Soundtrack Outcasts (Vol. 1)

Fact: Disregarding soundtracks is a musical sin.

This series of posts aims to resurrect those film soundtracks that have been needlessly forgotten, either by proxy of their movie counterpart's slip from mainstream consciousness, or simply because no one really gets excited about original soundtracks (which truly is a shame). Soundtracks and themes in films aggrandize the universes we passively invest in by actively guiding our emotions; without them, modern cinema would not resonate.

It is my sincerest wish that the names and works of Harry Gregson-Williams, Danny Elfman, James Horner, Hanz Zimmer, John Williams, Howard Shore, Thomas Newman, James Newton Howard, Michael Giacchino, and dozens of others will be memorialized properly in the future. This blog series is my small step to promote that outcome. (Notice: I will not critique the films mentioned themselves, only offer the opinion that these films' soundtracks deserve to have an audience and a following.)

To kick things off, let's have a listen to the themes no one can forget, beautifully orchestrated in a medley by John Williams--arguably the greatest film composer in all 100 years of the craft:



To counter that performance, here's our first worthy outcast you more than likely don't recall: "Antz," the 1999 Dreamworks film with a manic, ear-burrowing, conga/march soundscape. Harry Gregson-Williams wrote these tracks, and to this day his themes refuse to leave my mind alone:

The Colony



The Big Shoe



Voila! Hope you reminisced, rediscovered, and enjoyed. Look for Vol. 2.

--The Last Moslow

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