Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music

Music is central to any film, creating a tone for the movie that is just as vital as the visual and narrative components. In recent years, racial and gender diversity in film has exploded, and the making of musical scores has changed drastically. Hearing Filmoffers the first critical examination of music in the films of the 1980s and 1990s and looks at the burgeoning role of compiled scores in the shaping of a film . In the first section, "A Woman Scored," Kassabian analyzes desire and agency in the music of such films asDangerousLiaisons, Desert Hearts, Bagdad Cafe, Dirty DancingandThelma and Louise. In "At the Twilight's Last Scoring," she looks at gender, race, sexuality and assimilation in the music ofThe Hunt for Red October, Lethal Weapon 2andIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. And finally, in "Opening Scores," she considers how films such asDangerous Minds, The Substitute, Mississippi MasalaandCorrina, Corrinabringtogether several different entry points of identification through their scores. Kassabian ensures that modern film criticism has a new chapter written through this book. Her important and long-overdue analysis is not to be ignored. Also includes 11 musical examples.

Anahid Kassabian is Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University