The Inevitable Horner Letters Column

Compiled by Lukas Kendall

Did everyone see James Horner win two Golden Globes last night? (One was for Best Score, the other Best Song.) He'll probably win two Oscars too. For those wondering, Horner, who evidently stands around five feet tall, is NOT English. He went to school in England as a boy, which is evidently how he got his time-delayed adult accent, but is a Jew from the Valley whose dad, Harry Horner (1910-1994) was a big time production designer and director--check out his filmography at imdb.com. He's an insider, baby. See, you learn something every day at Film Score Monthly.

Here are a ton of Titanic letters. For several reasons, I will not comment at length: 1) it's almost midnight and I gotta load this column; 2) Hulk not care about Titanic.

From: Kate Birkel <hudunit@radiks.net>

I discovered the rationale for the Enya rip-off in the Titanic score -- Titanic was built in Belfast, Ireland by 1500 Irishmen (to quote the movie). And when you mentioned Horner ripping himself off, you forgot to add Apollo 13 and Star Trek: The Search for Spock.

From: Ron Hall <madcrip@sprintmail.com>

Yes, I agree with the assertion that James Horner is "Retreading" past themes to fit a specific moments in "Titanic." I too was very moved by the use of the music in the film, and on CD, but I in no way felt, as die hard Horner fans do, that it is "His most original score in years." I can pick out the films he "borrowed some of the themes from: "Baveheart," "Courage Under Fire," "Apollo 13" ETC. Now with a "Golden Globe" award, and most certainly an oscar come March, we can be assured of hearing Mr. Horner "Borrowing" from himself again on future projects. Which shows how truly "Burned Out" Mr. Horner seems to be. One peice of advice, "take a break Jim."

From: "Liverance, Howard M" <HLIVERANCE@tpa.HealthPlan.com>

I ran to buy the ET album. I ran to buy DANCES WITH WOLVES. Same goes for LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, GWTW, BEN-HUR, et al. I am not running nor will I purchase Titanic. For a film hailed as "in the tradition of GWTW and DR. ZHIVAGO," there was nothing memorable in Horner's music. And that is most disappointing. I happen to enjoy much of Horner's work (well, his earliest efforts, anyway), too. Black is correct in bemoaning the lack of an "epic" score to accompany the most expensive film ever produced.

I guess that means Mr. Horner is no Steiner, Jarre, Barry, Rozsa, Williams. At least not yet. This latest effort is downright discouraging, if not telling.

From: "Pieter Coenen" <mab@village.uunet.be>

I just saw Titanic and I would really like to see it with a Jerry Goldsmith or Williams score to see if they can equal the romantic enchantment that Horner put into his film. I think this just could be a quintessential score in finding the right tone for a movie (leaving aside how many this score sounds like previous ones). IMO this score is actually part of saving a movie with a cliche and very simple love story. Of course Titanic also benefits from the genius James Cameron and his two lead actors. When I afterwards thought about what this film is about, I still cannot understand why these 3hours 15min passed so quickly.

From: Jeffswim <Jeffswim@aol.com>

Bravo Edwin Black!!! You have finally made me understand the line drawn between copying from a genre and copying from you rown work. Yes, we would expect Horner to have similar-sounding music in both Braveheart and The Devil's Own, but to use themes and instrumentations from his past film successes and failures (I think you forgot to mention that a little bit of his score from Courage Under Fire was used also) in a film that has no thematic revelation to any of these films is absolutely ridiculous. Through the whole score I was wondering why there were bagpipes whenever Jack Dawson, an American, was onscreen, or why he felt he could get away with plagiarizing from Enya. True, Horner does write a great love theme which translated into a wonderful original song, but I feel that if he could come up with one totally new theme, why not try to go for at least two more (especially for the action sequences)?

From: Dan Goldwasser <dgoldwas@earthlink.net>

I do believe that TOMORROW NEVER DIES is a re-tread of older Barry material interspersed with new David Arnold material, but Titanic is little more than a few note changes from BRAVEHEART. (At least in the main theme.) I love the score. I listen to it more than I care to mention. But I am also listening to about 10 other Horner scores when I hear the music. Not that it's a bad thing, necessarily. I mean, the music DID work in the film, and to me it's a success. I don't think that Horner is doing justice to himself when he recycles material as much as he did in TITANIC, but if it works, then hey - all the best to him! And he DID compose the music (whether it be from BRAVEHEART or TITANIC, it's all his stuff) and I don't think he should be reduced to an "arrangement by...." credit.

From: Illinois Literacy Resource Development Center <ilrdc@ilrdc.org>

I agree that there very familiar elements in the "Titanic" soundtrack. But I will unashamedly say that I love this soundtrack and all the familiar elements in it. I love the full orchestrated soundtracks of James Horner and they all share some elements. I don't really care. A more orignial, but also great soundtrack, is "Field of Dreams."

I also don't care how they label these soundtracks. There is enough original music in them to make them a James Horner composition.

From: "jim cleveland" <flubug@hotmail.com>

For all those who think Horner's score to Willow is so wonderful (I happen to like it... but only about once a year) I must relay this story. Last night, I was listening to a c.d. entitled Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgeres. I got to the 11th track entitled Mi Stanke Le and my ears perked up. There it was! I couldn't believe it (Actually, given Horner's penchant for borrowing, I guess it doesn't surprise me.)! It was Willow's theme! I must add, however, that I think Horner's score to Cocoon is his ultimate achievement and he'll never top that! Any score that can reduce me to tears(especially the end credits where his melody that sounds a bit like Amazing Grace begins playing) like Cocoon does is alright in my book. Hey, but music affects people in different ways.

From: DLopenzina <DLopenzina@aol.com>

RE: Edwin Black's comments about Titanic:

"Both are immensely satisfying listens, hummable to abstraction, and brilliantly produced. But neither added a thing." (presumably to the film)

"Ironically, Horner's patchwork collage is a complete success. It masterfully supports the movie, and penetrates as a freestanding CD."

While you have some interesting points, I don't think you are very clear on what you think about this score.

From: Zafier <Zafier@aol.com>

The truth is, creating a great, new theme or themes for a film isn't the most important thing when scoring. The job of film composer really means a scorer of films. The most important thing is the texture and the mood created to support the film. In both TND and Titanic this was by far the most important thing for Arnold and Horner to do was to create moods, to paint with textures. This is what needed to be concentrated on. Considering the amount of music these film composers have to produce, it is understandable that they only come up with really new compositional ideas once in a while. Even the great John Williams doesn't write a Star Wars or an ET everytime out. Just look at this year. All three of his scores kind to blend together. Nevertheless, they're still enjoyable. Most of what these guys are good at is creating mood with texture. And in my humble opinion Horner is the best at that. It's really cool when he comes out with something real innovative like STII or Glory or Field of Dreams or more recently the forgotten The Spitfire Grill which made that film complete. So when Horner finally gets to walk up on that stage on Oscar night he won't be winning the award for best composer, but for writing the best SCORE for Titanic, which is exactly what he did. He scored it. Amazingly well too. I'm not ashamed to listen to Titanic over and over again because each time I listen I find some new little thing that Horner did to bolster this score into brilliant effectiveness.

One other thing: somehow our message board went down this weekend. We are investigating the problem (i.e. I sent my webmaster an e-mail and poured myself a drink) and hope it's fixed soon.

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