Jerry Goldsmith

Jerry Goldsmith is one of the best composers to ever write music for film. Among film score aficionados, he is highly regarded and, deservedly so. While he is almost uncannily versatile, he has also established a style that is oft-imitated by other composers who nevertheless do not capture the intangible quality that Goldsmith brought to a majority of his scores. He is as good a composer as his contemporary John Williams, but he is not quite as well known because he did not score as many high-profile or successful films. He has enjoyed successful collaborations with directors Franklin J Schaffner, Paul Verhoeven, and Joe Dante among others. With around 250 films to his name, a mere survey of his vast body of work would probably require its own monograph. At the most basic level, Goldsmith often uses syncopated action rhythms, complex time signatures, innovative orchestral playing techniques, and bold themes. Admittedly, it is difficult to summarize his style because he was proficient in so many genres and did each of them with flair and superb skill. His scores range from the unabashedly emotional strains of Hoosiers, Rudy, Forever Young, and Explorers to the spine-chilling tones and extraordinary acoustics of Alien, The Omen, The Illustrated Man, Planet of the Apes, and Basic Instinct. Often, he blended themes of terror and beauty into an emotionally wrenching whole, as in Poltergeist, The Final Conflict, Logan's Run, and Twilight Zone: The Movie. Goldsmith's action music is furious, complex, and thematic, the propelling rhythms driving scores such as The Wind and the Lion, Total Recall, The Mummy, The 13th Warrior, The Edge, Capricorn One, First Knight, and the first three Rambo films. As one might notice, the titles of some of the mentioned films are probably unfamiliar, and indeed, Goldsmith is known for providing superb scores for sub-par films. Yet he has done great scores for films of quality as well, among them Patton, Under Fire, LA Confidential, Disney's animated feature Mulan, The Blue Max, and The Sand Pebbles. One major highlight of his later work is not from a film, but for a theme park attraction. In 2001, Goldsmith wrote the magnificent music for the Soarin' Over California ride at Disney's California Adventure. After scoring hundreds of films for dozens of genres, from western to horror to sci-fi, Goldsmith passed away in 2004, winning only one Oscar for The Omen.

Air Force One

Alien*
Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend

Bad Girls

Bandolero

Basic Instinct*
The Boys From Brazil*
The Blue Max*
Breakheart Pass

California Adventure: Soarin’ Over California*

Capricorn One

Chain Reaction
The Challenge
Chinatown
Congo

Contract on Cherry Street
Damnation Alley
Deep Rising

The Edge*

Executive Decision
Explorers*

Extreme Prejudice
Fate Is the Hunter

The Final Conflict*

First Blood*

First Knight**

Forever Young

The Ghost and the Darkness
Gladiator (Rejected)
The Great Train Robbery
Gremlins*
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
The Haunting
Hollow Man

Hoosiers**

The Illustrated Man
In Harm's Way
Inchon

Innerspace
Islands in the Stream*

King Solomon’s Mines

Legend*
Link

Lionheart*

Logan’s Run*
Magic
Masada* (with Morton Stevens)

Medicine Man

Mulan**

The Mummy*
Night Crossing*

Not Without My Daughter

The Omen
One Little Indian
Papillon*

Patton*

Planet of the Apes*

Poltergeist**

Poltergeist 2: The Other Side
Players
Powder
The Prize
Psycho II

Rambo: First Blood Part II**

Rambo III
Rio Conchos
The River Wild

Rudy**

The Russia House
The Salamander
The Sand Pebbles*

The Secret of NIMH*

The Shadow
Shock Treatment

Sleeping With the Enemy
Small Soldiers
Stagecoach

Star Trek: The Motion Picture**

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier**

Star Trek: First Contact (with Joel Goldsmith)

Star Trek: Insurrection

Star Trek: Nemesis
The Sum of All Fears
Supergirl
The Swarm
Take a Hard Ride

Timeline (Rejected)

Total Recall**

Twilight Zone: The Movie**

Under Fire**

The Wind and the Lion**

The 13^th Warrior*
100 Rifles