Film Score Friday 8/10/01

L.A. residents: Jerry Goldsmith is giving a FREE concert at the Wadsworth Theatre in West L.A. tomorrow (Saturday, 8/11). See www.manciniinstitute.org.

Rhino has announced a major restoration to be released November 20th: a 2CD set of King of Kings by Miklos Rozsa. This is a regular release and NOT one of their "Rhino Handmade" limited editions. Rhino also has coming out a 5CD Philip Glass soundtracks box set on September 18, to include Candyman and other scores.

Swedish composer Lars Johan Werle has passed away at the age of 75. He wrote the scores to the highly regarded Ingmar Bergman films Persona and Hour of the Wolf. Go here for a complete credits list: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Werle,+Lars+Johan.

I remember seeing Persona in college and being impressed with the strange, modernist and very interesting score. Great movie, too. If you did not like A.I. please rent Persona and watch it several times...you will LOVE it, I promise. Please watch it several times if necessary.

From: "Heathcliff Blair" <heathcliff@hblair.fsnet.co.uk>

Thank god for Andy Dursin and his Aisle Seat Special: Lifeforce Remembered (7 August 2001).
 
I thought I was one of perhaps three people who believed that Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce is The masterpiece of, shall we say, 'alternative' movie culture (or maybe The Swarm outranks it? No, god-damn it! It's Lifeforce!). Cheers to Mr Dursin for his word-perfect appraisal of the movie, along with its superb Henry Mancini score.
 
Mancini was justly proud of the music and hated how the producers bastardised it. I have both version of the movie on video and I have to admit that Kamen's producer-friendly 'emergency-music-for-hire' addendum's actually add to the original release's po-faced kitsch value. Kamen is a wonderful composer in less hysterical situations than this. But Mancini's genuinely sublime efforts are in a class of their own. They should not have been interfered with. But what the hell, we've still got the CD.

If anyone's interested, I, as 'heathblair', posted a comment about the movie and its score on the Internet Movie Database last year. It may not be as thorough as Dursin's, but it shows that there is a growing audience for this beautiful, lunatic, endless non sequitur of a movie (although maybe not the one GolanGlobus may have intended. Bless 'em). Points to Andy Dursin for mentioning the biscuit-tempting security guard - "Come to daddy. Come on..." (just see the film, folks).
 
I think Bunuel would've loved this movie.

I remember Andy showing me the Lifeforce extended cut when it came out on laserdisc some years ago. (Andy lives in Rhode Island and I grew up on Martha's Vineyard, so we would visit each other once or twice a year...and still do!) What can I say...? I love the score!

Now that Episode 2 of Star Wars has a title (Attack of the Clones for the uninformed), and shooting has finished on the live-action end, what's the status of John Williams' score"? When will he start writing? When will he conduct the music? Will this all be AFTER Lucas finishes his final edit?

The American Cinematheque had the Los Angeles premiere of the restored SUPERMAN-THE MOVIE last evening (August 3). This is the version that came out on DVD 3 months ago, and it was only because I was in Hollywood that I had the good fortune to see that it was showing.

To put it simply, the film rocks! The sound is just awesome now, with a clarity and power-what bass!-never heard in any earlier versions, including the 70 mm prints from the original release. Williams score has never sounded better (I am listening to it as I write this), and the newly added scenes make you wonder why they had to be removed in the first place. The most welcome additions were the scenes with Reeve and Brando discussing his first night in Metropolis (the cue "Destruction of Krypton" worked rather well here) and Reeve walking the gauntlet to Hackman's underground lair (cannot remember which cue was used here). I still could have done without Margot Kidder's "recitation" of the love song (why, oh why couldn't they have snuck in Maureen McGovern's very pretty version?), but on the whole the film is better than ever. The picture quality is quite beautiful now--at least Superman's costume looks the same color throughout the film--and even though some of the visual effects now look very dated, the charm and sincerity of the film overcome that fault. The little suburban neighborhood that is threatened by the dam break still looks like models, but what the hell!

It was just so nice to see this film on the big screen again. The last time I had that opportunity was also in LA, when the art museum had a 70 mm festival and showed the only existing print in that format, albeit a little faded and not with as dynamic a soundtrack. This was like seeing a brand-new film, and the audience was very receptive (lots of applause during the opening credits for Brando, Hackman and Kidder, cheers for Reeve, Williams, Siegel & Schuster and for Donner, with Reeve getting more applause for his first appearance).

Why didn't Warner Bros. do some form of limited reissue on this film? Supposedly it had been announced, and there were posters at the theater, but except for this showing and an earlier one in Dallas, that appears to be it. It would have been nice to at least have this available for one week before the DVD release, so those who have only seen this film on video could see it the way it was meant to be seen-in a larger than life setting. . .like its hero.

The Digital Bits reported on July 28 (http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#tron) that a new two-disc special edition of TRON is in the works for release on January 15, 2002. This is partially a reissue of the late '90s TRON laserdisc SE, but new features are being added. There is no word yet on whether there will be a full isolated score (the laserdisc only had the score on a mono track with sound effects), but as Wendy Carlos has gone to considerable trouble to rescue the score (http://www.wendycarlos.com/news.html#baketape), and there is still no score CD in sight, this new DVD represents a perfect opportunity to get the score out there in a digital medium.

To that end I've started a thread in the Home Theater Forum's Studio Feedback section (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum10/HTML/003285.html), to bring this opportunity to Disney's attention. I'd like to encourage everyone who belongs to the Home Theater Forum to post on this thread; and for everyone else, joining the Home Theater Forum is free, easy, and painless if you are inclined to do so. And everyone interested can also help out by sending encouraging e-mails to Disney (e-mail form on Disney site: http://www.disney.com/Mail/DisneyPictures/), and to Wendy Carlos herself, via her site's webmaster (matthew@apocalypse.org). If all the relevant players involved are aware of this opportunity, then we just might finally get a TRON soundtrack release after all (and DVD beats CD any day)!

Well OK, but some studios are making it their policy not to do isolated scores (I don't know where Disney stands), and if so it's unlikely a letter writing campaign would change their minds.

I want to say that though I haven't seen the remake I did buy the score to the new PLANET OF THE APES and was terribly disappointed, and not just because I'm a diehard Jerry Goldsmith fan. I just heard nothing in this score to like though I'm sure it works for the film very well.

Truth be told I was never a big fan of Danny Elfman and whoever said he was the Jerry Goldsmith of the '90s needs to take a good long look in the mirror. I stopped listening to Elfman around 1991 I believe because I grew weary of his rather quirky, noisy style of writing. But after a break of some ten years and with as big a project as this remake I thought I'd try again with an open mind and give him another chance. Sad to say, I haven't noticed any real discernible change in his style and the only difference between this score and the few Elfman of old that I do have is that this score is much louder and not much else. My cats are playing with the CD when I left for work since none of my friends wanted it. I even offered to give it away but they don't really like Elfman, either.

So to save my sanity I listened to the score of the original and I have to say that Goldsmith's music for it is everything the new one isn't: fresh, inventive and original. I had a feeling the new score wouldn't be as good but I didn't think it would be as bad as it is, either. Perhaps if Elfman were a properly schooled composer maybe he could have really been aware of the resources of a symphony orchestra as Goldsmith is. I have to say Elfman completes my triumvirate of my least favorite composers (the other two being Zimmer and the infamous Horner). I always thought Elfman was somewhat over-rated and now thanks to this new effort, I can truly stick to my guns. I'm sure many will disagree and that's fine but I think I know good film music when I hear it. I don't think this score merited an album but that's just me. And I never understood this trend in Hollywood to remake GOOD movies when they obviously should remake bad ones and hopefully make them better.

So I will stick to the masters of old since none of the new breed impresses me (except Joel McNeely, who I think might have done a much better job with this movie and is truly deserving of a break). I have just one wish: that Tim Burton doesn't ever plan to remake THE OMEN. Thank you for hearing me out and look forward to your next issue.

You got it! I saw the Apes remake and enjoyed it...no, the ending does not make any sense, but I found the characterization of the apes very imaginative and the score more than acceptable, if nowhere near as groundbreaking as Goldsmith's original. Well, what can you do? I like the idea of remaking bad movies to try to improve them...first up, Ace Eli!

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