Film Score Friday 6/11/99
by Lukas Kendall
Go to yesterday's column for the announcement of our newest Silver
Age Classics CD: Monte Walsh by John Barry.
If you see one movie tonight, make it... Austin Powers: The Spy Who
Shagged Me! Our July issue of FSM (now in the final stages) has a story
on George S. Clinton and the sequel score. Look for a great opening title
sequence for which Clinton has done a new arrangement of Quincy Jones's
amazing "Soul Bossa Nova."
Elmer Bernstein's new recordings of The Great Escape and The
Magnificent Seven will be out from BMG Classics on July 27.
The 13th Warrior Sneak Preview!
From: CLauliac@aol.com
Today, I was lucky to attend a press screening of The 13th Warrior,
John Mc Tiernan's long delayed viking saga. Ever since the dismissal of
director Mc Tiernan by writer/producer Michael Crichton, rumors began to
spread regarding this troubled project. Taking reins over Mc Tiernan, Crichton
wisely asked his longtime collaborator Jerry Goldsmith to provide the original
score, replacing Graeme Revell, John Mc Tiernan's first choice. And boy,
was he right!
The score is bound to become one of 1999's film music favorites
among soundtrack cognoscenti. I must admit the movie itself is a very good
surprise, although it is a mixed bag. The pacing is sometimes slow moving
and confusing, leading one to suspect last-minute editing decisions. The
first 15 minutes are worthless, poorly directed and performed as they are.
Omar Sharif's cameo appearance as Antonio Banderas' mentor seem to have
been left on the editing room floor: Sharif's character leaves the plot
in the blink of an eye, with no coherent explanation whatsoever.
But once the plot moves forward, this epic tale of vikings defending
a small forest village against mysterious and terrifying man eaters becomes
quite impressive. Its plot is clearly modeled after Kurosawa's Seven Samurai,
but Mc Tiernan imprints his own personal, primitive stamp on the proceedings.
Other moments reminded me of James Clavell's underrated The Last Valley.
There are plenty of battles, featuring gruesome moments and virtuoso editing.
One of the set-pieces is a gripping descent down a huge cave in which the
eaters of the dead hide among their gruesome treasures. This is John Mc
Tiernan's most personal film since Predator. In fact, many sequences of
The 13th Warrior bring back memories of Arnold Schwarzenneger's jungle
survival thriller. But the movie definitely lacks humor: The Mummy it isn't!
And I like it all the better for that. It is very dark and downright serious.
Let's face the truth: it will surely bomb in the U.S. upon its late summer
release.
Moving on to maestro Goldsmith's score, it really stands up in the
movie. For one thing, unlike The Mummy, it is never drowned by the clashing
of swords and the various sound effects. Goldsmith chose to approach the
movie following three different directions: Antonio Banderas' character,
Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan, receives the requisite "arabic" theme, orchestrated
with Goldsmith's usual knack for exotic, lyrical instrumentation and catchy
electronic textures. It will obviously remind people of The Mummy, although
its use is never overbearing and a trifle more subtle. There is a second,
proud epic theme for horns and pounding percussion over a raw male chorus,
the latter representing uncharted territory for the composer, at least
in recent memory. This yearning melody depicts the proud and savage viking
warriors trying to fight the menacing horde of flesh eaters. Then there
are secondary motives, fierce and dynamic action material, a proud swelling
theme playing under a "gathering of the forces" scene at the
start of the movie, building with Goldsmith's usual testosterone energy
and entrain. And Goldsmith wrote a very noble and grandiose theme for the
film's climatic death scene (No, this is not First Knight!). The maestro
even wrote a full end credits cue, saving music editor Ken Hall the usual
cut and paste editing job. All these elements give me the impression this
is the kind of scores he wrote effortlessly in the early eighties.
With one single difference: originality and innovation are not the
key words here. The composer is on familiar ground: The 13th Warrior is
tailor made for him. Like The Mummy it contains many elements of fantasy,
horror, and adventure. As much as I love Goldsmith's film scores I simply
regret to hear him relying on the same, proven musical tricks: I recognized
once again the familiar muted french horn glissando a la Logan's Run and
The Edge.
The recipe is not new, but the musical meal is quite enjoyable.
The 13th Warrior kicks! Like The Mummy, the score was performed by a standard
London studio orchestra: what happened to the trusted National Philharmonic
Orchestra? Reportedly, Varèse will release the score in August.
The music was recorded in London's lofty Air Lyndhurst Studios, therefore
fans can expect a lenghty soundtrack album. If not, music hungry flesh
eaters will undoubtedly pay a visit to Robert Townson!
Site Enhancement #1
Earlier this week I asked readers for suggestions for the site. Here's
a good one:
From: "Craig (Krieger) Beam" <krieger@internetcds.com>
Um... two words: BERNARD HERRMANN. I hardly ever see his name even
mentioned, and when it is, it's merely in passing. Have you ever featured
Mr. Herrmann on your site (or in print, for that matter) in a meaningful
way? If so, I must have missed it. Sheesh, he's kinda sorta EXTREMELY significant
in the film score universe.
Hey, is there any chance that you'll be releasing a Herrmann score
on CD? You've already done Williams, Goldsmith (three times!), Rosenman,
Waxman.... I'm starting to take the lack of Herrmann representation personally!
Why Are We Talking About Old Disaster Movies?
I honestly don't remember, but here are two final words on the subject:
From: samotcirtap@webtv.net
Please I have to correct one of your readers, Earthquake DID NOT
win art decoration in 1974, that went to Godfather 2. Also it did not win
Visual Effects, it was given that award, the Academy that make up the special
effects board decided to give Earthquake its Special Effects Award rather
than having it compete along with The Towering Inferno.
It was determine that since The Towering Inferno recieved an Best
Picture nod that it already recived its visual effects award.
The Towering Inferno did recieve 8 nomination including Best Score-
John Williams, Earthquake did not recieve that nomination. That should
tell your reader something, Mr. Williams in the past and the future has
recieved multi-nomination, in the same year.
Bigger profit= The Towering Inferno worldwide gather over 400 million
to Earthquakes 200 million and let me finish by saying that I wil tell
you how bad of a film Earthquake is and still is today Ava Gardner play
Lorne Greene's daughter in the Great film but in real life Mr. Greene was
only 3 years older than she was!!!! Great casting??? And also Charlton
Heston has said in interviews in the past I just took the money on Earthquake.
From: JSchuer416@aol.com
It seems odd I would write in to defend such a mundane and silly
(but extremely enjoyable) film like THE TOWERING INFERNO, but here goes:
Rowan McMillan, supposedly writing in to get the record straight
on EARTHQUAKE and THE TOWERING INFERNO, basically got it all wrong! EARTHQUAKE
was slaughtered by the critics, while THE TOWERING INFERNO even picked
up a Best Picture Oscar nomination. Also, up until recently, THE TOWERING
INFERNO was in the list of the top twenty grossing films of all time. Also,
viewed today, EARTHQUAKE is one of the most laughably bad films of the
70s - it's hilarious! THE TOWERING INFERNO, on the other hand, still stands
up as an entertaining disaster pic, despite the cheesy elements. It's better
than TWISTER, for God's sake.
Also, Rowan's defense of the EARTHQUAKE score is simply a lift of
the quote right off the album cover (I love both scores, by the way - EARTHQUAKE
was the first score I ever bought).
1959
Responding to the poll
introduction and the later
responses.
From: Sean Carpenter <SCarpenter@cpr.org>
Mr. Lintgen:
Your response to my letter demonstrated more care in differentiating
your ideas than did your original article. For example:
When you originally said that Miklos Rozsa had nothing more to say,
you made no distinction between his film music and other music, and so
neither did I. I doubt Rozsa would have made such a facile distinction,
but in any case such a judgement requires a bit more than bald assertion.
Your distinction between atonal music and atonal passages is helpful
but still I think inadequate. To compare the dissonance of The Nun's Story
with frankly atonal or serial scores by Goldsmith (or Rosenman or others)
is to compare Wagner's Tristan Chord with Schoenberg's tone row. I am not
suggesting that atonality is better than tonality. I am suggesting that
they are more different than your casual lumping together suggests.
I certainly meant no offense in referring to your "golden age."
I meant the term metaphorically, as I assume you do when you use it to
describe film music. To me, your article praised "golden age"
music over later music, and so I placed you in that camp. I am as tired
of the bickering over the merits of "golden age" vs. "silver
age" vs. (I suppose) our current "bronze age" as you are
over the merits of Williams vs. Goldsmith.
You might read responses to your articles more carefully. I did
not say I was grateful that I had not seen Anne Frank and On the Beach
recently. I said it I was grateful I did not know their music well enough
to comment on your poll. My point was that I did not wish to further engage
in the debate on your terms.
Since I have at no point made any assertions over what kind of music
I prefer or enjoy, but instead have simply responded to your points, I
would recommend that you not assume what my "outlook" is.
From: John_Fitzpatrick@prenhall.com
It is good to hear somebody recall THE NUN'S STORY, perhaps Hollywood's
finest attempt at a religious drama. (It is astonishing how all the Hepburn
obituary tributes neglected her fine performance here--just because it
did not fit the well-known "child woman" image.)
"Based primarily on Gregorian chants" is a little strong
for this thickly scored masterpiece. Waxman wove some fragments into his
themes, but the overall feeling of this score is tensely postromantic.
A far cry from the serenity of Gregorian chant! And I'm not sure the two
motives of the prelude can be as "rationally" opposed as Mr.
Lintgen suggests. Waxman's leitmotifs are rarely so programmatic as that.
But Mr. Lintgen is right. The music carries the drama with extraordinary
passion. That's ironic because director Fred Zinnemann had wanted a more
restrained, documentary-style score. He was overruled by the studio. Zinnemann
did have his way with the finale, however. He claimed that Waxman's music
would end the picture on a note of triumph, where he really wanted the
audience to share Gabrielle's ambivalence. She gains her freedom, but she
loses something too. It's hard to disagree with the director here: the
long final shot as Gabrielle walks silently into the distance is one of
the screen's great moments. Even we music lovers must acknowledge the power
of its silence--extraordinary in a Hollywood film of that era.
It would be interesting to hear Waxman's original finale someday.
There's a recording project for someone . . .
From: Guy McKone <guymck@cims.net>
...it was also the year of Frank Skinner's rich scoring for the
Lana Turner tearjerker par excellence, the Douglas Sirk-directed Imitation
of Life. His judicious use of a choir in some sequences only added to the
emotion of the film/score. It's the kind of film "they just don't
make anymore". Decca issued a generous sampling of this fime music
from the "twilight years" of Hollywood, MCA Japan had a sonorous
reissue with superb vinyl. Earl Grant, in singing the title song, is very
reminiscent of Nat Cole; "Trouble of the World", sung in the
film during one of the most emotional funeral sequences I've ever witnessed
by the great Mahalia Jackson, is sung on the album by Lillian Hayman. A
rich musical background from a different era...
Also - that offbeat semi-musical "Never Steal Anything Small"
(lyrics Maxwell Anderson; Music by Alie Wrubel) starred Shirley Jones and
James Cagney, and had musical adaptation by Henry Mancini. I can't remember
any of the tunes (no album, but film available from MCA Home Video), which
lends credence to the term "modern musical".
Frank DeVol's Oscar-nominated score to Pillow Talk, that Cinemascope
comedy romp, had no album issued at the time, save a couple of promos,
and a 3 LP sdet of acetates given to Rock Hudson for his birthday. They
formed the basis for a 2 CD deluxe box set from the German label Bear Family
issued in 1997. Excellent package all 'round.
New Marc Shaiman Site
Check it out at http://members.tripod.com/Marc_Shaiman
Have a shagadelic weekend!
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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