New column just posted. Sort of an expression of a state of mind.

But there's my review of X2 for balance.

Comments & complaints welcome as always,

You've reminded me how long it has been since I was moved to tears by music... not long enough. The complete piece of music that follows Gandalf's fall in FOTR is one of the unreleased cues from that score that I would pay very good money for (and I'm sure I could if I had good money to pay). Here's some more guaranteed moments for the tissue:

The Two Towers - when I first heard Samwise the Brave, the penultimate track on this score, the opening just cut me where I needed to be cut. That Samwise theme from the end of FOTR, reprised for high strings instead of horns, is so powerful. I can't wait until the boat pulls out of the Grey Havens in ROTK and this theme is stated by a vocalist, which seems to be where Shore is heading.

Little Women - the track by Thomas Newman for the death of Claire Danes - simple piano dirge, the wrenching way that Newman does best. Gee that man can make a melody fly. I remember seeing this scene on video alone at home. I'm glad I was alone because I needed to cry for quite a while afterwards.

In fact you could name a dozen Thomas Newman themes that have done this for me ... his main theme 'Walkaway' from Meet Joe Black, 'The Farm' from Road to Perdition, 'Any Other Name' from American Beauty and many more.

Elliot Goldenthal's finales always choke me up. Try the final tracks of Alien 3 and Frida, or the finale from Titus. The coda for Michael Collins never fails to make me press the repeat button at least once. The best moment of his comes at the end of Final Fantasy, when he restates his theme for 'The Kiss'. That movie didn't really deserve the emotional weight I placed on it, but it got that weight largely because of Goldenthal's score.

One of the most noticably missing cues from Zimmer's Thin Red Line score is the elegaic piece for the death of Jim Caviezel's character Witt. Witt felt like me in so many ways, and his thoughts, abstract and confused, would have been similar to mine had I found myself at Guadalcanal for no discernible purpose. So when he died Zimmer didn't need to do much to push me over tear threshold. He restated one of his themes derived from Polynesian choral chants with the characteristic hovering strings of the score, and the only version I have of this cue, ripped from DVD with gunshots and the like, I save for moments when I need to bring on the tears when I'm acting.

Wojciech Kilar is one of my favorite composers. His score for Jane Campion's Portrait of a Lady is one that I have often held up as the finest score I've ever heard, and I stand by that. The theme titled 'A Certain Light' appears only at the end of the film, but it pulled me right into the dilemma of Nicole Kidman's character. Up to that moment I had been pretty well distanced from her struggles, but Kilar crossed the gap for me.

I could name many more. Rozsa's King of Kings is a good candidate. But I'll finish with Elmer Bernstein... the Mockingbird theme makes me cry. No exceptions. Cameron Crowe knew this... clever man. So when he made the all-too-confusing Vanilla Sky, he wondered in post-production: "What can I do to make the audience identify with David Ames (I think that was Tom Cruise's character) after stuffing them around for 100 minutes... I need something that will hook people instantly...." While wondering, I imagine he visited (close friend) Todd Haynes, who was putting together a rough cut of Far From Heaven to a temp score comprised mostly of Bernstein's To Kill a Mockingbird. Crowe realised his film would be out in cinemas long before Haynes', rushed to his (very fine) record collection, dusted off the Mockingbird LP, and ran down Sunset Boulevarde back to his editing studios with Mockingbird tucked under his arm yelling 'Eureka! I've got the ultimate pressure point.' Well, it worked for me. The moment I heard Bernstein's melody rising out of Nancy Wilson's underscore, I was David Ames going up that elevator. And yes, I cried.

So does someone want to get me out of this mood and start up thread about scores that make us feel empowered to destroy stuff many times over?

One score that always gave me the sniffles as a child was the bit of music that plays in Transformers: The Movie, when Optimus Prime 'dies'. I think it was that wretched song 'You've go the touch, you've got the power'. I think I just revealed a very damning piece of information. Please don't abuse it.

NP Far From Heaven (Bernstein)

I know it's a sort of standard scene in these sort of lists, but the freedom scene during Braveheart is in my opinion one of those scenes which Horner just nailed perfectly. Moving stuff.

The ending of Black Beauty almost made my cry too, it's a happy ending so it must be the music

I have to say, I was really hesitant about proceeding with the Column. After many years talking about film music, I couldn't recall a single conversation I'd had about the music empowering a scene to make someone cry, & yet I've 'enjoyed' this effect it can have on me for many years. So for a while, I almost didn't go ahead, thinking perhaps I was the only soppy soul affected so much.

From the replies here & plenty more sent privately, I've been more than re-assured.

Thanks all!