Eidelman, Horner & Goldsmith

Actors get the fame, directors get the credit, but soundtrack artists get your heart. To see any movie -- good or bad -- without a musical score is to rob that film of its emotional core and several pairs of underwear. Whether you know these guys (and gals) or not, you definitely know their music. In the Soundtrack Legends series, MRFH gives giant twinkies to the people who did the tunes.

CLIFF EIDELMAN (Scores from 1989 - Now)

I'll be honest here -- Cliff Eidelman is included in my list of "Soundtrack Legends" almost solely because of (in my, and many others', opinions) one of the greatest soundtracks ever: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The day after I saw the movie in the theaters, I bought the cassette copy (which I still own) and just about wore it out playing it over and over again. It's dark, moody and occasionally eerie, but the way Eidelman builds up to a bombastic exciting theme (particularly during the 8 minute-long "Battle for Peace" track) makes this a score that most movies wish they could have. But don't take my word for it, listener ratings on Filmtracks.com put this score as the fifth all-time best, beating out the likes of Star Wars and Braveheart.

Eidelman took his initial success of Star Trek VI and branched out into a number of different scores in the 90s, from the epic Christopher Columbus: The Discovery to the sleeper score of Free Willy 3 (yeah, weird, huh?). Eidelman likes to work with a traditional orchestra, but uses many unique instruments (including xylophones and exotic flutes) to highlight his works.

One last note: Eidelman did the quirky comedy score for one of my favorite little odd cult gems, Crazy People. That was cool. While in recent years he's been focusing more on private projects and TV scores, he composed the score for The Lizzie McGuire Movie in 2003.

3 Movie Scores By Cliff Eidelman You Must Own:

(1) Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (MRFH review, Soundtrack at Amazon.com)

(2) Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (Soundtrack at Amazon.com)

(3) Free Willy 3: The Rescue (Soundtrack at Amazon.com)

JAMES HORNER (Scores from 1978 - Now)

Although I didn't plan it this way, our second featured soundtrack composer today also rose to fame through a Star Trek score. While I still give Star Trek VI the edge, Horner's scoring of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is definitely terrific in its own way, dark in theme, much like VI. What I like about the Star Trek II score is that the music really heightens the mood of how scary, vast and unpredictable deep space is -- it lent a lot of atmosphere to the film.

James Horner has had a long and interesting career in film, mostly centering around orchestral scoring, but there are a few exceptions (for instance, he played an uncredited cameo as a Starfleet crewman in Star Trek II). His "thing" in composing usually returns to one of two trademarks: using a four-note trumpet theme for major moments or villains (such as Khan), and also using a choir to add to the musical emotion.

Very prolific and widespread in film genres, Horner's definitely hit some low spots (Star Trek III, Cocoon: The Return, Jumanji) on the way to super-composer-stardom. Don't get me wrong -- James Horner is one of the most brilliant film composers today, very much equal to the likes of John Williams.

Words can barely express how much I love some of his scores. Aliens is notable for the exciting action music (which is more or less a repeated note with percussion over and over again) that is used repeatedly in film trailers to this day. His score for An American Tail is sweet and moving, and the song "Somewhere Out There" that he wrote for the film, is one of my all-time favorite romantic songs. The Willow soundtrack seems to get a lot of lavish attention, although it isn't as significant in my mind to two great works he put out the next year, in 1989.

In 1989, Field of Dreams became a memorable score, but Horner would overshadow himself that very year with Glory. The Glory soundtrack is goosebump-inducing to listen too, each and every time, and Horner uses choral voices and melancholy tones to achieve brilliance. One of the final tracks, "Charging Fort Wagner", is a haunting must-listen.

The 90's treated Horner very well. The Rocketeer is a cult favorite of a soundtrack, as is the dancing score to Sneakers (the first CD I ever bought). In 1993 alone, James Horner composed no less than ten scores (including Searching For Bobby Fischer). But the height of the 1990s came for Horner in the form of Academy Awards -- he was nominated for both Apollo 13 (the launch sequence has great music) and Braveheart in 1995, and won for Titanic in 1997. In college, I heard the Braveheart soundtrack played quite often on friend's stereos. Horner would again receive an Oscar nomination for A Beautiful Mind in 2001. Maybe he's too popular and successful to like without feeling guilty about it, but you just can't backlash a guy who did the Glory soundtrack for too long.

3 Movie Scores By James Horner You Must Own:

(1) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (MRFH review, Soundtrack at Amazon.com)

(2) Glory (Soundtrack at Amazon.com)

(3) An American Tail (Soundtrack at Amazon.com)

JERRY GOLDSMITH (Scores from 1948 - Now)

Here's a guy who's been around in the movie music industry for well over a half of a century, and it's hard to think of what it'd be like without him. Continuing with our "Star Trek" theme (which was truly coincidental, I assure you), Goldsmith had even more to do with Trek than Eidelman or Horner: he composed the scores to Star Trek: The Motion Picture (including the now-classic Star Trek TNG main theme), Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, AND Star Trek: Nemesis. Whew! And Star Trek is just a tiny sliver of his legacy!

Goldsmith received his breakout role, however, doing The Planet of the Apes score (reportedly conducting wearing an ape mask). Like most eager beaver conductors, he's been all over the movie map, but has produced notable science fiction collections (Star Trek, as mentioned, as well as Alien and Total Recall). While he's done some grand, military epics (such as Patton and Tora! Tora! Tora!), Goldsmith is not above doing a quirky comedy piece (like the underrated The 'Burbs). It'd be almost impossible to go through his entire scoring career here, so I'll mention a few of my personal favorites.

For some reason, out of all his Trek outings, I've been partial to Star Trek: Voyager's main theme (I know, I know, the show sucked, but the score was kinda moving). Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch are seminal favorites, with an almost dance trackish quality to them. Rudy, of course, has one of the most inspirational scores of modern times, and Mulan is a pretty decent score/compilation to own.

Jerry Goldsmith has been showered with accolades over the years. He's received Oscar nominations for Freud, A Patch of Blue, The Sand Pebbles, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Papillon, Chinatown, The Wind and the Lion, The Boys from Brazil, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Poltergeist, Under Fire, Hoosiers, Basic Instinct, L.A. Confidential, and Mulan. He won an Academy Award for his work on The Omen score.

Currently Goldsmith is recovering from cancer, but still working on composing scores. Let us hope he's with us another ten years.

3 Movie Scores By Jerry Goldsmith You Must Own:

(1) Star Trek: The Motion Picture / Star Trek: The Next Generation

(2) Gremlins 2: The New Batch (MRFH review, Soundtrack at Amazon.com)

(3) Rudy (MRFH review, Soundtrack at Amazon.com)