Althouse: "What was the point of getting beat up for a week to get that sequence perfect? It’s covered up by car crashes. It’s insane!"

June 24, 2015

"What was the point of getting beat up for a week to get that sequence perfect? It’s covered up by car crashes. It’s insane!"

Said James Horner, describing the process of composing film scores and hearing the final product.

Horner, who wrote the "Titanic" score and many other scores, died Monday when his single-turboprop plane crashed and burned in the Los Padres National Forest.

26 comments:

campy said...: His score for The Rocketeer is his best work imo.

RIP

(Of course, a woman would have done even better for only 78% percent of Horner's fee.); 6/24/15, 8:03 AM
rhhardin said...: Single engine turboprop. It was probebly written by a metrosexual.

I wanted details about the plane. It's not written for men.; 6/24/15, 8:10 AM
gerry said...: This is Wiki, but probably contains much useful information. I was surprised about the source and likely age of the aircraft.; 6/24/15, 8:24 AM
Scott said...: The airplane was an Embraer EMB 312 Tucano, a military turboprop trainer that is designed to have the handling characteristics of a jet fighter. The standard version has ejector seats, which one can assume were of no assistance to Horner.; 6/24/15, 8:24 AM
Scott said...: The guy was rich to be able to afford an aircraft like that.; 6/24/15, 8:25 AM
lemondog said...: two-seater single-engine S312 Tucano; 6/24/15, 8:26 AM
sinz52 said...: campy: "His score for The Rocketeer is his best work imo."

He self-plagiarized much of it from his score for "Star Trek II." The same violin music.

I liked James Horner's music, but I never thought he was anywhere near as good as Jerry Goldsmith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt9dOIdGIeM

OTOH, Miklos Rosza was too good. His music, rather than supporting the movie, was so rich and unusual (by Hollywood standards), it actually distracted you from the movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSpOryJeNbY

He should have stuck to being a classical composer.; 6/24/15, 8:48 AM
Wince said...: “The music’s job is to get the audience so involved that they forget how the movie turns out,” Mr. Horner said in an interview on the James Horner Film Music website last November.

Huh?; 6/24/15, 8:59 AM
Larry J said...: More on the Embraer EMB-312 Tucano.; 6/24/15, 9:08 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/24/15, 9:29 AM
Nonapod said...: I like his score for Krull, one of my favorite cheesy 80s fantasy movies.; 6/24/15, 9:31 AM
Paddy O said...: Very sad. The soundtrack for Glory was the first CD I ever bought. I bought it before I owned a CD player.; 6/24/15, 9:38 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: The obituary's use of the word "soaring" is in bad taste.; 6/24/15, 9:39 AM
rhhardin said...: Emilie Simon has some nice music in "Delicacy," an exception to the rule that women can't compose.; 6/24/15, 9:58 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Composers are the unsung creators of film. Most movies would be completely unwatchable without them. Just watch Never Say Never Again. Better yet, don't. Even though I was excited about the return of the over-the-hill Connery as 007, without the awesomeness of the Bond theme music it was just another second-rate actioner. Maybe third-rate. I'm no expert, but it seems Horner was one of the better movie composers.; 6/24/15, 10:17 AM
Mitch H. said...: “The music’s job is to get the audience so involved that they forget how the movie turns out,” Mr. Horner said in an interview on the James Horner Film Music website last November.

Huh?

No, I get it. He's saying that the music is supposed to submerge the viewer so deeply in the filmic world that they disassociate their knowledge of how the story is supposed to go and simply experience the action, unmindful of their expectations. Music as a sort of meditative aid, I suppose.; 6/24/15, 10:21 AM
Birches said...: Everyone's talking about Titanic, but my favorite movie of his is Willow. Actually, Willow is probably my favorite movie ever.; 6/24/15, 10:31 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: A real shame. The loss of his talent is huge.; 6/24/15, 10:32 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Stop flying around in little planes, people with huge talents that do not include flying planes.; 6/24/15, 10:34 AM
rhhardin said...: I spent a huge number of hours flying around in a small plane, but was not rich enough to afford anything too tricky to fly.

When I finally got bored with everything you can do with a small plane, I took up long distance bike riding on weekends instead.

Poverty keeps you safe.; 6/24/15, 10:52 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/24/15, 11:04 AM
Paddy O said...: "Most movies would be completely unwatchable without them."

The movie Ladyhawke is a great example of this. Great movie, made unwatchable because of a horrible soundtrack.; 6/24/15, 1:48 PM
ken in tx said...: I gave up flying when it became too much like a job of work--annual inspections, $1000, biannual flight reviews, annual medicals, $7 a gallon avgas, annoying airpark rules--just to go up and bore holes in the sky.; 6/24/15, 2:06 PM
Joe said...: For those curious about the use of music in film, find and watch a documentary on the great Bernard Herrmann. In one, they show parts of Psycho without music and parts with. Even more revealing is showing edits of Torn Curtain with Herrmann's unfinished score added--although I find it a little overbearing, it makes a huge difference.; 6/24/15, 3:22 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: ken in tx: Word. Back in '96 I quit flying when I realized I would have to spend roughly $10,000 annually to stay safe and legal. My dad had it right: two flying careers, both including unlimited avgas & misc. essentials paid for by our tax dollars. He only contributed his time and the possibility of death on the job.
(Story time: circa 1970 a pilot from an A4 squadron at NAS Alameda was killed in a freak accident involving an on-ground ejection at NAS Miramar (IIRC, maybe it was El Toro). The squadron CO flew down to help in the initial investigation, and his A4 exploded on final approach (a hot section failure). CO parachuted safely onto the beach. Something like 7 years later the aircraft and ejection seat manufacturers settled out of court with the widow (of the first pilot, natch) - turns out the 0-0 ejection seat had never actually been tested in 0-0 conditions.
Punch line: If the dead pilot's seat had worked per spec, he could have unbuckled his chute and walked 5 steps into the base ops office to report his arrival. I still remember the expression on my dad's face when he was telling me this. At the time, he too was an A4 squadron CO at Alameda.)
High performance aircraft are not toys.; 6/24/15, 10:42 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Paddy O, you're right, it works both ways. Bad music can ruin a good movie.; 6/25/15, 10:21 PM