A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

On July 29, 1997, Sony Masterworks released Cinema Serenade, the first of two post Schindler's List movie themed albums featuring the collaborative team of violinist Itzhak Perlman and Oscar-winning composer John Williams.  Film scores have been a passion of mine since I first heard Williams' unforgettable score for Star Wars at the age of 14. Since then I have become acutely aware of movie themes and orchestral music's ability to affect one's perceptions and emotions. As a result, my musical collection includes many CDs of music by composers such as James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith and, of course, maestro Williams. Cinema Serenade, featuring acclaimed violinist Itzhak Perlman, John Williams and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, is a beautiful 13-track collection of movie themes by various notable composers, including  Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Luis Bonfa, Andre Previn and, of course, Williams. Because the f...

Pros:  Everything. Cons:  None. Ramsey: Colonel Von Luger, it is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape. If they cannot escape, then it is their sworn duty to cause the enemy to use an inordinate number of troops to guard them, and their sworn duty to harass the enemy to the best of their ability.  After more than a decade of trying to get a studio to film a movie based on Paul Brickhill's book  The Great Escape,  John Sturges finally got backing from the Mirisch Company to recreate the true-life story of Allied officers escaping from a German POW camp in 1944. While the screenplay by W. Burnett and James ( Shogun ) Clavell fictionalizes the characters and compresses events to fit a feature film's running time, the details of the escape attempt are true-to-life. Even better, the film was actually shot in Germany (even the thickest wooded areas in California don't come close to resembling the Black Fore...