Drawing Straws - James Horner

"Music always brings people together. It's a Universal language."

THE POWER OF THREE: Track Twelve

Song: Drawing Straws
Composer: James Horner
Album: Deep Impact OST
Quote: James Horner

The three greatest movie score composers of our age team up in THE POWER OF THREE! John Williams, James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith at their very best in fifteen different movies spanning back to 1980. Buckle Up.

POLTERGEIST is my favorite movie. We'll talk about the reasons for that soon. But what's important right now is my SECOND favorite movie. That would be DEEP IMPACT. Yeah, yeah, laugh it up fuzzball. I stand by my choice. DEEP IMPACT is, in my opinion, the greatest Disaster Movie ever created. There are a lot of reasons for that. It is a character driven drama that features a huge cast of incredibly talented actors all attempting to cope with an Extinction Level Event. The focus is not on the actual disaster of the comets hitting the earth (although that does pay off in a BIG way at the end, let's be honest) but on the emotional journey each character goes through along the way. This is a movie that could ONLY have been directed by a woman and is done so here by Mimi Leder to masterful effect.

And then of course, there's the score. Of all of the incredible work he accomplished in his lifetime, James Horner's score to DEEP IMPACT is probably one of his greatest triumphs. This particular song, DRAWING STRAWS, plays near the end of the movie hours before the comets hit, and closely follows the main characters as they grapple with the only question that matters in the end.

If this was the Last Day, how would you spend it?

This song starts slow and then builds and builds and BUILDS to a James Horner insane level crescendo before it closes with one of the most gut wrenchingly beautiful motifs ever written for a film. Don't believe me? This is a long track, over ten minutes long....not many people will make it to the end of it. If you know that you won't make it to the end, then please go ahead and jump to the 8 minute mark. That is where the scene on the beach begins. And that is where you must also answer the question. How would YOU spend it?