Best Film Composer?

I always get really weird with the "best" label being used in artistic mediums. It's not like a race to the finish line and the fastest wins. Its subjective. Yea, there's a lot of ways to measure talent as well, but a lot of that is subjective. Five people see a movie and one may think it was crap and another have a life altering experiece. There's no denying one's talent, but labeling anyone the "best" is really just a subjective thing. I don't know why the "best" label bothers me today! It might be the 3 hours of sleep I had.

Good composers are often a great match with certain directors (Burton and Elfman, Spielberg and Williams, etc.). I think a great composer can elevate a great director's vision to a new height.
 
You are right...and yes it is subjective.

Anyone can say this or that composer is the best...
as long as "this" composer's surname happens to be Williams
&
as long as "that" composer has 45 Oscar nominations to his credit.:D
 
CallaghanFilms said:
You are right...and yes it is subjective.

Anyone can say this or that composer is the best...
as long as "this" composer's surname happens to be Williams
&
as long as "that" composer has 45 Oscar nominations to his credit.:D
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haha.
Still doesn't make it so. But you can say he is one of the most successful and prolific and you think he's the best.

PS
This doesn't mean I don't love Williams, I do. But I don't think any one person can be the "best". If you base it on awards and nominations, then someone like Andrew Lloyd Webber could be considered the "best" musical composer of all time... I can hear the uproar if someone were to say that.
If the most Awards won meant something then Titanic would be the greatest single movie EVER made. Is it really?

I think Williams is one of the top, but I don't think he can do everything. I don't think he could score a Burton film like Elfman, etc.
 
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Ought2bCommitted said:
haha.
Still doesn't make it so. But you can say he is one of the most successful and prolific and you think he's the best.
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It doesn't make it so in itself. But, as I've argued time and again in favor of Spielberg, artistic brilliance and financial uber-success are not mutually exclusive.

What makes him the best is that he is John Williams.

Some say Irving Berlin is the greatest composer of the 20th century, others say Gershwin. In my book it's Johnny Williams. Hell, I'll go out on a limb and say that one would have to go back to the time of the masters (more specifically to a certain pair of cats named Ludwig and Wolfgang) in order to find any real competition to the Williams body of work.
 
Blaine said:
Williams
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Blaine said:
Horner
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Ah...a man after my own heart. I concur.:thumbsup:
 
CallaghanFilms said:
It doesn't make it so in itself. But, as I've argued time and again in favor of Spielberg, artistic brilliance and financial uber-success are not mutually exclusive.

What makes him the best is that he is John Williams.

Some say Irving Berlin is the greatest composer of the 20th century, others say Gershwin. In my book it's Johnny Williams. Hell, I'll go out on a limb and say that one would have to go back to the time of the masters (more specifically to a certain pair of cats named Ludwig and Wolfgang) in order to find any real competition to the Williams body of work.
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Interesting. Though I think comparing a film composer to a prodigy who wrote operas is a bit of a stretch. Not belittling Williams at all. I think Williams has made a significant contribution to cinema and music. He is certainly going to go down in cinematic history as one of the most successful film composers ever.
 
Ought2bCommitted said:
Interesting. Though I think comparing a film composer to a prodigy who wrote operas is a bit of a stretch. Not belittling Williams at all. I think Williams has made a significant contribution to cinema and music. He is certainly going to go down in cinematic history as one of the most successful film composers ever.
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Actually, if that prodigy was alive today, HE'D be scoring movies..if he wasn't doin' rock'n'roll...:evil: For the "Classical Music" composer, movies tend to be a great outlet for their talent. What's so different in his style of orchestral music?
 
True, in his day Wolfie would have been considered more of a pop composer than what we call "classical" now. I didn't mean to imply they were so different, they're not...but writing a 3 hour opera is a bit different than scoring a movie. Not everyone can do it all. The tasks are similar but not the same. Doing a play is not like doing a musical. A lot our pop composers try their hands at different mediums with very mixed results. Who knows what Wolfie would be doing if he were alive today. We'll never know. Similarly, just because Williams is a great film scorer doesn't mean he could write an opera of Wolfie's calibur.

Comparing composers is like comparing apples to oranges. Some don't like the citrusy stuff.
 
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Ought2bCommitted said:
True, in his day Wolfie would have been considered more of a pop composer than what we call "classical" now. I didn't mean to imply they were so different, they're not...but writing a 3 hour opera is a bit different than scoring a movie. Not everyone can do it all. The tasks are similar but not the same. Doing a play is not like doing a musical. A lot our pop composers try their hands at different mediums with very mixed results. Who knows what Wolfie would be doing if he were alive today. We'll never know. Similarly, just because Williams is a great film scorer doesn't mean he could write an opera of Wolfie's calibur.

Comparing composers is like comparing apples to oranges. Some don't like the citrusy stuff.
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Mozart, if he were alive today, could have been a janitor or a real estate agent. You never know what the times might do to a person. Maybe living in this age his mind wouldn't have developed like it did back in his time period. Maybe all of his very subtle life experiences built up to make him what he was. He'd live in a very different society, and not have the opportunity to meet with royalty, and have the freedom to pursue what he did.

As for John Williams; I wouldn't bet against him on composing an opera. He's quite prolific in doing concert work as well. In some circles he's known better for that than his film career.

I don't get the appeal of Hans Zimmer. I have heard some nice music from him, but overall he's generic sounding IMO.
 
Definetly James Horner, he's the one Im most familiar with, so it would be the safest choice. Only problem would be that my visuals would'nt be in cope with the music X(. I really loved Braveheart and Beautiful Mind Scores. Can't belive he did commando in the days, so pointless.
 
I know this was supposed to be about living composers, but I must echo what several others have said and go with Bernard Herrmann. He could be a bit heavy-handed at times, but have you ever watched one of the Hitchcock films he scored without the sound on? Makes a huge difference. The music from Psycho is just brilliant -- like the theme from Jaws, you just hear a couple of bars and you're immediately ready for something dreadful to happen...
 
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