Film scores help make cinema absolute

Absolute cinema for me is a film that has me engrossed with its story, originality, chemistry between the actors, imagination and score, and that I return to every year or so without ever getting tired of watching it.  It feels like visiting a familiar friend and if you happen to enjoy listening to film scores, whenever you hear an excerpt from your favourite movies, the scene replays in your mind's eye and it warmly reminds you that your friend is there if you ever need to escape life with them again for a little while.

Humans have always been drawn to music.  It can affect your moods and feelings in different ways.  Sometimes you listen to music to cheer you up and sometimes to let the sadness out.  Sometimes a song will make you get up and dance while others will make you want to sing without a care in the world.  It can even transport you back in time to when you first heard that song and connect you to that old part of yourself.  A great film with an indelible score that spoke to you will make you want to go back again and again to relive its magic and how its story moves through you, no matter how old you get.

Very few films these days seem to have original themes and scores that stand out and really add another layer to the enjoyment of the film.  My very favourite dates all the way back to 1988 with the score to “Willow”, composed by none other than the prolific and well-known James Horner.  Not only does the film have a theme, so does every main character.  The sensitive character has a hopeful and uplifting theme, the conquering hero has a swashbuckling and bold theme and, of course, the villainess has an ominous and dark theme.  Depending on what's going on in the story, the themes are played with different instruments or at a different tempo, from sad and slow during a contemplative scene to fanfare and fast during a chase scene.  It's almost its own character that drives the fantasy adventure story forward and fits with what you're watching on the screen delightfully and seamlessly.  That particular score is so wonderful that it has the power to transport you into the film, making it seem like you're right there with the characters and feeling what they're going through.

I don't know anything about the life and the challenges that film composers face when they're hired to score a film.  I just know that they come in during post-production to work on something that's already made.  How much creative license are they given and how much of it are specific directives that they have to respect?  Where do they find their inspiration?  What do they do when faced with a job that inspires no thoughts or feelings from them?  Is it just luck when a score does draw you into the story so completely that you forget everything else?

However they do it, it is an essential component to any film and I applaud all of them.  Even silent films had live musical accompaniments wherever they played.  Music has been with film since the beginning and they will continue to be enmeshed together as long as film exists.  Whether it's a song or a score, when it's paired with a great film, it stands out and marks you forever.  Not every song or score speaks to people in the same way, but the better the pairing, the more people it does touch and brings together for the very purpose film was made: human connection.  We need this now more than ever and I hope film composers are given more consideration and prominence in the near future.  I want people to find at least one “Willow” for them, not only to make themselves happy whenever they need a pick-me-up, but to find others that enjoy it too and revel in the absolute pairing of film scores and cinema.