Category: Best Music

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Top Gun (1986) – Rewatch

Accepted into an elite fighter pilot training school with his best friend Anthony Edwards, cocksure Tom Cruise must battle with his own personal demons regarding his father’s heroism during the Vietnam War to succeed. I wanted to watch this again before delving into the new sequel and it did not disappoint. Certainly an artifact of its times as a Cold War relic, it makes the best use of Cruise’s talents. Further bolstered by a hard-working supporting cast (Val Kilmer, Tom Skerritt, Kelly McGillis), a soundtrack that hits all the right notes, and dizzying action sequences, it’s easy to forget it’s all in support of the military industrial complex.   Action

Oscar Win: Best Music, Original Song

Oscar Nominations: Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing

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For Your Eyes Only (1981)

In Roger Moore’s fifth outing as the MI6 agent, Bond must recover a missile targeting system before the Soviets get their hands on it. I should have known based on the uninspiring way they dispose of super villain Ernst Blofeld before the opening credits that this wouldn’t be one of my favorite Bond flicks. I’m never a fan when they parade through a disorienting series of locations during these. Even if good thrills are found in snow chases and skating rinks fights in Italy, there’s plenty of excitement to be had just sticking with the variety of scenery offered in Greece. None of it is helped by Carole Bouquet, who despite having a strong background story plays a forgettable female lead, upstaged by young ice skater Lynn-Holly Johnson’s brattiness and incomprehensible horniness for Bond.  Action

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Original Song

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The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Roger Moore’s James Bond is forced to join forces with Russian spy Barbara Bach after submarines from each of their nations disappear suddenly. For me, the plot is forgettable and I find Moore and Bach so bland together and separately that the best parts of the film have nothing to do with them. The beginning Alpine ski chase is fantastically choreographed with an epic finish. There’s nothing in the rest of the film that meets its awesomeness. Supervillain Curd Jürgens’s underwater lair is impressive in scope and distractingly large in scale. Richard Kiel’s iconic henchman Jaws is so iconic and indestructible that he amazingly gets to come back for another go.  Action

Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Music, Original Song; Best Music, Original Score

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Live and Let Die (1973)

This is Roger Moore’s first outing as the not so secret agent and while he isn’t bad, he’s definitely no Sean Connery. After three MI6 agents are quickly killed in succession, Bond is sent to investigate the dealings of Caribbean dictator Dr. Kananga, brilliantly portrayed by Yaphet Kotto. It’s Bond meets Blaxploitation and I wasn’t prepared for it. The action jumps from Harlem to New Orleans to the fictional island of San Monique, each with its share of delightful characters: the fabulous Geoffrey Holder as a voodoo priest, Julius W. Harris as a laughing henchman with a claw for an hand, and Earl Jolly Brown as a ridiculous sidekick named Whisper. It’s fantastic that the minions who work in the fabulous underground lair wear red polos and denim, no matching polyester for them. Sadly the women are again just around as arm candy with Gloria Hendry as a supposed agent who is almost as useless as Jill St. John in the last installment and Jane Seymour who although beautiful is inexplicably the only other white person in the joint. Of course the theme song rocks and is probably too good for the film, but I also totally wish Fillet of Soul actually existed and that Kotto wasn’t only here for a one off.   Action

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Original Song

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Let It Be (1970)

It is not surprising that after watching Get Back I finally get around to watching this concert film which was the original result from all that footage. A commercial release of this unfortunately hasn’t existed since the 1980s so it’s unfair to compare the two on technical merits as the copy I was able to procure was so much darker and less clear than the recent miniseries. Regardless, it’s sad to think that for the longest time with all that footage available all that was available to the public was this hour and a half shoddily edited movie. There is little context given to anything that comes before the concert on the roof. The concert on the roof is the strongest piece of this film, but I’m still not sure which of the two renditions I prefer. This is more focused on showing the performance while the miniseries again gives context with the setup, more views and reactions of the audience, and even more footage of the police action. Regardless, they both end on such a melancholic note to know that’s more or less the end.   Music

Oscar Win: Best Music, Original Song Score

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Camelot (1967)

Preparing for battle with his old friend Sir Lancelot (portrayed by Franco Nero), Richard Harris’s King Arthur reflects on the circumstances that led him to the destruction of his Camelotian ideal. I generally care less about the Arthurian legend, but it’s somehow a little more palatable in musical form. The costumes and sets are gorgeously bright and creative. I particularly fell for the early winter scene where Harris first meets Vanessa Redgrave’s Guinevere. Redgrave is beautiful and strong willed, believably carrying on romances with both of the men who aren’t bad in their roles either. I love that many years after becoming romantically involved on this set, Redgrave and Nero later married, adding an extra dash of romanticism to a continued story.  Musical  Romance

Oscar Wins: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Costume Design; Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment

Oscar Nomination: Best Cinematography; Best Sound

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Mr. Turner (2014)

The last twenty-five years in the life of eccentric artist J.M.W. Turner is brought to life here through a dedicated performance by Timothy Spall as Turner. The film is incomprehensively gorgeous to look at with expansive landscapes that look like they are Turner’s paintings brought to life. The performances across the board are similarly engaging; I particularly enjoyed Lesley Manville’s regrettably small role as scientist Mary Somerville. Unfortunately the narrative is insanely repetitive with an extra hour of footage that could easily be edited out without sacrificing any of the details of Turner’s later life.

Oscar Nominations: Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score; Best Achievement in Production Design

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The Boy Friend (1971)

On the day a Hollywood producer arrives to watch their production of The Boy Friend, assistant stage manager Twiggy must fill in for leading lady Glenda Jackson who has injured her leg. The intrigues of the cast are woven in with the play’s narrative and fantasy sequences that don’t fit in either. There’s a real difficulty getting a feel for the place in time that this all occurs. The Boy Friend is itself a musical written in the 1950s about a 1920s finishing school. This film is about a production of that musical, but the film is also set in the 20s though very obviously being made in the 1970s. It feels like the action takes place over many days, but it keeps coming back to the cast on stage hamming it up with disconcertingly unblinking eyes batted toward the producer. It makes for a very bewildering experience even before everyone starts dancing around mushrooms. Twiggy is adorable and I wish she had lead more films than this one. Somehow the costumer managed to find Tommy Tune an entire wardrobe that made his legs look even longer than normal.  Musical

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score

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Endless Love (1981)

Martin Hewitt falls in love with his friend James Spader’s younger sister Brooke Shields. When her normally free-spirited parents decide they should cool off for a bit, Martin engages in increasingly desperate measures so the two can spend time together. There are some interesting ideas about the intensity of young love here , but those get overwhelmed by some really questionable choices. The parental figures range from inept in the case of Martin’s to Shirley Knight and Don Murray’s truly bizarre jealousy of their young daughter’s sex life. The hyper-sexualization of teenaged Brooke Shields is off-putting though not as extreme as what is shown in Blue Lagoon or what I’ve read about Pretty Baby.

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Original Song

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The Perils of Pauline (1947)

A seamstress in a sweatshop, Pearl White, portrayed here by Betty Hutton, discovers a change in careers when a set of circumstances leads her to starring in her own series of silent movies. A fairly standard biopic of the era, it focuses more on romance and songs than any adherence to reality. I’m not generally a fan of Hutton’s broad humor, but her fans will probably like her performance here. I’m fascinated about White’s history as a film pioneer, but that fascination isn’t to be fulfilled here.   Musical

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Original Song

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