Score: A Film Music Documentary (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Jun 20, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Matt SchraderRelease Date(s)
2016 (April 23, 2024)Studio(s)
Epicleff Media/Kickstarter (Gravitas Ventures)- Film/Program Grade: A
- Video Grade: B
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B
Review
George Lucas once said that “sound is fifty percent of the moviegoing experience,” and that is certainly true. But it can be argued that a film’s score is even more important than its dialogue and sound effects, because of music’s sheer universality and its ability to convey emotion and subtext on a more pure and primal level. What would Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and Lucas’ own Star Wars films be without the work of John Williams? How effective would Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho be without the contribution of Bernard Herrmann, or Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly without the distinctive guitar of Ennio Morricone? A film’s score, to quote director James Cameron, is quite literally the heartbeat of a film.
Whether you’re a lifelong fan of film music, or you’re just starting your journey to understand the power of a great score in the mysterious and magical collaborative endeavor that is filmmaking, Matt Schrader’s Score: A Film Music Documentary is an indispensable window on the history, process, and legendary practitioners of the art of film scoring. Over the course of its 93-minute running time, Schrader charts a course from the pioneering cinema of the Lumière brothers (who first set their imagery to music performed live in the theater), to the work of early Hollywood composers like Max Steiner, Eric Korngold, and Franz Waxman, through Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann, and Victor Young, to Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, and a who’s who of the finest composers working today.
Among those interviewed specifically for this project are Marco Beltrami, Thomas Newman, Quincy Jones, Hans Zimmer, Christopher Young, David Newman, John Debney, Trevor Rabin, Bear McCreary, Mervyn Warren, Mychael Danna, Rachel Portman, Christophe Beck, Joseph Trapanese, Howard Shore, Buck Sanders, David Arnold, Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL), Tyler Bates, Heitor Pereira, Mark Mothersbaugh, J. Ralph, Dario Marianelli, Patrick Doyle, Moby, Brian Tyler, Max Richter, Deborah Lurie, Joe Kraemer, Alexandre Desplat, Harry Gregson-Williams, Conrad Pope, Elliot Goldenthal, Danny Elfman, John Williams, Christopher Lennertz, John Powell, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Henry Jackman, and Steve Jablonsky. We hear their words and their work, watch them experimenting in their studio, and see clips of the films their music appears in.
Also interviewed for the documentary are filmmakers James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, and Garry Marshall, film critic Leonard Maltin, film music historian John Burlingame (whose comments are threaded throughout), film music agents Amos Newman and Richard Kraft, film music executives Robert Kraft (Fox), Robert Townson, Mitchell Leib (Disney), Doreen Ringer Ross (BMI), Shawn Lemone, and Paul Broucek (Warner Bros.), studio musicians David Ewart and Steve Erdody, organist Bill Field, orchestrator J.A.C. Redford, and professor of psychology Siu-Lan Tan. Featured in archive footage or photos are Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann, Alex North, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith, George Martin, Christopher Nolan, James Horner, and George Lucas. And the documentary takes us to legendary recording stages, including Air Studios and Abbey Road Studios in London, as well as Fox Studios and Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles.
Score was originally crowd-funded on Kickstarter. Shot mostly on 1.78:1 HD video, it was ultimately acquired for theatrical and home video distribution by Gravitas Ventures. The Blu-ray version (which is available via small-batch MOD) offers good 1080p HD image quality—there’s a bit of aliasing here and there, and like any documentary it’s been assembled using a variety of archive footage sources and formats, but the overall quality is solid. The film’s soundtrack is available in lossless English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, which presents its many musical cues in excellent fidelity. Optional English subtitles are included.
Gravitas’ Blu-ray release includes the following bonus features:
- Audio Commentary by Matt Schrader
- Interview with James Cameron (HD – 29:03)
- Bear McCreary Rocks the Hurdy Gurdy (HD – 7:12)
- Harry Gregson Williams at the Piano (HD – 3:26)
- Inside the Hans Zimmer Mind (HD – 1:52)
- Sounds of NYC with J. Ralph (HD – :45)
- Tyler Bates Guitar Viol (HD – 6:09)
- Trailer (HD – 2:19)
The commentary and the interview with Cameron are obviously the highlights, but Bear McCreary is always interesting and his bonus clip here is no exception. All in all, it’s a nice mix of added-value content.
Every time a composer sits down at a piano, jots notes onto a page, or steps up to a podium in front of an orchestra, the result can be magic... and a revelation. Matt Schrader’s Score shines a long-overdue light onto that process and it’s perfect for anyone looking for an excellent primer on the history of film music. And if you enjoy Score, let me suggest that you continue your musical journey by checking out Fred Karlin’s Film Music Masters: Jerry Goldsmith (1995), Giuseppe Tornatore’s Ennio (2024), and Laurent Bouzerau’s Music by John Williams (2024). The first one is available on DVD but is hard to find, the second one is widely available on Blu-ray, and the latter is currently a Disney+ streaming exclusive. Enjoy!
- Bill Hunt
(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)