Music That Matters: Top 50 Movie Symphonies (#29 Cocoon Theme by James Horner)

One of the best movies from the 80's was Cocoon, a touching movie about senior citizens finding a fountain of youth thanks in part to a life force used in a local swimming pool to give power to aliens living in cocoons. Directed by Ron Howard, Cocoon starred Jessica Tandy, Brian Dennehy, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Maureen Stapleton, Gwen Verdon, and Don Ameche (who won a 1985 Oscar for supporting actor in this film). And to add to the star power and establish Coccon as a true 80's movie, Steve Guttenberg had a part in the film. Add this up to other 80's movies like Three Men And A Baby, Police Academy, Short Circuit, and Ready For The 80's, and you can see how he truly was the king of Hollywood back in those days. But more important than anything else was that the movie included such a touching and motivational score provided by James Horner.

James Horner was primarily involved in scoring science fiction and action movies before becoming Ron Howard's go-to guy on his drama pictures. Before Cocoon, Horner's best- known work were the scores of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, Krull, 48 Hours, and Commando. Cocoon allowed Horner some artistic freedom to bring new elements to his work which in turn led toward creating perhaps his greatest dramatic theme ever. A lot of 80's movies had unique melodies that are great but are so typical of an 80's movie such as early stuff from Danny Elfman, Ira Newborn, and Alan Silvestri. The theme from Cocoon, though, is timeless and could still work in movies being produced in the here and now. Like a lot of other movies from the 1980's, the soundtrack came and went quickly, and is out of print. What sucks about this is that even though the music is beautiful, because it's never been remastered, audiophiles can't truly enjoy it's brilliance. Cocoon received two Oscar nominations, although Horner was shut out of any nominations for his brilliant theme. But Cocoon's score made James Cameron take notice. Cameron now uses Horner as his primary composer which would allow him to see his biggest success with the themes from Titanic and Avatar.

If you love great movie symphonies but never heard the theme from Cocoon, you are in a for a treat. At #29.... The Theme From Cocoon from James Horner.