This well made documentary focuses on only half of the story, and the eras it celebrates are so hyper-reverential toward John Williams and a few others that it becomes one of those "Hollywood scratches its own back" movies. There's a staggering overabundance of minutiae on current methods and the middling films the composers are working on at the time of their interviews - and it gets boring.
Filmmaker Matt Schrader skips from silent films over the most important film composers and arrangers of the 1930's, 40's and 50's - the same composers that the current crop stand on the shoulders of often without knowing it.
Schrader's greatest sin is that he barely touches on Alfred Newman and Max Frickin' Steiner, only brushes on Bernard Herrmann and then TOTALLY forgets to illustrate the genius of the MGM sound (Johnny Green, Saul Chaplin, Miklos Rosa, Alexander Courage to name only a few.) Also, MGM nee Sony's Stage One recording stage - still one of the greatest ever.
Then there's Paramount, RKO, all of the Warner Bros. composers that go unmentioned and uncelebrated. This HUGE gap in the story of the film composers is evidence that Schrader was pandering to his heroes and showing his limited knowledge of the subject matter in the long view.
Without the inclusion of the heart of the story, this movie gets a 5.
Schrader - DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
Filmmaker Matt Schrader skips from silent films over the most important film composers and arrangers of the 1930's, 40's and 50's - the same composers that the current crop stand on the shoulders of often without knowing it.
Schrader's greatest sin is that he barely touches on Alfred Newman and Max Frickin' Steiner, only brushes on Bernard Herrmann and then TOTALLY forgets to illustrate the genius of the MGM sound (Johnny Green, Saul Chaplin, Miklos Rosa, Alexander Courage to name only a few.) Also, MGM nee Sony's Stage One recording stage - still one of the greatest ever.
Then there's Paramount, RKO, all of the Warner Bros. composers that go unmentioned and uncelebrated. This HUGE gap in the story of the film composers is evidence that Schrader was pandering to his heroes and showing his limited knowledge of the subject matter in the long view.
Without the inclusion of the heart of the story, this movie gets a 5.
Schrader - DO YOUR HOMEWORK!