Category: Daily Dispatch

Look! Up in the sky! This week on “Picture Perfect,” the focus is on superheroes.

We’ll begin with music from Tim Burton’s “Batman” (1989). It’s true, I wasn’t crazy about the film. In fact, I’m still waiting for someone to make the Batman movie I’ve got in my head, but that probably isn’t going to happen. We’re too far down the computer generated road at this point.

At least Danny Elfman actually made the effort to write a decent score, a fact of which I was unappreciative at the time. (To me, he was still “that guy from Oingo Boingo.”) It only sounds better in light of all that has followed. Elfman’s love for Bernard Herrmann is evident. And don’t worry, I will spare you the Prince songs.

“The Avengers” may have provided the satisfaction of seeing Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the Hulk on the screen all at the same time, but arguably “The Incredibles” (2004) was more fun. Pixar’s clever satire/adventure featured the vocal talents of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, and Samuel L. Jackson.

The score is a smart throwback to the swinging espionage films of the 1960s. Originally the producers had approached John Barry to write the music, very much in the style of his work on the James Bond films. But Barry declined, not wanting to return to his earlier style. In the event, composer Michael Giacchino was only too happy to step into Barry’s well-polished shoes.

“The Avengers” (2012), of course, is the 800-pound gorilla of superhero films, but in these days when each hyper spectacle seems to surpass the last, not only in terms of din and seizure-inducing effects, but in the epic scope of its box office, that could very well change at any time. With the sequel, “The Avengers: The Age of Ultron,” now in theaters, I thought now would be as good a time as any to play music from the first film, by Alan Silvestri.

To truly understand what is missing from superhero music these days, one need only refer to the gold standard of the genre, “Superman” (1978). John Williams’ score was from smack-dab in the middle of his heroic period, falling as it did, between “Star Wars” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Its star-spangled fanfare and march beautifully conjure memories of Superman music past – for the George Reeves TV series and, before that, the Fleischer Brothers cartoons – yet effortlessly surpass them like leaping a tall building in a single bound.

I know, I know, not every film can be the same, and Williams’ primary colors wouldn’t sit as well, perhaps, with the dark streets of Gotham. But why does everything have to be so grim these days (see “Man of Steel”)? I read comic books when I was a kid, and I don’t remember everything being so hopeless.

I don’t want to hear how gritty the real world is right now. “Superman” was made in the wake of Watergate and Vietnam. Entertainment molds the world, every bit as much as the world influences entertainment. Is it too much to ask for a little fun and inspiration from our superhero movies? Can we leave the theatres feeling exhilarated, for a change, as opposed to simply exhausted?

I hope you’ll join me for “Everything’s Super,” this Friday evening at 6, with a repeat Saturday morning at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.