What James Horner Means To Me

I've always been jealous of overly talented people. Oh it's not the green eyed monster kind of jealousy, it's that out in the open FUCK YOU kind of jealousy that is reserved for people who are absolute masters of their craft and are completely untouchable. I mean take that phrase "green eyed monster" it's genius, so fuck you Shakespeare.

In the realm of movie scoring there are a few absolute legends who are a cut above the rest. John Williams is such a man and he'll probably never be equalled. Howard Shore is such a man. Hans Zimmer. Alan Silvestri. Jerry Goldsmith. There are others but the guy who gave John Williams the closest run for his money is, for me at least, James Horner.

We all know his body of work and, in particular, his award winning effort for Titanic. That's a movie that is loved and loathed the world over. It was both helped and hindered by Celine Dion's version of "My Heart Will Go On". Helped because it was an enormous success. Hindered because the rest of us fucking despise her glass shattering vocals. That said, the piece of music itself is actually quite beautiful. Here it is on a single piano sans Canada's most annoying exports incessant warbling. Grab your coat heartstrings, you're about to be pulled:

There are other moments in that movie, particularly towards the end where it's just vintage Horner and I think James Cameron deserves credit for putting the differences they built up on Aliens aside and hiring him for Titanic. Horner's majestic Braveheart score was an obvious bridge builder too but we'll get to that soon.

You know at the end of Aliens where Ripley defies gravity by climbing up the airlock and jettisoning the queen out into space? That's some quality cinema right there. Maybe the most pulsating piece of sci fi ever. Watch it without the score and it loses much of its potency. That's not a criticism of the movie. Not at all. I mean Jaws without the cello is way less effective. The greatest movies you'll ever see work because all of the moving parts blend seamlessly together so that you don't even notice any single aspect of it. It all just hits you like a big, beautiful avalanche of perfection and only after multiple viewings can you pick it apart and try to figure out what you love most about it. The reason I bring this up is because even if you're one of the seven people in the known universe who heretofore haven't seen Aliens, you probably do know that music.

It has been used in numerous clips to make lesser movies look better and I have to say in every single case it works. Horner's Aliens score was a famously difficult session. He and Cameron clashed because Horner never really got a full cut of the movie to work with. As a result he was frequently working off the cuff without the benefit of a safety net. Well it worked for him and while his music had to be taliored to fit the movie, it remains a masterpiece of cinematic scoring. Horner used "Gayane" also used in 2001: A Space Odyssey to excellent effect, proving that he wasn't precious about his music and was happy to import genius from other parties. Goldsmith's original Alien score was also tapped into. He worked his ass off and earned the praise he got for it. So lesser movies got the benefit of this music in clips to help sell them to audiences. Some of them aren't bad movies, just lesser. Alien 3 for example...

Simply put, Braveheart is one of the most exquisite movie scores I have ever heard and only Howard Shore's LOTR effort can match it for sheer emotional impact. The use celtic instruments along with Horner's ability to squeeze the very best out of an orchestra produced a score that still knocks me on my ass every single time I hear it. At the time of writing I am listening to For the love of A Princess and I'm not ashamed to say I'm actually holding back tears. Not just because this great, great man is dead but because that piece of music just rips me in two. Braveheart is so much more than one piece of music though. You can pretty much pick out any section of it and be moved to an extreme emotion.

My original Braveheart experience was nearly 20 years ago in the Savoy Cinema in Dublin's fair city. It was sold out. Going into the cinema with my then girlfriend we were caught up in a wave of excitement. We just knew, knew we were going to witness something special. Of course we were not prepared for the brilliance that popped off the screen. It was and remains a fucking masterpiece. As mentioned above the best movies are a perfect marriage of acting, direction, editing etc. and of course scoring. It was an overwhelming experience. I have watched it over and over on VHS, DVD and now a stuning Blu-ray. Over the years the score has just got better and better. It does what all the best music does, it floods your mind with a million memories and it hits you in the feels. I think Mel Gibson deserves the last word here: "[Horner] was a rare artistic genius. He did not merely augment the image he was presented with, he was able to transcend its matter and logic and travel straight to the heart and soul with his magical gift ... a gift that truly reflected his own heart and soul. I will miss him."

Horner has meant so much to so many. Those of us who love music will continue to mourn this loss but, eventually, we will do it in a celebratory way. His body of work is truly wonderful. I'm just going to randomly select a piece from Field of Dreams and put it in the blog here:

I mean, come on! It's just so perfect! Granted, Field of Dreams is one of those movies that allows the score to shine but that too brings pressure. If the score hadn't delivered that movie would have died on it's ass. But it did deliver and this barking mad, yet completely heart wrenching movie is a stonewall classic. "If you write it they will cry".

His body of work featured other successes including Glory, Apollo 13 and A Beautiul Mind. I am loathe to mention Avatar because try as he might, even he couldn't rescue that artificial, emotionally stunted piece of plastic. But, I digress, this man meant the world to me because of the music mentioned here. I think it's fitting that he did the score to A Beautiful Mind because it takes a beautiful mind to craft the wonderful music he gave us. I'll leave you with probably my favourite piece from this amazing man:

                                     James Horner: August 14 1953 - June 22 2015
                                                                       RIP