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Pianist, producer, and composer James Newton-Howard scored over 60 films beginning in the mid-'80s, including The Fugitive, Space Jam, The Prince of Tides, Pretty Woman, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Waterworld.
Newton-Howard began taking classical piano lessons at the age of four, playing on a piano owned by his grandmother, who was the Pittsburgh Symphony's concertmaster and violinist during the 1930s and '40s.
He went on to study at the USC School of Music and at the Music Academy of the West (in Santa Barbara, CA) with Reginald Stewart and Leon Fleischer.
He also studied under orchestrator Marty Paich, who would later conduct some of Newton-Howard's scores.
The 49-year old Californian wrote three stellar scores in 2000 - Dinosaur (my personal favourite of the entire year), Unbreakable, and Vertical Limit, the latter being an epic mountaineering score for the film directed by Martin Campbell.
The undoubted high quality of his work, the critical acclaim it has received amongst score fans, and the old-fashioned enjoyment derived from his work of late has thrust him into the limelight; Vertical Limit is just the latest in a long line of excellent works from the man with three names.
As a white-knuckle ride, Vertical Limit is the best film I have seen in a long, long time.
With David Tattersall's sweeping vistas of the Himalayas as a visual backdrop, Martin Campbell's direction keeps the action moving at a swift pace throughout the film.
Things explode, people hang off mountain sides with their fingernails, helicopters hover precariously over tiny ledges, nitro canisters are slung dangerously over shoulders, people fling themselves over cliffs; Vertical Limit is nothing if not nail-biting.
James Newton Howard score also helps proceedings tremendously, lending the film a sense of scope, and an awe and grandeur that befits these rocky behemoths of nature.
Of course, high-altitude adventure films have often had exciting and memorable scores, with John Williams' The Eiger Sanction and Trevor Jones' Cliffhanger being two notable examples.
However, for the first twenty minutes, James Newton Howard musically eclipses all of them.
Track Listing:
* Utah (1:25)
* Three Years Later (4:29)
* I Need One More (1:42)
* Base Camp (1:33)
* You Wanna Do This? (4:39)
* Spindrift (3:23)
* Avalanche (1:25)
* Your Father Was a Smart Man (2:13)
* Don't Touch Her (2:47)
* Maybe You Should Turn Back (1:56)
* Nitro (4:18)
* Vaughn Decides (1:18)
* Annie and Peter (4:16)
* Peter's Jump/Tom's Heart (6:00)
* It's a Good Song (3:09)
Running Time: 44 minutes 27 seconds
Varèse Sarabande VSD-6207 (2000)
Music composed by James Newton Howard. Conducted by Pete Anthony.
Orchestrations by Brad Dechter, Jeff Atmajian, Pete Anthony and James Newton Howard.
Recorded and mixed by Shawn Murphy.
Edited by Jim Weidman. Mastered by Patricia Sullivan.
Album produced by James Newton Howard and Jim Weidman.
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