Movie/TV/Game Scores Through The Ages - Alan's Personal Favourites

Plus a direct hotline to an Earth Mother/Isis type of Goddess.
And you don't fuck around with Gods! (As Europa and Leto can attest to).

1986 - Aliens - James Horner

I'm sticking to mainstream Hollywood with 1986 with this "score of two halves" that's got some great atmospheric tracks to begin the disc and then in the second half contains some of the most enjoyable, adrenaline-fueled action scoring I'd come across to that point in my soundtrack listening days. "Ripley's Rescue", "Futile Escape", "Going After Newt", "Bishop's Countdown" all magnificent tracks. I also love Horner's "arrangement" of Khachaturian's Gayane Adagio that bookends this score. Who cares if it's lifted, it's one of the coldest, loneliest pieces when used in the film. I remember someone saying recently that they preferred the original and shorter version but I thought that the deluxe edition added so much to the listening experience as a whole.

The score that was hot on the heals of Horner's score is Howard Shore's The Fly. Another score that has some powerhouse tracks - "Plasma Pool", "The Last Visit" & "The Finale" - that in themselves are up there with anything Horner does in Aliens but the level of enthusiasm I have for Shore's score isn't maintained as it is in Horner's science epic. Alan Silvestri's score Predator is worth a mention though I was disappointed with this one when I finally got my hands on it - and much prefer his score to the sequel as a standalone listening experience. Other worthy mentions to Michael Kamen's Highlander score and I look on hopefully for some sort of official release of the score, to Leonard Rosenman's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Alfi Kabiljo's Sky Bandits.

A score I mention more because of the disappointment I felt when hearing it (because of the greatness of the first movie) is Jerry Goldsmith's Poltergeist II: The Other Side. I've never made the connection with this one for some reason, though the more recent expansion did add more of a choral aspect to the score that I found added enormously to the listening experience.

A final mention to a composer who in this year produced 3 scores worthy of at least one listen: Richard Band's scores for The Alchemist, Troll and Zone Troopers all have their merits and highlights though don't really sustain an entirely positive listening experience.

TV didn't really make much of a mark in 1986 with only Ken Freeman's theme to the BBC drama Casualty and Patrick Gower's involvement with Sherlock Holmes continuing with the Return of Sherlock Holmes series.

ALIENS used to be one of my favourite Horners, but not so much anymore. It's still a smokin' good score in context of the film, though. Hugely influential. And I agree, the Khachtaturan "adaptation" is really cool. The film is one of all-time favourites.

Other honorable 1986 mentions to Faltermeyer's TOP GUN, Badalamenti's BLUE VELVET, Silvestri's FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR, Colombier's THE GOLDEN CHILD and Kamen's HIGHLANDER.

Ultimately, though, I would have to choose:

THE MISSION (Ennio Morricone)

PS. PREDATOR was a 1987 film.

Excellent choice Alan, ALIENS is unbeatable in this year IMO.

A very VERY close 2nd would be Morricone's THE MISSION.

A few worth mentioning that you missed out are Badalamenti's BLUE VELVET, Delerue's PLATOON and Ry Cooder's CROSSROADS ( though my favourite piece, and not on the album is Steve Vai's 'The Duel' where the kid plays against "the devil" at the end of the film ), I'll also mention Pete Best great theme for CROCODILE DUNDEE, the rest of the score is very hit/miss for me.

My 3rd place score is John Barry's HOWARD THE DUCK which I suspect you've never heard? It's a Barry favourite of mine though I'm sure the composer would rather wish it never existed

Interesting choices all around. My 4 main contenders for 1986 are Delerue's Crimes of the heart, Goodwin's Valhalla and Morricone's The mission and La venexiana. I worship them all almost equally, but I guess I'll go for the popular choice The mission. Valhalla would be my second choice.

Honorable mentions include Mancini's catchy The great mouse detective, Bernstein's silly Three amigos and Hisaishi's Laputa for having such a great theme.

In other words, a fantastic year.

Peter

Marie Ward was covered in the year 1985 (see above somewhere).

I have a copy of Name of The Rose somewhere but I never listen to it. I listened to it when I first got it but that was it. Maybe something I should hunt out again occasionally?

The correct choice was made, Alan! Well done! A masterpiece!

-Erik-

To me honorary awards tend to be awarded to people who haven't been awarded anything through the usual route but who are universally deemed to merit an award anyway because of the quantity (and quality) of their body of work. Oh, and because - in everyone's estimation - they're probably going to die within the next 3-4 years and if they don't give the recipient one now then it may be too late.

I like BETTY BLUE and NAME OF THE ROSE too. The latter is particularly excellent in the bleak film, and a great example of an electronic-based score working in a period film! Especially for those who only demand classical orchestral scores for such films (which in this case would have been equally out of place).

FIX YOUR TAGS, TOM!

The honorary Oscar means NOTHING? Are you serious? I would love to have an honorary Oscar! You get a tribute video of your work, the entire audience is paying attention to no one but you, you know you have won the award ahead of time, it's an award for your BODY of work and not just one score, plus you get to get to give a nice lengthy speech and have a kick ass seat at the award ceremony. I wouldn't mind owning a gold watch if it looked like THIS.

-Erik-

I grew up with Aliens, so I love both the atmospheric and the brilliant orchestral thumpers, this is a 5 star score, no doubt about it

No, D....FACT!

^^^^^^
The Truth

Honorary Oscar >>> Regular Oscar. A regular Oscar is about a single project, and who wins it depends on alot more than just the quality of the work. An honorary Oscar is given based on a less haphazard and more reasoned overview over an entire career. Also, Morricone got almost 15 minutes of the Oscar show devoted to him. Considering the extreme time constraints in that show, I wonder if any other artist has ever grabbed so much of the show before.

Peter