NOT EVEN NOMINATED, PART THIRTEEN

By Scott Bettencourt

ALADDIN - Alan Menken (the winner)
BASIC INSTINCT - Jerry Goldsmith
CHAPLIN - John Barry
HOWARDS END - Richard Robbins
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT - Mark Isham

BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA - Wojciech Kilar

Francis Coppola's film of the prototypical vampire novel is a frustratingly schizophrenic experience. It is a visually ravishing work yet burdened with a clumsy script and uneven acting (it always reminds me of Pauline Kael's assessment of Zardoz and Exorcist II: "We might have considered them classics if we hadn't known English"). The filmmakers (as well as the title itself) claim rare fidelity to Stoker's novel, yet apart from including some usually excised supporting characters and a (poorly staged) carriage chase, the writer and director turn Dracula into a tragic romantic hero, a familiar character from film versions but no relation to Stoker's monster, who was more like an embodiment of pestilence, and adding elements of Vlad the Impaler which almost certainly were NOT Stoker's inspiration for the character despite what the Transylvanian tourist board would like us to believe. One of the few coherent elements, however, is Kilar's score. Coppola deliberately sought an Eastern European composer for the project (disappointing Basil Poledouris, for one, who would have loved the assignment), and found Kilar, who was a major film composer in Poland but had never done a Hollywood film. Kilar's music, though repetitive at times, was one of the year's freshest scores, alternating swooningly romantic music with cues of driving momentum (later reused in trailers like Demolition Man) and, most miraculously, managing to be heard above the maddeningly busy sound effects. (Bram Stoker's Dracula received 4 Oscar nominations)

FAR AND AWAY - John Williams

Calling Williams' score for Far and Away "controversial" would be overstating the issue -- it's hard to imagine anything from a Ron Howard film being controversial, except possibly the omission of John Nash's homosexual side from A Beautiful Mind -- but for such a traditional score it is surprisingly the most divisive work in the Williams' canon among his fans, who either treasure it or dismiss it as a professional but ultimately forgettable work. I fall into the latter camp, and in general I feel that Howard does not ask enough from his composers (Shore's rejected Ransom score is a rare and telling exception), but as always Williams' craft is superb, his epic symphonic score full of warmth and adventure, using Irish elements before they became a 90s film music cliche, and climaxing in the rousing "Land Rush" cue, and featuring a main theme that stays in the memory long after the film has been forgotten (helped by its reuse in trailers).

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS - Trevor Jones, Randy Edelman

Although Williams' Far and Away would seem to be the 1992 score with the most crossover potential, it was the Jones/Edelman score for Michael Mann's fresh visualization of the James Fenimore Cooper novel that achieved it. Jones was the original composer for the film and contributed the most memorable cues, especially the stirring main theme (slightly reminiscent of Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound), but when he was unavailable for rescoring, Edelman was brought in to supply some restrained additional cues, the two composers sharing equal billing. The original soundtrack helpfully separated the cues by composer (which unfortunately caused the album to lose momentum toward the end), while Varese re-recorded the score in 2000 (probably the only score of the 90s that's already received a full re-recording), sequencing the cues in film order. (1 Oscar nomination)

SCENT OF A WOMAN - Thomas Newman

While The Player was Thomas Newman's most critically acclaimed film of the year, Scent of a Woman, Martin Brest's remake (written by Bo Goldman) of the 1975 Italian film was Newman's first project to receive a Best Picture nomination, a far cry from the early days of scoring films like Revenge of the Nerds and Jumpin' Jack Flash. Scent drew much attention for its lead performance by Al Pacino as a blind ex-Marine, his hammy grandstanding earning him the Oscar he deserved for much better, subtler performances (including that year's Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he was nominated in the Supporting category), and the success of Brest's Beverly Hills Cop allowed the director unusual freedom which in this case resulted in the ability to release a two-person comedy-drama with a running time of 157 minutes, with endless scenes where the characters essentially say the same thing over and over again. Newman's music managed to avoid the Sensitive Piano Syndrome cliches of modern drama scoring, remaining true to his own distinctive sound while providing lovely and delicate themes in the vein of his recent score for Angels in America. (4 Oscar nominations)

UNFORGIVEN - Lennie Niehaus

Jerry Fielding was Clint Eastwood's composer-of-choice until his death in 1980, and in 1984 Eastwood began using Lennie Niehaus, who had orchestrated many of Fielding's scores, as composer for all of his films. Eastwood himself is a pianist, and with Unforgiven he began writing his own themes which were incorporated into Niehaus' scores, culminating in 2003's Mystic River, for which Eastwood wrote the score and Niehaus orchestrated and conducted. Despite the widespread acclaim for Mystic, Unforgiven is (in my opinion) Eastwood finest film and a richly deserved Best Picture winner. Niehaus' score is restrained and brooding in the Fielding manner, and Eastwood's contribution, "Claudia's Theme" (named for the protagonist's dead wife, who represents the sober, nonviolent life which the ex-gunfighter "William Munny" is trying to hold onto), is a lovely melody, though a little overused in the film itself. The film, with its superb screenplay by David Webb Peoples, is a complex and engrossing drama which plays off the righteous violence of classic Westerns, and the movie, emphasizing the inner drama over the grand scenery, is an important contribution to the genre. (9 Oscar nominations)

ALIEN 3 - Elliot Goldenthal

Elliot Goldenthal was a brave and unexpected choice to score the third film in the Alien series, which was the feature directorial debut of acclaimed music video helmer David Fincher ("Vogue," "Express Yourself"). Up until then, Goldenthal's only major studio project had been the modest (if undeserved) hit Pet Sematary, which combined tense, jagged music with a main title theme distractingly reminiscent of Lalo Schifrin's The Amityville Horror. Alien 3, though visually striking, was hugely unsatisfying, with a limp script, confusing casting (most of the actors are shaven headed British men impossible to tell apart), and a marked lack of scares, though Charles Dance, Charles S. Dutton and the inevitable Sigourney Weaver supplied first-rate performances. Intriguingly, it was the only film of the series not to feature music from any other movie (the original Alien featured cues from Goldsmith's Freud, while Aliens and Alien Resurrection featured music from Goldsmith's Alien), and Goldenthal's score was impressively daring and original, mixing choral and avant garde elements and using orchestrations to replace sound effects (though they were often lost in the final mix). While the cue "Wreckage and Rape" (which I've always thought of as "Ripley's Rockin' Rape") is distractingly contemporary, his music for the finale manages to give the ending real emotional power, and though the film was a much maligned boxoffice flop, his score helped to put him on the map.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: THE DISCOVERY - Cliff Eidelman

1992 was (obviously) the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World, and two competing historical films went into production to capitalize on the occasion. Neither was a critical nor a commercial hit, and while Ridley Scott's version was more highly anticipated, the Alexander & Ilya Salkind production Christopher Columbus: The Discovery made a greater attempt to be commercial, hiring James Bond director John Glen and making a Superman-style stab at all-star casting with Marlon Brando as Torquemada and Tom Selleck (!) as King Ferdinand, as well as casting Glen's Licence to Kill villains Robert Davi and the young Benecio Del Toro. Surprisingly, the film took a more critical view of its protagonist than did the evocative, gorgeous looking Scott film, which provided a villain to let Columbus off the hook for his treatment of the natives. While Vangelis's 1492 score was quite popular with film music fans, making the FSM poll of the best scores of the year, Cliff Eidelman's Discovery score was one of his finest works, an underrated and satisfying orchestral epic which featured a wonderful main theme and was a suitable follow up to his Star Trek VI score. Unfortunately, the failure of the film caused Eidelman's score to become undeservedly forgotten, and he soon became typecast in small-scale dramas like Untamed Heart and Now and Then.

MALCOLM X - Terence Blanchard

Norman Jewison was originally planning to direct this biopic of the controversial 60s figure, but Spike Lee, fresh off the success of Jungle Fever and especially Do the Right Thing, lobbied publicly for the job, claiming that only a black director should be allowed to tell that story (of course at that time, Lee was pretty much the only major black director, so one suspects that today, with other directors on the scene like Carl Franklin, Antoine Fuqua, Kasi Lemmons and the Hughes Brothers, Lee would be forced to take a different tack). The film was one of his better efforts, dominated by Denzel Washington's compelling performance, and while Lee's direction was less mannered than usual the film suffered from a bloated running time (201 minutes) as well as the usual third-act drag of political biopics (Lawrence of Arabia, Reds, Gandhi). Though many filmgoers would tend to associate Lee's films with hip-hop (especially the use of Public Enemy in Do the Right Thing), his scoring choices tend to be surprisingly traditional. His musician father Bill Lee wrote frequently orchestral scores for his first four films, and while Terence Blanchard's score for Jungle Fever was nothing special, his music for Malcolm remains his finest work, a stirring American epic which traces the hero's political and spiritual journey with grace and intelligence, and the cue "Fruit of Islam" is a particular dramatic highlight. Blanchard also recorded a jazz suite based on his Malcolm score, which is currently out of print.

THE PLAYER - Thomas Newman

Robert Altman's film of Michael Tolkin's witty Hollywood novel was the rare Altman film that managed to be true both to its source material and to the director's own distinctive (if at times unwatchably misanthropic) sensibility, unlike such disastrous adaptations as Beyond Therapy and O.C. and Stiggs. Tim Robbins' performance managed to bring his soulless studio exec anti-hero to life without commenting on the character, and the film was filled with real-life Hollywood celebs in cameos, concluding with a witty surprise appearance by two top stars in the movie-within-a-movie finale. Thomas Newman's quirky, jagged music was the perfect aural accompaniment for Altman's cynical, heartless Hollywood, culminating in a gorgeous and darkly triumphant orchestral rendition of the main theme for the end credits, and the score, while not always an easy listen, is one of the cornerstones of Newman's career.

SNEAKERS - James Horner

Horner seemed to be seriously running out of creative steam in 1992, with lazy scores for Patriot Games, Thunderheart and Unlawful Entry, but his Sneakers score was a delight and perhaps his last truly fresh composition (though he's written plenty of skilled and effective scores since then). Phil Alden Robinson's caper comedy is one of the few movies one would actually like to see a sequel to and Horner scores the light thrills with a terrific sense of invention. Though there are the inevitable familiar moments (influences of Arvo Part, Horner's own Brainstorm score), the music has irrepressible energy and a truly delightful main theme, performed by Branford Marsalis. He may have written more symphonically powerful works, but this is perhaps the most sheerly enjoyable score of Horner's career (Star Trek II gives it close competition, however), and not surprisingly elements of it have popped up in later scores like Searching For Bobby Fischer and especially Bicentennial Man and A Beautiful Mind. The score CD is well worth tracking down, and merits incessant replaying.

Angelo Badalamenti, of course, scored David Lynch's feature TWIN PEAKS FIRE WALK WITH ME, adding a new main theme to his familiar TV music, and the movie itself progressed from mannered near self-parody to a genuinely disturbing second half, anchored by Sheryl Lee's astonishing and brave performance.

ENCHANTED APRIL was the rare 90s feature scored by Richard Rodney Bennett (though originally made for British television), and his classically tinged music was lovely and restrained.

Elmer Bernstein's score for the baseball biopic THE BABE was a surprising disappointment, at times derivative of Randy Newman's modern classic The Natural.

Bruce Broughton's score for HONEY, I BLEW UP THE KID occasionally strayed into cartoonishness but was overall a charming and lively work. His film and TV score parodies were practically the only appealing element of the Peter Hyams-directed fantasy comedy STAY TUNED.

Carter Burwell's music for the unsatisfying horror comedy BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (which later spawned the superb TV series) was largely forgettable, though he is rumored to be scoring Buffy creator Joss Whedon's upcoming feature Serenity (based on Whedon's Firefly TV series). He gave a moody musical ambience to Mark Frost's dreadful directorial debut STORYVILLE.

The Die Hard-derived UNDER SIEGE is the highest grossing film Gary Chang has yet scored, but his music was ultimately unmemorable, too derivative of Williams's JFK, and felt like a rush job.

Stanley Clarke's score for the feeble yet successful PASSENGER 57 cribbed mercilessly from the "Amanda" theme from the original Lethal Weapon.

Michel Colombier scored two urban thrillers, the little seen (despite its impressive cast) DIARY OF A HIT MAN, and Bill Duke's exciting and impressively acted DEEP COVER, the director's finest feature yet (Jeff Goldblum makes a surprisingly effective villain). He also scored Ted Kotcheff's painfully unfunny farce FOLKS, and its hard to think of any score that would have made that film palatable.

Ry Cooder was the inevitable choice to score Walter Hill's most underrated film, providing unnerving sounds for the clever urban thriller TRESPASS.

Amazingly, Georges Delerue provided genuine wit and romance for the ghastly comedy MAN TROUBLE, tragically one of his final scores and released around the time of his death.

Pino Donaggio provided pleasant orchestral Europop for the romantic comedy A FINE ROMANCE, and also wrote his sixth score for Brian DePalma, but the low-budget RAISING CAIN was less a return to form than an unintentional comedy, and though it was nice to hear the distinctive Donaggio sound accompany a DePalma film again, it was his least memorable score for the director.

Patrick Doyle's lush score for Regis Wargnier's Oscar nominated French epic INDOCHINE later inspired Brian DePalma to hire him for his 1993 Carlito's Way.

Anne Dudley's somber score for the sleeper hit Oscar winner THE CRYING GAME mixed suspense and militaristic cues, though it was inevitably Boy George's cover of the title song that audiences seemed to remember.

Along with his additional cues for Last of the Mohicans, Randy Edelman had a successful year at the boxoffice, providing a charming, classical pastiche main theme for the hit dog comedy BEETHOVEN, while scoring two modest hits for director Jonathan Lynn -- the surprise Oscar winner MY COUSIN VINNY and the Eddie Murphy vehicle THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN.

Cliff Eidelman composed satisfyingly emotional music for the offbeat comedy drama LEAP OF FAITH, but the soundtrack CD featured only the film's gospel songs.

Danny Elfman reworked his original Batman themes for BATMAN RETURNS (without any competition from Prince songs this time) while adding moody new material for the film's villains, Catwoman and Penguin.

George Fenton's orchestral score for the faux-Hitchcock thriller FINAL ANALYSIS had many of the same virtues and problems as Patrick Doyle's 1991 Dead Again -- a rousing main title leading to an almost campy excess of musical energy. His pastiche score for the Capra-esque HERO tried hard but never made that frustrating near-miss work.

Brad Fiedel replaced Jerry Goldsmith on the boxing drama GLADIATOR, and surprisingly his score was more orchestral and traditional than Goldsmith's original work, while he provided incidental music for the comedy STRAIGHT TALK, pairing Dolly Parton and James Woods.

Ex-Tangerine Dream member Christopher Franke mixed orchestral and electronic elements for the sci-fi action movie UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, a slick but hokey first collaboration between ID4 filmmakers Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin.

Richard Gibbs wrote a pleasingly peppy score for the Italy-set farce ONCE UPON A CRIME, directed by Eugene Levy before his career resurgence as one of the most in-demand comedy actors of the 21st century.

Philip Glass took a rare venture into commercial cinema with the Clive Barker-derived horror film CANDYMAN, adding a creepy Gothic layer to his trademarked minimalist style resulting in one of his most effective scores.

John McTiernan's change-of-pace jungle romance MEDICINE MAN suffered from a distinct lack of chemistry between stars Sean Connery and a surprisingly unappealing Lorraine Bracco, but Jerry Goldsmith's love theme was one of his strongest of the decade. He spent a long time laboring over the love theme for the Mel Gibson vehicle FOREVER YOUNG (which is basically a reworking of E.T. with a cryogenically frozen pilot instead of an alien) and the score was a breezy if minor success. Goldsmith got a rare chance to score intimate drama with the 1963-set LOVE FIELD, providing a gentle if ultimately unmemorable score, highlighted by a moving cue for the scene where the film's heroine, Michelle Pfeiffer, learns of JFK's assassination. Much of the Goldsmith score was ultimately replaced, against the wishes of the film's director, Jonathan Kaplan (who later worked with Goldsmith on Bad Girls), but the Varese CD features only the Goldsmith music. He wrote a delightful comedy adventure score for the much maligned MOM AND DAD SAVE THE WORLD, and wrote one of his most derided scores for Fred Schepisi's comedy MR. BASEBALL, and while his music was lively and inventive, choices like the interpolation of the "Charge!" theme are painful in context. With six films in release it proved to be an especially prolific year for Goldsmith --- though Love Field and Mom and Dad had both spent time on the shelf, he still managed time to write (rejected) scores for Gladiator and The Public Eye.

Miles Goodman brought his usual comic energy to HOUSESITTER, an awkward high-concept farce, and provided warm incidental music alongside Paul Williams' original songs for the entertaining THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL, with Michael Caine as Scrooge.

James Horner's interpolation of Irish elements in his score for PATRIOT GAMES had the unfortunate effect of implying that the villains' Irish heritage was the root of their evil, while he managed to rip off Khatchurian's Gayane Ballet Suite for the third time. His mixture of synth and orchestra for THUNDERHEART and UNLAWFUL ENTRY resulted in two of his duller scores (though Thunderheart was the better of the two), reminiscent of Jarre's lazy synth ensemble work of the era.

James Newton Howard contributed an edgy jazz score for the superbly acted film of David Mamet's GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, which was the best film director James Foley has made and will probably ever make. He wrote a funky comedy score for the minor, entertaining DIGGSTOWN, featuring the unlikely comedy team of James Woods and Louis Gossett Jr., and provided barely any music for director Irwin Winkler's best film, the remake of NIGHT AND THE CITY.

Mark Isham wrote an appealingly jazzy and eclectic score for Ralph Bakshi's muddled (and apparently much interfered with) mix of animation and live action, COOL WORLD, which was most notable for providing an early glimpse of Brad Pitt's movie star charisma. Isham's score for the WWII drama A MIDNIGHT CLEAR was distinctly anachronistic, but the choice, though not quite successful, seemed to be made for purely artistic and not commercial reasons. Unenviably following in the footsteps of Aaron Copland, Isham wrote a restrained, moving score for the remake of OF MICE AND MEN, while his replacement score for the noir THE PUBLIC EYE was a satisfyingly moody work.

Maurice Jarre returned to Dead Poets turf with SCHOOL TIES, demonstrating his usual melodic skills for this underrated prep school drama which featured early performances from future stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Trevor Jones was unable to do much for the flat, old-fashioned British farce BLAME IT ON THE BELLBOY, and wrote a low-key, guitar based score for the evocative Goldie Hawn drama CRISS CROSS. Jones also gave some needed musical energy to the disappointing sci-fi thriller FREEJACK.

Michael Kamen wrote one of his strongest love themes for the trashily enjoyable WWII spy romance SHINING THROUGH, using it especially deftly in a scene where heroine Melanie Griffith recognizes lover Michael Douglas undercover behind enemy lines. Kamen reunited with the inevitable Eric Clapton and David Sanborn for the mercenary and poorly plotted LETHAL WEAPON 3, and their score at times reflected all to well the distressingly cartoonish nature of the film.

Harry Manfredini took a rare venture away from the slasher genre with the entirely unnecessary ACES: IRON EAGLE III, and B-movie action score was a fun listen on the Intrada CD.

Hummie Mann's replacement score for the dreadful YEAR OF THE COMET (originally scored by John Barry, whose music was featured in the film's trailer) was light and charming, though one theme sounded distractingly like Basil Poledouris' TV score for A Whale For the Killing.

Though many of his scores of the era sounded all too similar, Brian May's full-blooded orchestral score for the campy slasher thriller DR. GIGGLES was surprisingly fresh and energetic.

Ennio Morricone reunited with The Mission director Roland Joffe for the enjoyable CITY OF JOY, and at times his stirring music sounded pleasingly like The Mission Goes to India. William Freidkin's long-on-the-shelf RAMPAGE finally received a U.S. release, years after Morricone's distinctive and disturbing score was made available on CD.

Stanley Myers reunited with director Nicolas Roeg for the ambitious but unsatisfying film of Brian Moore's religious fantasy-drama COLD HEAVEN, and his orchestral score helped to give the film some occasional emotional potency.

Ira Newborn wrote a lush and appealing score for John Landis' underrated vampire comedy INNOCENT BLOOD, featuring a wonderfully brassy theme for the gangsters. Newborn received the principal scoring credit on the amusing Marx Brothers homage BRAIN DONORS, but Mark Mothersbaugh's eccentric additional cues were featured more prominently in the final film.

David Newman had the rare chance to score an Oscar bait drama with the stylish if historically suspect David Mamet-Danny DeVito biopic HOFFA, featuring one of Jack Nicholson's least mannered performances in his role as the famous labor leader. Newman's brooding score was dominated by a memorable main theme which popped up in trailers later, and Newman's score for Hoffa's trailer was actually included on the oddly sequenced score CD. He replaced Marc Shaiman on the overrated comedy HONEYMOON IN VEGAS (livened mostly by Nicolas Cage's unpredictable line readings), whose music was dominated by covers of Elvis songs. He had a rare chance to return to Kindred territory with his orchestral score for the monster movie THE RUNESTONE, but the film received little release and the score none.

Thomas Newman provided an elegant thriller score for the laughable WHISPERS IN THE DARK, but unfortunately it was one of the rare occasions where Varese Sarabande announced a soundtrack but never actually released it. Newman wrote (in mere days) one of the quirkiest of his quirky comedy scores for the indie film THE LINGUINI INCIDENT.

Jean-Claude Petit wrote a satisfyingly romantic score for the drama THE PLAYBOYS, one of his few English language films (but unfortunately not resulting in a soundtrack album).

Nicholas Pike's lively score for the Disney comedy CAPTAIN RON (which bizarrely featured Martin Short as the straight man as well as Kurt Russell managing to maintain his dignity while wearing only an eye patch and a red Speedo), was one of the first composer promo CDs ever released. Pike's music for SLEEPWALKERS was one of the film's few redeemable elements, proving yet again that master horror novelist Stephen King is one of the world's worst screenwriters.

Basil Poledouris' only feature project was the long-in-production boat racing romance WIND, and, an avid sailor himself, the composer mixed small ensemble work with stirring symphonic cues, making a satisfying companion piece to his Big Wednesday score.

The moving, superbly cast E.M. Forster adaptation WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD finally reached U.S. theaters in the wake of Howards End, and Rachel Portman's score was lovely if a little repetitive (which describes much of this talented composer's work). She also provided jaunty music for her first American film, the failed Oscar bait USED PEOPLE.

Zbigniew Preisner's somber, evocative score for Louis Malle's film of the bestseller DAMAGE was much better than this well crafted but ultimately unconvincing erotic drama deserved.

Graeme Revell had one of his biggest hits with THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, but reportedly had to deal with a lot of interference in finishing his score and some of the music is uncomfortably reminiscent of Shore's Silence of the Lambs.

John Scott wrote a brooding orchestral score for the bland biopic of Lee Harvey Oswald's killer, RUBY, and scored anoher period biopic, BECOMING COLETTE.

Marc Shaiman scored one of the year's major Oscar contenders, the military courtroom drama A FEW GOOD MEN, and while his music worked in context, it was so subservient to the film that it was a surprise that it received a soundtrack release. Shaiman scored the underrated directorial debut of his frequent collaborator Billy Crystal, MR. SATURDAY NIGHT, and his facility with showbiz pastiche served him well for this biopic of a fictional comedian. While providing energetic underscore, his clever song arrangements for SISTER ACT helped the film become one of the year's most unexpected hits.

Howard Shore brought his usual craft and brooding sound to one of the year's countless psychological thrillers, SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, and provided charming music (with a harmonica main theme) for the fantasy comedy PRELUDE TO A KISS, though his music for the finale labored too hard to make a weak ending stronger.

Alan Silvestri provided a wry, macabre main theme for Robert Zemeckis' technically impressive but unsatisfying black comedy DEATH BECOMES HER, and his score was reasonably effective but never transcended the one-note nature of the film. 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). Silvestri's synth-dominated score for the animated feature FERN GULLY: THE LAST RAIN FOREST was a big disappointment, lacking the composer's usual energy and creatitvity, while his decision to score the predictably awful STOP! OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT is still inexplicable.

Michael Small and director Alan J. Pakula's final project together was the wife swapping thriller CONSENTING ADULTS, and Small's music was sleek but lacked the truly unnerving quality of his classic 70s scores for Pakula like Klute and The Parallax View (it didn't help that the film itself was no match for its predecessors).

Vangelis reunited with Ridley Scott, his Blade Runner director, for the second of the year's competing Columbus biopics, 1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE, and the score was one of his strongest with a memorable main theme.

W.G. Snuffy Walden wrote a rare feature score for his thirtysomething co-creator Ed Zwick, LEAVING NORMAL, but his folksy music added an unnecessary layer of whimsy.

Shirley Walker wrote a fresh and exciting orchestral score for John Carpenter's underrated film of H.F. Saint's terrific novel, MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN, providing strong main themes and propulsive energy -- if anyone had actually seen the film, it might have been a deserved boon to the talented composer's career.

John Williams wrote perhaps his most unnecessary score for the lavish but irresponsibly brutal HOME ALONE 2: LOST IN NEW YORK, reworking (barely) his music for the original film while composing two new songs, "Christmas Star" and "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas."

Patrick Williams' score for the modestly successful ice skating romance THE CUTTING EDGE was left off the first soundtrack CD, which was released nearly a decade after the film, but next month Varese is re-releasing the song album with a healthy selection of Williams' score.

THE LOVER was one of the highest profile European films scored by Gabriel Yared to get a U.S. release (receiving a nomination for its memorably lush cinematography), and Yared's love theme was one of his most haunting.

Replacing Maurice Jarre, Christopher Young managed to accomplish the rare feat of evoking-without-copying a temp track theme (in this case, Williams' Presumed Innocent) with his elegant suspense score for JENNIFER EIGHT. He wrote one of his most unconventional scores for the barely released black comedy THE VAGRANT, and provided familiar urban action sounds for RAPID FIRE.

Hans Zimmer and Trevor Horn collaborated on the score for TOYS, a lavish pet project of director Barry Levinson (who had originally planned to film it before 1987's Good Morning, Vietnam), but despite Oscar nominated designs the film was often unwatchable, especially a disastrously directed finale, and the score was no help at all. Zimmer's energetic score for the hit A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN inspired director Penny Marshall to hire the composer for all of her films since. He returned to the African milieu of his score for A World Apart, which had earned him his first major Hollywood job, for John Avildsen's coming-of-age drama THE POWER OF ONE. His music for RADIO FLYER (which was almost scored by John Williams) lacked the necessary delicacy (as did Richard Donner's direction), and his overbearing "Mix the Potion" cue was one of the worst-scored sequences in the Zimmer oeuvre.

THE BODYGUARD (John Barry)
GLADIATOR (Jerry Goldsmith)
HONEYMOON IN VEGAS (Marc Shaiman)
JENNIFER EIGHT (Maurice Jarre)
K2 (Hans Zimmer)
THE PUBLIC EYE (Jerry Goldsmith)
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT (Elmer Bernstein)
YEAR OF THE COMET (John Barry)

Aces: Iron Eagle III, Aladdin, Alien 3, The Babe, Basic Instinct, Batman Returns, Beethoven, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Chaplin, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, City of Joy, Consenting Adults, Cool World, Criss Cross, The Crying Game, Damage, Death Becomes Her, Diggstown, The Distinguished Gentleman, Dr. Giggles, Far and Away, A Few Good Men, Final Analysis, Fern Gully: The Last Rain Forest, Forever Young, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Hero, Hoffa, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Honey I Blew Up the Kid, Howards End, Indochine, Jennifer Eight, K2 (the original Zimmer score, not the Chaz Jankel replacement), The Last of the Mohicans, Lethal Weapon 3, The Linguini Incident, Love Field, The Lover, Malcolm X, Man Trouble, Medicine Man, Medicine Man, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Mr. Baseball, Mr. Saturday Night, Mom and Dad Save the World, My Cousin Vinny, Newsies, Of Mice and Men, Passenger 57, Patriot Games, The Player, The Power of One, Prelude to a Kiss, The Public Eye, Radio Flyer, Raising Cain, Rampage, Rapid Fire, A River Runs Through It, Ruby, Scent of a Woman, School Ties, Shining Through, Sister Act, Sleepwalkers, Sneakers, Storyville, Thunderheart, Trespass, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Under Siege, Unforgiven, Universal Soldier, Unalwful Entry, Used People, The Vagrant, Where Angels Fear to Tread, White Sands, Year of the Comet

SUBJECT: HOOK
 
I've always thought that "Hook" is one of Spielberg's most interesting films, although I know it's one of his less appreciated. In this one his two main influences -- Walt Disney and Frank Capra -- are more evident than in any other of his films, and it is something like an autobiography.

SUBJECT: Not Even Nominated - 7/6/04
 
I'd like to make a few comments about today's article:

- It's good to see Goldsmith's "Warlock" getting the respect I feel it deserves. It's not one of his best, but it is (like the film) quite enjoyable if you give it a chance.

- About Miles Goodman: you left out any mention of his delightful score to "What About Bob?".

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