THE ROCK – Nick Glennie-Smith, Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson-Williams
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the major summer blockbusters of 1996, The Rock is possibly the epitome of mid-1990s cinematic excess. Directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, it is a massive action epic of ridiculous proportions, self-important and serious but also somehow incredibly good fun, and it helped solidify Bay and Bruckheimer’s hyper-kinetic, testosterone-fueled, purposefully stylized aesthetic as the default for box-office smashes for several years thereafter. The film stars Nicolas Cage as FBI chemical weapons specialist Stanley Goodspeed, who is called into action to stop General Francis Hummel (Ed Harris). Hummel is a highly decorated Marine who has become increasingly bitter over the U.S. government’s refusal to acknowledge or compensate the families of soldiers killed during covert military operations. Hummel and a group of similarly disillusioned Marines steal a cache of VX nerve gas rockets, seize control of the former prison on Alcatraz Island, and take a group of tourists hostage, threatening to launch the weapons at San Francisco unless the government pays $100 million in reparations to the dead soldiers’ families. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2026, Part 2
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
I’m pleased to present the latest installment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.
This article, the second of 2026, explores six outstanding scores from recent months, including an Italian comedy-mystery about an eccentric criminologist investigating a murder at an isolated Alpine mansion, an Italian romantic melodrama involving murder, family secrets, and rekindled passions, a French World War II adventure about three children secretly fighting against the Nazi occupation, the second season of a hugely acclaimed Japanese fantasy anime about an immortal elven mage coming to terms with the passage of time, an Italian sports drama telling the inspirational true story of Olympic bobsleigh legend Eugenio Monti, and a Chinese historical mystery series involving murder and conspiracy within the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty. Read more…
THE GREEN PASTURES – Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Hall Johnson
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
A Broadway stage production of “Green Pastures” by Marc Connelly won the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened February 26, 1930 at the Mansfield Theatre in New York and ran for 640 performances. It was based on the 1928 novel Ol’ Man Adam an’ His Chillun by Roark Bradford and the 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. Following the massive success of the stage play, Warner Brothers decided to purchase the film rights for $100,000. The decision was controversial as the studio would be taking a significant financial and social gamble for the era by keeping the play’s premise entirely intact – making “The Green Pastures” the second of only seven feature films during the entire Hollywood Studio era to star an all-Black cast. Co-owner Jack L. Warner would manage production with an $800,000 budget, Marc Connelly and William Keighley would direct, Sheridan Gibney would write the screenplay based on the novel and play. The cast would include Rex Ingram as Jehovah and Adam, Oscar Polk as Gabriel, Eddie Anderson as Noah, and Ernest Whitman as Pharaoh. Read more…
Nick Glennie-Smith, 1951-2026
Composer, conductor and musician Nick Glennie-Smith died on August 16, 2026, after a period of ill-health. He was 74 years old.
One of the key figures in the development of the modern Hollywood action score, Glennie-Smith enjoyed a career spanning pop music, film, television and live performance. He was best known for The Rock, The Man in the Iron Mask, We Were Soldiers and Secretariat, as well as for his decades-long association with Hans Zimmer as composer, conductor and musical director.
Nicholas Glennie-Smith was born in London, England, on October 3, 1951. He began his professional career as a keyboard player, joining the progressive-rock group Wally in the 1970s and later performing or recording with artists including Leo Sayer, Cliff Richard, Roger Daltrey and Paul McCartney. He also worked with Roger Waters on When the Wind Blows and Radio K.A.O.S., and performed at Waters’s enormous 1990 production of The Wall in Berlin.
During the late 1980s Glennie-Smith became associated with Stanley Myers, and then subsequently with Hans Zimmer’s Media Ventures studio, which saw him relocate from the UK to Los Angeles. Initially he contributed additional music, conducting, keyboard performances, arrangements and orchestrations to films including K2, Cool Runnings, The House of the Spirits, The Lion King, Bad Boys, Crimson Tide and Beyond Rangoon. His combination of orchestral technique, electronic programming and practical experience as a performing musician made him particularly suited to the rapidly developing Media Ventures sound. Read more…
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME – Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz
THROWBACK THIRTY
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I’m going to make a statement here that might be controversial, but here goes. I think that the score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz is the greatest piece of music ever written for a Disney animated feature, going all the way back to 1937 and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Yes, that includes Pinocchio and “When You Wish Upon a Star,” that includes The Jungle Book and “The Bare Necessities,” that includes The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahontas, and all the others. It is, for me, the most sophisticated, the most dramatically intelligent, the best orchestrated, the darkest, and the most mature of all the Disney scores, and the fact that it isn’t better loved, or better respected, by fans of the genre is, in my opinion, a huge oversight. Read more…
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY – Michael Giacchino
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE FILM, YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER WAITING UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE DONE SO TO READ IT.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the 38th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the fourth to focus on Spider-Man as the lead character since the reboot prior to Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017. It again stars Tom Holland as the web-slinging superhero and is a direct sequel to Spider-Man: No Way Home, although it also contains plot strands from Thunderbolts, the Disney+ movie The Punisher: One Last Kill, and (to a lesser extent) Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The story follows Peter Parker, five years after the events of No Way Home, when Dr. Strange cast a spell that made the world forget that he is Spider-Man – including his girlfriend MJ Watson (Zendaya) and best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon). Read more…
THE GENERAL DIED AT DAWN – Werner Janssen
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1936 Paramount Pictures came upon an unpublished manuscript by novelist Charles G. Booth inspired by the real-life exploits of Morris “Two-Gun” Cohen. Cohen was a colorful, British-born Jewish adventurer who traveled to China and became a general in the National Revolutionary Army. He served as the personal bodyguard to Sun Yat-sen, leader of the 1911 revolution that toppled the Qing Dynasty. The studio was impressed, purchased the film rights, and signed Booth to a multi-film writing deal. William LeBaron was assigned to the production, Oscar-winning director Lewis Milestone was recruited, and Booth would collaborate with Clifford Odets to write the screenplay. The studio wanted marquee star power for the film, so Gary Cooper would star as O’Hara, joined by Madeleine Carroll as Judy Pierre, Akim Tamiroff as General Yang, Dudley Digges as Mr. Wu, Porter Hall as Peter Pierre, and Philip Ahn as Oxford. Read more…
INDEPENDENCE DAY – David Arnold
THROWBACK THIRTY
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
When I look back at the time now, it’s increasingly clear to me that the years between 1994 and 1996 were formative in terms of how they shaped my taste in both film and music. Those were the years when I was really let loose on the world of cinema for the first time, enjoying a huge variety of movies and film scores, and many of the films I saw during those 36 months remain some of my all-time favorites. As such, it’s also important to recognize that I tend to look back at that period through rose-tinted glasses, and it’s with that in mind that I come to Independence Day. Read more…
HER PRIVATE HELL – Pino Donaggio
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Her Private Hell is the latest film from the acclaimed cult Danish film director and screenwriter Nicolas Winding Refn, and it is his first theatrically released film since The Neon Demon in 2016. The film is a surreal, dystopian psychological thriller that combines elements of sci-fi, film noir, fairy tale, slasher horror, and melodrama into a deliberately dreamlike narrative. It takes place in a futuristic metropolis where a mysterious, unnatural mist spreads across the city; the fog seems to unleash (or perhaps reveal) a deadly supernatural presence while reality itself becomes increasingly unstable. The story primarily follows Elle (Sophie Thatcher), a troubled young woman searching for her estranged father, who crosses paths with Private K (Charles Melton), an American GI convinced that his young daughter has been abducted. Their journeys slowly converge around the legend of the “Leather Man,” an elusive, almost mythical killer or monster whose identity could prove the key to the mystery. Read more…
THE INVISIBLE RAY – Franz Waxman
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff were coming off the success of their recent film, The Raven (1935), and Universal Pictures producer David Diamond wanted to cast them in a new film to be called Bluebeard. However, the script proved unsatisfactory, and the studio put the project on hold. A new film, The Invisible Ray, was chosen; however, it quickly went off track when director Stuart Walker left because he was dissatisfied with the script. Undeterred, Edmund Grainger was placed in charge of production with a large $168,875 budget, Lambert Hillyer was hired to direct, and Howard Higgin and Douglas Hodges were assigned to write the screenplay. For the cast, Boris Karloff played Dr. Janos Rukh, Bela Lugosi played Dr. Felix Benet, joined by Frances Drake as Diana Rukh, Frank Lawton as Ronald Drake, and Violet Kemble Cooper as Mother Rukh. Read more…
COURAGE UNDER FIRE – James Horner
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Courage Under Fire is a military drama directed by Edward Zwick and written by Patrick Sheane Duncan. Set in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, the story follows Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling (Denzel Washington), whose career and conscience are shaken after he accidentally destroys a friendly U.S. tank during combat, killing one of his own men. To restore his standing, Serling is assigned to investigate whether Captain Karen Walden (Meg Ryan), a helicopter commander killed in Iraq, deserves to become the first woman to receive the Medal of Honor. As Serling interviews the surviving members of Walden’s crew, he discovers that every witness offers a different version of the fatal battle. Some describe Walden as a fearless leader who repeatedly risked her life to protect her soldiers, while others claim she lost her nerve under fire, leading to confusion and tragedy. Determined to uncover the truth despite pressure from military officials eager for a politically convenient decision, Serling pieces together the conflicting accounts and, in doing so, confronts his own wartime guilt and begins to find redemption. Read more…
THE ODYSSEY – Ludwig Göransson
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Odyssey, written approximately 2,700 years ago by the ancient Greek poet Homer, is one of the foundational works of Western literature. It follows the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he struggles for 10 years to return home after the Trojan War. Along the way, he encounters gods, monsters, and supernatural dangers – including the Cyclops Polyphemus, the enchantress Circe, the Sirens, and the sea god Poseidon, who repeatedly prevents him from reaching home. Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, his wife Penelope and their son Telemachus are surrounded by men trying to take Odysseus’s place and marry Penelope. The story ultimately becomes not just about surviving the voyage, but about returning home, reclaiming one’s identity, and restoring order. Read more…
SANSHO THE BAILIFF – Fumio Hayasaka
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Director Kenji Mizoguchi was inspired by Mori Ōgai’s 1915 novella Sanshō Dayū. Its tale about the tragic realities of human trafficking in feudal Japan resonated with him because of his own harrowing childhood experience of being given up for adoption. Also influential were his Marxist-feminist politics and his belief that post-WWII Japan needed to re-examine its brutal and oppressive past. Mizoguchi decided to use this historical tragedy to create a morality play exploring themes of resilience, human dignity, and the universal need for compassion. In the early 1950s, Mizoguchi’s career was ascendant, and although jidaigeki (period dramas) were not popular with the Japanese public, Daiei Film decided to back the project. Masaichi Nagata was assigned to produce, Mizoguchi would direct, and Fuji Yahiro and Yoshikata Yoda would write the screenplay. A fine cast was assembled, including Kinuyo Tanaka as Tamaki, Kyōko Kagawa as Anju, Eitarō Shindō as Sanshō, and Yoshiaki Hanayagi as Zushiō. Read more…
UGETSU – Fumio Hayasaka
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Producer Masaichi Nagata of Daiei Film Studio decided to offer renowned director Kenji Mizoguchi a new project following the critical and commercial success of his previous film, The Life of Oharu (1952). He sweetened the deal by granting Mizoguchi complete artistic control and a large budget. Mizoguchi accepted the offer, with Masaichi Nagata overseeing production. Screenwriters Matsutarō Kawaguchi and Yoshikata Yoda were instructed to draw inspiration from two stories in Ueda Akinari’s Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moon and Rain, 1776): Asaji ga Yado (The House in the Thicket) and Jasei no In (The Lust of the White Serpent), resulting in this film: Ugetsu. For the cast, Machiko Kyō starred as Lady Wakasa, joined by Mitsuko Mito as Ohama, Kinuyo Tanaka as Miyagi, Masayuki Mori as Genjūrō, and Sakae Ozawa as Tōbei. Read more…
THE LIFE OF OHARU – Ichiro Saito
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Politically, director Kenji Mizoguchi was a leftist and a frequent critic of Japan’s historical patriarchal and misogynistic culture, which persisted after World War II. He wanted to make a morality film that would force audiences, particularly men, to confront and pity the suffering of marginalized women. He found inspiration in the 17th-century classic The Life of an Amorous Woman by Saikaku Ihara. He and longtime collaborator Yoshikata Ihara wrote the screenplay, and Koi Production Company agreed to finance the film. Hideo Koi and Mizoguchi oversaw production, with Mizoguchi also directing. For the cast, Kinuyo Tanaka starred as Oharu Okui, joined by Toshiro Mifune as Katsunosuke, Hisako Yamane as Lady Matsudaira, Jūkichi Sugai as Shinzaemon Okui, Tsukie Matsuura as Tomo Okui, Eitarō Shindō as Kahe Sasaya, and Eijirō Yanagi as Kikuoji. Read more…
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