Movies III - Moonstruck

 ASM826 has posted two outstanding westerns, Tombstone and The Outlaw Josey Wales.  Today's selection is a shift in gears from serious, life-and-death issues to light romantic comedy.  Now the term "light romantic comedy" is the kiss of death to some, but there may not be a better example of the genre than Moonstruck.  It was nominated for six Oscars and won three - Best Actress (Cher), Best Supporting Actress (Olivia Dukakis), and Best Original Screenplay.  It was a commercial success, costing $15M (1987 dollars) and grossing $80M. 

It was also a critical success.  Rogert Ebert has it in his "Great Movies" collection.  His TV partner Gene Siskel said that it was the funnoest movie to come out in a long time.  Both had it on their top en lists for films from 1987.  And it's not just funny, it's memorably funny.  The line from this scene - I love ya awful/Aw, that's too bad - is heard often around Castle Borepatch.

Performances are great throughout the entire cast.  John Mahoney (you'll remember him as Frasier Crane's dad) was hilarious as a lecherous professor, and Nicholas Cage showed his funny side throughout the film.  But what strikes me is how brilliant the musical score is.  Yes, the music is about opera, but it is fiendishly difficult to write a score around some of the greatest opera arias ever written.  I posted about this early this year:

Continuing the film soundtrack theme suggested by The Queen Of The World, an interesting compositional challenge was for the 1987 film Moonstruck.  It was a surprise critical and box office success, where the romantic comedy story was hung around some serious classical music (to wit: Puccini's opera La Bohème).  The music he had to compose needed to fit in with and enhance this:



This is one of the most famous arias in history.  How do you top that?  Dick Hyman was trained not only classically but in jazz.  He combined classical/old world themes with light jazz throughout the film score which fit in perfectly with the light romantic comedy.  It's actually quite an achievement, and in fact similar to Puccini's master work: you wouldn't listen to most of the opera bits by itself, but they connect the grand arias.  The theme to the film gives you a distinct flavor of the soundtrack:



The Queen Of The World and I love this film.  It's funny and smart and a great way to fill a cold and rainy winter weekend afternoon.

Or a hot and rainy summer weekend afternoon.  The Queen Of The World and I give this film two thumbs way, way up.