Film Scores and Figure Skating

Last night's pairs figure skating competition had a lot of people going "Where HAVE I heard that song before?" particularly during Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig's short routine, set to the "Portuguese Love Theme" from Love Actually. (Ironically, this piece of music, which is used on 1 out of 5 romantic film trailers and in Oscar montages, is not actually on the soundtrack, nor available for purchase as a track. Grrrr.) Which made me think of two things I like: Olympic figure skating and film scores. When put together in the right way, they elevate each other to a new level of, well, misty eyes.

There are several great ones here that come to mind: Elvis Stojko's martial arts-infused routine to the score from Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story in 1994 Lillehammer; Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, 2002 Salt Lake City, in their shoulda-been gold routine to the theme from Love Story; Nancy Kerrigan's 1992 bronze-medalist routine to the iconic Born on the Fourth of July theme, and so forth.

But there is one routine that stands out to me: The year was 1992 in Albertville, France, during the men's long program. An underdog named Paul Wylie from the U.S., who was on his last Olympics and many thought had no business being on the team, came out and executed a near-flawless routine that stunned everyone including himself. Watch it again and I dare you not to get excited.

Wylie skated to selections from the Henry V score, composed by Patrick Doyle. Complete with swordplay and Russian splits, I was so exhilarated after watching this that I went out to find the soundtrack even though I'd never seen the film. (Wylie nabbed the silver medal and also skated memorable routines to the scores from JFK and The Untouchables the following year)

NBC really should print across the screen the skaters' musical selections, because with such a large audience I'm sure plenty of people go searching for these tracks that move them to tears. Anyone else have any favorite movie-themed skating routines? --Ellen

Comments

[David on February 15, 2010 at 11:13 PM]

Henry V is a great score. One of the pairs teams in the long program tonight used Love Story as well as Cinema Paradiso.

[Karen on February 16, 2010 at 10:35 AM]

My favorite still to date is --

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's Bolero

see the video here --

http://figureskating.about.com/od/videosoffamousskaters/youtube/bolero.htm

[Lester on February 17, 2010 at 06:41 AM]

Ice skating should be an exposition sport at the Olympics. It is obvious the judging is corrupt. Nice to watch but the results are rigged. Look at the pairs short program. A lot of Canadian and Russian skaters on their butts getting top marks. Silly.

[Shaun on February 17, 2010 at 07:01 AM]

The judging does ruin the viewer experience. I agree with Lester. There is no way a fan can determine a relative score. I also appreciate the announcers going silent and letting the performance unfold but, since this IS a competition, the silence means we have no idea what is happening (good or bad). Unfortunately, these performances do not "speak for themselves."

As for music, last night's Jimi Hendrix was kind of cool. Hoping that means we'll hear more guitars and fewer violins in the future.

[tree hugging sister on February 17, 2010 at 07:20 AM]

Manual Trackback

http://coalitionoftheswilling.net/?p=7613

[Lynne on February 17, 2010 at 07:52 AM]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this video! I didn't get to see Wylie's performance at the time and only discovered the music he used while listening to a radio report the next day. I was already a huge fan of the score and sadly never got an opportunity to see the performance. Now I can!

(BTW- the actual part of the Henry V score used is the music played under the St. Crispian Day speech, which makes it even more touching. "We few, we few, we band of brothers...")

BTW- the final musical sequence is the finale of Saint-Saens "Organ Symphony"- another great favorite of mine.

I never could remember Mr. Wylie's name and figured I'd never get to see this. Thank you so much for posting it.

[R on February 17, 2010 at 11:16 AM]

"O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana. That one is very moving music because it builds and builds....

[Al on February 21, 2010 at 09:30 AM]

From the 2010 Olympics, Dube/Davis of Candada had a good one from teh movie Requiem For A Dream called "Lux Aeterna."
I couldn't find a video of them skating, but found the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl5McGN2L-E

[tapecah on March 12, 2010 at 10:09 AM]

If anyone can hear the music over the verbose commentaters I'll eat my hat!!!! This is always my main gripe about the olympics they don't know when to shut up and let the performance speak for itself.

[sensations on October 25, 2010 at 12:46 AM]

But there is one routine that stands out to me: The year was 1992 in Albertville, France, during the men's long program. An underdog named Paul Wylie from the U.S., who was on his last Olympics and many thought had no business being on the team, came out and executed a near-flawless routine that stunned everyone including himself.

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