The Kiss The Kiss is the up-tempo, and secondary cue from The Last of the Mohicans. Another (nearly identical) version of this cue is entitled Promentory. Both songs are actually a Celtic violin motif entitled “The Gael” by Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean. The Kiss can […]

The Dark Knight Rises My hometown of Pittsburgh was the shooting location for The Dark Knight Rises. Many movies, TV, and Netflix shows are shot in Pittsburgh — but the 2011 Dark Knight Rises production was BY FAR the coolest one. Our downtown area is mostly […]

The Princess Bride The Princess Bride (1987) is a fantasy adventure comedy directed by Rob Reiner.  It was adapted from the 1973 novel of the same name, and tells the story of Westly — who must rescue his true love, Princess Buttercup, from the odious Prince Humperdinck. […]

Brokeback Mountain Suite About 10 years ago, Gustavo Santaolalla performed the Brokeback Mountain Suite for the Latin program, Encuentro en el Estudio. To date, it’s his best performance of the Brokeback Mountain score (and I’ve watched them all). The guitar tone is gorgeous. You’ll notice […]

Wicked Game For my money, the two greatest unrequited love songs are: U2’s With or Without You, and Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game. The former can prompt one to hold a lighter in the air and bellow “…and you give yourself a-way-a”. The latter makes (me) […]

Rush Directed by Ron Howard, Rush is a sports biography film based on the rivalry of Formula One drivers; James Hunt and Niki Lauda during the 1976 Formula 1 season. I love Hans Zimmer’s “driving” and thematic music. I wasn’t going to capture that on […]

Chevaliers De Sangreal Chevaliers De Sangreal (The Da Vinci Code) is a glorious piece by Hans Zimmer. He has this knack for writing film music with a slight pop sensibility. If we think of Gladiator, Inception and Interstellar — the underpinning of the music is […]

Beautiful Lie I highly recommend the extended cut of Batman v Superman on HBO Max. A full 30 minutes has been added to the film which develops the characters and storyline much better. It’s essentially “The Snyder Cut” of the film. Beautiful Lie is the […]

The Theory of Everything The Theory of Everything (2014) is a  biographical romantic drama film set at the University of Cambridge. It details the life of the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. The exquisite music, by the late Johann Johannsson, won the Golden Globe for best […]

The Last of the Mohicans While the film and soundtrack are timeless — the music production was fairly chaotic for The Last of the Mohicans. Director Michael Mann had initially requested that Trevor Jones (composer) provide an electronic score for the film. That surprises me […]

The Ludlows Legends of the Fall (1994) is an epic American historical drama, directed by Edward Zwick and starring Brad Pitt. The film is about three brothers and their father living on the plains of Montana in the early 20th century and how their lives […]

Unsolved Mysteries Unsolved Mysteries is a mystery documentary television show — documenting cold cases and paranormal phenomena. The series has been revamped on Netflix and it’s enthralling. The first episode, Mystery on the Rooftop is totally bizarre. There’s 6 episodes in total. Each one is […]