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Elmer Bernstein

It would take me far too long to merely list the entirety of Elmer Bernstein’s filmography. Let this much be said, though: anyone who’s able to compose the score for The Ten Commandments, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Magnificent Seven, and Ghostbusters…well, he’s a capable, capable man, to be sure. Bernstein’s career spanned over 50 years, starting with such classics as Cat-Women on the Moon (no, I am not making that up) and ending with an Oscar-nominated score for the 1950s throwback Far From Heaven. Bernstein also has a few interesting rejected scores, those that never made it to our ears, including A River Runs Through It and Gangs of New York. To be rejected by Martin Scorsese might hurt, but Scorsese cherished the composer, using his work for his remake of Cape Fear.

Bernstein’s later years were filled with less epic scores, and more from crowd-pleasing comedies, including the aforementioned Ghostbusters (though, no, he didn’t come up with the famous title song), Spies Like Us, Three Amigos, and Airplane. Still, his work was so memorable in his earlier work that he was able to easily slide into scoring goofy comedies whose audiences may not have ever heard of Bernstein’s name. Bernstein won just one Oscar, for his work on Thoroughly Modern Millie, but was nominated countless other times. He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award, and on and on. Among composers to look up to, it’s Herrmann and Bernstein, and very few others. This man’s work is among the most prolific and unobtrusive (an important quality in composing) throughout American cinema.

Michael Giacchino

If anyone should be thanking J.J. Abrams for their career, it’s not Evangeline Lilly or Chris Pine. Michael Giacchino, the man behind the scores for Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek, Ratatouille, and The Incredibles, owes Abrams quite a lot. Before Abrams’ ABC series Alias premiered in 2001, Giacchino was working with high-profile video games, composing as much as he could. Abrams picked Giacchino to score Alias, but his most notable and often contribution to the world of television is finishing up its six-season run. Yes, Giacchino is the guy behind all those trombone blares, soft piano notes and rumbling bass on what is still my favorite show on TV, Lost. Giacchino’s work is just as much a character as any of the performers, and garnered notice almost instantly, including Giacchino’s first Emmy award.

The composer finally got an Oscar a few months ago, for his evocative and moving score in the Pixar film Up. In fact, if Giacchino was planning on, like Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock, trying for being an EGOT winner (that is, someone who wins an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), he’s only missing the Tony, having won a few Grammy Awards as well. Giacchino’s first big score, or the first that got him a lot of attention at the multiplex, was his work in The Incredibles, making us all long for the spy thrillers of the 1960s and 1970s, which is exactly what the film’s director, Brad Bird, was searching for. Yes, I’m a huge Pixar nut, and equally in the tank for Lost. But still, do those films and TV shows work as well without the memorable music? Easy answer: no.

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