FilmScores Tagged Articles at Cinematical

What do Hellboy 2 (on DVD this week) and Milk (in theaters Nov. 26) have in common, aside from flamboyantly controversial main characters? Musical scores by Danny Elfman, that's what.

Like many people, I was first aware of Elfman as the frontman for Oingo Boingo, a band that had a few songs I liked and an abundance of songs that annoyed me -- may I never hear "Dead Man's Party" again as long as I live -- before I was awestruck by his score for Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Even if you haven't seen the film I bet you'd recognize the factory-like main theme, officially titled "Breakfast Machine," which starts at 1:15 in the YouTube clip embedded below. It's still my favorite piece of Elfman music, and it typifies his work: whimsical, rhythmic, slightly dark, and heavy on the mechanical noises.

It was Elfman's first orchestral score for a film (he and Oingo Boingo had made something called Forbidden Zone five years earlier), and the beginning of a partnership with Pee-wee director Tim Burton that lasts to this day. Many of Elfman's scores, for Burton and for other directors, have been for films that readily lent themselves to his Halloweenish sensibilities -- comic book/sci-fi/superhero capers like Dick Tracy, Batman, Men in Black, Beetlejuice, Mars Attacks!, Spy Kids, and Spider-Man. And let it not be forgotten what Burton's [correction: Elfman's] most famous composition is: the theme from The Simpsons, surely one of the most recognizable TV songs in the world.

Although the Hollywood of today is known for regurgitating its plots, according to an Oscar-nominated composer – the same goes for its music. Recognized by the Academy for his work on Sense and Sensibility and Hamlet, Patrick Doyle claims composers are “playing it safe” in order to score higher at test screenings. “There is a recycling process going on,” he said, noting that hundreds of musicians are being drawn by the industry’s supposed glamour without becoming “informed” about the performing arts in general.” 

For most people a film’s score helps them identify with its characters, subsequently transporting them to “another place” for the time being. With the music on repeat, what’s to stop Vince Vaughn from showing up in every other film? Okay, so maybe that’s not the best example.