It has been a long time since Danny Elfman big projects showed any signs of greatness and not only mere balls to the wall brass. Elfman is recognised for his flamboyant style but on Hitchcock he had to work more on the sidelines or inner lines, if you will. Hithcock is a drama, and not only a drama; it is a drama about the master of thriller’s life. With that in mind, Elfman had to pull his socks up and try to suss out what palette would make sense in a drama set in the 1960’s, which is not his usual “typeset”.

The obvious choices for creating a credible atmosphere are piano and heavy use of strings to show the classical aspect; nonetheless, therein lies the rub. Oddly enough this is where things get more interesting, since this is a score by Danny Elfman. He approached the score as a mix of a myst film and drama and in the end his work turned out to be an ode to Bernard Herrmann’s brightest moments, paying homage to the whole category of classical composers in the history of cinema.

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