Modern film scores 'drift around like cows grazing', say composers

London, Mar 17 : Some of the top composers of today believe that film music written these days is terrible - despite them topping music charts.

According to the Times report, composers believe that modern movie scores are not commendable, and only a few of them, like the 'underwater menace' of 'Jaws' or the whimsical 'Moon River' from 'Breakfast at Tiffany's, linger on in memory.

Hans Zimmer, who wrote the music for the blockbusters 'Gladiator' and 'The Lion King', is one of the composers who has dismissed the majority of contemporary screen compositions as unmemorable.

"They drift around like cows grazing. So many scores sound like nobody really thought about them," Times online quoted him, as saying.

Anne Dudley, who won an Oscar for his musical score in 'The Full Monty', and Christopher Gunning, who has bagged a BAFTA this year for his music in 'La Vie en Rose', hit back at the "blandness" of soundtracks.

"I go to movies a lot and I find myself disappointed again and again [by] the blandness of the music. Where has melody gone in film music? What do you remember of Breakfast at Tiffany's? Moon River by Henry Mancini. You can't get it out of your head," said Gunning.

And the view of all these composers is seconded by the public, as in a recent poll of the nation's all-time favourite film themes, scores that dominated the masses belonged to films decades ago by composers such as John Williams (Jaws) and Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly).

Among the five scores in the poll were 'Gladiator' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean', by Zimmer, whose Oscar-winning soundtrack for The Lion King has sold more than 15 million copies.

ANI