Over the weekend, I was organising a few playlists for my car iPod and, as is always the case, I got distracted and ended up listening to a whole bunch of the tracks.
For no particular reason, I listened to a few cues from Great Escape, Escape To Victory and The Dam Busters. And then it struck me - when was the last great movie march?
I've wracked my brains and I can't think of anything that you could consider a real classic of the genre in the last decade, if not more.
The Avengers and Cap America movies had. a stab at them but none of those scores really stand out with an amazing, memorable March in my opinion.
I say the last decade, but thinking about it as I write this, I'm actually struggling to think of a classic, memorable March that you can whistle since the 80s with stuff like Raiders (naturally) and Escape to Victory (I also count Private Benjamin as I love that March).
Anyone think of anything or is it really a trend that has died out?
Aside from the aformentioned Captain America, there's Chicken Run certainly. Batman Forever could kinda count too even if it's a bit demented.
You're right though, there's not much. A good chunk of memorable waltzes though...
Ah yes, Chicken Run! How could I have forgotten that?? Awesome score!
As I said, I didn't find Cap America that memorable - in fact I can't even recall how the march goes off the top of my head. I loved the movie but Silvestri's score just didn't float my boat. I was hoping for something along the lines of Raiders, Midway or King Soloman's Mines and instead we got somethi which was ok but not amazing.
The main theme from Shiroh Hamaguchi's score to the anime Girls und Panzer is a ridiculously catchy march that I often find stuck in my head. There are a few other nice marches peppered throughout the score as well.
Sure it's no Ryan's Daughter, but I quite liked militaristic moments in Giacchino's Super 8. eg Evacuation of Lillian cue. And there is still an awesome score for BIG ASS SPIDER, which fits the description like a glove and has some terrific marches, but obviously nobody heard it. Or Marcus Trumpp's main theme for NORTHMEN has very march-like rhytm.
I guess marches have gone with 70s war films. Victory aside in early 80s. And as you guys said earlier, the most memorable ones since then have been tongue-in-cheek marches for comedies like stripes, benjamin, 1941 etc.
Its possible that they arent de rigeur anymore coz a lot of the world wants to try and make us uncomfortable about that type of patriotism and that type of film-making. Dunno.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact WWII was ever so last century?
Not quite the 80s, but Superman had the ever so good March Of The Villians, which with hindsight, is an ever so interesting departure from the good guys on parade stereotype. Other than that there was Valkyrie, but I'm not familiar with the score.
There's also The Terranaut March from Christopher Young's score to The Core. It's not really one I find myself whistling or anything, but I still like it a whole lot.
For me John Williams did the best marches and his "Slave children's crusade" march is still my personal favorite of his, yes, even beating the Raiders march.
I do like how Silvestri still employs them for his superhero scores.
There is none better than Alfred Newman's Conquest from CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE or Max Steiner's score for THE CAINE MUTINY. THE CAINE MUTINY needs a CD release. If the score to ON THE WATERFRONT could be found, why not such an outcome for THE CAINE MUTINY. Somebody....keep searching, please !
I remember quite a few folks liking Desplat's MONUMENTS MEN:
Yes, this was a good, traditional sounding one that I enjoyed.
When I was a kid, we had a mono record player with a 78 rpm setting. We had a couple of scratchy 78s, one of which was the RAF March by Walford Davies. As a result, that's the one I think of when marches are mentioned and I still believe it to be the greatest ever.
Others I've enjoyed down the years include Barry's Autobahn March from Quiller, Addison's march from A Bridge Too Far, Williams's 1941 and Goldsmith's Macarthur (but not Patton, as it happens).
Yeah, I'd really be hard-pressed to come up with a truly great march since the 1980s (and the early 80s at that). The best march of the 60s was probably Ron Goodwin's "Aces High" from BATTLE OF BRITAIN (with some serious competition from THE GREAT ESCAPE). The best of the 70s would be Goldsmith's MacARTHUR ( I love PATTON, but MAC works better as a true march). And of course in the early 80s you had Williams' magnificent "Imperial March", Conti's superb VICTORY!, and probably my favorite Bernstein march, STRIPES. Since then, nothing really stands out.
( And yeah, if you go back further, Alfred Newman's "Conquest" from CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE is the all-time winner. It ranks right up there with the best of Sousa.)
Marches went the way of most melody in film music. PRODUCERS DON'T WANT MUSIC. They want music sound design. Producers are afraid that a theme (which would include marches) "distracts" the audience. It's sentimental. It's old fashioned. yada yada yada.
Another one I'd temporarily mislaid was Morricone's march from The Battle of Algiers. And for a bit of fun, his March of the Beggars from Duck You Sucker.
