With the release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice [read our review here], it’s time to look at the inimitable Danny Elfman’s essential work…
Some composers are truly unique, leaving a body of work that listeners can immediately identify as theirs within a few bars. Whether you can spot a Williams, a Zimmer or a Goldsmith, these conjurers have their own distinct style and often others will attempt to imitate that style. We’ve seen it innumerable times with composers aping Hans Zimmer in recent years.
One composer whose work leaps out of the speaker and screams its creator’s name into your ear is Danny Elfman. Synonymous with gothic jaunts and bombastic scores, he’s often associated with Tim Burton, but with hundreds of credits, it’s fair to say Elfman has been prolific and indeed more adaptable and occasionally understated than people may give him credit for. So here are the essential Danny Elfman film scores…
Batman
Okay, every Burton collaboration is going to be a blindingly obvious pick but they are so for a reason. Elfman’s Batman score remains the undisputed King of all Batman scores. Considering such great competition from Hans Zimmer, and more recently Michael Giacchino, it’s fair to say Elfman is at the top of a pretty imperious tower.
His Batman score is arguably the greatest comic book score ever created too, with an iconic theme. It’s a full-tilt and playfully gothic score with great brass, string and percussion work. Full of spine-tingling crescendos and thunderous marches. Okay, there’s no arguably about it, this is the greatest comic book movie score of all time because better than anyone, Elfman got the memo. It’s comic book, it’s fantastical escapism, set in a distinct comic universe with the visual landscapes of Tim Burton to work from.
A Simple Plan
Just to step away from the obvious for a second, here’s a film that often gets overlooked. A Simple Plan is a film that if you were unaware, might assume was a Coen Brothers picture. It’s not. It’s Sam Raimi at his most restrained in a dark comedy thriller that could almost be a close cousin of Fargo. If Raimi holds back and plays it straight then so does Danny Elfman whose music most immediately feels like Carter Burwell, laced with some old-fashioned Hitchcockian themes that may make you think of Bernard Hermann perhaps.
It shows Elfman’s range that’s for sure and the score is understated but also thematic. Nice use of off-note and harsh strings and piano, fused with some serene woodwind themes.
Nightbreed
Danny Elfman teams up with Clive Barker for his wild, indulgent and downright messy sophomore directorial effort. Barker dials it all up to 11 and Elfman follows suit in one of his most Elfman-esque scores ever. It’s worth the price of admission for Elfman’s work alone, but thankfully the entire film is so visually chaotic and dazzling, that it is rightfully considered a cult classic now.
Everything builds to an insane finale that just seems to go on and on, all powered by the bombast of Elfman’s music.
Beetlejuice
Pretty soon the Juice will be loose once again. If Batman wasn’t Elfman’s most iconic and identifiable score, then it would likely be Beetlejuice. The big brassy booms that warm us up for the playful Juice march set the tone for a score that is loaded with quirky, colourful and wonderfully layered compositions. The main themes are unforgettable but throughout the movie, most of the tracks just feed Beetlejuice with the distinctive energy that powers this brief but bullish gothic comedy jaunt.
With such imaginative, dark and expressionist visuals from the mind of Tim Burton, Elfman had to go all out and does. There’s perhaps a sense that Elfman might have musically mellowed in recent times, but revisiting Burton and Beetlejuice might just be like tossing a fireball into a firework factory.
Men in Black
Elfman seems to have a predilection for horror, fantasy and science fiction. The creative freedom it affords might be a reason, or perhaps it’s just that auteurs of those genres are naturally drawn to Elfman. Harpsichords, church organs and the kind of brassy basses that could send messages to deep sea creatures are more at home in those genres and Elfman does like to play with an array of musical instruments and influences.
Men in Black is yet another franchise that has become synonymous with Elfman’s work. The percussion work is particularly good and like most of Elfman’s genre work, he’s best at providing propulsive accompaniment to fast-paced films.
Darkman
Elfman has dipped his toes into the comic book genre plenty of times and worked with the aforementioned Sam Raimi plenty of times (not least in the Maguire Spiderman films). One of his most enjoyable scores came with Raimi’s reaction piece to being unable to make, The Shadow. After failing to obtain the rights, he decided to create his own comic hero, Darkman.
The wildly imaginative cult film has great action and dynamic visuals (as you’d expect from Raimi). Despite a low budget, it’s given a sense of grandeur because of Raimi’s style but also Danny Elfman’s music. Occasionally the score feels like off-cuts from Batman but it still has its own memorable themes. It even treads into some riffs on classic-era gothic horror scores.
Big Fish
Tim Burton took his gift for fantasy and storytelling and pulled back on his gothic style for this bittersweet and life-affirming tale of a gifted storyteller in his final days recounting his youth to his sceptical adult son.
Elfman provides a serene and melancholic score that still affords him the occasional slow crescendo. Elfman’s prolific career has brought with it four Oscar nominations, usually for his more reserved work (as well as Men in Black) and Big Fish was one of those.
Good Will Hunting
Another of Elfman’s more refrained works, but no less textured than you expect, came with Good Will Hunting. It’s also one of his four Oscar-nominated scores. The score is piano and string-heavy, with the occasional Celtic sprinkle dusted into some tracks.
Elfman never tries to overwhelm the complexity of the on-screen drama, always happy to compliment what’s happening and not drive it (as he’s occasionally tasked with doing in his genre work).
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Why don’t people remember Hellboy 2? We’ve seen the character rebooted in more recent times, lacking the majestical flair that Ron Perlman and Guillermo del Toro brought to the cult comic book character’s story. If Hellboy was a solid start to the cinematic lore, then The Golden Army was a film that should have kicked on a franchise.
Modest success wasn’t quite enough to convince the studio to launch quickly into del Toro’s third and the time passed, which is a shame. It’s one of the better comic book films around and it also has a fantastic Elfman score that feels inherently him but also defiantly different from his Batman and Spidey work. It still needs those identifiable marches and quirks but there’s a classic adventure score feel beneath those Elfman specialities and even some great use of taiko drums and striking percussive tracks.
Edward Scissorhands
The best way to describe Danny Elfman’s score for Edward Scissorhands is, magical. A fantastical and enveloping score helps transport you to the distinctive and vibrantly coloured suburban setting that counters the gothic castle Edward emerges from. Beautiful strings, ethereal choral work and dreamy chimes evoke the mechanised sounds of a music box.
In fact, it might be Elfman’s most beautiful work that is effortlessly able to slip between fantastical dreams and gothic nightmares.
Honourable Mentions:
Spider-Man, Dick Tracy, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Mission Impossible, The Frighteners, Sleepy Hollow, Milk.
What’s your favourite Danny Elfman score? Drop us a comment on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
