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Kuwaiti oil wells set alight by retreating Iraqi forces in 1991.

A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. It is a military strategy where all of the assets that are used or can be used by the enemy are targeted, such as food sources, transportation, communications, industrial resources, and even the people in the area. The practice is carried out by an army in enemy territory, or its own home territory. It may overlap with, but is not the same as, punitive destruction of an enemy's resources, which is done for purely strategic/political reasons rather than strategic/operational reasons. It was most famously used by Napoleon, by Sherman against the South in the American Civil War, by Kitchener against the Boers, and by Hitler during the Winter Campaign. A form of the policy was also used by the Allies to sever the logistics and sources for the whole of Europe in both the world wars, of which the latter would be made by "carpet-bombing" civilian structures such as the transportation network, although not by intent, the cold winter and lack of supplies long after the war would result in the deaths of many Europeans.

The strategy of destroying the food supply of the civilian population in an area of conflict has been banned under Article 54 of Protocol I of the 1977 Geneva Conventions. The relevant passage says:

It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive.^[1]

Despite being prohibited, it is still a common military practice. The protocol only applies to those countries that have ratified it, notable states that have not ratified it are the United States, Israel, Iran, Pakistan and Iraq.^{[citation needed]}

Ancient times[link]

The Scythians used scorched earth methods against King Darius the Great of Persia. Nomadic herders, the Scythians retreated into the depths of the Steppes, destroying food supplies and poisoning wells. As a result, Darius the Great was forced to concede defeat. A large number of his troops died from starvation and dehydration.

The Greek general Xenophon records in his Anabasis that the Armenians burned their crops and food supplies as they withdrew before the advance of the Ten Thousand.

The Greek mercenary general Memnon suggested to the Persian Satraps the use of the scorched earth policy against Alexander as he moved into Asia Minor. He was refused.

Roman era[link]

The system of punitive destruction of property and subjugation of people when accompanying a military campaign was known as vastatio. Two of the first uses of scorched earth recorded both happened in the Gallic Wars. The first was used when the Celtic Helvetii were forced to evacuate their homes in Southern Germany and Switzerland due to incursions of unfriendly Germanic tribes. To add incentive to the march, the Helvetii destroyed everything they could not bring. After the Helvetii were defeated by a combined Roman-Gallic force, the Helvetii were forced to rebuild themselves on the shattered German and Swiss plains they themselves had destroyed.

The second case shows actual military value: during the "Great Gallic War" the Gauls under Vercingetorix planned to lure the Roman armies into Gaul and then trap and obliterate them. To this end, they ravaged the countryside of what are now the Benelux countries and France. This did cause immense problems for the Romans, but Roman military triumphs over the Gallic alliance showed that this alone was not enough to save Gaul from subjugation by Rome.

During the Second Punic War in 218–202 BC, the Carthaginians used this method while storming through Italy. After the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC, the Roman Senate also elected to use this method to permanently destroy the Carthaginian capital city, Carthage (near modern-day Tunis). The buildings were torn down, their stones scattered so not even rubble remained, and the fields were burned. However, the story that they salted the earth is apocryphal.^[2]

In the year AD 363, the Emperor Julian's invasion of Persia was turned back by a scorched earth policy:

"The extensive region that lies between the River Tigris and the mountains of Media...was in a very improved state of cultivation. Julian might expect, that a conqueror, who possessed the two forcible instruments of persuasion, steel and gold, would easily procure a plentiful subsistence from the fears or avarice of the natives. But, on the approach of the Romans, the rich and smiling prospect was instantly blasted. Wherever they moved...the cattle was driven away; the grass and ripe corn were consumed with fire; and, as soon as the flames had subsided which interrupted the march of Julian, he beheld the melancholy face of a smoking and naked desert. This desperate but effectual method of defence can only be executed by the enthusiasm of a people who prefer their independence to their property; or by the rigor of an arbitrary government, which consults the public safety without submitting to their inclinations the liberty of choice."^[3]

Middle Ages[link]

Viking Period[link]

During the great Viking invasion of England opposed by Alfred the Great and various other Saxon and Welsh rulers, the Viking chieftain Hastein in late summer 893 marched his men to Chester to occupy the ruined Roman fortress there. The refortified fortress should have made an excellent base for raiding northern Mercia, but the Mercians are recorded as having taken the drastic measure of destroying all crops and livestock in the surrounding countryside in order to starve the Danes out.^{[citation needed]}

Harrying of the North[link]

In the Harrying of the North, William the Conqueror's brutal conquest and subjugation of the North of England, William's men burnt whole villages from the Humber to Tees, and slaughtered the inhabitants. Foodstores and livestock were destroyed so that anyone surviving the initial massacre would soon succumb to starvation over the winter. The survivors were reduced to cannibalism,^[4] with one report stating that the skulls of the dead were cracked open so that the brains could be eaten. Between 100,000 and 150,000 perished and the area took centuries to recover from the damage.

High and Late Middle Ages[link]

Robert the Bruce

During the Hundred Years' War, both the English and the French conducted chevauchée raids over the enemy territory to damage its infrastructure.

Robert the Bruce counselled using these operational methods to hold off the English King Edward's forces when the English invaded Scotland, according to an anonymous 14th-century poem:^[5]

...in strait places gar keep all store,
And byrnen ye plainland them before,
That they shall pass away in haist
What that they find na thing but waist.
...This is the counsel and intent
Of gud King Robert's testiment.

In 1336, the defenders of Pilėnai in Lithuania set their castle on fire and committed mass suicide in order to make the attacking Teutonic Order's victory a costly one.

The strategy was widely used in the Romanian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. Prince Mircea I of Wallachia used it against the Ottomans in 1395 and prince Stephen III of Moldavia scorched the earth in his country as the Ottoman army advanced in 1475 and 1476.

Early Modern era[link]

Further British use of scorched earth policies in war was seen during the 16th century in Ireland, where it was used by English commanders such as Walter Devereux and Richard Bingham. Its most infamous use was by Humphrey Gilbert during the wars against the native Irish in Munster in the 1560s and 1570s, actions which earned the praise of the poet Edmund Spenser in his A View of the Present State of Ireland in 1596.^{[citation needed]}

The Desmond Rebellions are a famous case in Ireland. Much of the entire province of Munster was laid waste. The poet Edmund Spenser left an account of it:

In 1630, Field-Marshal General Torquato Conti was in command of Imperial forces during the Thirty Years' War. Forced to retreat from the advancing Swedish army of King Gustavus Adolphus, Conti ordered his troops to burn houses, destroy villages and generally cause as much harm to property and people as possible. His actions were remembered thus:^[6]

During the Great Northern War, Russia scorched earth in the way of Swedish king Charles XII's forces.

Nineteenth century[link]

Napoleonic Wars[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

During the 1810 (third) Napoleonic invasion of Portugal, the Portuguese population retreated, destroying all the food supplies the French might capture (it should be reminded that the recent invention of effective food preserving techniques was still not fit for military because a suitably rugged container had not yet been invented). This attitude was the result of French plundering and general ill-treatment of civilians in the previous invasions. The poor, angered people would rather destroy anything that had to be left behind rather than leaving it to the French. French soldiers reported that the country "seemed to empty ahead of them". When Massená reached the city of Viseu wanting to replenish his armies dwindling food supplies, none of the inhabitants remained, and all there was to eat were grapes and lemons that when eaten in large quantities would be a better laxative than a source of calories. After the subsequent defeat at Bussaco, Massená's army marched on to Coimbra where much of the city's old university and library were vandalised, houses and furniture were destroyed and the few civilians that did not seek refuge further south were murdered. While there were instances of similar behavior by British soldiers, considering that Portugal was their ally, such crimes were generally investigated, and those found punished. Coimbra's sack made the populace even more determined in leaving nothing and when the French armies reached the Lines of Torres Vedras on the way to Lisbon, low morale, hunger, disease, and indiscipline had rendered the French Army of Portugal into a much weaker force. This method was later recommended to Russia when Napoleon made his move.

In 1812 Czar Alexander I was able to render Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Russia useless by utilizing a scorched-earth retreat method, similar to that made by the Portuguese. As Russian forces withdrew from the advancing French army, they burned the countryside (and, allegedly, Moscow) over which they passed, leaving nothing of value for the pursuing French army. Encountering only desolate and useless land Napoleon's Grand Army was prevented from using its accustomed doctrine of living off the lands it conquered. Pushing relentlessly on despite dwindling numbers, the Grand Army met with disaster as the invasion progressed. Napoleon's army arrived in a virtually abandoned Moscow, which was a tattered starving shell of its former self due largely to the use of scorched-earth tactics by retreating Russians. Having essentially conquered nothing, Napoleon's troops diminished. Tragically, the effects of this policy on the civilian population in those areas in which it was applied was equally, if not more, devastating than they were on the Grande Armée.

South American War of Independence[link]

On August of 1812, Argentine General Manuel Belgrano leaded the Jujuy Exodus, a massive forced displacement of people from the present-day Jujuy and Salta provinces to the south. The Jujuy Exodus was conducted by the patriot forces of the Army of the North that were battling a Royalist army.

Belgrano, faced with the prospect of total defeat and territorial loss, ordered all people to pack their necessities, including food and furniture, and follow him, in carriages or on foot, together with whatever cattle and beasts of burden could endure the journey. The rest (houses, crops, food stocks, and also any objects made of iron) was to be burned, so as to deprive the loyalists of resources, following a strict scorched earth policy. On 29 July 1812 Belgrano asked the people of Jujuy to "show their heroism" and join the march of the army under his command "if, as you assure, you want to be free". The punishment for ignoring the order was execution and the destruction of the defector's properties. Belgrano labored to win the support of the populace, and later reported that most of the people had willingly followed him without the need of force.

The exodus started on 23 August and gathered people from Jujuy and Salta; people travelled south about 250 km, finally arriving at the banks of the Pasaje River, in the province of Tucumán, on the early hours of 29 August.

Philippine-American War[link]

U.S. attacks into the Philippine countryside often included scorched earth campaigns where entire villages were burned and destroyed, torture (water cure) and the concentration of civilians into "protected zones". Many of the civilian casualties resulted from disease and famine.^[7][8]

In the hunt for the Guerrilla General Emilio Aguinaldo American troops also poisoned water wells to try to force out the Filipino rebels.^[9]

American Civil War[link]

Sherman's troops destroy a railroad near Atlanta

In the American Civil War, Union forces used the policy widely.^[10] General Sherman utilized this policy during his March to the Sea. In another Civil War event, in response to Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence, Kansas, and the many civilian casualties there, the U.S. Army General Order No. 11 (1863) ordered the near-total evacuation of three and a half counties in western Missouri, south of Kansas City, which were subsequently looted and burned by U.S. Army troops. (Ironically, the commander of Union Forces who issued General Order No. 11, Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr., was Sherman's brother in law.) Under Sherman's overall direction, General Sheridan followed this policy in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and subsequently in the Indian Wars of the Great Plains.

When General Grant's forces broke through Richmond's defenses, Jefferson Davis ordered the destruction of Richmond's militarily significant supplies; the resulting conflagration destroyed many – mainly commercial – buildings and some Southern warships docked on the James River. Civilians in panic were forced to escape not only Grant's army but the fires started by their own government.

Native American wars[link]

During the wars with Native American tribes of the American West, under James Carleton's direction, Kit Carson instituted a scorched earth policy, burning Navajo fields and homes, and stealing or killing their livestock. He was aided by other Indian tribes with long-standing enmity toward the Navajos, chiefly the Utes. The Navajo were forced to surrender due to the destruction of their livestock and food supplies. In the spring of 1864, 8,000 Navajo men, women and children were forced to march 300 miles to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Navajos call this "The Long Walk." Many died along the way or during the next four years of their internment.

A military expedition led by U.S. Army Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie was sent to the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma Territory Panhandle area in 1874 to remove the Indians to reservations in Oklahoma. The Mackenzie expedition captured about 1,200 of the Indians' horses, drove them into Tule Canyon, and shot them all. Denied their main source of livelihood and demoralized, the Comanche and Kiowa abandoned the area (see Palo Duro Canyon).

Boer War[link]

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Boer civilians watching British soldiers blow up their house with dynamite: Boers were given 10 minutes to gather belongings

Lord Kitchener applied scorched earth policy during the later part of the Second Boer War (1899–1902) when the Boers, not conforming to classic military defeat when the their two capital cities where captured, but never on the battlefield, adopted the first modern form of what we know today as guerrilla warfare, in order to rid their republics of the British. So the British ordered destruction of the farms and the homes of civilians in order to prevent the still-fighting Boers from obtaining food and supplies. The intention of the British government was the complete annihilation of the Boer nations. From 1899 - 1901, the British destroyed 40 towns and burned crops. The impact of the British scorched earth policy during the war would kill half of both Boer Nations. Britain's worst offence during the war, was not only the genocide of the Boers, but the arming and training of the Zulus in the neighbouring countries, and paid the Zulus with goods for any attacks made on the homes of the Boers. All the Boer Generals write in their books, such as Gen Ben Viljoen's "My Reminiscence of the Anglo-Boer War", of the horrors that the Black tribes sent by the British, befell them. Woman and children were gang raped by the Zulus, helpless due to the fact that all the men where in the Veld on Commando. The Scorched Earth policy not only affected the Boers, but damaged the black "Afrikaanders" so much that there are less than a thousand of them today. An eloquent description of this comes from an Army officer at the time.^[11] This destruction left women and children without means to survive since crops and livestock were also destroyed.^[12] The existence of the concentration camps was exposed by Emily Hobhouse, who toured the camps and began petitioning the British government to change its policy.^[13][14] In an attempt to counter Hobhouse's activism, the British commissioned the Fawcett Commission, that confirmed Hobhouse's findings.^[15] The British later perceived the concentration camps as a humanitarian measure, to care for displaced persons until the war was ended, in response to the Hobhouse and Fawcett reports. Negligence by the British, lack of planning and supplies and overcrowding led to much loss of life.^[16] A decade after the war P.L.A. Goldman officially determined that an astonishing number of 27,927 Boers died in the concentration camps: 26,251 women and children (of whom more than 22,000 were under the age of 16), and 1,676 men over the age of 16, of whom 1,421 were aged persons.^[17]

Other[link]

In 1868, Tūhoe sheltered the Māori leader Te Kooti, and for this were subjected to a scorched earth policy, in which their crops and buildings were destroyed and their people of fighting age were captured.

Twentieth century[link]

Efraín Ríos Montt utilized this method in the Guatemalan highlands in 1982-3, resulting in the death of approximately 10,000 indigenous peoples, and causing 100,000 to leave their homes.

The Indonesian military and pro-Indonesia militias used this method in their Timor-Leste Scorched Earth campaign around the time of East Timor's referendum for independence in 1999.

The Sudanese government has used scorched earth as a military strategy in Darfur.

World War I[link]

This section requires expansion.

Imperial Russian army forces used scorched earth strategy during its retreat in summer/autumn of 1915.

On 24 February 1917, the German army made a strategic scorched earth withdrawal from the Somme battlefield to the prepared fortifications of the Hindenburg Line, thereby shortening the front line they had to occupy. Since a scorched earth campaign requires that there be a war of movement, World War I provided little opportunity in general for this policy as it was a stalemated war fought mostly in the same concentrated area for its entire duration.

Second Sino-Japanese War[link]

During the Second Sino-Japanese War the Imperial Japanese Army had a scorched-earth policy, known as "Three Alls Policy". Due to the Japanese scorched-earth policy immense environmental and infrastructure damage have been recorded. Additionally, it contributed to the complete destruction of entire villages and partial destruction of entire cities like Chongqing or Nanjing.

The Chinese National Revolutionary Army destroyed dams and levees in an attempt to flood the land to slow down the advancement of Japanese soldiers, further adding to the environmental impact. This policy resulted in the 1938 Huang He flood.

World War II[link]

Albert Speer defied Adolf Hitler's order to destroy Germany's infrastructure before the advancing Allies

When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, Joseph Stalin ordered both soldiers and civilians to initiate a scorched earth policy to deny the invaders basic supplies as they moved eastward. The process was repeated later in the war by the retreating German forces, which burned or destroyed farms, buildings, weapons, and food to deprive Soviet forces of their use.

At the close of World War II, Finland, which had made a separate peace with the Allies, was required to evict the German forces, which had been fighting against the Soviets alongside the Finnish troops in the Northern part of the country. Finnish forces, under the leadership of general Hjalmar Siilasvuo, struck aggressively in August 1944 by making a landfall at Tornio. This accelerated the German retreat, and by November 1944 the Germans had left most of northern Finland. The German forces, forced to retreat due to overall strategic situation, covered their retreat towards Norway by devastating large areas of northern Finland using scorched earth strategy. More than one-third of the dwellings in the area were destroyed, and the provincial capital Rovaniemi was burned to the ground. All but two bridges in Lapland Province were blown up and roads mined.^[18] In Northern Norway which was at the same time invaded by Soviet forces in pursuit of the retreating German army in 1944, the Germans also undertook a scorched earth policy, destroying every building that could offer shelter and thus interposing a belt of "scorched earth" between themselves and the allies.^[19]

In 1945, Adolf Hitler ordered his minister of armaments Albert Speer to carry out a nationwide scorched earth policy, in what became known as the Nero Decree. Speer, who was looking to the future, actively resisted the order, just as he had earlier refused Hitler's command to destroy French industry when the Wehrmacht was being driven out of France, and managed to continue doing so even after Hitler became aware of his actions.^[20]

Vietnam War[link]

Throughout the 1960s, the US employed herbicides (chiefly Agent Orange), as a part of its herbicidal warfare program Trail Dust to destroy crops and foliage in order to expose possible enemy hideouts. Agent Blue was used on rice fields to deny food to the Vietcong. Napalm was also extensively used for such purposes.

According to Jeanne Stellman of Columbia University, 4.8 million people have been exposed to Agent Orange,^[21] with some 3 million of them suffering health problems related to the exposure.^[22][23]

Gulf War[link]

This section requires expansion.

During the Gulf War in 1990 when Iraqi forces were driven out of Kuwait they set the oil wells on fire. The possible reasons for this are discussed in more detail in the article on the Kuwaiti oil fires.^[24]

21st Century[link]

Sri Lankan civil war[link]

During the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009.^[25][26]

Libyan Civil War[link]

During the 2011 Libyan civil war, forces loyal to Muammar al-Gaddafi planted a large number of landmines within the petroleum port of Brega to prevent advancing rebel forces from utilizing the port facilities.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

References[link]

James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953)^[1] is an American composer, orchestrator, and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements. His score to the 1997 film Titanic remains the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time.^[2][3]

In addition, Horner has scored over 100 films, frequently collaborating with acclaimed directors such as James Cameron and Ron Howard. Some of his most noteworthy works include Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Cocoon (1985), An American Tail (1986), Aliens (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), Willow (1988), Glory (1989), Field of Dreams (1989), The Rocketeer (1991), Legends of the Fall (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Braveheart (1995), The Mask of Zorro (1998), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Troy (2004), and Avatar (2009).

Horner has won two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, three Saturn Awards, and has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards. His body of work is also notable for including the scores to the two highest-grossing films of all time; Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), both of which were directed by James Cameron.

Early life[link]

Horner was born in Los Angeles, the son of Austrian immigrants Joan (née Frankel) and Harry Horner, who was a production designer, set designer and occasional film director.^[4]

Horner started playing piano at the age of five. His early years were spent in London, where he attended the Royal College of Music. He subsequently attended Verde Valley High School in Sedona, Arizona. He received his bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California, and eventually earned a master's and started working on his doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles where he studied with Paul Chihara, among others. After several scoring assignments with the American Film Institute in the 1970s, he finished his teaching of music theory at UCLA and turned to film scoring.^[5]

Film and television scoring[link]

Horner's first major film score was for the 1979 film, The Lady in Red. He began his film scoring career by working for B film director and producer Roger Corman, with his first composer credit for Corman's big-budget Battle Beyond the Stars. His works steadily gained notice in Hollywood, which led him to take on larger projects. Horner made a breakthrough in 1982, when he had the chance to score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, establishing himself as a mainstream composer.

Horner continued composing music for high-profile releases during the 1980s, including 48 Hrs. (1982), Krull (1983), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Commando (1985), Cocoon (1985), Aliens (1986), *batteries not included, Willow (1988), Glory and Field of Dreams (both 1989).

Aliens earned Horner his first Academy Award nomination. He has been nominated an additional nine times since. Horner's scores have been sampled in film trailers for other films. The climax of the track Bishop's Countdown from his score for Aliens ranks fifth in the most commonly-used soundtrack cues for film trailers.^[6] Also, an unused fragment from Aliens was featured in a scene from Die Hard. Several films whose scores were composed by Michael Kamen have had trailers featuring Horner's music; most notably, the music from Willow is substituted for the theme Kamen wrote for the 1993 remake of The Three Musketeers. Horner also added his nominated Braveheart "For the Love of a Princess" single for Robert Zemeckis's Theatrical Trailer of Cast Away.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Horner also wrote orchestral scores for children's films (particularly those produced by Amblin Entertainment), with credits for An American Tail (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), and Casper, Jumanji, and Balto (all from 1995).

1995 saw Horner produce no fewer than six scores, including his commercially successful and critically acclaimed works for Braveheart and Apollo 13, both of which earned him Academy Award nominations. Horner's greatest financial and critical success would come in 1997, with the score to the motion picture, Titanic. The album became the best-selling primarily orchestral soundtrack in history, selling over 27 million copies worldwide.^[7]

At the 70th Academy Awards, Horner won Oscars for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for "My Heart Will Go On" (which he co-wrote with Will Jennings). In addition, Horner and Jennings won three Grammy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for the soundtrack and My Heart Will Go On.^[8][9] Titanic also marked the first time in ten years that Horner worked with director James Cameron (following the highly stressful scoring sessions for Aliens, Horner declared that he would never work with Cameron again and described the experience of scoring the film Aliens as "a nightmare").^{[citation needed]}

Since Titanic, Horner has continued to score for major productions (including The Perfect Storm, A Beautiful Mind, Enemy At The Gates, The Mask of Zorro, The Legend of Zorro, House of Sand and Fog and Bicentennial Man).^[1]

Aside from scoring major productions, Horner periodically works on smaller projects such as Iris, Radio and Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius. He received his eighth and ninth Academy Award nominations for A Beautiful Mind (2001) and House of Sand and Fog (2003), but lost on both occasions to Howard Shore. He frequently collaborates with film director Ron Howard, a partnership that began with Cocoon in 1985. Coincidentally, Horner's end title music from Glory can be heard in the trailer for Howard's Backdraft.

Horner composed the 2006-2011 theme music for the CBS Evening News. The theme was introduced as part of the debut of Katie Couric as anchor on September 5, 2006. It has since been adopted by most other CBS News programs as well.^{[citation needed]}

Horner recollaborated with James Cameron on the 2009 film Avatar, which was released in December 2009 and has since become the highest grossing film of all time, surpassing Titanic (also directed by Cameron and scored by Horner).

Horner spent over two years working on the score for Avatar, and did not take on any other projects during that time. Horner's work on Avatar earned him numerous award nominations, including his tenth Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe nomination, a BAFTA nomination, and a Grammy Award nomination, all of which he lost to Michael Giacchino for Up.^[10]

Regarding the experience of scoring Avatar, Horner said, "Avatar has been the most difficult film I have worked on and the biggest job I have undertaken... I work from four in the morning to about ten at night and that’s been my way of life since March. That's the world I'm in now and it makes you feel estranged from everything. I'll have to recover from that and get my head out of Avatar."^[11] It is currently unknown whether or not Horner will return as composer for the sequel(s) to Avatar.

Horner recently composed the score for the film The Karate Kid replacing Atli Örvarsson. This is the first film Horner has worked on since Avatar.^[12] The film was released in 2010.

Horner has recently scored The Song of Names (2011)^[13], as well as The Amazing Spider-Man, which stars Andrew Garfield and is set for release in July 2012.

Critical debate[link]

Horner has been criticised for transposing hooks, orchestral motifs, or larger passages from other scores of his own or of other composers.^[14][15] These contentions are points of fierce debates between supporters of Horner and his detractors.^[16]

List of scores[link]

Film[link]

1970s[link]

• 1978 The Drought (for the American Film Institute)
• 1978 Fantasies (for the American Film Institute)
• 1978 Gist and Evans (for the American Film Institute)
• 1978 Landscapes (for the American Film Institute)
• 1978 Just for a Laugh (for the American Film Institute)
• 1978 The Watcher (for the American Film Institute)
• 1979 The Lady in Red
• 1979 Up from the Depths

1980s[link]

1990s[link]

2000s[link]

2010s[link]

• 2010 The Karate Kid
• 2011 Black Gold^[17]
• 2012 Cristiada (aka For Greater Glory)
• 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man
• 2013 The Song of Names^[13]

Television[link]

• 1981 A Few Days in Weasel Creek
• 1982 A Piano for Mrs. Cimino
• 1983 Between Friends
• 1985 Amazing Stories (Episode: "Alamo Jobe")
• 1985 Faerie Tale Theatre (Episode: "The Pied Piper of Hamelin")
• 1985 Surviving
• 1990 Tales from the Crypt (Episode: "Cutting Cards")
• 1990 Extreme Close-Up
• 1992 Crossroads (theme)
• 1992 Fish Police (theme and pilot episode)
• 2000 Freedom Song
• 2006 CBS Evening News

Short films[link]

• 1985 Let's Go
• 1986 Captain EO (shown at Walt Disney theme parks worldwide)
• 1989 Tummy Trouble
• 1991 Norman and the Killer

Concert works[link]

• 1976: "Conversations"
• 1977: "Spectral Shimmers"
• 1998: "Titanic Suite"
• 2000: "A Forest Passage"

Miscellaneous works[link]

• Logo music for Universal Pictures (1990–1997), Lionsgate, Icon Productions and CBS Films.
• THX trailer "Cimarron"
• Music for the P-51 aerobatic flight team "The Horsemen"^[18][19]

Awards and nominations[link]

Horner has won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score (Titanic) and Best Original Song ("My Heart Will Go On") in 1998, and has been nominated for Oscars an additional eight times. He has also won two Golden Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, three Saturn Awards, and has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards.

AFI[link]

In 2005, the American Film Institute unveiled their list of America's top twenty-five film scores. Five of Horner's scores were among 250 nominees, making him the most nominated composer to not make the top twenty-five:^[20]

• Apollo 13 (1995)
• Braveheart (1995)
• Field of Dreams (1989)
• Glory (1989)
• Titanic (1997)

List of accolades[link]

Grammy

• 1988: An American Tail
• 1988: "Somewhere Out There" (from: An American Tail, Winner)
• 1990: Field of Dreams
• 1991: Glory (Winner)
• 1996: "Whatever You Imagine" (from: The Pagemaster)
• 1999: "My Heart Will Go On" (from: Titanic, Winner)
• 2003: A Beautiful Mind

References[link]

External links[link]

• James Horner at the Internet Movie Database
• James Horner interview (1983) from CinemaScore magazine