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Monday, January 4, 2010

Music That Matters: Top 50 Movie Symphonies (#30 Big Overture from Howard Shore)

Howard Shore has been composing score for movies for a long time, but will probably always be best known for his work in The Lord Of The Rings movies. Yet in this movie symphony fanatic's eyes, I'm a bigger fan of one of his more overlooked symphonies. Although he also has done brilliant work in such films as The Silence Of The Lambs, Miss Doubtfire, Dogma, and Analyze This, he is only on this countdown only once for his beautiful overture from the 1988 comedy classic, Big.

Unfortunately the Big soundtrack came and went, and is currently out of print. It took me a good while until I was able to add the brilliant Shore masterpieces to my collection. The best part of the overture that really hits home for me it the end motif . We hear it during the end of the movie when Susan (Elizabeth Perkins) finds out that Josh Baskin (Tom Hanks) really is a 13 year old boy. She drives him to his home but before he leaves the car, they say their final goodbyes and share one last kiss. Why she didn't just go back to the Zoltar machine and become a young girl again is a question for another day? Although I did just read an alternate ending was filmed but never used in which young Josh is sitting in his classroom at school when he turns around to notice a young female classmate whom he recognizes as Susan which has been confirmed by Anne Spielberg. I'm also curious how many years of therapy she endured after such a traumatic situation. She raped a thirteen year boy for christ sake! Anyway... As Josh walks toward his house, Susan is about to drive away. She has looked away for a brief second but when she turns her head up, she is surprised to see that Josh has shrunk back to his normal size. The music that is playing over this scene by Howard Shore just thrills me, and sometimes even makes me a little teary-eyed. Simply a beautiful melody!

Ladies and gentlemen... #30 The Goodbye motif from the Big Overture from Howard Shore

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