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A Revealing Interview with James Horner

Discussion in 'Star Wars And Film Music' started by Darth_Vader-Anakin, Sep 28, 2006.

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  1. Darth_Vader-Anakin

    Darth_Vader-Anakin Jedi Youngling star 3

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    Jul 22, 2002
    Film Music Radio has released a very interesting interview with James Horner in which he explains, quite truthfully, his thoughts on Yared's Troy and working with Wolfgang Peterson and Terrence Malick.

    He comes off fairly arrogant, but at the same time it's nice to hear someone actually express his opinion rather than give the same answer of "it was such a joy to work with him."

    It's a little over two hours long (it's intercut with quite a few musical tracks, so the actual interview may only be 30-45 min), but I would really recommend giving it a listen.
     
  2. Indiana_Fett

    Indiana_Fett Jedi Padawan star 4

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    Dec 12, 2004
    Horner's comments regarding Yared's score are ridiculous.
     
  3. Well_Of_Souls

    Well_Of_Souls Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 26, 2001
    Agreed. His candor is welcome but he comes across, frankly, as an ass.

    Yared's Troy is far superior to his boring, derivative work for that film.
     
  4. Rogan_Agar

    Rogan_Agar Jedi Padawan star 4

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    Dec 1, 2004
    Horner's last good work was THE WRATH OF KHAN in 1982... His recent music is so uninspired, so generic and boring.
     
  5. Darth_Vader-Anakin

    Darth_Vader-Anakin Jedi Youngling star 3

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    Jul 22, 2002
    While his comments about Yared's Troy are ludicrous, I thought what he said about Terrance Malak was even worse. He basically said that the man has no soul and heart. Seems pretty harsh.

    I also thought it was funny how he said that he, unlike other Hollywood composers, works on a broad variety of films and genres. Well that may be so, but he produces the same score....

    I have to say though, that I don't agree with this statement at all. After 1982, Horner still wrote some great stuff: Krull, Glory, The Land Before Time, Willow and Braveheart.
     
  6. Well_Of_Souls

    Well_Of_Souls Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 26, 2001
    Add to that Aliens, The Rocketeer, Apollo 13, and Legends of the Fall. The man is talented, no doubt, but apparently extremely arrogant.
     
  7. Cerrabore

    Cerrabore Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 17, 2004
    DANIEL SCHWEIGER: Now, two films, two recent films that you've scored that I imagine were very challenging were Troy and The New World.

    Now, on Troy, you were coming in as the replacement composer for Gabriel Yared and you had already done The Perfect Storm for the director, Wolfgang Petersen. In a way, was it as hard as it was easy? Because, I think you've got two to three weeks to do this score, but because there is like no time for you to do it, that there isn't gonna be the kind of studio second guessing that may have, you know, messed up the first score that was done for it.


    JAMES HORNER: Uhm, let me see where I start with Troy.

    Wolfgang is very opinionated. And a very proud man. And he wants everything to be huge. The biggest ever, the most grand. "We've never had a shot of 5,000 people or 50,000 army before - look at the shot of the ocean and you see 5,000 ships - that's the biggest shot in history!" I mean, he's very much into this huge old-fashioned grandure, and I think that he was making what he felt was the best film of the decade. I think that was his mindset.

    And I wasn't asked to do the original, which was sort of - at the time - a bit of a twinge for me, because I did such a nice job, or he seemed so pleased on The Perfect Storm. Even though everybody, including myself, very very vocally begged him to take down the ocean water sound effects, which he wouldn't do in The Perfect Storm. And I think ultimately it didn't do as well, because people just got overwhelmed by the constant barrage of noise. So it didn't do as well as it was supposed to or as it was promised and hyped to. And I think he felt that he probably could do better musically.

    So he started Troy with Gabriel, and of course Gabriel is very well known in Europe. He was going to make this huge Movie of the Decade, the Trojan War, you know, very dramatic. And he worked with Gabriel and gave Gabriel free reign to do whatever Gabriel wanted, without thinking of how an audience might react, or whatever. And the two of them worked, and Gabriel dutifully did whatever was asked of him by Wolfgang, and Wolfgang's musical tendencies are to overscore everything, like a Wagner opera. He's not into subtlety. At all. Not in the slightest. And emotion to him is a 3,000-pieced orchestra playing a sappy violin theme.

    I mean, I'm being nice, but not being nice. I'm being - this is what I mean by being direct.

    He's a lovely man. These are only issues that become issues when you're in the trenches and you're really working on a film and it has to be stunning and these are the issues you come up with another -- with your employer, or your -- somebody you're working closely with.

    So, Wolfgang gave a lot of instructions to Gabriel that were hugely wrong. And just so old-fashioned. And Gabriel dutifully did his job and Gabriel also brings to the project a certain quality that is not necessarily the most cinematic, but perhaps is a little more operatic, and didn't have the experience of scoring a big action movie. His movies are a little bit more refined.

    And, you know, his previous, The English Patient, was really very much based on Bach's music. I mean, if you listen to Bach's preludes and fugues and those things you'll hear Gabriel's score. And I suppose I could say you would have to be a trained musician or a musician with some sort of education to know that, but when you hear the two things you think: "That's Bach."

    I don't say that to denigrate Gabriel, I only say that to give you an example of how Gabriel was not familiar with this big action movie thing that Wolfgang wanted. And Gabriel and Wolfgang made the score together, fifty-fifty.

    So what happens is, they have The Score from God in The Movie from God and they're in London doing post-production. Gabriel has a huge choir, huge percussion, huge this, huge that. And, before they put the chorus on, they brought it to California to preview - the studio insisted on a preview. And Wolfgang was so sure
     
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