Monday, April 16, 2007

Music Deja Vu?

I've gotta blog this out. I stuck with the movie Air Force One when switching from one channel to another the other day. I guess I've seen the movie a long time ago that I didn't really remember about the details anymore. It is a fast-paced movie that you can be dragged into it once it starts. But rather than the story, the thing that really drew my attention is the music. When I listened to the music, the familiarity came into my mind and I just stuck there and couldn't focus on anything else. After the quick search in my mind, I told myself "This composer must be the same one as Mulan the Disney motion picture!" I got so excited and turned on my pc immediately to check the factuality of my thought. And here it was!! Jerry Goldsmith, the film composer, did compose the music for both Mulan and Air Force One! Reading through the website I found, it is amazing that how many movies he had composed for, and some are really big hits on the big screen like The Sum of Fear, The Hollow Man, The Kid, The Mummy, among the others. Especially when I found he also composed for Star Trek, the TV show that my brother and I are fond of very much. Things became interesting that without noticing it, the music I like is from the same composer. I knew the music of Mulan before really seeing the movie. It was some strategy of the film company, I suppose, to release the soundtrack prior to the release of the movie. As far as I know, there are only two soundtracks out in advance before the movies, one is Titanic, and the other one is Mulan. They both have good music, you don't have to agree with me, but I love both soundtracks! And they both succeeded in some way though some people started to criticize it after they became blockbusters, especially for Titanic. It is such a thrill to know that the music I like is from the same composer who I didn't know before. I don't know if you can say it's like the restaurants you like are having the same chef providing the food. But it's just AMAZING. I knew some good film composers before listening to their music, but it was the first time I listened to the music and then FOUND OUT the music is from the same composer. How interesting it is that a person can be attracted to the same kind of style, same kind of food, or same kind of people. And that's why you can always tell if the music/song is from the same singer/composer. It's a mystery that you can recognize a person by the voice, sound, and MUSIC without really seeing/knowing the person.

1 comment:

Cathy said...

That's so exciting how you found out the music is from the same composer you like!

I'm also a huge fan of music soundtracks/film scores. Among my favorite film composers are James Horner (The Mask of Zorro, A Beautiful Mind), Hans Zimmer (The Last Samurai, Pearl Harbor) and James Newton Howard (Blood Diamond). Have you seen any of these movies? The music just captivates you and you'll experience mood swings from the beginning to the end. I really love how everything fits together- the images and music. When that happens, it creates such a powerful and immersive movie experience.