Film Score Friday 5/4/01

Our two new CDs for May are now in stock and they're an impressive pair of scores important for their own reasons:

The new Golden Age Classics title is the original stereo soundtrack to THE EGYPTIAN (1954), the unique collaboration by Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Newman on the historical epic. Yes, there is a re-recording available on Marco Polo, and the 1954 LP recording has been released on Varese Sarabande. But there's actually an interesting story where we're releasing music long thought destroyed -- this O.S.T. in STEREO has been pieced together from the last safety copies in the 20th Century Fox archives. 72 minutes in all, it's the premiere release of the majority of the actual film soundtrack conducted by the composers as heard in the film. We're taking the chance that the original is really meaningful to collectors and deserves to be made available. We hope you agree! For more information and sound clips see:

https://secure.filmscoremonthly.com/store/detailCD.asp?ID=182

On the '70s side of things, the new Silver Age Classics release is an essential cop doubleheader, THE FRENCH CONNECTION / FRENCH CONNECTION II (1971/75). Who is the composer, you might ask? A noted avant garde jazz artist, now deceased, Don Ellis, who scored a handful of films in the 1970s, these being the best. In many ways the scores are like the Goldsmith, Fielding, Schifrin or Quincy Jones cop thrillers of the era but they are also utterly unique. LOTS of requests for these two over the years -- as a special bonus, around half of the score for the original FRENCH CONNECTION was not used by director William Friedkin and is heard here for the first time. Listen to the "Subway" cut at the CD page, it's the coolest of many cool tracks. For more see:

https://secure.filmscoremonthly.com/store/detailCD.asp?ID=186

Our first Film Score Daily column was on May 1, 1997, by Andy Dursin. So we're now starting our FIFTH YEAR of a brand new column each and every weekend. How about that? Frankly, I'm amazed we've been able to sustain it. And only 28% are "Mail Bags" (just kidding).

No sooner did we release a long-desired score from the Warner Bros. Records catalog, The Towering Inferno (in our case, greatly expanded), has the French division of Warner Bros. released a wide assortment of prized stuff. Titles include Paris Texas (Ry Cooder), The Gauntlet (Jerry Fielding), The Wild Bunch (Jerry Fielding), Outland (Jerry Goldsmith), Cleopatra Jones (J.J. Johnson), Dollars (Quincy Jones), Summer of '42 (Michel Legrand), The Exorcist II The Heretic (Ennio Morricone), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Alex North), Bullitt (Lalo Schifrin), Enter the Dragon (Lalo Schifrin), The Fox (Lalo Schifrin), Dueling Banjos (Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandel), Delivrance (Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandel).

We have not seen copies yet here at FSM but presumably these are all the LP sequences, so Virginia Woolf has dialogue, and Wild Bunch and Enter the Dragon are shorter than the restored editions we still have available here on the web site.

Three titles not released but previously announced in the U.K. are Petulia (John Barry -- terrific score!), and two Quincy Jones efforts, The Hot Rock and Dollars. We'll have to wait and see if these make it out later. As these are all European releases, if you're in the U.S. look for imports from stores like www.intrada.com and www.screenarchives.com.

I'm not exactly sure what the following letter is replying to -- that's not a snide remark, I honestly don't remember:

From: Jonathon Vandergriff <kael116@earthlink.net>

I regret that you think that Hans Zimmer is a better film composer over Jerry Goldsmith. Goldsmith has NEVER burned out...Zimmer has already burned out; it is only the other composers who contribute to the scores who make them worth while. Being a film composer myself, albeit unknown (due to the fact that I'm only 17), the scores that Zimmer comes out with are bleak, meager renditions of the scores he used to write. His themes are all the same. They are all based in G. They all use the alternation of Danse Macabre or Carol of the Bells, with the addition of an F. Goldsmith never writes the same thing twice. His mastery is at a level I believe not even John Williams can match. Goldsmith wonderfully blends tone with melody and counterpoint...something I have never seen mastered by other than the Bernsteins.

His melodies are Rag based, if you haven't noticed (I'm not suggesting you haven't). They are plain to see: Gremlins, the Mummy, the Haunting, etc. He is the best symphonic writer known, even better than Williams.

I have yet to come across a Williams score that emotes me more than the main theme to Star Trek the Next Generation. Try to let Williams try THAT! While I recognize the abilities of Williams, he too, is burning out.

The following is addressed to Jason Comerford regarding his essay on criticism:

From: Brooks Wachtel, WHY06@aol.com

It's always a pleasure to read your reviews (whether I agree with them or not). When discussing "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" you commented, "It's a testament to Ang Lee that the film's complexities aren't laid on with a heavy hand; there's plenty of plot to go around, and the film is so carefully constructed that it works like clockwork, juggling at least five separate story threads with impeccable control. "

Now, wouldn't some of this story structure be attributed to writer James Schamus (and perhaps even some of the source material). Read the article, "Crouching Tiger Hidden Writer" in the latest issue of "Written By" and you'll learn how the script was developed. Ang Lee certainly was a major voice, but the nuts and bolts were hammered into place by Mr. Schamus. As I write this, the possibility of a writer's strike looms and one of the things the WGA is fighting tooth and nail for is respect for writers and their contribution to the films they (and in many cases it is they) create. Long before directors step onto a soundstage, these films have screened in the mind of a writer. The fact that this is so overlooked may in part be the result of the notorious "film by" credit, but it is also indicative of a culture (including the perception of reviewers who still, often, ascribe a film to only the director) that needs to be changed.

Author/screenwriter William Goldman has written about the collaborative nature of film and how it is often if not usually erroneous to credit the director with all of the creative control. He's basically right...his two Adventures in the Screen Trade books are essential reading.

Regarding discussion last Friday about Goldsmith's score for Along Came a Spider:

From: "Bob & Lynn Bryden" <thebrydens@sympatico.ca>

Just one more comment which I find increasingly occupying my mind these days. It was and is commonly acknowledged that the truly great film composers would often (I say OFTEN) write great (or at least very good) scores for lousy movies. I guess this is what I miss in Goldsmith's approach. He just seems to write lousy scores for lousy movies. Something Herrmann, Newman or North would have never done. Thanks for hearing me out.

From: mw <mwharr@att.net>

I own well over a 100 scores by Goldsmith and I agree that Along Came a Spider is Jerry's weakest score since Fierce Creatures. Given the volume of his output, it's silly to expect a home run with every score. It all comes down to taste and personal opinion. I thought Hollow Man was excellent. Many people did not. As a matter of fact a reviewer over at Filmtracks Modern Soundtrack Review, hated both Hollow Man and Along Came a Spider and "hinted" that Goldsmith should retire. There is no accounting for taste.

But it is simplistic and unfair to assume that he doesn't care. It has long been known that Jerry is simply tired of doing action music. He is, in my opinion, the greatest film scorer of action music alive or dead. He continues to be first up for action scoring assignments. I simply feel he has reached a point that his creative juices are spent in this area. Now I say this, even after the marvelous action music of Hollow Man, but I feel he needs to take a break now and then from action scores. I have noticed lots of repetitive moments in Goldsmith's music, say in the last 10 years, but they have mostly occurred in the action cues. Up to the early 90's Goldsmith showed a range and versatility in his music that was unmatched. It was like buying music from a different composer each time I purchased a CD. But, I can't even remember the last drama, comedy, western, or romantic comedy Goldsmith scored. Of course, Jerry has been getting lots of criticism since the late 80's, a criticism I simply do not share. It could be, as was stated, that the demand for complex music has disappeared. I find that not always the case. Composers like Williams, Elfman, Goldenthal are doing very complex scoring. I do agree that the sorry state of film scoring might be a good reason why the kind of "creative" scoring Jerry use to do has made him less in demand. But that could be simplistic as well. The question is: why is Goldsmith not getting or taking the kinds of assignments that can really challenge him? Has his great talent for ethnic scoring, genre scoring (science fiction, horror, thrillers, westerns and of course action) pigeon-toed and stereotyped him? These are questions I have been asking myself for several years and I am unable to answer. I do feel his greatest strength as a film composer is now working against him ? emotional and dramatic under scoring. This is something I have always admire about his music, but something I feel most of today's A-list producers and directors are not interested in. Rock and New Age music, yes, but not music with moments of emotional resonance mostly there to underscore character. Also, his style of taking these emotional moments and then highlighting or contrasting them with burst of dissonant horns and percussion, one of Jerry's great strengths, might be too much for today's filmgoers and soundtrack fans. Easy melody, rock and new age is the name of the game. To continue to play, Goldsmith might have to change his game. I will end with GET WELL SOON, JERRY!

From: Michael Merritt, Micmerritt@aol.com

After gleaning another fine issue of your magazine, I have to comment on a few things, most notably the obit on J. J. Johnson. Thanks for showing respect for a talent like Johnson's, but since I'm a new reader I'm not aware of any other articles on film composers who are Black. If you haven't done any, how about one on Quincy Jones? I don't know of any other black composer who has done orchestral, dramatic underscoring for mainstream Hollywood movies that aren't about "black" subject matter. Besides the usual racism that permeates most American institutions, the film business typecasts all types of talent, so if a composer scores a horror film that does well, all of a sudden he's the go-to guy for the next big horror film. Black composers are in a worse predicament. I recall an interview with the late director Richard Brooks, who used Jones very effectively on "In Cold Blood"(1967). He said the execs at Columbia thought a black musician couldn't be qualified to do dramatic underscoring. Brooks knew better and insisted on Jones, and got his way, and we are left with a great score to a great film.

What, racist film executives? Oh my. Sad to say we have not had more coverage of black film composers -- although we have had some -- because Hollywood is notorious in assigning black composers only to black-themed films. For that matter, black directors, writers and actors are similarly pigeon-holed. It's a serious issue that I can't possibly do justice to in such a short space.

From: Mike Dougherty <corleone59@hotmail.com>

Hi. Will the Jurassic Park III score simply be a rehashed version of John Williams' original? I think this is a little disappointing because Don Davis is capable of writing his own original score even if it is not of Williams caliber or style. I had thought that Davis would only incorporate brief passages of the familiar Williams themes into an entirely new score; I didn't think he would simply adapt the original. Do you know who made this decision and why? (I found out from the web-master at the official Don Davis website that the JPIII score album will be released from Decca Records on July 10.) I'd like to hear your take on this whole JPIII score fiasco. Thanks.

From: Roman Deppe <roman.deppe@planet-interkom.de>

I just wondered what the announcement meant, that Don Davis will adapt Williams' score of Jurassic Park for Part 3? When was the last time something like this happened on a big budget movie? This sounds pretty ridiculous and can only mean, that they have a lot of problems on the making of this movie. Or they just listened to what Don Davis wrote in the last couple of months... VALENTINE ranks very high as one of the worst scores I have ever heard.

An interview with Davis about that would be really interesting aswell I think this could be a good discussion topic. What do you think?

I mean, if the makers don't believe he will be capable of doing this movie, then why hire him?

I don't see what the big deal is about this. Jurassic Park is a major studio franchise and it has very identifiable music associated with it by John Williams. What is wrong with asking Don Davis to utilize this thematic material? For the record, I don't know whose decision it was or how extensive the adaptation will be, but it's certainly not unprecedented. Franz Waxman utilized Alfred Newman's themes for The Robe as far back as 1954's Demetrius and the Gladiators. If Waxman and Newman were okay with the practice, I don't see how anyone can come down on Don Davis or the JPIII filmmakers for it -- especially without seeing the actual film! So settle down, Beavis.

Some nice coverage we've received lately from our fellow webmasters! Cinema Concert has a review of Conquest and Battle for the Planet of the Apes at:  http://members.aol.com/marcgothic/conquest.html

Meanwhile, Filmtracks.com has covered The Towering Inferno at http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/towering_inferno.html -- front page coverage for all of May. (Thanks Christian!)

...And Music from the Movies has made Inferno their CD of the week for April 30th: http://www.musicfromthemovies.com/pages/reviews/towering_inferno.html.

Have a great weekend!

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