The Composer of the ‘Forrest Gump’ Score Also Composed the Famous ‘The Avengers’ Score
When it comes to filmmaking, a movie’s score is one of the most underrated aspects. Music can completely dictate a film’s tone and how viewers interpret a scene. The most talented film composers have created scores for a variety of movies. Alan Silvestri has scored some of the most popular movies, from Forrest Gump to The Avengers.
Alan Silvestri composed the score for ‘Forrest Gump’ and multiple Marvel projects
Forrest Gump was released in 1994. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump, Robin Wright as Jenny Curran, Gary Sinise as Lieutenant Dan, Mykelti Williamson as Bubba Blue, and Sally Field as Mrs. Gump.
The film won Best Picture at the 67th Academy Awards, and Silvestri was nominated for Best Original Score for his work on the film.
Silvestri has also composed the scores for multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe projects, including Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.
‘The Avengers’ theme is famous
The theme used in The Avengers and future Marvel films has become recognizable, akin to famous themes from Star Wars, Harry Potter, and other major franchises.
In a 2019 interview with Billboard, Silvestri discussed his work on The Avengers films.
“When you’re in a franchise environment like The Avengers, the themes become assets because you bring it forward to the next installment,” he shared.
After composing the score for The Avengers, Silvestri also worked on the score for 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. According to Silvestri, Avengers: Endgame brought on a new set of challenges.
“Musically, we tried a number of approaches in the spirit of getting it right. And what you see in the film, we all felt that yes, that’s what it needed to be. But it was a tremendous challenge and a lot of pressure. There was a new theme in the film that wasn’t related to anything we had heard and it had to be new because this was an event in the Marvel universe,” Silvestri told Billboard.
Alan Silvestri worked on the score for ‘Forrest Gump’
Narratively, Forrest Gump travels through decades, and music plays a large role in the film. Speaking with Billboard, Silvestri revealed what it was like working on the iconic movie.
“A few weeks into the movie, [director] Bob [Zemeckis] called me and said that he didn’t think there would be any score in the movie because he used so many pop and rock songs. So we were kind of sitting around and waiting,” Silvestri told Billboard.
He continued, “But then we met and it turned out to be the easiest session because his filmmaking was so clear. When Forrest says, ‘I’m going to Vietnam, it’s this whole other country,’ like, that’s a needle-drop right there! We just followed the movie.”
