Malick's The New World

[NL197]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

When you hear the theme from Enemy At The Gates playing in The Perfect Storm, it kinda makes you realize what the composer does. Don't get me wrong, I still love his scores. But he does have "themes" that he uses multiple times in different scores. But really that kind of seemed to start after about 1995-ish.

Check out Hard To Starboard from that boat movie and also Al Bathra/Main Title from Courage Under Fire. I'm sure they're identical because Cammeron used Courage Under Fire as a temp score for Titanic, so I don't really blame Horner for it... but still.

You're telling me stuff I already know and am more than well aware of, and while I said nothing about whether its good or bad I look at everything he's done, from Battle Beyond The Stars to The Spiderwick Chronicles, and I know full well he does a hell of a lot more than just "copy his other stuff".

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that New World was scored by Horner (in amongst the classical stuff, much to Horner's chagrin IIRC). I love his work, I really do, but he's got a nasty habit of going over the same ground.

There's a haunting cue from Aliens (or something that sounds just like it) that plays while Jack Ryan is sitting at a desk in Clear And Present Danger, and it doesn't quite have the same effect.

Braveheart, Apollo 13 and Titanic all share a very similar sound, and boy, do those steel drums get a workout in Commando and 48 Hrs.

Apollo 13 sounds nothing like Braveheart. As for steel drums or Uilleann pipes, instrumental criticism like that never sticks, because no one would ever say "well so and so used a guitar and a trumpet so they all sound the same". What about violins, or even an orchestra at all? Horner himself even said using such things is nothing more than a cliche, but those are the tools of the trade. You can't condemn one composer and not another for using those very tools. How many times has Goldsmith used that over-the-top brass with pounding snares underneath, or Danny Elfman's guitar / bass lines under all his action music?

Hans Zimmer....well we all know what his music sounds like, along with every "remote control" clone out there.

Thing is, these kinds of criticisms can be applied to many people, but Horner always takes the worst of it almost out of necessity.