Bill Wrobel's DVD - Film Score Rundowns

acquaintance I know has studied at least some of the sketches but I never obtained them,
or if I did, I cannot find them (perhaps somebody miniaturized theme!). Rosenman was
the perfect choice for this assignment since his atonal style would fit very nicely on scifi
and fantasy films—although I would have been quite interested in hearing what Bernard
Herrmann would do with this movie! Rosenman’s score was quite effective, just as
Humphrey Searle’s atonal score was amazingly effective in The Haunting (in fact, I
personally liked Searle’s score better).
-Vertigo (1958) ***** [music *****]
http://www.amazon.com/Vertigo-Collectors-James-
Stewart/dp/0783226055/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1292997278&sr=1-1
This is Hitchcock’s drama masterpiece followed very closely by North by
Northwest as lighter fare. Couple this with Herrmann’s masterpiece score, then you
cannot go wrong! James Stewart is at his troubled best, and Kim Novak is exceptionally
alluring, mysterious, beautiful in her platinum French Roll hairstyle! I already did a
modest rundown on the score here:
http://www.filmscorerundowns.net/herrmann/vertigo.pdf
-Munich (2006) ** [music ***]
http://www.amazon.com/Munich-Widescreen-Eric-
Bana/dp/B000F1IQN2/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1292997351&sr=1-1
This is not my kind of movie. Sure, it is directed by Steven Spielberg, and the
music is by the obligatory (for Spielberg movies!) John Williams, but I still don’t care for
this kind of movie. It’s deadly entertainment, so to speak. I extremely doubt if I will ever
revisit this dvd.
-The Seven Samurai (1954) ***** [music ***]
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Samurai-Criterion-Collection-
Spine/dp/0780020685/ref=sr_1_3?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1293326522&sr=1-3
Absolutely a masterpiece. If you don’t mind reading sub-titles for over three
hours, then watch it. Then also listen to the superb audio commentary by Michael Jeck. I
have the old two-disc set. The recent three-disc set has more special features, and another
commentary of five scholars. The movie itself has been remastered for that set, so I’m
planning to buy it in the near future.
-Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Adventures of a Wunderkind (2001 dvd)
http://www.amazon.com/Erich-Wolfgang-Korngold-Composers-
Time/dp/B00008V60R/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1293326704&sr=1-1
I reviewed this dvd on Talking Herrmann:
http://herrmann.uib.no/talking/view.cgi?forum=thGeneral&topic=1483
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