Bill Wrobel's DVD - Film Score Rundowns

I believe in my review of Starship Troopers (the original) I discussed various
“drawers” of composers; for instance, top drawer (A list) would include Herrmann of
course, Steiner, Rozsa, Korngold, and perhaps Tiomkin. Second-drawer level composers
would include Goldsmith, Williams, and so forth. This does not mean one composer is
necessarily above the others or “best” because a so-called lower-drawer composer in
comparison may come out with a stunningly beautiful specific score that would rate as a
“top-drawer” music composition. Also, a particular composer may hold a “special place
in your heart” but this does not necessarily mean his work is objectively “great” (mature,
rhythmically complex, harmonically interesting, rich in variation and thematic
development, etc.). For example, die-hard fans of John Barry simply feel he is the
greatest. That is a valid opinion. I personally quite enjoy his music. Barry’s music
resonates quite strongly with such fans. He often delivers the goods in terms of enjoyable
music of a mass-market type (James Bond scores, etc.) that is immediately likeable,
popular, and so on. This does not mean his music is objectively “top-tier” or “topdrawer”
compared to others (such as Korngold, Steiner, Herrmann, Rozsa). Barry’s
music is rather simple in comparison, not harmonically complex or varied.
Also this list is not completely reflective of my tastes because there are many
dvds I would like in my collection but I never got around to buying them! After all, my
discretionary money is a bit limited despite my good federal job because I have other
priorities like a mortgage and bills to pay, and I tend to want to find a deal before I fork
over my hard-earned money. For instance, I usually don’t buy anything from the
excellent Warner Archive site (except for what I consider a rare Must-Have-Now item)
during the winter-spring-summer months. I wait until Thanksgiving because that is when
their dvds are half-off for that Thanksgiving weekend (5 for $50 or 10 for $100). So there
are a lot of dvds I would like to have (especially if they include terrific Special Features
and commentaries). They include, as examples, I Know Where I’m Going (1945, Wendy
Hiller), 12 Angry Men, Psycho, Godfather, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Third Man,
The Wizard of Oz, The Shadow –great Goldsmith music-- and so forth. One dvd I will
definitely buy was the one my wife & I watched today (Saturday, June 04, 2011) at Regal
Theaters, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. It’s excellent. MY last enjoyable Allen
movie was Mighty Aphrodite but especially Manhattan Murder Mystery. My favorite
Allen movie is Love & Death that I have on old vhs-video instead of dvd (so I probably
will not review it here). I also have many other vhs-videos of movies (such as many Max
Steiner-scored films) that I cannot or never did get in dvd format, so I probably won’t
review them either!
Since this is a “Film Score Blog” I will as often as I can provide detailed
information regarding the film music. This includes cue sheets information, delineations
of the written cues, and whatever else of interest I can offer. Of course many movies I
have nothing to offer regarding details of the written music since I never researched
them. So I will simply provide a simple review of the movie and the music. Of course
any reviewer can do that (provide opinions), so that is why I want to make this long paper
a special review project since I had studied many of the scores and can give music score
details that all or most other reviewers cannot provide. Some movie and scores I do not
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