Film Score Friday 4/21/00
by Lukas Kendall
James Newton Howard has some big movies coming up: in addition to Dinosaur,
there's Atlantis, an upcoming Disney animated feature, Unbreakable
(Bruce Willis and Julianne Moore) and The Vertical Limit (Chris
O'Donnell).
James Horner is scoring The Perfect Storm, and also Jurassic
Park 3, from the look of things.
John Debney is scoring The Replacements, with Keanu Reeves and
Gene Hackman as well as the upcoming Michael Jordan IMAX movie.
Trailer Question
From: "D. Brian Nettles" <dbnettle@yahoo.com>
Someone may have already answered my question. It has to do with
the music featured in the Lord of the Rings footage that recently became
available for download. Who wrote the music that has the haunting choir
in it? Also, what CD might this be found on if it is available.
Does anybody know? Please write in.
Omega Bag Continued
See the recent
column....
From: Randall Derchan <DSPY007@aol.com>
I have to admit that I wasn't crazy about Omega Man CD at first
listen. But the second listen was a different experience. I somehow remembered
the music, which I admired as a kid. I now am too thrilled to have it.
You see, when was 11 or 12 I taped it off of NBC, like I did so many sci-fi
and action movies at that time. I dug the movie and Heston, even though
I know now he really liked shooting those guns off. I remembered digging
the music also, but had forgotten it. Like Enter The Dragon, Dirty Harry,
Live and Let Die and others, I just dig seventies action music, and this
has it in spades. The seventies was a very memorable time for me and films,
especially genre films and pre Star Wars sci-fi flicks. I don't have that
feeling today. Age has something to do with it I think, but I also believe
that the films made then were special not special effects Movies like Soylent
Green, Westworld, Planet of the Apes series, THX 1138, Zardoz, Boy and
His Dog, The Illustrated Man, The Chairman, and many, many more. Anyway
thanks for remembering the seventies and keep releasing great stuff.
I loved the Jerry Fielding article in the latest FSM and like many,
I'm hoping to see a release of The Enforcer, The Gauntlet and Escape From
Alcatraz , Warner's possesions, very soon. hint, hint, hint..: )
If we could do every CD we wanted RIGHT NOW, well, we'd have 100 CDs
or more out on the market....
From: Mathieu Beauregard <mbeauregard@lexitech.ca>
I haven't written in a while, but I wanted to congratulate and thank
you for your latest CD releases (especially Take
a Hard Ride and The
Omega Man). What wonderful and interesting music! Again, the production
is superb and I love the new packaging design too. I also wanted you to
know that, contrary to what I read in recent FSM magazine issues, these
scores are not only interesting to those who have been waiting for them
for a long, long time. Many of the CDs released by FSM are from movies
I never saw and it has always been a happy surprise for me to discover
these old gems. So what if you released many Jerry Goldsmith CDs, he writes
great music (I particularly like his use of percussions, which is often
inventive). Again, congratulations to all involved!
From: "Koch, Lutz" <koch@csd.de>
Just read all those glowing reviews of the new Omega Man CD (mine
just arrived today and I haven't listened to it yet, but I can hardly wait...).
Anyway, I went over to Amazon.com to see if they know anything about a
possible future DVD release of this movie... and oh boy, they actually
tell you that the DVD is scheduled for release on January 1, 2010! Talk
about taking the expression "future release" to the extreme...
They also know that there will be an 8 min. bonus featurette and that the
whole thing will cost $12... 10 years from now! Wow!
That has to be a typo... some other people wrote in to say that there's
no release date for the Omega Man DVD yet, but it has been announced for
pre-order by some online stores.
Compilations
See the column
earlier this week:
From: Masteryid@aol.com
I would have to say that my favorite series of compilation discs
would have to be the Charles Gerhardt Classic Films Scores series, and
the Joel McNeely Hollywood series (especially Hollywood 95). Most recent
favorite compilation disc? Miklos Rozsa at MGM.
However, I happen to create many of my own compilation cassettes
of classic filmscores. One I am especially proud of is a compilation titled
"Battle On Film"-Classic battle scenes in films, which include
the following:
1. Walton: Battle Of Britain-Battle
2. Rozsa: El Cid-Battle of Valencia
3. Korngold: The Sea Hawk-The Galley Battle
4. Goldsmith: The Blue Max-Retreat
5. Tiomkin: The Alamo-The Battle of Santa Anna
6. Arnold: Independence Day-Attack on The War Base
7. Steiner: Helen of Troy-Battle of Troy
8. Herrmann: Battle of Neretva-The Turning Point
9. Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky-Battle On The Ice
10.Bliss: Things To Come-Attack
11. Davis: Intolerance-Siege of Babylon
12. Williams: Star Wars-The Final Battle (title from original release)
I'm sure many of us have made our compilations of our favorite pieces
from soundtracks. It's a way to get that great memory-sense of hearing
the beginning of the next piece in your mind as soon as one piece ends.
I love that feeling and I used to get it a lot more by listening to scores
on LPs, when they were, frankly, shorter.
From: Preston Jones <pjones@fulpat.com>
I enjoyed Mr. Logsdon's article and recommendations. The Varese
Sherlock Holmes disc has been sharply criticized, and with justification,
for re-orchestrations and sub-par performances, but I confess to enjoying
it almost as much as Logsdon, primarily due to the strength of the material
itself. (Similarly, I can't help enjoying the Varese re-issue of the old
Dick Jacobs THEMES FROM HORROR, FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION lp, because
for decades it was the first and ONLY album to record even a smidgen of
Universal monster music by Salter, Stein and Mancini.) Fans of musical
Holmesiana should keep on the alert for the Frank Skinner suite from VOICE
OF TERROR which fills out the upcoming Salter-GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN disc
from Morgan/Stromberg/Marco Polo.
You ask your readership if we have any favorite compilations. I
have too many to recall, let alone list, but off the top of my head I'll
mention:
1.) Virtually any of the Mauceri/Hollywood Bowl anthologies. The
first is probably the richest treasure trove, HOLLYWOOD DREAMS, covering
everything from Korngold's ROBIN HOOD and Newman's STREET SCENE overture
(in its only COMPLETE recording) to John Barry and Stravinsky. Perhaps
the highlight is the suite of Stothart's original and arranged Arlen music
from THE WIZARD OF OZ, complete with the vocal version of the Winkies'
March which not even the Rhino 2-cd soundtrack can offer. Others in the
Mauceri series include, among others, HOLLYWOOD WALTZES, HOLLYWOOD ROMANCES
and HOLLYWOOD NIGHTMARES. This last boasts an extensive suite from Waxman's
SUNSET BOULEVARD, much more representative of that powerhouse score than
the brief medley on Gerhardt's RCA album.
2.) Speaking of Gerhardt, Varese offers THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER,
a glittering grab-bag of (mostly) golden-age pieces produced by George
Korngold and conducted by Mr. G., but none of it from the RCA series. Rozsa,
North, Antheil, Korngold, Delerue are among the composers featured. Capping
it all off is a suite -- not the usual one -- from Walton's HENRY V.
3.) Rhino is to be praised for its MGM double-disc, as well as the
two-fers devoted to Korngold at Warners and, more recently, Rozsa at MGM.
As soon as I sign off, I'm sure I'll think of a dozen more.
P.S. Sure enough, I did think of many other fine compilations, but,
after having written about the guilty pleasure of the Dick Jacobs horror
album, I feel foolish for not mentioning the two MONSTROUS MOVIE MUSIC
discs which got gloriously right everything the Jacobs LP had bungled.
A unique, phantasmagorical world of fond childhood memory has been masterfully
recreated by the MONSTROUS team, and I can't wait for their sequel cd's.
By all means, write in with your details of your favorite soundtrack
"mix"! Mailbag@filmscoremonthly.com
Gladiator
Responding to Roman Deppe's early look last week:
From: Kris Sherman, Lookit Me <flashman@hot-shot.com>
Wow. I can't believe how much I disagree with Mr. Deppe's opinion
of Gladiator. I saw this movie about a month ago at a screening in San
Francisco. The film was about 98% completed at that point, missing a few
CGI shots and contained a bit of fill music.
Firstly, I would be surprised if this movie was not a giant hit.
It has about a two week jump start on the other major releases of the Summer
season.
While Mr. Deppe contends that there isn't enough action for an action
movie and not enough plot for a story-driven movie, I rather see the glass
as half full - this is an action movie with a decent story. While history
blowhards will comment on the various inaccuracies of the story, the movie
is almost guaranteed to ignite curiosity in the film goer about ancient
Rome voer which elements were accurate and which were not. Always a good
thing. As for the money spent on the production, it is clearly on the screen.
Although I agree the CGI scenes still have that unrealistic gloss, Scott
and the production company basically constucted a large town and created
a living, breating Rome. The Coliseum scenes, CGI fakery and all, are spectacular.
The photography is faultless and breath-taking.
This will be an "R" rated movie and isn't nearly as gory
as some would fear/hope for.
Rome makes it's appearance about an hour into the movie. It is called
build-up or suspense, I believe - setting up the story, as it were - placing
The Emerald City at the end of the movie, rather than the beginning. All
the building's are not CGI's - enormous sets were built and you do see
them in all their glory. CGI's were created for long shots. Please tell
me if you can think of a better way to do it.
Scott was the perfect Director for this film. After wallowing around
with several missteps (GI Jane, White Squall), he's come back with a vegenence,
with perhaps his best, most successful film.
I would agree that the herky-jerky motions of the battle scenes
didn't work for me, but they did not detract that much to the overall excitement.
The acting is uniformly good to great, the highlight being Russell
Crowe, who will, after the movie opens, become a major star. Blade Runner's
Rutgar Hauer as Roy Batty had a similar quality - an almost god-like presence
on the screen. Now imagine a film's protagonist with the same appeal throughout
the story - such is the charisma of Russell Crowe as Maximus.
The film is a tad longish, but it amply rewards the viewers. The
one thing I would have improved on is a moment when Crowe and his fellow
Gladiators are sitting around a mess table, joking about their differences.
It would have been nice to see an elaboration on their loyalty to Maximus
and to his response to that loyalty.
I expect Ebert and his co-host to give this two very enthusiastic
thumbs up. I also expect this movie to make oodles of money.
As most of the readers of Film Monthly, I too am not too thrilled
with Hans Zimmer's vanilla, boisterous scores. From what I heard apart
from the temp tracks, Zimmer's score for Gladiator is thankfully more vanilla
than anything else: hardly memorable, but at the same time not that intrusive.
Personally, I would have liked to see Carter Burwell do the same sort of
job he did with Rob Roy, but what is a person going to do?
From: Randall Derchan <DSPY007@aol.com>
I've got to see some of "Gladiator" where I work, mainly
do to the fact that we are working on it for video and DVD. I don't want
to watch too much because I want to see it on the large screen first. From
what I did see though looked very impressive as far as scope and it has
a sense of intellingence about it, as far as dialogue and story. The subtle
aspect of Zimmer's score is quite good. If anything it will be fun for
all us historical movie buffs. I'm glad it's not an action film, but a
more story oriented film. We also have a film about the American Revolution
called "The Patriot". This summer looks better already. Hey it's
better than giant meteor and bad superhero/comedy films for fourteen year
olds. The kind of films we have been plagued with in years past, although
I'm sure there will be a share of those also.
From: Paul MacLean <skye@lightlink.com>
I cannot and will not defend a film I have not even seen. I do however
take exception to Mr. Roman Deppe's inference that the Roman gladiator
genre is "dead" and should therefor remain buried and unexplored
by filmmakers.
The fact is, a genre is only dead until it is revived by a visonary
director. The World War II genre was pretty much "dead" after
PATTON and CATCH 22 -- and remained so for almost thirty years, until Spielberg
revived it with SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (which I wasn't crazy about but at
least it was a new way of depicting the war). The upcoming U-571 would
suggest the studios have enough faith in the WW II genre to bankroll another
film in that genre. Likewise, the Revolutionary War genre is "dead"
(as the failure of REVOLUTION 15 years ago attests), yet THE PATRIOT is
recieving both heavy promotion and and enthusiastic advance word.
I obviously cannot say at this point whether Ridley Scott has revitalized
the Roman genre, but to criticize a director for attempting to do so is
wrong-headed and ignorant. Certainly the Roman civilization is worthy of
being depicted and explored in cinema. It is, after-all one of the most
important civilizations which ever existed, it ruled the known world and
1500 years after its collapse, its influence on our society is powerful
(its alphabet, language and many of its customs are still use use today).
I hope GLADIATOR will be a success. Even if the film itself disappoints,
if it makes money it might be followed by more Roman films. That would
certainly please me.
"Timmy, do you like movies about Gladiators?"
Links
See Scorelogue for reviews of recent FSM releases The
Omega Man and The
Flim Flam Man:
http://www.scorelogue.com/reviews/omega_man.html
http://www.scorelogue.com/reviews/flim_flam_man.html
Here's another interesting thing to check out:
From: Robert Delaney, yvain@ix.netcom.com (Robert)
Finally, there was some interesting sniping in the pages of the Los
Angeles Times about the more contemporary approach of the Oscars' music
this year. See the latest round of letters at http://www.latimes.com/print/calendar/20000416/t000036100.html
Have a nice holiday weekend!
(My household as a kid: Why is this night different from all other
nights? Because the TV is off and we're eating together. -LK)
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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