How is Gustav Holst still inspiring modern movie composers today?

Pictured is the composer Gustav Holst
Pictured is the composer Gustav Holst

Image via swerveevents.com.

The English composer Gustav Holst is still inspiring modern movie composers today, almost 100 years after his death.

Gustav Holst is most well-known for his orchestral suite, Planets that featured five dramatic movements focusing each on a planet in our solar system, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter. These movements have inspired many movie composers since, and in many ways the score has made its way into a majority of modern film.

For instance, the rhythmic ostinato featured in Gustav Holsts’ Mars is heavily featured in the final scene of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. The concluding act sees Luke Skywalker firing his proton torpedo into the exhaust port of The Death Star, with a dramatic sequence ensuing. During this time, the score crescendo’s, becoming louder and louder, building tension. This dramatic composition is almost identical to that of Gustav Holst’s Mars, a piece written in 1919.

John Williams, the composer for Star Wars was actually told by George Lucas himself to make the score for the scene equal to that of Mars. We could talk about John Williams ‘using’ pieces from other composers another time, that can certainly be a separate discussion altogether.

Digging deeper it’s found that there a huge selection of movies that feature Gustav Holst’s work fairly heavily, many composers at the very least drew inspiration from Holst’s Planets. The Alien franchise (most notably Aliens) features a variation of the score during the scene where Ripley fights off the Alien queen with a powerloader. Other notable mentions include Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, The Terminator, Predator and the fairly iconic Inception soundtrack.

There’s undoubtedly a pattern here, almost all the films that use this score fall within the science fiction genre.

Mars is certainly a fitting score for science fiction films in general. The piece was written with the titular planet in mind and was featured in the orchestral suite Planets, which included movements for other planets such as Venus and Mercury. Not to mention the fact that Mars was also titled, “The bringer of War”. Clearly, Gustav had science fiction in mind from the start.

Gustav Holst can be seen as unintentionally being one of the greatest movie composers of all time, inspiring many film scores of the last 50 years.

Events, offers and releases 30/12/13

Several lego minifigures run away from an explosion in a lego town.
Several lego minifigures run away from an explosion in a lego town.

Image via Forbes.com

Welcome to the New Year (nearly)! 2014 is a big year for film with lots of big releases. The Lego Movie comes out in February. The CGI stop motion style action comedy has been in development since 2008. With an all-star cast including Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks and Will Ferrell, it’s sure to be a hit.

At the end of March, Noah is released. It stars Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson and is based on the story of Noah’s Ark.

April is a big month for comic book films with both the long awaited Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider Man 2 being released. The Winter Soldier is the fifth Marvel film following Thor: The Dark World (October 2011). Set two years after The Avengers we see Steve Rogers adapting to his contemporary surroundings, the action begins when a SHIELD compatriot is attacked. The Amazing Spiderman 2 features Electro and Rhino.

In May, Godzilla, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Maleficent join our screens.  Godzilla promises to be thrilling, retelling the story of Godzilla in modern times. The monster looks bigger than ever, and if the trailer is anything to go by, this is one to look forward too. The seventh film in the X-Men film series, Days of Future Past is a sequel to both The Last Stand (2006) and First Class (2011) and takes place in two time lines. Maleficent is a re-imagined take on Sleeping Beauty. A dark fantasy from two time Academy Award winner Robert Stromberg who worked on the production design of Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013).

In June 22 Jump StreetHow to Train Your Dragon 2. In the sequel to 21 Jump Street, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum go undercover at high school to explore a drug problem. Another sequel featuring Jonah Hill is How to train your dragon 2. This animated action fantasy film begins five years on from the first film. Now with dragons on their side, the Vikings are exploring the Northern Hemisphere.

In the second half of 2014, you can look forward to; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Jupiter Ascending, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Expendables 3, Jane Got a Gun, Gone Girl, Dumb and Dumber To, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Horrible Bosses 2, Exodus, and The Hobbit There and Back Again.

What a brilliant year of film to look forward too!

 

Method behind the magic: Saving Private Ryan

Image features a still from the D-Day landing scene in the film Saving Private Ryan. The camera is looking over a German soldier firing at allied forces.
Image features a still from the D-Day landing scene in the film Saving Private Ryan.  The camera is looking over a German soldier firing at allied forces.

Image via www.savingprivateryan.wikia.com.

Released in 1998, Stephen Spielberg’s magnum opus Saving Private Ryan is considered one of the greatest and most realistic portrayals of war ever produced. Rated #36 on IMDb’s all-time greatest movie list and a very high 93% on movie critic website Rotten Tomatoes, Saving Private Ryan received nominations for 11 academy awards, winning 5, including the Best Director award for Spielberg. Amongst many other accolades, the film also won awards at the Golden Globes, Grammy’s and the BAFTAs.

The poignant messages and emotional drive of the film launches the audience into world that is both dangerous and unpredictable. Although receiving some criticism, mainly for disregarding the contribution of several other countries to D-Day, Saving Private Ryan will forever be remembered for its realism. Brilliantly intense performances from Tom Hanks and Matt Damon particularly, allowed Spielberg to focus on the terror of the war, rather than the heroics of the men in uniform. However, he did not make it easy it portray.

To prepare his stars for the “hell on earth” mentality of war, Spielberg enrolled almost every cast member into a Ten Day boot camp with retired marine Dale Dye, who was given the responsibility of pushing the actors to the peak of physical and mental exhaustion. Dye would fire blanks from point blank range, conduct heavy combat and survival skills training and would only refer to the each person by their character name.

Dye later explained that “to the extent I can, I immerse the actors in that lifestyle: I take them to the field; I make them eat rations; I make them crawl and sleep in the mud and the cold and the dirt… And when they come out, if I’ve done my job successfully, they have an inkling of what people sacrifice to serve their country in the military.”

Not all of the actors had to take part however. Matt Damon, Private Ryan himself, was made exempt from the training, only to turn up at the very end holding a cappuccino, as the story goes. This was a deliberate decision from Spielberg, in a bid to create a sense of animosity between Damon and the rest of the crew that would be reflected in the film.

On the training, Vin Diesel stated that “To have to sleep under harsh rain conditions and be woken up after only a few hours following a really hard day-it was very rough. It was something I’ll never do again, but it was something that I’ll always be thankful for have been completed.”

Tom Sizemore also spoke about the training after the films, explaining that “Something happened. We learned that no one does anything alone in the war. It’s all about teamwork. We got a taste of that and it brought us closer together so when we started shooting the movie, we felt a bond that we had gone through something very difficult together.”

This week in history: 23rd – 29th December

A projector called the cinematographe is being shown.

image via sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/

The 28th December marks the anniversary of the very first screening of a commercial movie. The film, was created by French brothers Louis and Auguste Lumiere, who had earlier developed a camera projector called the “Cinematographe”, premièred at the Grand Cafe, Paris in 1985. The event featured ten short films, including their first film, “Sortie des Usines Lumière à Lyon” (Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory).

This week in also saw the premiere of one of the scariest films of all time, The Exorcist, opened its doors to audiences for the first time in (Dec 23) 1973.

The Exorcist also shares its release date with the 1993 film Philadelphia. The film, which has been reviewed some critics as ground breaking due to its focus on AIDs which had not yet been seen by audiences, starred Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. Philadelphia highlights and questions misconceptions about homosexuality and the disease.

If you have any more fun, interesting or just plain silly facts from this week in history, please tweet us at @inside_film

Tis the season: a look at film awards

A black and white image a crowded room holding the guests of the first Academy Awards banquet at Roosevelt hotel
A black and white image a crowded room holding the guests of the first Academy Awards banquet at Roosevelt hotel

The first Academy Awards ceremony
Image via reelfxart.blogspot.co.uk

Christmas is soon to be over and the dull grey hues and cold winter weather still remain outside. Thankfully there is still a lot to celebrate as the film awards season is upon us.

A nude bronze statue holds a mask of comedy and tragedy in each hand

The SAG award. Image via www.sagawards.org

SAG Awards

Firstly the SAG awards, not a celebration of the more mature, SAG actually stands for the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The accolade celebrates performances in film and television. Its trophy is a 16” solid bronze nude male statuette titled ‘the actor’ which holds a mask of comedy and tragedy in each hand.

The first SAG awards were held in 1995, celebrating the previous year, broadcast from stage 22 of Universal Studios. The annual lifetime achievement award, which predates the first awards show by thirty years, was given to George Burns. The show was his final television appearance before he died at 100 years old.

This year the 20th annual SAG awards will be presented on January 18th at the Shrine Exposition Centre in Los Angeles. 12 years a slave is nominated for four awards including, the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Supporting Role and Female Actor in a Supporting Role.

BAFTAs

A bronze mask sands on a small marble block.

BAFTA award. Image via en.wikipedia.org

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (formed in 1947) holds several awards each year, split into several different categories of Film, Television, Games and Children’s. From 1968 the Film and Television awards were held together in one ceremony until 1998.

The first awards were designed by English sculptor Henry Moore, and were large, bronze statues of a seated lady. The current BAFTA award which you will probably recognise is the iconic bronze mask, based on a design by Mitzi Cunliffe and has been presented since 1976. The first BAFTA mask was presented to Sir Charles Chaplin, better known as Charlie, who was honoured as an Academy Fellow.

The BAFTA Film Awards have been held in the Royal Opera House since 2008 and this years celebration will be held there on Sunday the 16th of February.

A tall shiny bronze statue on a small round black pedestal.

The Oscar award. Image via www.fxguide.com

Oscars

Finally; the Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars. Arguably the most prestigious, and one of the oldest, the Academy Awards have been held since the first ceremony in 1929. It was a far smaller affair than the huge event it is today, 270 people attended the first ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

The award winners were announced three months before the first ceremony, but from the second awards they have been kept secret. Since 1941 the Academy adopted a strict sealed envelope policy after the Los Angeles Times printed the award winners names in its evening addition before the 1940’s ceremony.

The first awards had 12 categories, since then there have been more and more additions including, awards for Film Editing, Music Scoring, and Song (7th awards), Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress (9th awards), Special Effects (12th awards), an Award for Make Up (54th Awards) and The Animated Feature Film Award (54th awards).

The 86th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday March 2nd in the Dolby Theatre where they have been held for the last 12 years.

I will be looking at some more niche and unique awards soon, those which often don’t get such a look in from the average movie goer. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for post updates.