Blog #4

             After watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I decided to research more into John Williams. The Soul of Cinema has a very informative excerpt about him and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he also wrote very famous scores for Star Wars, Jaws, and E.T. He is a talented man, no wonder he works closely with Steven Spielberg. Close Encounters and the Star Wars films are perfect expressions of his musical talent. The five note leitmotif used when the scientist and the spacecraft are communicating is simple but memorable. It develops into a complicated and beautiful piece between the tuba and oboe. Not only was this one of my favorite films this week, but also my favorite film score from the others we’ve watched throughout this course.

            Unfortunately, we did not watch this film in class but I stumbled upon a section in chapter nine that I though did an excellent explanation of this particular film. In the film A Clockwork Orange I’ve always wondered why the “ultraviolent” scenes were played correspondingly with classical and opera pieces, like the infamous Symphony 9 by Beethoven. Timm makes an excellent point that this technique is a musical oxymoron. Also, after watching the film I noticed how influential the Moog synthesizer was especially in the scenes where Alex is receiving “treatment” for his issues.

            I am very glad we were able to watch Poltergeist this week; I have been looking forward to watching it throughout the course. Goldsmith wrote a phenomenal score for this film. The music and lack of is well placed in the film and adds appropriate suspense, especially during the scene with the toy clown and Carol Anne’s brother. The silence leading up to the clown choking him was nerve wracking and it was hilarious watching it as a class because we were all biting our nails and shielding our eyes before we let out our frightened screams in unison. I was wondering why Goldsmith decided to use the National Anthem twice in the film. I decided that it was symbolizing this “all American” suburbia family, that stood strong together as they helped Carol Anne fight for her freedom from the spirit that held her prisoner in her own house. Timm mentions in the book that in the scene of the mother falls into the unfinished pool is accompanied with music that was used in the middle ages during masses of the dead (pg. 258).

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