Film Score Friday: The Rocketeer

This week on Film Score Friday we take a look at the Rocketeer. The film prmiered in 1991 with a score from James Horner

Here's an interview with Horner about composing for the film. He shares that for the 108 minute film he wrote 100 minutes worth of music. If that wasn't surprising enough, he then says that he wrote the whole score in just over 2 weeks. 

“The music is like rocket fuel”

— James Horner

It's a seriously underrated movie, but the score is fantastic. The movie is set in the 1930s and Horner hits all the right notes with the tone. Tell us what you think of the Rocketeer in the comments. 

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The Rocketeer on iTunes

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Film Score Friday: Independence Day

It was the summer of 1996 and something rocked our world. Independence Day came out on July 2 and taught us that Will Smith was our best hope in the face of an alien attack. 

This was one of the first scores that got us excited about music. A summer blockbuster with an awesome score is always great and this is one of the most memorable. The main theme has some great soaring horn parts. Toward the end, there's some amazing trumpet fanfares played on piccolo trumpet. 

There was amazing hype around this movie and David Arnold felt it. From IMDB:

“Struggling to write the score, David Arnold secluded himself in a Los Angeles hotel room for almost four months to avoid the escalating hype for the film. But from his window he saw helicopters carrying banners with taglines to the film as part of a marketing campaign, which only stressed him out even more.
”

— IMDB Trivia

Arnold had felt relative success with 1994's Stargate, but this was a new level and despite the pressure he succeeded. There's lot of similarities between this score and Stargate. That is not a bad thing. Dean Devlin said in the score's liner notes:

“Leave it up to a Brit to come up with some of the most stirringly patriotic music I’ve ever heard.”

— Dean Devlin, Producer and Co-Writer

The studio orchestra for Independence Day included lots of familiar faces like Malcolm McNab. They completely nail it and sound like they're having a great time. Go check this one out and you'll be glad you did. 

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Independence Day

RCA

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