Film Score Friday 4/14/00
by Lukas Kendall
Looking for deals on rare CDs? Disques Cinemusique in Canada is going
out of business, and not that we should ever be happy for someone's closing,
this may be a good opportunity to get out-of-print items. Their website,
http://www.disqcine.qc.ca, will
close at the end of April but they will be selling their remaining stock
of CDs through July 1st. Email Clement Fontaine at webmaster@disqcine.qc.ca
-- the good stuff will go quickly!
Conquest: A Salute to Alfred Newman and His Film Music Legacy
is a concert taking place this Sunday, April 16, at the Cerritos Center
for the Performing Arts, 7PM -- yes, another event in beautiful sunny Southern
California. Call 213-740-9602 quick for more info! Scheduled guests include
Maria Newman, Thomas Newman, Buddy Baker, Elmer Bernstein, Basil Poledouris,
Bruce Broughton and David Raksin.
Onto the Mail Bag:
Gladiator: First Look
The following may contain SPOILERS and comes from one of our German
readers, so the English is shaky but a lot better than your German, so
to speak.
The opinions are solely those of Mr. Deppe in all regards and are in
no way representative of the FSM staff... at least not yet!
From: roman deppe <roman.deppe@debitel.net>
Yesterday I saw in a press showing GLADIATOR. Well, this movie wasn't
as bad as you may believe, but it is surely not a new BEN HUR. Mainly thanks
to Ridley Scott, who hasn't been directing a good movie since... uhh..
THELMA & LOUISE?
For whatever reasons anybody in Hollywood believed it is time to
recreate the old Rome and maybe even the genre it is surely a bold step.
But haven't they heard that recreating the pirate genre was a total disaster
a couple years ago? CUTTHROAT ISLAND! Hello?! I mean, I liked CUTTHROAT
ISLAND, but pirate movies are just totally out. So are Roman Gladiator
movies and that's why this movie, which cost around 100 million dollars
will have a hard time to get the money in. But it has other problems, too:
Mainly it is not an action movie, although it has tons of action, but compared
to the endless dialogues, teenagers won't have the patience to sit through
the movie, which is one hour too long. For grown-ups on the other hand
the story is too uninteresting to enjoy the long, serious dialogues and
probably it is too gory (I wonder what rating it will get). For Ancient
Rome enthusiast there is not much to see. You have to wait for over an
hour until you see Rome (before that only unspectacular cold forests and
muddy deserts), but emperor Commodus' entrance is done so unspectacular,
that you wonder, why they even set the story in Rome, when it is totally
unimportant. Okay, it's nice, that the makers don't just rely on production
design, but at least you could direct these few scenes with breathtaking
visual ideas (just think of the fantastic, and also short, opening of last
year's MUMMY). Heck, no. Scott stays so close to the people's faces, that
you almost never see anything of the background. Big yawn!
Maybe it is because all the buildings are CGIs, and not done very
convincing. You wonder where the budget went... the movie looks at least
50 millions cheaper than it was. So at what audience is the movie targeting?
Kids? Their parents? Ancient times afficiandos? It misses everybody. It
appears as if Scott was just the wrong director, as the script is not as
bad as it sounds. The story has its weakness (especially, when within 5
minutes it all is brought to an end, but taking too much time for all other
things), but the characters are mainly pretty interesting and dialogues
(with a few exceptions) good. Scott filled the movie with strange video-clip
effects, which are totally out of place, used in almost every scene heavy
blue-filters and changed the colors in some scenes afterwards. Hey, I never
thought of Rome being so hip and technically advanced.
The battle and fight sequences are done much in same way as SAVING
PRIVATE RYAN, with the same photography effects, which is after some minutes
pretty exhausting too watch, but several fights are really amazingly executed
(mainly in the colloseum). The actors are pretty good, even in small supporting
roles - even Ralf Moeller is pretty nice to watch. The late Oliver Reed
is nice to see after so many years in cheap movies and especially Joaquin
Phoenix is doing a fantastic job in showing all the different feelings
of his difficult character. He is by far the best villain in a long time.
Russell Crowe in the title role is good, but the role doesn't really offer
so much.
But the worst thing is Hans Zimmer's and Lisa Gerrard's music. Bad
enough that Zimmer doesn't seem to be able to do a score on his own anymore,
not even with another composer he is able to bring up something new, fresh
or at least good. The score is a predicatble annyoance from beginning to
end. The typical CRIMSON TIDE rhythms, in between the first half of a theme
from ARMAGEDDON (one of the themes by Gregson-Williams) and the Ofra Haza-parts
of PRINCE OF EGYPT. It is mostly very slow, and quiet, but unfortunately
endless and just boring. It never adds anything, or tells you minutes before
what will happen next (e.g. when Commodus kills his father). In the battle
scenes it is heroic all the way through, alöthough it should be scary,
brutal... but no, it helps us to enjoy the gore, which is really bad. I
mean, the gladiators are fighting for their lives, not for the fun. So,
in my opinion, the music should reflect that, should reflect the brutality
of these games and not make the next olympic games fun out of it. Even
worse, this heroic theme is very weak. This movie would have needed a score
by Elliot Goldenthal, in my opinion.
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
From: Stephane Michaud <s.michaud@videotron.ca>
Thank you Jeff Bond for your great
April 12 review of THE THIRD MIRACLE. It's about time someone sings
the glories of this fabulously gifted, consummate composer -- Jan A.P.
Kaczmarek -- within this Site! From TOTAL ECLIPSE to BLISS to WASHINGTON
SQUARE, his lush, neo-classical, often chamber-like approach, alternately
vivid and reflective, influenced indeed by the likes of Philip Glass, Michael
Nyman, and Georges Delerue (while showing a very distinct style and flavor
of his own), boasts an impressive command of orchestral possibilities (strings,
voices), and foremost, an incredible, unbearably moving lyricism which
you will seldom hear in movies today, giving to the projects for which
they were created, an uncanny,deep emotional gloss and significance. Along
with Wojciech Kilar, who just gave us one of cinema's best scores with
his impassioned THE NINTH GATE, he is the most exciting film music sensation
this side of Poland working today, and this side of the galaxy period.
I understand the supernatural thriller he recently scored - LOST
SOULS, with Winona Ryder, directed by Spielberg's DOP and fellow Pole Janusz
Kaminsky - has been temporarily shelved due to bad audience response, but
don't deprive yourself of a CD if one comes out! A talent like his is a
privilege one cannot afford to pass up.
Baxter/Williams
From: "Scott R. Moser" <scott937@ccia.com>
I was most disturbed to hear of the 1982 lawsuit regarding Baxter's
"Joy" theme. I was ignorant of this until I saw it on the FSM
message board.
Being a professional orchestral violinist who started playing because
of JW's music, I am eager to put an end to the shock and indignation people
on the internet are expressing. I have searched in vain for this recording
(The passions) and would appreciate it very much if you, with your resources,
could find it, and make it accessible on your site so that people may listen
and see that there is no plagiarism.
The above letter is a follow-up to something we had on our message board
before we had to close it down for the time being. The short story is that
Les Baxter sued John Williams some years ago, alleging that the theme from
E.T. was based on piece by Baxter called "Joy." I believe the
courts sided in favor of Williams. Frankly this is a very hard thing to
research and if anyone has further information please write in... and as
Scott asks, does anyone know where to find the Baxter recording? I sure
don't.
Magnolia
From: Matt Barry, Dasrightbebe@aol.com
Been reading the recent posts deliberating about the merits of Jon
Brion's score to MAGNOLIA and couldn't stand keeping quiet any longer.
I remember a few months before MAGNOLIA saw the light of day, there was
an article in Entertainment Weekly about Jon Brion and his collaboration
with P.T. Anderson. It constituted a lot of hype about what was to be a
revolutionary and involving orchestral score... a first for Mr. Brion,
if I am to believe EW's assessment of his usual career as an L.A. club-type
musician. The article quoted Anderson as bragging that he got "the
best" out of Brion and made him work overtime to create something
unique and wonderful. It said the score would most likely be available
as a promo only CD for Academy members. (Later turned out to be untrue...
a legit release just happened, of course).
Needless to say, I was salivating at the thought... I love BOOGIE
NIGHTS to death, and couldn't wait to hear what happens when P.T. Anderson
uses an orchestral score.
Then, of course, I saw the picture. Not entirely bad, but overlong,
pretentious and draggy. It was a big disappointment to me. But nothing
came close to how appalled I was when I heard Brion's score and realized
there were two major motifs... one that sounded lifted from SCHINDLER'S
LIST (Schindler's Workforce) and the other utterly cribbed from THE THIN
RED LINE (Journey To The Line). To call it original is pretty preposterous,
even by the standards of these forgiving ears.
Whether or not it worked is of course debatable. And no, I'm not
gonna act like he's the first guy (or gal) to have to / choose to do this
kinda crap. But to those of you out there thinking Brion's MAGNOLIA score
is something revolutionary, I suggest you give those other two scores (especially
Zimmer's very not-his-usual-style and very beautiful THIN RED LINE) a listen.
A Bug's Life
From: Elizabeth Silver <morrisk@net1.nw.com.au>
Regarding Don
Chapman's question on "Edition Number" on his copy of "A
Bug's Life", my copy bears no such print and I would venture to suggest
that his is, indeed, somewhat rarer.
Miscellaneous
From: John, Ranger7774@aol.com
Bob Feigenblatt is correct. Newman worked on around 255 or so. Goldsmith
and Bernstein have around 180 each, Steiner-315, Friedhofer around 130,
Rozsa around 125 and Tiomkin around the same. Morricone, well his numbers
are up there over 300 too.
From: Preston Jones <pjones@fulpat.com>
Have you been checking out the L.A. Times Calendar section? Last
week the Counterpunch column featured a reader's criticism of the Oscar
show's music, and this past Monday the column printed a response. Also,
yesterday the paper reviewed a conceptually bizarre song cycle by Corigliano,
in which he fused HIS music to BOB DYLAN's lyrics. (JC claims never to
have heard the original versions!)
Mark Stevens expresses surprise that more of us haven't weighed
in to comment on Varese's new cd of music from the original SUPERMAN TV
series. Well, I don't know where he's been expecting to find comments during
the current absence of your message board, but I'm more than happy to echo
his praise of this wonderful disc. I grew up listening to this music and
loving it, and finally posessing it unencumbered by dialogue or sound effects
is indeed a dream come true. I look forward eagerly to the next volumes,
and I hope one of them includes the excerpt from Miklos Rozsa's "Theme,
Variations and Finale" which somehow wound up in the mix of library
tracks on SUPERMAN. Years before I grew up and fell in love with Rozsa's
BEN-HUR and THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, that anonymous track was one of my favorite
SUPERMAN action cues. Hmm, I wonder if that worked on my childhood consciousness
the same way some parents-to-be are now serenading their unborns in the
womb with Mozart?
From: Terry L. Hartzell, ShootUrIOut@aol.com
My response to:
Erik Chapin <dj_intrepid@yahoo.com>
<<I have read many letters from people saying that the Angela's
Ashes CD with dialogue is a big blunder by Sony. They say that the CD is
dialogue ridden but yet, they haven't actually listened to it. This closed
minded blasting upsets me deeply. First of all, it isn't dialogue ridden.
There is very little dialogue included on the CD and what is present is
artistically done. I find the dialogue to be interesting and it complements
John William's absolutley beautiful score quite well. It is an extra touch
of beauty in my eyes(and ears). Second of all, don't say anything negative
about something if you haven't even heard it or seen it. Opinions of that
nature aren't worth being considered.>>
I have actually listened to "Angela's Ashes". The dialogue
is annoying. What little there is becomes intrusive and, rather than complementing
Williams' score, it detracts from it. When will producers learn that we
soundtrack fans (or "dweebs" as I like to refer to us) want the
music, not narration, sound effects or sound bites. If we want dialogue,
we'll get the video. Erik is entitled to his opinion, I'm entitled to mine.
Ain't America great?
My sentiments exactly. Have a great April weekend!
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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