Hey, one could say that the music "Titanic" (not the movie) is kind of crass,
Actually you are right, but not because of the material that it is based on.
The reason the score for Titanic is kind of regarded as a mundane orchestral achievement is because it is vastly similar to the extraordinary masterpeice "BRAVEHEART" which was composed two-three years earlier by the same "master" if you can call him that. There's no doubt that Horner is a master of themes, but there are more flaws than you can tell at first glance. If you do not know film scores, or classical music, you wouldn't really have any clue as to what I'm talking about when I make the following points.
1: Horner has a history of repeating himself in many or all of his works.
2: Horner has a history of copying other composers to the last detail. I cite the following works:
A: Enemy At The Gates
B: Troy
Enemy At The Gates is mostly stolen from a "true master" (who does copy on his own occasionally but not so often as Horner) John Williams, with Schindler's List playing throughout the film.
Troy is a disappointment. It was composed in about six weeks, perhaps that is why it's turned out so poorly. The fans of classical music will surely be appalled to hear Shostakovich's 5th Symphony blared throughout to the very last detail.
3: Horner uses the same 4-note motif at relatively the same speed to indicate suspense. It was brilliant the first time he used it in Willow, but not so brilliant after 20+ films later.
4: His themes are vast, and he has good understanding of the characters and actions on screen. However, underneath the themes is quite boring and not difficult underscore.
5: The main reason Titanic is so respected in film score circuits is because it actually made people realize that there really IS a score to a film. Interesting change, considering thta in the early days of the talking picture there was no music because many of the directors, producers, etc. felt the audience would wonder "Where is that music coming from?" Over the years it's been just background noise to the average moviegoer, even though the films more often than not made the viewing experience more interesting with an impressive, haunting score than without.
Example: When Universal re-released its 1931 horror classic DRACULA with Bela Lugosi, they asked the Academy Award-nominated (previously I said winning, but I forgot as I was typing that that I had said "Academy Award,"
rather than "Golden Globe," which is what Glass DID win. Glass has never won an Oscar, but has been nominated several times, most recently for his haunting "The Hours.") composer Phillip Glass to write a score for it. He did, using only a string quartet: the Kronos quartet, as a matter of fact. When you watch it without the music as it had originally been done, it isn't as scary IMO (but scary enough certainly!) as the version with the chilling Herman-like string movements.
Of course horror films are often-times made all the scarier by the chilling scores that come with them, but eveyone knows this, surely...
Halloween
The Omen
Jaws
Psycho
SIgns
The Village
Just to name a few.
I suppose I've made my points. *bows* Thank you. For those interested in hearing samples of the above works, please reference the following:
www.filmtracks.comwww.amazon.com
