His presence was realistic and distinct. Even if we were never aware of that fact, without the fire and genius which accompanied every note there would never have been a “Walk on the Wild Side.”
He was the fifth Son of Katie Elder, gave John Wayne his True Grit, and made Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and company appear to be The Magnificent Seven.
He stood with Gregory Peck in the courtroom of To Kill a Mockingbird, while helping us learn the way a child looks at this bigoted world.
He jumped a prisoner of war compound fence in The Great Escape, and sat in a prison cell with Burt Lancaster as The Birdman of Alcatraz.
And if this was not enough, he stood on Mount Sinai while God wrote The Ten Commandments.
He was Elmer Bernstein, and he was Hollywood’s quintessential film composer for the past seven decades.
Bernstein died last month at the age of 82.
While most ardent moviegoers were rushing to see their favorite stars in action, it was always the film’s score which demanded my utmost attention, especially if it had the Bernstein signature. I call it Keeping the Faith.
Bernstein was nominated 14 times for an Academy Award, winning once.
Bernstein won an Emmy, two Golden Globe Awards, two Down Beat Awards, and two Western Heritage Awards, but it was not the awards or nominations which were important.
It was the pure and simple fact that he gave us an abundance of emotional music.
In a 2001 Associated Press interview Bernstein said, “Film music, properly done, should give the film a kind of emotional rail on which to ride, without even realizing that you’re listening to music that’s doing something to your emotions, you will have an emotional experience.”
It has been said that when great composers die, a special place somewhere is reserved solely for them.
It is said to be a place where an orchestra of enormous proportions is assembled, and where a thousand musicians are charged with playing their music for all eternity. Whereever that place may be, one thing is for certain, Elmer Bernstein walks The Hallelujah Trail with the likes of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, Dimitri Tiomkin, Max Steiner, Henry Mancini, Leonard Bernstein, and George F. Handel.
Together, as the Kings Go Forth, we must never forget that we are The Caretakers of their music.
Elmer Bernstein took the characters of a film along with the director’s cause, and produced the music which became the final emotional effect of intrepidness.
Bernstein truly succeeded in giving mankind the “emotional rail on which to ride,” and we shall be forever in his debt.
Elmer Bernstein did indeed, Cast a Giant Shadow.

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