End and Sherlock Holmes. Nothing more than bland imitations of Morricone (and the latter cheated Marvin Hamlisch's score to The Informant out of an Oscar nomination).

aw, c'mo discombubalate was an awesome track... anyway in recent year i've never heard an scor as powerful as Zimmer's score for inception. especially because of the whole BWOOOONGG thing. powerful and rises the suspense to whole lots of level

OK, dude. What the hell's your beef with Zimmer? Did he, like, steal your girlfriend or something? I think he's done some pretty good work. Sherlock Holmes is my favorite score he's done.

My problem with Zimmer? He blatantly copies other people's work, he constantly reuses his own work, uses bullying tactics to force himself and his people onto films, trains other composers to copy him and create a supremacy on film scoring and often gives himself sole credit on scores that he did not do all the work (see a setlist on a Zimmer or apprentice of Zimmer score, you will find at least three or more people on them instead of one or two on many better composers' scores).

Film score enthusiasts hate the guy and he puts other, more talented composers out of work.

edited 19th Dec '10 9:12:06 PM by Buscemi

...OK sure whatevs. I'm still not sold that it's actually "film score enthusiasts" and not just you, but I guess I see where you're coming from. It's certainly true that I had no idea Gore Verbinski did any work at all on POTC 1 for a long time...

Last film score (that I have encountered, not the most recent) that I really liked was the Crimson Tide theme.

No love for Bernard Herrmann?

North By Northwest has awesome music.

Herrmann is one of the legends. Without Herrmann, you wouldn't have guys like Danny Elfman, Christopher Young or Marco Beltrami around to carry on his legacy.

I have his score to The Day The Earth Stood Still on my iPod.

edited 21st Dec '10 8:27:43 PM by Buscemi

Hermann work in Hitchcock movies is what really made them awesome. also I'm gonna give another mention to the awesomeness that is Nathan Johnson score for the greatness that is Brick

Pretty much anyone and everyone who's ever scored for a PIXAR Feature or Short film, particularly, Randy and Thomas Newman and Michael Giacchino. No matter what anyone says, I will always think Danny Elfman and John Williams are awesome for their works on TNMBC & Sleepy Hallow and Indianna Jones respectively. I also think a lot of credit should go to Julian Nott for his excellent work on all the Wallace And Gromit films, Jim Dooley for his work on Madagascar (and Pushing Daisies), and the Sherman Brothers along for every single one of their iconic Disney pieces.

I saw Tron Legacy today and this continues my statement that Hans Zimmer is killing film composing. The original score by Daft Punk I imagine is fine (having a nice Wendy Carlos-esque feeling during the unaltered bits). However, Zimmer was brought in at the last minute to do additional music (apparently Disney thought Daft Punk wasn't mainstream enough). So in the end, the majority of the score (which is now Zimmer) sounds like a bad ripoff of Inception and the first two Terminator films.

I hope Disney allows Daft Punk to release their unaltered score. Due to the additional work by Zimmer, the album has been getting roundly trashed by critics.

As for the additional score matter, why didn't Disney attempt to get Thomas Newman? He can score the future and he doesn't rip everyone else off.

On the lighter side of things, I also saw True Grit. I would not be surprised if Carter Burwell got an Oscar nomination for the score. It's beautiful and a relaxing break from constant Zimmer scores.

edited 29th Dec '10 7:47:21 PM by Buscemi

I'm not sure where you are getting "trashed" from: Reviews of the Tron: Legacy soundtrack I've seen range from amazing to average, but I haven't seen any reviews that are actually bad.

as for the ripoff bit...You do know that Hans Zimmer composed the score for Inception, right?

Yes. He copied his own score (Zimmer is often guilty of this, along with James Horner and David Newman).

As for the reviews, I saw a few reviews calling it Daft Punk's worst album (due to Disney forcing changes) and it seemed that others were following suit.

I'm gonna have to ask you to show me just two pieces by Zimmer from different flicks that sound alike (now that I think about it, it seems pretty easy...but still)

Most of the soundtrack's I've heard from Zimmer (usually only in the background of the movie, not by itself) sounds the same to me. The Dark Knight's soundtrack is pretty much a clear example of every song sounding almost the same, at least to me. YMMV

Gahh James Horner. I was watching Avatar the first time, there is this little riff in it that is identical to his Troy soundtrack. It was very jarring as I am big music in movies person. Then I saw the new Karate Kid with the family last night. The score has moments that are SO similar to parts of Avatar I could barely stand it. I keep thinking I am watching something else its annoying.

Yeah, it's not like I disagree but you could say that about many composers as well. How many Songs by Morricone have whistling, and rattling percussion? or how many soundtracks by Herrmann abuse of the string? It's not really bad. I like Film Composition a lot and everyone has their own style because every composer has something he's good at and he likes to hear.

So that's why the Tron music sounded so generic sometimes...

I'm not too prone to criticize composers for re-using themes... I mean, Aaron Copland's opera The Tender Land has, at the end of the first act, a quintet which is note for note taken from his earlier song "Zion's Walls." And it is awesome.

I have gone to Filmtracks.com and I do notice something about Zimmer and his ilk when it comes to credits.

I look at a "normal" composer like Patrick Doyle and he did pretty much everything on Cinderella (although he did have two co-conductors).

Now when I go to Amazing Spider-Man 2, a Hans Zimmer score where he is listed as a co-composer, I also see six other co-composers, five people listed as doing "additional music", five orchestrators and one conductor. Talk about too many cooks.

Also, farewell James Horner. You were taken from us way too soon. Hopefully, you will live on in your music.

edited 3rd Jul '15 11:19:26 PM by DS9guy