![]() It is one of the great set battles in cinema, lasting nine minutes and recalling a similar one, some say even more complicated and exciting-the Battle of the Little Big Horn in They Died With Their Boots On (1942), from the same studio, and with the same composer and “doomed” actor (Errol Flynn). To accompany the charge, Steiner now mingles “Rule Britannia” with the old Russian Imperial anthem “God Save the Czar” in a musical mêlée as exhilarating as the screen visuals themselves. Film and poem recreate the charge of British light cavalry against a prepared, well-defended Russian force during the Battle of Balaklava (1854) in the Crimean War, a charge as foolish as General George Pickett’s infantry advance at Gettysburg nine years later-and in both cases across open terrain and against overwhelming odds. The climax of the film-and the highlight as well-is inspired by Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem. There is still time in the main title for Steiner’s principal theme, “Forward the Light Brigade,” a march more jaunty than stirring, far from imperialistic, which is varied throughout the movie. Of course, being Steiner, he opens the main title of Charge-here minus his own Warners signature fanfare-with his first borrowing, “Rule Britannia,” rousingly scored and entirely appropriate as the signature tune of imperial Great Britain, the ruler of the waves, that empire upon which the sun never sets, the nineteenth-century manifestation of parasitic colonialism. Selznick, most famously for a little ditty titled Gone With the Wind. The Charge of the Light Brigade was, in fact, Steiner’s initial score under a first-time Warners contract-the film and the score were great successes-though the composer continued to do independent work for other studios, especially for David O. As Steiner often did, Thomson incorporated popular and traditional tunes in an over-all impressive score for the government-sponsored documentary The Plow That Broke the Plains. More impressive was the work of Virgil Thomson, one of those so-called “serious” composers, as distinguished from that other-some say “lower”-breed of men who write film music. Alfred Newman was active that year with Dodsworth and These Three, scores that were pale shadows of his lyrical, polished style to come. Though now generally forgotten, both men had not only distinguished music careers but long, productive lives.Īlso in 1936, director Charlie Chaplin, who also dabbled at scribbling music, wrote for his Modern Times melodies that were transformed into score form by composer David Raksin and orchestrator Eddie Powell. The two other nominees were Werner Janssen for The General Died at Dawn and Nathaniel Shilkret for Winterset. Fellow Warner Brothers composer Max Steiner received two nominations, for The Charge of the Light Brigade and The Garden of Allah for the Selznick Studios. The clear, hands down winner of the Best Score Oscar was Erich Wolfgang Korngold for Anthony Adverse. opening of The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord TennysonĬonsidering that anything close to sophisticated film scoring hadn’t been around all that long, 1936 was a reasonably good music year for the movies.
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