Purportedly inspired by films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rollerball director Norman Jewison decided to largely eschew an original score in favor of using classical music. The supposed reasoning was to prevent the sci-fi movie from feeling dated, thereby undermining […]
It is no secret that Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite focuses upon class inequality, tension, and mobility. Composer Jung Jae Il’s supremely elegant score embodies this struggle. The early moments of the score are rather sparse, largely consisting of Jung introducing […]
Clint Mansell adds cacophonous noise and jarring sounds to beautiful, classical melodies that slowly degrade as Black Swan progresses. This degradation directly mirrors the protagonist’s own descent into insanity. Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake is obviously thematically appropriate. However, it is too […]
300,000 soldiers trapped on the shores of Dunkirk. A rescue fleet comes from the north; Nazis from everywhere else. The soldiers know this. They also know that they have no say in whether they live or die. They can only […]
Post-apocalyptic and dystopian films have surged in popularity in the past decade. Much like these recent films, Logan’s Run focuses on the conflict between an intolerable home and some rumored promise land. Jerry Goldsmith highlights these two distinct locations by […]
Vertigo: the sensation of a loss of stability; a spinning, destabilizing unease, that you and the world around are careening into chaos and you can do nothing but watch, transfixed. In a high stakes moment, vertigo strikes veteran detective Johnny […]
In 2018, director Armando Iannucci discovered long lost recordings of a great Soviet-era composer. He then used them to score his film, The Death of Stalin. At least, composer Christopher Willis (Interview) believably convinces the audience of this discovery. To […]