Of course they are never too far from my heart, though I don't consciously miss them all the time. That changed recently when I was putting together a playlist of my favorite film scores. Anyone who knows me knows I love movies. Anyone who knows me even better knows that I am also enamored with certain film scores: the Cocoon movies, scored by James Horner; the brash, clashing music for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (also scored by James Horner); the Star Wars films, composed of course by the great John Williams; many of the Bernard Herrmann collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock; the score for Cloud Atlas, by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil; and, of course, nearly anything by my favorite film composer, Jerry Goldsmith.
Another maestro of movie music I quite enjoy the work of is the late, great John Barry. He is probably best known (or at least most heard) for scoring eleven James Bond movies from 1963 - 1987. He also arranged the famous Bond theme, which was written by Monty Norman. Barry composed over one hundred film scores during his lifetime (which ended in 2011). One of his compositions was for a relatively forgotten film from 1983 called High Road to China. There are only four reviews for it on Rotten Tomatoes - three splats and only one fresh tomato. Roger Ebert gave it two-out-of-four stars when he reviewed it in March of 1983.
Dear reader, I loved this movie.
Granted, it's been decades since I've watched High Road to China, so the memory may not be super trustworthy. One of my favorite film reviews shows - Breakfast All Day - has an occasional segment called 'Was it Great, or Were You Eight?' As you can probably deduce, the two hosts take a movie that they loved when they were kids, re-watch it as mature adults, and try to honestly determine if the film was for real a good movie, or if their childhood brains just accepted it while it was, in fact, kind of crappy. It's a fun segment, and reminds me that I should probably re-watch this film to see if it was great, or if I was just eight.
I can't remember if High Road to China was something we watched on HBO, or if we rented it. My parents bought our first VCR around 1984 or '85. That began our weekly sojourns to the video rental stores around town (it didn't take long for them to pop up across the community). Mom and dad got me VHS tapes of episodes of the Transformers cartoon show, while they rented Alfred Hitchock movies for themselves (I watched those with them). So yeah, we either rented High Road to China, or watched it together on HBO. Regardless, it had a major impact on my young mind.
The movie starred Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong. Oh, and Wilford Brimley was in it, too. Selleck was of course riding high at the time starring in the hit TV series Magnum PI (a Top 10 show at the time this movie came out). Bess Armstrong had a career in movies and TV. Later in 1983 she would co-star in one of my guilty pleasures - Jaws 3D. I also had a crush on her at the time. Yes, yes, I know. I'm a gay man. But back in the day, it was... complicated. And then Wilford Brimley was in this before he starred in the Cocoon movies, which were arguably his biggest claim to fame. So, we have what I consider to be a good cast headlining the film.
The plot of High Road to China is fairly straightforward: The movie is set in the 1920s. Armstrong plays a socialite whose father is missing. If he is legally declared dead, then she loses her his fortune. For reasons I don't remember, she believes that her missing dad is in China, so she hires a WWI pilot played by Selleck to fly her there so she can find him. The two get along like oil and water. And, if you think that this argumentative duo might actually fall for each other at some point, then my friend you may have seen a few other movies in your day.
For whatever reason, I was supremely invested in this film. I liked the two leads. I thought they had good chemistry. I wanted them to fall in love with each other. I wanted Armstrong's character to find her father. The events that transpired (most of which I've forgotten) kept me enraptured throughout. All of this, and I was only seven or eight-years-old. Additionally, and most importantly to this post, it was probably the first time that I noticed a film score. As mentioned earlier, John Barry composed the music for the movie, and I absolutely loved it. Recent (online) research has uncovered that the section of the score I remember and liked the most was the "love theme."
Hearing the love theme for High Road to China immediately takes me back to when I watched it with my parents. A lot of music can be transporting. It can impact us on a deep, emotional level - sometimes making us happy, sometimes sad, sometimes wistful. It is that last descriptor that perhaps best encapsulates how the movie's love them makes me feel. I am transported back four decades to the living room of our modest house on Draper St. Mom, dad and I are there, enveloped by the warm, wood-paneled walls, the TV in front of us, and Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong on the screen on their way to China, John Barry's lush score playing in the back ground. It evokes in me a feeling of safety, of calm, of wonder. The wonder of experiencing a film you enjoy for the first time.
And it also evokes a sense of sadness.
Now that my parents are gone, I sometimes think about all of the things we did together as a family, all of the experiences that we shared. Those often make deep impressions upon our childhood, even something as mundane as watching a movie together in the living room. It is, of course, a rose-colored remembrance. My dad was abusive on several occasions, and mom did her best, but sometimes their arguments (often when she was defending me) had a negative impact on my psyche. Perhaps that's why I put those nights in our living room, watching movies as a serene family unit, on such a pedestal? They're good memories. Recollections of a time when the two people I loved most in the world (despite their flaws) were there with me.
So when I listen to John Barry's love them for High Road to China now, it drives home that those experiences are only mine now. The two people I shared them with are gone. They don't remember. They can't reminisce about them. Not that they would probably even remember most of those occasions anyway. Childhood has a way of prioritizing things that, to a child, can be supremely important. While for a parent - an adult who has already been around for decades, who has a job or responsibilities, or things that are actually important to concern themselves with - such occasions are just part of another day. A day that likely blends into other days.
But to me, those times watching movies with mom and dad were everything. At least they were then. Now, they are comforting memories. Though they are also sometimes sad. I can see that old living room in my mind, the three of us sitting there watching High Road to China. And then, in my mind, the two adult figures vanish, and it is just me. That's what listening to John Barry's score for the movie does to my heart.
And yeah, I miss my parents.
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