NOT EVEN NOMINATED, PART FOURTEEN

By Scott Bettencourt

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Elmer Bernstein
THE FIRM - Dave Grusin
THE FUGITIVE - James Newton Howard
THE REMAINS OF THE DAY - Richard Robbins
SCHINDLER'S LIST - John Williams (the winner)

JURASSIC PARK - John Williams

Writer-director Michael Crichton's career was on an unfortunate decline in the late 1980s -- his sci-fi novel Sphere sold disappointingly and his last film as a director, Physical Evidence, was his first job-for-hire and bore no trace of his usual intelligence and imagination -- but his fortunes did a quick 180 with his bestselling novel Jurassic Park, which brilliantly combined the premise of his first feature, Westworld (a high-tech theme park gone wrong) with a suitably plausible sounding method for reviving dinosaurs in the modern world. Steven Spielberg won the movie rights over such competition as Tim Burton, Richard Donner and Tim Burton, and used the burgeoning computer animation technology (with the help of animatronics) to bring dinosaurs to life onscreen with unparalleled verisimilitude, helping to make the film the year's highest grosser and the director's first profitable film since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade four years earlier. John Williams was the inevitable choice to score the film, and reportedly threw his back out while conducting the score so Artie Kane had to take over the baton for some of the sessions. The most remembered aspect of Williams' score is his triumphant main theme, which reflects the movie's Spielbergian notion that "nature finds a way." There is also another, similarly upbeat main theme, reminiscent of Bruce Broughton's Silverado, and the action material is energetic though Williams never musically characterizes the dinosaurs as distinctly as he did the shark in Jaws. The highlight of the score was the rhythmic "Dennis Steals the Embryo," which brought back fond memories of classic cue "The Conspirators" from JFK. Four years later, Williams scored the inevitable sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, giving the film an entirely new, more sinister and less triumphant main melody, at times evoking Max Steiner's immortal King Kong, and for 2001's underrated Jurassic Park III, Don Davis adapted Williams themes while contributing a new main theme of his own. (Jurassic Park received 3 Oscar nominations)

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS - Danny Elfman

Though Tim Burton did not direct this stop-motion musical homage to the classic Rankin-Bass holiday specials (animator Henry Selick was the official director), he was the driving force behind it -- the film was usually billed as "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" -- and Danny Elfman's involvement was as inevitable as John Williams' for Jurassic Park. Elfman wrote not only the film's incidental music but wrote the music and lyrics for the film's songs and was the singing voice of the film's hero, Jack Skellington (whose dialogue was voiced by Chris Sarandon). Elfman's melodies were as infectious as ever, with such highlights as "Making Christmas" and the Cab Calloway homage "The Oogie Boogie Man," though some of Elfman's lyrics strain the limits of acceptable rhyming. The film did acceptable boxoffice upon its release and has only grown in popularity and acclaim over the years, though at least one film historian has speculated that Elfman's unusually prominent involvement in the project was the reason Burton hired another composer (Howard Shore) for his next film, Ed Wood -- Burton may have resented the fact that Elfman was getting so much credit for the success of Burton's movies and the director wanted to show he could have a success without him. As it turned out, Ed Wood was his first boxoffice flop -- and still his finest film -- and he and Elfman reunited for 1996's immensely enjoyable flop Mars Attacks! (1 Oscar nomination)

PHILADELPHIA - Howard Shore

Director Jonathan Demme used the clout he'd earned with his smash hit film of Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs, which received Oscars in the Big Five categories including a Best Director win for Demme, to make this well-intentioned drama (inspired by true events) about an AIDS-stricken gay lawyer who sues his former employers for wrongful termination with the help of another, somewhat homophobic, attorney. The film was a surprising boxoffice success despite its uncommercial subject matter (probably due to Tom Hanks' Oscar winning performance as the dying man and Denzel Washington's subtle, arguably superior work as his reluctant defender) but reviews were deservedly mixed, as the studio development process managed to water down a potentially powerful drama, and Demme's own direction was mannered and unsatisfying. Demme's Silence composer Howard Shore provided the score, and though the music was impressive on its own, in the context of the film it fit all too well with Demme's heavy handed direction, calling attention to itself unnecessarily and ultimately failing to provide the emotional resonance the film desperately needed. (5 Oscar nominations)

THE PIANO - Michael Nyman

Jane Campion's visually stunning romantic drama was one of the arthouse films whose boxoffice success helped put Miramax on the map while inadvertently paving the way for the company to specialize in less ambitious, more middlebrow entertainment. Not surprisingly considering the title, music plays a foreground role in this film about a willfully mute woman (Holly Hunter in an Oscar winning performance), and Nyman, until then best known for his assertive yet minimalist scores for Peter Greenaway's films, provided the score as well as the pieces Hunter played on camera, especially the now familiar main theme which has become Nyman's most popular and instantly recognizable composition. Because of the prominence of the music, the lack of a nomination for Nyman is even more shocking, while his work on the film led the way to an increasing emotional accessibility in his scoring, with later scores like Gattaca and The End of the Affair proving surprisingly melodic and moving while remaining true to his minimalist roots. (8 Oscar nominations)

RUDY - Jerry Goldsmith

This biographical film about Rudy Ruettiger, a physically unimposing young man who unexpectedly achieved his dream of playing football for Notre Dame, reunited three of the principal talents behind 1986's cult favorite Hoosiers -- writer Angelo Pizzo, director David Anspaugh, and composer Jerry Goldsmith. While Goldsmith depicted Hoosiers' 1950s setting with a surprising amount of synthesizer music (and earned his 15th Oscar nomination in the process), his score for the more contemporary Rudy was entirely orchestral, and one of his most popular and emotionally satisfying scores of the decade. While many film music obsessives (such as myself) prefer soundtracks to be chronologically sequenced, the Varese score CD wisely mixed up the order of the cues, as the first half of the film's score consists almost entirely of renditions of Rudy's theme, while in the second half the stirring football music dominates (and has become a trailer favorite for such films as Good Will Hunting). The film benefits from an outstanding cast, including Sean Astin as Rudy and especially Jon Favreau in his first major role as his best friend (Favreau's co-star/muse Vince Vaughn also has a small role), and though it made little impression at the box office, its popularity, like Hoosiers', has only grown over the years. Anspaugh, Pizzo and Goldsmith were set to reteam on the upcoming soccer drama The Game of Their Lives, but alas the late composer's final illness prevented his participation.

BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM - Shirley Walker

Along with its intelligent scripts and striking visual style, the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series was noted for its outstanding scores, with Shirley Walker leading a team of composers who provided exciting orchestral music and gave each of the show's villains his/her own distinctive theme. Mask of the Phantasm was originally planned as a direct-to-video feature but during production it was decided to make it a theatrical release instead, and though it was ultimately ignored at the boxoffice, its script was far superior to the live-action Batman films and it proved a worthy followup to the half-hour cartoon series. Shirley Walker was the obvious choice to score the feature, and her score utilized her memorable themes for Batman (reminiscent of Elfman's but not overly derivative) and the Joker while providing satisfying new material, especially an optimistic love theme. Though the series has never received a score CD release, Warner Bros. did put out a half-hour CD of the Phantasm score (plus Tia Carrere's pleasant end title pop ballad) which gives but a mere taste of all the wonderful music written for the best Batman yet seen outside of the comic books and graphic novels.

DAVE - James Newton Howard

Gary Ross's clever, old-fashioned screenplay for this political comedy proved the basis of Ivan Reitman's well deserved hit, the last truly satisfying film Reitman made since his Ghostbusters peak (I know, Twins was a hit, but come on). James Newton Howard's charming, melodic score had a John Williams lushness and proved to be one of the defining scores of the decade, its warm orchestral sound imitated in countless comedy scores since, but never with the same effortless charm, by everyone from Marc Shaiman to John Debney. The short lived Big Screen label released a highly enjoyable CD of the score, which is worth tracking down for those who want to discover just how appealing a comedy score can be.

ROBOCOP 3 - Basil Poledouris

While the original RoboCop was the vehicle for one of Poledouris' most popular scores, he didn't return for the film's disappointing, stop-motion laden sequel, the job taken over by Leonard Rosenman, whose oft-derided score (the female chorus singing "Ro-Bo-Cop" over the end credits was a particularly unfortunate touch) was criticized by nearly everyone except for Rosenman himself, who in an infamous Starlog interview sang his own praises while disparaging Poledouris' efforts. Director Fred Dekker brought Poledouris back for the third and (so far) final entry in the series, which stayed on the shelf for two years after completion thanks to the uncertain financial position of its studio, Orion. Poledouris' score reworked the main themes from his original score while adding new motifs like a heroic theme for the resistance movement and Asian stylings for the film's mysterious assassin, Otomo. The score has yet to earn the reputation it deserves, partly because of the weak response to the film itself and also due to the 30-minute Varese score CD (the short length necessitated by L.A. musician reuse fees), as the sequencing too often emphasized low-key cues and music derived from the first score while omitting such highlights as the percussive Silvestri-esque police chase and the lengthy end titles suite, which was not a music edit but specifically recorded for the film.

SOMMERSBY - Danny Elfman

At this point in his career, Danny Elfman had been typecast first as a composer of zany comedy (Pee-Wee, Beetlejuice, Scrooged) and superhero adventure (Batman, Dick Tracy, Darkman), so his hiring on this Americanized remake of the 1982 French film The Return of Martin Guerre (scored by Michel Portal), about the uneasy relationship between a woman and the man who may or may not be her long lost husband was highly surprising. Jodie Foster and Richard Gere played the couple in question, and Jon Avnet directed from a screenplay credited to three talented writers -- Nicholas Meyer, Sarah Kernochan and Anthony Shaffer. Despite the somber ending, the film was a surprising if modest hit, and Elfman's score was one of his finest, effortlessly capturing the drama and the period (post Civil War) with none of his trademark musical mannerisms, and the film's production company, Regency, later used a snipped of the score as its logo music. The score reportedly went through major changes during the recording period, as the filmmakers had Elfman lay warmer strings over more ambiguous cues to emphasize the film's romance, but the result was a resounding success dramatically and musically, and the only pity is that Elfman hasn't received more opportunities to work in this style.

TOMBSTONE - Bruce Broughton

This nth retelling of the gunfight at the OK Corral had a difficult route to the screen -- original writer-director Kevin Jarre was replaced during filming by George P. Cosmatos, while the production was in competition with the bigger-budgeted Wyatt Earp, with Lawrence Kasdan directing a stellar cast including Kevin Costner as Earp, Dennis Quaid as Doc Holliday, and Gene Hackman as Earp Sr. Tombstone, with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer as Earp and Holliday, managed to reach the screen first but lost its original composer Jerry Goldsmith (who had already scored three films for Cosmatos) to scheduling problems so Bruce Broughton, best known in features for Silverado (directed, ironically enough, by Kasdan) got the job. The film suffered from its difficult production but was a satisfying entertainment, anchored by Kurt Russell's full-bodied acting and especially Val Kilmer's fey, witty, unforgettable Holliday, his most popular performance to date. While Broughton's Silverado score was sunny in the classic Hollywood mode, his Tombstone music had a darker quality, befitting the film's title, with a powerful main theme that only gradually reveals itself over the course of the score, and an unabashedly romantic love theme. Intrada released a lengthy score CD which is a crucial part of any Broughton collection.

John Barry brought more romance and dignity to INDECENT PROPOSAL than this slickly ludicrous film deserved, and one Barry-scored scene of a helicopter flying to a yacht reminded me how much I wish Barry were still scoring Bond films instead. He wrote an appealingly melodic and varied score to Ghost author Bruce Joel Rubin's directorial debut, the failed tearjerker MY LIFE.

THE GOOD SON was an unusually scenic psychological thriller, and Elmer Bernstein's score was similarly lush and melodic, though at times seeming too gorgeous for the action onscreen. He scored two small scale comedy-dramas, THE CEMETERY CLUB and LOST IN YONKERS, and wrote a romantic urban noir score for the Scorsese production MAD DOG AND GLORY.

Bruce Broughton wrote a pop-ish, jazzy score for the Michael J. Fox comedy FOR LOVE OR MONEY. He replaced David Shire on the Disney remake HOMEWARD BOUND: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY, and his warm orchestral score featured a main theme oddly reminiscent of "Dixie."

Carter Burwell had an especially eclectic year, scoring the grim thriller KALIFORNIA, the indie drama A DANGEROUS WOMAN, the coming of age drama THIS BOY'S LIFE, and the inevitable sequel WAYNE'S WORLD 2, though none received a score CD release.

Bill Conti wrote a pleasant if familiar Americana score for THE ADVENTURES OF HUCK FINN, whose director Stephen Sommers went on to make the Mummy movies and Van Helsing. He wrote with a Latino flavor for Taylor Hackford's epic length L.A. gang saga BOUND BY HONOR (aka Blood In, Blood Out), and the few discs Varese produced of the score before canceling the release are among the rarest of soundtracks. He also continued his typecasting as the sports movie composer with the hit kids comedy ROOKIE OF THE YEAR.

Randa Haines hired her usual composer Michael Convertino for her elderly character comedy WRESTLING ERNEST HEMINGWAY, but the resulting film turned out to be surprisingly more condescending than Grumpy Old Men and Convertino's typically discreet music was little help. He also scored the sports film ASPEN EXTREME and the period drama A HOME OF OUR OWN.

Ry Cooder provided a more orchestral-than-usual accompaniment for his regular director Walter Hill's GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND, with the help of orchestrator/arranger/conductor George S. Clinton.

Stewart Copeland scored the arthouse nudefest WIDE SARGASSO SEA, based on Jean Rhys' acclaimed reimagining of Jane Eyre, and the teen skateboard comedy AIRBORNE, which featured early major roles for Seth Green and Jack Black.

John Debney wrote one of his strongest scores for the witch comedy HOCUS POCUS, incorporating a theme James Horner composed before he left the project.

Georges Delerue died in 1992 immediately upon completing his score for RICH IN LOVE, and his typically delicate and charming music was a fitting memorial to this gifted composer, even though the film was otherwise quite forgettable.

Patrick Doyle provided propulsive action music for the third act chase of CARLITO'S WAY and many skilled cues throughout, though his somber main theme too heavily reinforced the feeling that director Brian DePalma thought he was making a genuine tragedy and not just a trashy-but-fun gangster saga. Doyle's score for the Stephen King adaptation NEEDFUL THINGS was lively and symphonic, with one sequence making deft use of Grieg's classic "In the Hall of the Mountain King." He provided rousing music for Kenneth Branagh's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, and a gentler sound for the children's adventure INTO THE WEST.

Randy Edelman's score for his first Rob Cohen project, DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY, featured a memorable main theme which was featured prominently in trailers for years to come. He wrote one of his most popular scores for the minseries-turned-feature GETTYSBURG, whose emotional impact suffered from the prominent use of synthesizers in the score, and reworked his Beethoven material for BEETHOVEN'S 2ND.

Cliff Eidelman provided an energetic superhero score for the comedy THE METEOR MAN, at times reminiscent of the work of Alan Silvestri (though not as much so as Trevor Jones' Cliffhanger). His score for the modest hit UNTAMED HEART featured a restrained, John Barry-ish main theme, though his main title was replaced with the classic "Nature Boy."

George Fenton's eclectic score for GROUNDHOG DAY was reasonably effective but not as memorable as this masterful fantasy-comedy deserved, while his jazzy score for BORN YESTERDAY never found the right tone for this needless remake. His collaboration with Richard Attenborough regularly inspired some of his finest work, and his score for Attenborough's SHADOWLANDS featured a lovely choral main theme.

Richard Gibbs wrote a lively comedy score for the failure AMOS & ANDREW, which featured the promising pairing of Nicolas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson. He amusingly parodied noir scoring clichés in the spoof FATAL INSTINCT, whose femme fatale is followed by an onscreen Clarence Clemons playing her theme on a saxophone.

It was presumably Elliot Goldenthal's work on Alien 3 that earned him the job of scoring producer Joel Silver's sci-fi action comedy DEMOLITION MAN, as Silver's usual composer Michael Kamen was taking a sabbatical from action movies, and Goldenthal's music was lively and inventive but wasn't enough to pull this confused project together satisfyingly.

Fred Schepisi's snappy, unusually faithful film version of John Guare's great play SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION is one of the finest films Goldsmith ever scored, and his brief (roughly 15 minutes), small ensemble score is built around a witty tango which helps underline the script's seriocomic portrait of New York's class divide. His charming pastiche score for Joe Dante's MATINEE included an homage to Max Steiner's classic theme for A Summer Place, while the composer was reportedly happy not to have to score the film's movie-within-a-movie, "Mant," whose scenes were cleverly tracked with music from the classic 50s Universal monster movies. Goldsmith's moody score for the hugely enjoyable mystery MALICE begins with a simple, spooky theme played on an electric piano which becomes a lovely choral piece depicting the hero's seemingly idyllic college town life. Impressively, he composed yet another fresh thriller score for the American remake of THE VANISHING, with an elegant main title theme and a love theme retrieved from his rejected Gladiator score. Goldsmith was a surprising choice to score the John Hughes production DENNIS THE MENACE, and though broad comedy usually wasn't his strong suit, his energetic music (with faint echoes of The Great Train Robbery) had a certain rousing charm.

James Horner had a whopping ten films released in 1993, probably a record for a composer in the modern era. The family dramas JACK THE BEAR and HOUSE OF GAMES were both hurt by their scores' reliance on synthesizers, which made the music less emotionally rich than it could have been. ONCE UPON A FOREST and WE'RE BACK: A DINOSAUR'S STORY showed his usual impressive craft but suggested that he may have scored too many animated features. James Horner's score for Alan J. Pakula's entertaining but forgettable film of John Grisham's THE PELICAN BRIEF featured too much forgettable action-suspense music but benefited from a surprisingly memorable theme for Julia Roberts' imperiled heroine. Horner's score for Morgan Freeman's directorial debut, BOPHA!, had a powerful main theme but too much of the score was dull and aimless. Horner ended up scoring the underrated SWING KIDS after original composer Georges Delerue died and Jerry Goldsmith left due to a scheduling conflict, and his music was a bit familiar but still genuinely moving. A FAR OFF PLACE featured a stirring main theme and exciting action music, the lush score for THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE proved especially popular with film music fans, and SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER was by far his finest film of the year, and his music had charm despite some distracting echoes of his wonderful Sneakers.

James Newton Howard wrote one of his first memorable scores for one of Joel Schumacher's most palatable films, giving FALLING DOWN a distinctively bleak and urban percussive sound. His emotional score for ALIVE featured one of his finest main themes and was a satisfying balance of full orchestra and more intimate cues. He also wrote small, harsher scores for two small-scale dramas about the plight of the homeless, AMERICAN HEART and THE SAINT OF FORT WASHINGTON.

Mark Isham took a rare venture into science-fiction with the alien abduction docudrama FIRE IN THE SKY, provided a jarring, non-melodic score for Robert Altman's acclaimed SHORT CUTS, and scored the Whoopi Goldberg-Ted Danson comedy MADE IN AMERICA and the snappily directed Van Damme vehicle NOWHERE TO RUN.

Maurice Jarre scored his final (so far) film for frequent collaborator Peter Weir, FEARLESS, but his discreet music was given much less prominence than the climactic use of Gorecki's popular third symphony, and his score for Mike Figgis' confused romance MR. JONES was surprisingly forgettable. He worked in a more satisfying symphonic vein for the Eskimo drama SHADOW OF THE WOLF.

Trevor Jones' main theme for CLIFFHANGER evoked both his own popular Last of the Mohicans theme and Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound, while his action music was distractingly derivative of Alan Silvestri. He also wrote a low-key, brooding score for the Oscar nominated drama IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER.

Michael Kamen followed up his blockbuster Robin Hood score for one of his most classically styled works, the youth-oriented remake of THE THREE MUSKETEERS. He reunited with Die Hard director John McTiernan for the much maligned LAST ACTION HERO, contributing his usual action stylings as well as John Williams-ish sentiment and electric guitar solos by "Buckethead." He provided engagingly energetic orchestral comedy music for the offbeat WILDER NAPALM, and also scored the largely forgotten British comedy SPLITTING HEIRS, which featured Catherine Zeta-Jones in a prominent role.

Kitaro composed a lush score for Oliver Stone's HEAVEN AND EARTH with the assistance of Randy Miller.

Michel Legrand's distinctive musical stylings were just about the only tolerable element of Paul Mazursky's dreadful Hollywood satire THE PICKLE.

Joseph LoDuca completed the Evil Dead trifecta with ARMY OF DARKNESS, whose rousing march was later featured in the Cutthroat Island trailer, and which also featured the original "March of the Dead" by Danny Elfman.

Fittingly, the final Blake Edwards/Pink Panther movie, SON OF THE PINK PANTHER, was scored by Henry Mancini, and Mancini himself appeared in the opening credits sequence, which featured his classic theme performed onscreen by Bobby McFerrin. He provided songs and score for the feature length TOM AND JERRY: THE MOVIE, with an especially sprightly main title theme, and his scored a final film for director Arthur Hiller, the ensemble comedy MARRIED TO IT.

Harry Manfredini was the obvious choice to score JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY, but his synthesizer based reworking of his familiar strains was disappointing. He also scored the horror comedy MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK.

Hummie Mann provided a satisfying comic pastiche for Mel Brooks' ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS, the director's first film without composer John Morris.

Cliff Martinez' score for Steven Soderbergh's most underrated film, the wonderful KING OF THE HILL, was much more melodic than the scores the director usually favors, though despite the composer's best efforts it really deserved Thomas Newman.

Alan Menken wrote his first non-song score for a feature, the Michael J. Fox comedy LIFE WITH MIKEY, but his music was frequently overbearing in a sitcom way and the highlight was, fittingly, the original song "Cold Enough For Snow. "

Ennio Morricone's first Clint Eastwood movie in 23 years, IN THE LINE OF FIRE, proved to be one of the biggest hits for both star and composer, andwhile Morricone's music was less memorable than usual it also seemed a little too offbeat for the movie, a common problem with his Hollywood projects.

David Newman wrote a particularly energetic sci-fi comedy score for the entertaining CONEHEADS, but like most of the composer's work it has yet to receive a CD release. He scored two period coming of age stories, THAT NIGHT (starring an adolescent Eliza Dushku) and THE SANDLOT, and Herbert Ross' penultimate film, the spy comedy UNDERCOVER BLUES.

Thomas Newman's score for the rural noir FLESH AND BONE had some striking ambient passages, but other cues seemed too twangy and upbeat for the bleak story. He employed his trademark offbeat style for the teen adventure JOSH AND S.A.M.

As with Unforgiven, Lennie Niehaus utilized a theme composed by director Clint Eastwood for his score to THE PERFECT WORLD, and his end title suite was especially satisfying and old fashioned.

Alex North's final film, the modest drama THE LAST BUTTERFLY, received a fleeting U.S. release.                                

Basil Poledouris continued his collaboration with Lonesome Dove director Simon Wincer with one of his most popular films, the juvenile adventure FREE WILLY. He wrote an enjoyable pastiche for the action movie spoof HOT SHOTS! PART DEUX, though its main theme sounded like a more forgettable version of one of his serious action scores.

Rachel Portman wrote an emotional, somber score for THE JOY LUCK CLUB, without leaning too heavily on the Asian elements. Her score for BENNY & JOON displayed her usual charm, but her scoring of Johnny Depp's silent comedy sequences worked too hard to tell the audience that we were supposed to laugh. She provided some of her most moving music for the little seen adaptation of ETHAN FROME, which featured an unusually impressive cast -- Liam Neeson, Patricia Arquette and Joan Allen.

Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner was unusually well represented in American cinemas in 1993, with two collaborations with director Agnieska Holland, the evocative French drama OLIVIER OLIVIER and the English language remake of the children's fantasy THE SECRET GARDEN, and he also scored the first film in Kieslowski's Trois Couleurs trilogy BLUE, for which music played an unusually critical role in the film's plot.

Graeme Revell was typecast largely in thrillers throughout the year, using the Japanese drum group Kodo for the Jean Claude Van Damme vehicle HARD TARGET, and scoring forgettable suspense films like THE CRUSH (Alicia Silverstone as the teenage-girl-from-hell), BODY OF EVIDENCE (Madonna screws a guy to death - no, really), HEAR NO EVIL (Marlee Matlin in Wait Until Deaf) and GHOST IN THE MACHINE.

The perennially underused Arthur B. Rubinstein provided some deft cues for the sequel ANOTHER STAKEOUT, whose uninspired title reflected the dreary, going-through-the-motions nature of the film.

It was nice to have Lalo Schifrin scoring a big studio film again, but THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES was hardly a project worthy of his talent, and he brought nothing memorable to it.

Marc Shaiman reused his original Addams Family theme for the witty sequel ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, while making more use of Vic Mizzy's TV series theme. He had one of his biggest boxoffice hits with SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, but director Nora Ephron frequently favored vintage songs over Shaiman's music, and the loss of cues made the score seem a little incoherent, though Shaiman's original song "A Wink and a Smile" earned him his first Oscar nomination. His music for the overstuffed comedy fantasy HEART AND SOULS was charming on its own but often overbearing in the context of the film.

Howard Shore provided a memorable main theme (accompanying a striking, computer augmented title sequence) for David Cronenberg's underrated film of the play M. BUTTERFLY. He scored the adaptation of Ira Levin's inane SLIVER, whose whodunit resolution was completely changed in the film's reshoots, and Christopher Young provided additional scoring; and another weak thriller, Sidney Lumet's GUILTY AS SIN. Until the blockbuster Lord of the Rings trilogy, Shore's biggest boxoffice hit was the high concept comedy MRS. DOUBTFIRE, and his music was suitably warm and sweet but showed none of his usual personality.

Alan Silvestri gave the surprise smash GRUMPY OLD MEN a warm comedy score in the Father of the Bride vein, while providing pounding action-suspense music for JUDGMENT NIGHT. COP AND A HALF was yet another project that Silvestri probably should have turned down, though the flop SUPER MARIO BROS. featured a score much more engaging than the film deserved.

Possibly as a gesture of political correctness, director Philip Kaufman hired Japanese maestro Toru Takemitsu to score the film of Michael Crichton's RISING SUN, but the acclaimed composer's work never seemed to quite fit with the already awkward and unsatisfying film.

Frederic Talgorn provided a lush orchestral suspense score for the secretary-from-hell thriller THE TEMP, with the Varese Sarabande soundtrack nicely including many cues not used in the final film, and a dark action score for the futuristic prison film FORTRESS.

Christopher Young brought his usual elegant spookiness to George Romero's slick, too faithful adaptation of Stephen King's THE DARK HALF.

Hans Zimmer provided his usual mix of synth and orchestra for the slick but pointless Americanization of La Femme Nikita, POINT OF NO RETURN, which also featured prominent use of Nina Simone songs. His score for Tony Scott's film of Quentin Tarantino's screenplay TRUE ROMANCE was marked by a blatant homage to Carl Orff's "Musica Poetica," which had been featured prominently in the similar Badlands. He also scored the sleeper hit sports comedy COOL RUNNINGS and the Penny Marshall production CALENDAR GIRL.

Addams Family Values, The Adventures of Huck Finn, The Age of Innocence, Army of Darkness, Alive, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Beethovenís 2nd, Benny & Joon, Blue, Body of Evidence, Bopha!, Carlito's Way, The Cemetery Club, Cliffhanger, The Dark Half, Dave, Demolition Man, Dennis the Menace, Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story, A Far Off Place, Fire in the Sky, The Firm, Flesh and Bone, For Love or Money, Free Wily, The Fugitive, Geronimo: An American Legend, Gettysburg, The Good Son, Groundhog Day, Hard Target, Heart and Souls, Heaven and Earth, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, Hot Shots! Part Deux, In the Line of Fire, In the Name of the Father, Indecent Proposal, Into the West, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Josh and S.A.M., The Joy Luck Club, Jurassic Park, King of the Hill, Knight Moves, Last Action Hero, The Last Butterfly, Life With Mikey, Lost in Yonkers, M. Butterfly, Mad Dog and Glory, Malice, The Man Without a Face, Map of the Human Heart, Matinee, Mrs. Doubtfire, Much Ado About Nothing, My Life, Needful Things, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Olivier Olivier, Once Upon a Forest, The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia, The Piano, Point of No Return, The Real McCoy, The Remains of the Day, Rich in Love, Rising Sun, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, RoboCop 3, Rudy, The Saint of Fort Washington, Schindler's List, Searching For Bobby Fischer, The Secret Garden, Shadow of the Wolf, Shadowlands, Six Degrees of Separation, Sommersby, Son of the Pink Panther, Swing Kids, The Temp, The Three Musketeers, Tom and Jerry: the Movie, Tombstone, The Trial, Trusting Beatrice, Untamed Heart, We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway

HOMEWARD BOUND: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY (David Shire)
JERSEY GIRL (Christopher Young)

SUBJECT: The Bodyguard (Not Even Nominated)
 
In the "Not Even Nominated" article it says:

Silvestri was a last minute replacement to score THE BODYGUARD when John Barry (who had previously worked with star Kevin Costner and writer-producer Lawrence Kasdan on Dances With Wolves and Body Heat, respectively) was let go, and his romantic suspense score was nicely restrained and effective, but was completely overshadowed in the public
eye by the popular song score, with two Oscar nominated originals and especially Whitney Houston's megaselling cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" (originally written for 1984's Rhinestone).

Just one question -- how did Dolly manage to sing "I Will Always Love You" in 1982's "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" if she didn't write it until 1984 -- let alone record it in 1973 for her 1974 album "Jolene"? (The song reached number one for Parton twice in 1974 and 1980 before Whitney Houston made it her own.)

Point taken. My bad. Mea culpa, and all that.

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