Film Score Friday 4/9/99
by Lukas Kendall
Holy cow! Go to www.theforce.net
for tons of info on the Phantom Menace CD, including scans of the
cover and interior packaging (with liner notes by George Lucas and John
Williams) and a complete track list. The single from the score, "Duel
of the Fates," will be released April 20th.
Elmer Bernstein will be honored at this year's USA Film Festival in
Dallas, Texas. Director John Landis will present the tribute to Bernstein
on April 23 following a screening of Animal House. Advance tickets on sale
April 13 through Ticketmaster at 214-373-8000 or metro 972-647-5700
Anybody who knows what the trailer music to The Matrix is, let
us know. People will perish unless they get this information.
James Horner will score the upcoming Grinch Who Stole Christmas
starring Jim Carrey.
Making the Most of the Decade
See Tuesday's
and Thursday's
column:
From: "Nicolai P. Zwar" <NPZwar@aol.com>
Certainly, Goldsmith's scores were more interesting 20 to 25 years
ago, though I imagine that it has a lot to do with the movies Goldsmith
scores lately. Most of them are unimportant studio flicks, some of them
are downright crap, and only very few rise above the Hollywood average
(like "L.A. Confidential"). It would be hard for any composer
to write a better score for "Congo" or "Chain Reaction",
because these films were so run-of-the-Hollywood-mill.
Why the guy who did "Chinatown" and "Patton"
is doing stuff like "Mom And Dad Save The World" and "US
Marshalls" these days I'll never understand.
Well, he used to do stuff like 100 Rifles and Ace Eli and
the Rodger of the Skies too-- so what?
From: cirtapsamot@webtv.net
Let me say first off that I am glad to see Thomas Newman name on
this list.
There two scores of his that come to mind, one famous and one that
I bet no one has heard.
The one that most people have heard is to Robert Altmans' film The
Player, to me it is one most effective scores, small in quanity but huge
in a payoff. Especially in the first 10 minutes of the film, a perfect
setup to introduce all the seedy people.
I really liked the ending, semi-sweet melody to conclude the perfect
crime. The movie had alot of twist and turns, and Thomas Newmans score
kept up with Robert Altman, twist and turns.
The other score I remember is to Beth Brickells' 30 minute short
film entitile, At Summers End.
The first sequence is a classic, you fade in on early teenagers,
guys playing baseball. The one guy inwhich the camera follows is, here
I can't remember if he is hitting the ball or is trying to strike out the
kid on the plate, well anyway, I think he is standing at the plate and
hits the ball and it is not a homerun but he makes it all the way to home
anyway, when one of the kids knocks off the guys hat, and it is revealed
for the first time, it is a GIRL!!!
Then Thomas Newmans musis kicks in, and it is a wonderful blend
of sounthern flare, the movie was filmed in my home state of Arkansas.
Newman's music captured the right flavor and was at times a very delicate
peice of music, and one of the best in a 30 minute short.
I wished I could have that score, hey Mr. Newman, do you remember
your wonderful score to At Summers End? It would be nice if you could rerecord
that score and put it on CD.
From: Matt Hulkkonen, GRIZZBEAR1@aol.com
This may seem a real basic observation, but i have found that within
a given composers collected works, there often(if not most of the time)
seems to be stuff that for some reason or another was completely overlooked
as great music. There are a lot of James Horner critics out there, but
he offers a perfect example. 2 pieces of his come to mind immediately.
1. The last track of "Courage Under Fire"(The main title
is breathtaking as well) &.....
2. The theme from "The Man Without A Face"(The suite on
the Sylva double CD set is especially good).
There's lots of quality stuff that is even sitting on peoples CD
shelves because folks havent given them ample chance.
From: "Peter Hirst" <Peter@hirst-hb.freeserve.co.uk>
Why do people like you always have to make there views public when
they don't like something other people do like. It makes me sick. Ok you
may not like Horners music but there are a lot of people out there that
do (shown by the number of sales in Britain and the US) me been one of
them. Is Horner the only composer you hate if not why don't you go and
moan about someone else for a change. I was just looking at the UK classical
charts about a week ago Titanic was number one. Back to Titanic at number
five and Bravehart at number six. When was the last time you knew of a
Hollywood composer at 1,5,6 in the charts?
In case you're wondering, earlier this week I personally ran over Peter's
cat.
1983 Poll
From: Chris Kinsinger <76263.2355@compuserve.com>
I just now voted for "Under Fire" in your current
poll, and then I was absolutely AMAZED to see that it has scored so
high in the general voting to date!
"Return Of The Jedi" is at 29.2%, and "Under Fire"
is currently placing second at 26.3%! I believe that represents an absolute
VICTORY for Goldsmith's score of "Under Fire"!!! I mean. . .let's
face the facts here: 95.9% of the voters in this poll have NEVER SEEN the
film "Under Fire", and NEVER have heard its score! If you doubt
my conclusion, simply take a look at the boxoffice figures of both films,
and do the arithmetic. The only other conclusion could be that we few who
know "Under Fire" have been stuffing the ballot box. . .
From: Masseupex@aol.com
How could you forget Koyaanisqatsi(Philip Glass)? Some consider
it the greatest wedding between music and film since Fantasia.
From: ULYSSES644@aol.com
Your list for 1983 seems to be missing the Vangelis film score ANTARCTICA.
Maybe its just a question of release date. The album cover has 1983 listed.
This soundtrack is excellent and every review I have read gives it 5 stars
out of 5. For some strange reason it seems many great Vangelis sountracks
were not even nominated for academy awards when in fact they are among
the best.
Hello! You were CLEARLY supposed to select the last option on our new
poll.
Superman (Sort of)
From: L. Watteau, Sodena <sodenafr@imaginet.fr>
I've just bought my copy of " Superman : The Ultimate Collection
". I haven't been disapointed to that point for the past decade (
has anybody ever critized some past Silva Screen re-recordings ? )
I really wonder whether this is a joke or if this is just in intend
to make John Debney's past effort sounding better to die-hard fans of original
recordings . Hindemith would have probably described it as " Superman
as played at sight by a second-rate orchestra at the village well at 7
o'clock in the morning ".
How can reasonnably Varese produce such a CD ( longer than 30 minutes
! ) while so many wonderful scores remain unreleased ?
Because this was more profitable.
From: Winston Pear <wtpear@sas.upenn.edu>
I am fortunate enough to know someone who is manager of a classical
CD store which just happens to carry soundtracks. As a result I was able
to completely shift my collection to scores by returning all of my non-score
cds (many years old mind you) for new soundtrack stuff I wanted. However
when I went to go return my "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" CD
because I had the new rerelease I was told I couldn't return it because
the original was completely discontinued. Is this going to happen with
"Superman"? Should I take back that small, black-covered little
album now or is it alright to wait and exchange it directly for the new
version later?
This is a good question and I do not know the answer. I would return
it now to be safe.
Phantom Volumes
From: Earl Green <egreen@nbc26.com>
So far, in the midst of all the complaints about Sony Classical
releasing only a single-disc Phantom Menace soundtrack, I haven't heard
anyone mention one little detail which could be a cause for hope. Sony
Classical also released Titanic, and once they realized that, somewhere
between Celine Dion and James Horner, they were selling several thousand
metric buttloads of Titanic CDs, we suddenly had the Back To Titanic CD.
I doubt that anyone thinks that the Phantom Menace soundtrack, even as
a single disc, will fail to fly off the shelves. Surely we could begin
to lobby Sony Classical for a companion disc sometime in the late summer,
to round out (at least) or complete (at best) the Phantom Menace score.
This would make great business sense for Sony, and would save us the headache
of a second, third and fourth "New! Improved! Less fat! More fiber!"
remastered eighty-disc set sometime around the release of Episode III.
Think of all the money we'd save (only to turn around and buy the action
figures in triplicate).
Rather than carping to Sony about how disappointed we are with a
single-disc release, perhaps we should be taking this approach, give their
marketing people ideas, and maybe even get the complete score of Episode
I before the turn of the century. So long as it included more music, I'd
even let Sony get away with subtitling it "Back to Naboo!"
You know, I'm going to take a minute to write a little something. I
think it's positively nuts that people are thinking about something like
this -- worrying about a complete score release of something they've still
not heard. It used to be that you'd get a 30 minute LP of a favorite score
-- IF YOU WERE LUCKY. You didn't worry about the little odds and ends because
you correctly realized that they were not very significant. It used to
be about the music, man!!!
Randy Newman
Join Randy Newman for a night of his songs and film music at the Landmark
Theatre in Richmond, Virginia on April 10, with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra.
Randy Newman is hiliarious and an opportunity to see him in person should
not be missed. Call 804-788-1212 or see www.richmondsymphony.com.
Wendy Carlos Has a Cool Site
It's at http://www.wendycarlos.com.
Go there now for Wendy's thoughts on Kubrick's passing (they worked together
on two films) and also news on her plans for a Tron CD.
Finally...
Filmtracks has a review up of our Patton/Flight of the Pheonix release:
http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/patton_flight.html.
Have a good one!
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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