Comedy Scores

The Memorial Day meme about great comedy soundtracks has yet to touch on the fact that some of the most memorable themes in movie history are from comedies: The Pink Panther, What's New Pussycat?, The Sounds of Silence, The Odd Couple, to name a few [Alan Silvestri's Mousehunt theme would be in that category if anyone had seen the film].

But writing a memorable full-length score is a bit trickier, and two people come to mind: Carter Burwell and Michael Kamen.


Kamen
Kamen's Die Hard scores are some of the funniest parts of the films and an important counterbalance to the films' violence. His score for another Bruce Willis film, Hudson Hawk, lets him really stretch his comedic legs, and he brilliantly anchors Brazil in the type of hyper-reality that's suggested by Terry Gilliam's visuals. His cue for Central Services' establishing shot is one of the all-time great musical moments in the movies.

Carter Burwell's scores for the Coen Brothers tend to be gorgeous and plaintive, and for the black comedy of Fargo, he strikes a deft balance that keeps the film's dark side at bay. But his magnum opus has to be the score for The Hudsucker Proxy. He writes everything from manic montage music to sappy parody, and keeps the film's grand narrative rolling right along.


Burwell