Tracking down a movie via music

October 12, 2014 7:25 PM

Twenty five years ago (around then, early 90s), there was on HBO an advertisement promoting HBO. It consisted of a montage of recent popular movies (and maybe some older, durable classics that HBO showed back then) accompanied by a theme that was taken from a movie. The theme was choral in nature, haunting children's voices. Help me remember the movie the theme came from!

I've always thought that this theme came from the movie Glory starring Matthew Broderick, first heard when Broderick's character is walking through the aftermath of a battle near the start of the movie and then repeated near the end during the aftermath of the climactic assault on the fort. But I've never been sure and I am looking for someone to either corroborate my memory or tell me I'm wrong. So, HBO watchers from the 90s, do you remember what I'm thinking of?

Thanks!

posted by Fukiyama to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Was it from Empire of the Sun?
posted by Good Brain at 8:09 PM on October 12, 2014

If it could've been an older, durable classic - maybe it was Night of the Hunter?
posted by moonmilk at 8:37 PM on October 12, 2014

Here is the full soundtrack to Glory in case you'd like to refresh your memory. After Antietam in particular sounds somewhat like what you're describing, and there is also another after battle song later in the soundtrack.
posted by the webmistress at 10:45 PM on October 12, 2014

Not a children's choir, but Enrico Morricone's theme from The Mission (1986) otherwise fits your description. Here's a relevant snippet.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 4:05 AM on October 13, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks everyone for the old college try. None of those help me.
posted by Fukiyama at 6:26 PM on October 13, 2014