Film Score Friday 12/4/98

by Lukas Kendall

Guess what? Sony's expanded Star Trek: The Motion Picture 2CD set (with Inside Star Trek) is back on the schedule: this time for January 26. You can find an interview with Jerry Goldsmith on www.startrek.com about Insurrection.

Trying to think of some news... this is a slow time for "new" news in that we're about to be slammed with all the cool movies and CDs we've been reading about for the past months, but we're not quite at the point yet where decisions are made on the spring/summer '99 films and CD restorations.

Hey, here's one! This may or may not have been reported, but Rykodisc is going ahead with a CD reissue of The Missouri Breaks (John Williams, 1976) for spring of 1999. So that will be one more vintage Johnny title to scratch off your list. No word yet on extra music one way or another. The Missouri Breaks is a great bluegrass/folk type score, very atypical of the Williams style many are probably used to. See Ryko info at www.rykodisc.com.

We got an advance copy of Mighty Joe Young by James Horner. I like it! I'll probably never get to the end of the 70+ minute running time if I live to be 90 years old, but I liked what I heard. It features a lot of yearning string writing over very clear, African percussion patterns, and some vintage Horner licks and chord changes (like D minor - G major - D minor thing, or whatever key it's in, that opens Willow). An interesting take on the King Kong (or approximately Kong) genre.

Classic FM Film Music Ish

From: Preston Jones <pjones@fulpat.com>

Last week I mentioned CLASSIC CD's Horner interview. I just spotted another classy British mag on the newsstand, CLASSIC FM, with a "special Film Music issue." Mainly that means another Horner interview, plus one interesting feature article in which noted film musicians are asked to name their favorite use of music in film. Michael Nyman talks about one of his own scores. Jerry Goldsmith's favorite? The Herrmann shower-murder in PSYCHO...

Football

From: "Brian Donohue" <bjdonohue@erols.com>

The coach you mention in todays excellent review is George Allen, former head coach of the L.A. Rams and Washington Redskins. Allen was known for these types of eccentric proclamations. There is a story that once, when working out in his yard, he said "If I can pull this weed out roots and all, we'll beat Dallas" or something to that effect. By the way, Allen's death was an unusual one. A few years back, while coaching at a small California college, Allen was drenched with Gatorade by his players after winning the final game of the season. He died of pneumonia shortly thereafter.

By the way, my favorite line on the CD is the one where the defensive player exorts his teammates to "run up into the stands and slap" the opposing team's running back's "momma." Now that's football!

That is a terrific quote on this Power and the Glory CD (see the review). I also love the description of the blitz by Facenda: "Indeed it is all of these things." You can watch the classic '70s NFL films on ESPN's Classic Sports network--a great channel!

Ed Zwick Movies

From: James McLaughlin/Marilyn Kraync <target@uswest.net>

Upon reading a response to Zimmer's disappearance from Enemy Of The State, I ask the same question as to why James Horner's name once appeared on early trailers for the Seige, but was later replaced by Revell. This is curious to because look at all of Zwick's previous films...Glory, Legends Of The Fall, Courage Under Fire...All of them scored by Horner. Just wondering if you could shed some light on this for me. Thanks!

Unfortunately I can't; I know that Zwick simply decided not to use Horner on this new film, but I don't know the reason why.

An Important Message About Jerry Goldsmith's Link Score

From: "Miguel Angel Perez Perez" <mapperez@ua.es>

Announcement to the world: What's the matter with "Link" and what's the problem with you, my dear deaf bunch? Is it really such a "cheesy" score? Or, to put it in a different way, would you consider Ravel's "Bolero" a cheesy score, according to your bombastic standards? Have you really noticed how the music works in the film, adding a very special rhythm and dimension to certain scenes? Have you really appreciated Goldsmith's typically ironic blend of different modes which give as a result a very postmodern and interesting score, with far deeper layers of meaning than would be expected at first? So, here's your homework.

Golden Age Reactions

Wow! I got some great letters about the Korngold editorial I posted on the site yesterday. I haven't been able to go through them yet but I will soon -- and probably print them in FSM with some responses from yours truly.

Here's one that's got me inspired, though:

From: "Michael Schuermann" <mschuermann@bigfoot.com>

I read your editorial, and one thing just hit me like crazy. You mentioned doing a buyer's guide on Golden Age re-recordings. Do it! Do it now! I am a huge fan of the golden age, and am always interested in picking up some scores by the original masters. But, as you said, most of the original recordings, while still available (thanks to Rhino and other great labels like them), honestly truly sound very bad. And the re-recordings often leave a lot to be desired. So, this is my attempt to have you do that buyer's guide ASAP. I know that the subscriber base to your magazine unfortunately probably doesn't have a majority of people who would really like to see this kind of thing, but if you put it in there, maybe many more will discover the great stuff that is out there.

Yes! We will do it! But I would like to ask all of you to help us shirk our responsibility. If you've got one, write us to tell of your SINGLE FAVORITE SCORE that you listen to that's from a movie before, say, 1960. In other words, everything up to and maybe including Spartacus ("maybe" because it's very modern). Let's say I've got $20 that I'm going to spend on one CD of something I've never heard before, but I'm going to be open minded and buy it sight unseen. Tell me what to get!

Insurrection Prediction

I am going to make a prediction: this new Insurrection will be the worst Star Trek film ever -- even worse than Star Trek V, which at least has some camp value of the aging actors. I don't know, this one seems so... irrelevant may be the word. The poster is terrible: it's almost the same as the Star Trek VI poster, it says nothing about the movie, and I don't even know what the giant orange shadowed face has to do with anything. Like Star Trek V, it revolves around some Eden-type planet, and seems to be heavy on nonsensical action -- and it's being released in a crowded month at the multiplex at a time when Trek is becoming more and more ho-hum. Oh, there are more problems too: the ads are in a Starship Troopers "lock and load" techno mold, there doesn't seem to be any interesting character arc, and certainly no marketing hook like Kirk meets Picard or the Borg. Sensors register fading life signs, captain. (However, the original series episodes have been terrific fun to catch on the Sci-Fi Channel, in new "Special Extra Commercials Editions.")

As for the score, we got an advance promo of Insurrection at the office which has been assigned to Jeff Bond for his usual Goldsmith analysis. We'll try and present this next week. Have a nice holiday shopping weekend!

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