Avatar music recycled

Composer James Horner has got a good thing going with James Cameron -- much like the vaunted collaboration of Steven Spielberg and John Williams. When I went to see "Avatar", I didn't know Horner had scored it, but I was not surprised to see that he had.

While I was watching, there was one point in the movie (during one of the battle scenes) when I heard a discordant theme that sounded very similar to something that I had heard before. Just today it occurred to me: the theme sounded exactly like what I would call "danger/suspense" chords in the movie "Enemy at the Gates" (where Jude Law plays a Russian sniper cat-and-mousing with Ed Harris playing a famous German sniper during the battle for Stalingrad; apparently this was loosely based on a real situation during the war). Jude Law also has a love affair with Rachel Weisz (complete with discrete consummation), which gives me an excuse to put a Rachel Weisz picture at the end of this.

But back to the music. So I checked, and Horner did indeed score "Enemy at the Gates" (which wasn't directed by Cameron). And apparently he employed a little bit of recycled score in "Avatar", which is fine. I just wanted to show how proud I was of myself for recognizing it.

I had another thought: in "Enemy at the Gates", this music is used at times when the well-supplied German army is decimating the woefully-undersupplied Russians; but they just keep on coming. The same type of thing happens in "Avatar"; I wonder if this bit of similar music was an intentional echo. I guess if I ever meet Horner or Cameron (not likely), I'll have to ask.

Or not: similar comments are made in this post on the "Avatar" soundtrack (apparently Horner borrowed from Rachmaninoff), and this one, too. The latter has an aural demonstration.

Whilst searching for pictures of Rachel Weisz, I determined that there are far too few of this wonderful and beautiful actress. There is, of course, the one of her wearing just a snake -- the one below is just her lovely self.