The music for "Scott of the Antarctic" is awesome and memorable. As the great landscape is revealed to both Scott and his party and to us, that haunting movie score creats a sense of loneliness and encroaching fear of being swallowed up by the white vastness.
It's worth noting too, that Vaughan Williams had never seen the Antarctic landscape with his own eyes: just through black-and-white photos and drawings. The Sinfonia is a mesmerizingly powerful work. By the way, the sequence where the "Terra Nova" arrives at the Bay of Ross was exteneded in the cutting-room as it fir so good with Williams' music.
Anyone interested in the aspirations of Scott's men and the way they were pushing forward like athletes, should read Doris Lessing's postscript to her novel "Planet 8" - an essay that discusses the way the views on Scott has changed, how they regarded themselves, and how these things get recognized or forgotten over time.
Strausszek: Thank you for your interesting comments about one of my favorite movies.
shareYes, Vaughan Williams' score is one of the most evocative & effective that I know. If you don't have it already, you should get a copy of the new re-recording of (most) of the score by Rumon Gamba on the Chandos label: "The Film Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams", includes a 41-minute suite of music from the film. Quite a bit different listen than the Sinfonia.
shareOh man...I just realized that the great Vaughan Williams worked on several Michael Powell movies... such as "49th Parallel" and "Stairway To Heaven!"
That's why the music is great!
I just managed to catch the last half hour of this film on BBC2, and it was the music that I loved, and which also brought me here. I may have to track it down on DVD.
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