Accepting the Challenge

All right. [sighs] All right. [bows head in resignation]

The blog boys are doing this thing where they all pick their top ten indispensable film music cues, and it looks like I’m the only one left. I don’t like the idea of this list, because I worry too much about misrepresenting myself. If you want to get to know my musical taste on a micro level, buy me a Whiskey-in-Coke and we’ll chat up a storm. But on my blog?

This is the same way my officemates would talk me into Margaritas at El Zarape on a Wednesday night. Mention the idea, I say no, wait ten minutes, ask again, I’m in. The seed was planted, and now I’ve thought about it so much I have to post.

There are certain criteria to this list that have been established. No main titles or concert versions of themes—only incidental cues. If that’s the case, I’m amending the rules to also omit end credits… also I think that was obvious. We need only list what are our favorites--not what we think are the finest-crafted-compositions-that-should-inspire-generations-of-composers-to-come. So the pressure is off, there. No need to defend every note, just say which tracks have personal significance.

That is perhaps the only reason I took up the challenge. The thing about academia is, I’ve noticed, that no one can give a simple compliment to any piece of music. I’ve seen some very opinionated people shy away from their true convictions for the sake of political covering-of-the-ass. Everyone is afraid to give any praise to a piece of music, in case someone disagrees. It’s safer to give a back-handed compliment which leaves the option for harsh criticism open, if need be. It’s safer to avoid heralding a piece of music—any piece of music—in case someone challenges your adulation and makes you look bad in front of the other students. That pissed me off about some people… just give a freaking compliment if you like something.

Okay, there’s my token bitter grad student rant. Anyway, like I said, that pressure is off. As part of the criteria for choosing, you don’t have to defend each piece like it’s a masterpiece noteworthy of the Norton Anthology. Nope, I selected pieces that make me feel the music… very affecting under the right circumstances.

Since the other guys are getting away with “honorable mentions” on top of their ten selections, I’m bending the rules to just make it a Top 20 list.

So, here they are, in no particular order whatsoever:

1. Journey to the Line – The Thin Red Line (Hans Zimmer): This piece is amazingly beautiful, moving, desperate, and traumatic at once.

2. The Hijacking – Air Force One (Jerry Goldsmith): Intense and fulfilling. Excellent night driving music. Every single note is like an iced caramel espresso to me.

3. Toccata and Dreamscapes – Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Elliott Goldenthal): If you can’t see the quality in this piece, you do not have my respect. Period. No double doctorate will change that.

4. Berlin Foot Chase – The Bourne Supremacy (John Powell): Perfectly paced, very satisfying. A fine continuation of material from the first film.

5. The Racer Roars to Life – The Phantom Menace (John Williams): Possibly my favorite 15 seconds from the whole movie. It’s brief, but it’s beautiful and ennobling.

6. I Don’t Belong Here – The Time Machine (Klaus Badelt): Majestic, wondrous, hopeful, spectacular. It makes you feel like you can fly, like you can change the world—yet at the same time you are humbled by the vastness of nature and time.

7. Neodammerung – The Matrix Revolutions (Don Davis): I really don’t have to say much here. It’s climactic, decisive. It’s just awesome.

8. The Black Gate Opens – The Return of the King (Howard Shore): This is also climactic and decisive, though more uplifting. This is one of those pieces I rarely listen to, because I like it so much. It’s too good to overplay. It’s sublime.

9. Sail Barge Assault – Return of the Jedi (John Williams): This is an all-around great rebel action cue, exhilarating and optimistic. Ah, childhood.

10. Overture – Con Air (Trevor Rabin & Mark Mancina): No, this isn’t a main title. Not really, anyway. It’s the fight/trial/prison montage. Regardless of the context, every note is charged with endorphins for me.

11. Burn Around the Moon/Goodbye Independence – Armageddon (Harry Gregson-Willism and Trevor Rabin): This is an unreleased track, which leads me to believe Harry did most of it. I love it I love it I love it. I especially love the moment when they first see the tail up close. When the Independence gets hit, to where Grace is barely containing her grief and dread back in Houston, we get the best theme in the movie—a theme that not once appears on the commercial release, which again leads me to believe it was mostly the work of Harry, not Trevor. The ear-blasting, over-the-top action music is just fantastic for high-speed driving. Just don’t get caught.

12. The Battle – Gladiator (Hans Zimmer): Dark, visceral, brutal, savage, unrelenting. This music has gotten me through countless bitter, cold walks across campus to meetings I never wanted to go to—both in Missouri and Ohio.

13. Ashes to Ashes – Black Hawk Down (Hans Zimmer): Time seems to stop when this music plays. It’s mournful, but beautiful. It sounds exhausted, like even the music is taking a breath to contemplate the battle to come.

14. The Lost Convoy – Black Hawk Down (Hans Zimmer): While Leave No Man Behind is a main theme and is thus disqualified from the list, it is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. This cue, not on the commercial release of the score, uses that same melody. This is a relatively optimistic (a couple guys are wounded, but they have the prisoners and the Black Hawks haven’t been shot down yet), yet brutal mobile shootout scene.

15. The Jablonsky Variations on a Theme by HZ – Tears of the Sun (Steve Jablonsky): It’s the middle part that I love here. It’s so active… there’s just so much going on, orchestrationally. The music is energetic, desperate, and intense. I love to just put the windows down and feel the wind with the music while I joyride the county roads at 55 mph…especially after a rough day of pretentious academic BS.

16. Anakin’s Betrayal – Revenge of the Sith (John Williams): Tragic. Draining. Well-structured. I can still see the bewildered, devastated, horrified look on Yoda’s face.

17. Red Warrior – The Last Samurai (Hans Zimmer): This is one of the most bold, warlike pieces of music I’ve ever heard. Determined and violent. This is what my heart sounded like after every single God-forsaken Friday graduate composition seminar at Bowling Green State University. Unstoppable. Imminent.

18. The Breaking of the Fellowship – The Fellowship of the Ring (Howard Shore): Bittersweet, sincere, hopeful. “We may yet, Mr. Frodo. We may.” Enough said.

19. Rescue from Cloud City/Hyperspace – The Empire Strikes Back (John Williams): This one speaks for itself.

20. Victory Celebration – Return of the Jedi (John Williams): The special edition, not the singing Ewoks. The instrumentation, the chord progression, the melody loosely based on Anakin’s theme, the build-up into the glorious end credits… perfect. Others may be cynical, but your intent was clearly achieved for me, Mr. Williams. This piece is at once relieved, solemn, reflective, reverent, and celebratory. In my opinion, this is by far the best alteration from the special edition trilogy.

There. I did it. I hope you’re happy. I hate blogs.

I realize there are a considerable amount of Media Ventures cues on this list, but this time I’m unapologetic. That’s just the way the chips fell. If you think that lowers my taste/intellect to a level below your own, then you can feel free to not read my blog.

Let the questions/comments begin.