Great Music

Rating: 10/10 (12 December 2005)

This is a great movie and while the direction, locations, acting and editing are fun they are second to one of the best film scores in movie history. Bernard Hermann is a musical master and genius and there has not been anyone before or since that compares to his consistent creativity and this is one of his best. Listen to the music from the first opening credits to the scene on the streets and you will hear some of the best compositions since Stravinsky and Beethoven. (He also did "Psycho", "Twilight Zone" and so many other fabulous scores.) You may think that John Williams music is great, and he is, including all the latest Harry Potter films, but the only thing that he did that comes close to Bernard Hermann is his music for ET, the motor cycle chase in Indiana Jones III, Duel of the Fates and the Droid battle in Star Wars I. Hans Zimmerman, another great film scorer, has tremndous creativity, often more than John Williams, but anything he did and, for that matter, anyone else to date, has never been better than Bernard Hermann; and this movie is one of his best. An essential ingredient to every great movie is an even better musical score and this one of the best examples of this. Musically, previous to Bernard Hermann was Max Steiner, who wrote the score for "Gone With The Wind", and before him was the most creative genius in all of film history, Charles Chaplin (who wrote, directed, acted, and scored all of his films! An unheard of feat these days!). See this movie but also listen to the music and you will hear one the best scores of all time.