If you had no trouble this morning picturing Mitt Romney and his newly-selected running mate Paul Ryan fist-fighting Kazakh terrorists aboard a 747, that might be because the Romney campaign selected the main theme from Air Force One as the rollout music for its latest event. The theme played before Romney took the stage in front of the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, VA and again when Ryan made his appearance. Here’s the full song—which, admittedly, does a decent job at puffing up one’s patriotism:
The music to Air Force One was written by Jerry Goldsmith, a prolific American composer who also wrote scores for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Hoosiers, and L.A. Confidential. In the 1950s, Goldsmith, who died in 2004, launched his career in television, providing music for an array of programs at CBS.
It’s not the first time, of course, that a presidential campaign has used movie music as a backdrop for an important speech. On election night in 2008, Barack Obama and his running mate Joe Biden waved to supporters amidst the soaring soundtracks to Remember the Titans and The Patriot.
