That Very Special Music

I love movie scores. Yes - not just the songs by Aerosmith or Kenny Loggins that accompany the more dramatic scenes, but the wordless, instrumental music that accompanies all the scenes. They fire up the imagination. I'm a huge fan of John Williams, Danny Elfman, Alan Menken, Howard Shore, and others, and the hours I've spent daydreaming while listening to the themes for Saving Private Ryan, Edward Scissorhands, and Beauty and the Beast.

But there's always been this one song that escaped me - this one theme that I've heard since I was a kid, almost exclusively on movie trailers to movies like Angels in the Outfield and Pocahontas during the 90s. I loved that theme - a sweeping, repetitive anthem that rallied the mind to all sorts of epic victories. I could never find out that song, but whenever I heard it on a commercial or a trailer, I'd recognize it and listen as hard as I could. But I didn't know who composed it or what movie it was from so how could I find it?

Well, thank you Youtube. While watching a random video about horseracing, I heard the song. The song, the one I could only hear in snatches but always sounded triumphant. To my everlasting gratitude, the video's author provided the source of the song: it's a theme by Jerry Goldsmith (composer for Mulan) for the movie Rudy, called "The Final Game." I'd never seen Rudy, although I knew roughly what it was about.

It took me all of five seconds of indecision before I downloaded it onto my iPod. I finally found the song. It only took me all of fifteen years to find it. I'm listening to it right now. It's nice to be able to hear the whole thing, and imagine. It'll certain help inspire me as I try to teach myself screenwriting over the next year.