Left to My Imagination

I had the house to myself this evening so I put on the movie, A Beautiful Mind, and had a chance to enjoy it without interruption. For lack of a better classification, I’d have to call it a love story first and a journey of the imagination as a secondary plot line. I loved the way the music was matched to the expansion of realities as John Nash visited the mathematical universe along his accompanying breaks from it.

I then put on my second choice, Bicentennial Man. The first thing I noticed as the movie went through the lead in footage showing the mechanical assembly line leading up to the completed android servants that would eventually be delivered to a waiting public; I noticed the music. In so many ways it was a carry over from the first movie, a magical combination of sounds that tempt the mind’s capacity, expand the boundaries of what is possible in order to achieve a level of acceptance with what is being presented. James Horner was credited for the music in each, I looked it up. I had to wonder; is that a form of plagiarism, to so closely match the compositions in two movies? I don’t mean that he stole something from another composer; but in the realm of copying one original work rather than start fresh; just a thought. In either case the music supplied a spatial environment conducive to enhancing the performances.