Elitism and Complacency: The Trouble With Hollywood Film Scores WORDS BY James McCleary
“Sound is 50% of the moviegoing experience” George Lucas
There are very few filmmaking components as well-equipped to establish a distinctive voice as the score. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) is arguably more recognisable for Vangelis’ game-changing synthetic score than for any narrative elements, Ennio Morricone’s work on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966) established the definitive template for scoring cinematic duel sequences, and John Williams’ Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) theme is among the most recognisable musical works in history, and yet it feels increasingly like sentiments such as Lucas’ famous line on the importance of sound, cited above, have been quoted so often in film discourse as to be glazed over rather than internalised. The importance of a unique musical presence has gradually become less desired over the years, resulting in another easy shortcut for Hollywood towards designing a truly risk-free production line for their output. In mainstream circles, composers are no longer being chosen for their compatibility with the project, rather because they have a reputation for a specific, tried-and-true style which has proven popular in their past works. To this end, the producers on the highest levels of mainstream filmmaking have essentially narrowed the field of eligible composers to a small handful. Any upcoming blockbuster which has an epic and emotional scope will more than likely be assigned to Hans Zimmer, while a film marketed with the key buzzword of ‘fun’ will inevitably be offered to Michael Giachinno. On the other hand, any quirky Oscar contender will become putty in the hands of Wes Anderson-emulator Alexandre Desplat, with Thomas Newman picking up the slack by covering the more weighted prestige dramas.
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Consequently, this diverse range of films have all begun to sound virtually identical; I dare anyone to try and distinguish between Hans Zimmer’s work on Widows (Steve McQueen, 2018) and his work on X-Men: Dark Phoenix (Simon Kinberg, 2019). This has had a massive effect on the gradual blending of Hollywood films into one grey mass of copycat content aiming only for inoffensive reactions, an approach that is quickly becoming the standard in a post-Marvel landscape.
