We’re heading into movie award season in Hollywood and around the world. There are lots of ingredients that go into making a successful film: an exciting and original script, a skillful director, and a lead actor and actress who put their heart and soul into a role. Add these together and you might get good box office sales and even pick up an award or two, but if you want a movie to be remembered for all time it needs one other ingredient: brilliant music. That’s certainly what these three films have!
The Magician Behind James Bond
Okay, so the first choice on our list isn’t a single movie but a whole series of them, but they are all known for their soundtrack as much as for their thrill-a-minute scripts. There are currently 25 James Bond films (if you count David Niven’s ‘Casino Royale’), each with its own theme tune. Some are better than others, and efforts such as Shirley Bassey singing ‘Goldfinger’ or ‘Live And Let Die’ by Paul McCartney and Wings are classics in their own right. The man behind the truly magical music of James Bond, however, was English composer John Barry. It was he who wrote the scores to 11 Bond films, and who, more importantly, composed the famous James Bond theme. Admit it, you’re humming it in your head now, aren’t you?
The Hypnotic Sound Of The Zither
One of the greatest thriller movies ever made is the black and white classic, ‘The Third Man’. Based on a book by legendary novelist Graham Greene, Orson Welles plays the Vienna racketeer whose death has been greatly exaggerated. There are many unforgettable scenes, especially when Welles appears and talks about Switzerland, peace, and cuckoo clocks on Vienna’s big wheel, but the most memorable thing of all is Anton Karas’ score played on the plucked strings of Austria’s traditional instrument, the zither. It appears throughout the film, creating an otherworldly and yet beautiful sound, and makes this a movie soundtrack like no other.
Epic Music For An Epic Movie
It’s sometimes said that they don’t make films like they used to, but Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator’ proved them wrong. It’s a Roman epic that is fit to stand alongside past favorites such as ‘Ben Hur’, and it claimed five Oscars and two Golden Globes, including one for ‘Best Score’. The haunting soundtrack is composed by a modern genius of movie music, Hans Zimmer. Other memorable scores by Zimmer include ‘The Last Samurai’ and ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’, and he is famed for a symphonic sound utilizing drums, guitar, piano, woodwind and string sections. He also understands the importance of high-quality music production equipment, but if you want superior instruments and production equipment at a less than Hollywood price, Buzz Harmony have the equipment to help you compose your own musical masterpieces.
A great movie should thrill your senses, and a fantastic musical score is an integral part of that process. Music has the ability to move our emotions like nothing else, and that’s something that the very best movie makers in Hollywood and across the world have always known. Once seen, you’ll never forget a James Bond movie, ‘The Third Man’, or ‘Gladiator’, and you’ll certainly never forget their powerful musical scores.
