Mail Bag: Verhoeven and Year in Review

Our poll feature is functioning again so we can use it to gather some interesting insights on people's opinions. The current poll was suggested by a reader named Martin (sorry, you didn't send your last name!) to find out what is the most popular score to a Paul Verhoeven film. I have to say, I'm torn myself between RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers -- all excellent works! (For the sake of convenience, we have listed U.S. films only -- I for one am not familiar with Verhoeven's European films -- and, um, we have omitted Showgirls.)

We start today with responses to Michael Ware's essay from last week on Goldsmith's score to The Hollow Man -- which can now be sampled with composer commentary on the new DVD of the film. Incidentally, I'll give my own opinion -- which echoes popular sentiment -- that this film was technically astounding and has some intriguing ideas... but is overall full of so much phony movie nonsense and tired cliches as to be dreadful.

The Hollow Man

From: JohnnyK <trek88@yahoo.com>

Thanks to Michael Ware's ususal and now expected insight (such is my appraisal as I have become a fan of his writing!), thanks to his evidently expert knowledge of things both musical and creative, we now require no additional argument for the proof that Jerry Goldsmith reigns supreme in the art of film music.

Everyone has a basic, visceral reaction to music resulting in a spontaneous enthusiasm for the performer or composer. Among film score aficionados, there are the uncritical approbations shouted out for Horner or Williams or Barry or Howard, even Zimmer. When a musical passage or piece or tune strikes you personally, resonates your own chords, it is natural to say, oh, ain't that the best.

But Ware's analysis, taken with Dan Hobgood's recent essays, are fundamental for the thesis that art requires something more than a gut reaction to justify its status as Something Special. Goldsmith is so immersed in Music, in all aspects of Music, he is a man of such obvious sensibility to the world around him, to the human condition, that like Mahler's symphonic novels of Nature, Goldsmith is composing *the film* and all that is in it, or intended, not just arranging some musical accompaniment to fill an aural gap.

One cannot take away from the talent of other good film score composers. But at the same time, if there is any thought behind one's enthusiasms for the art form, it cannot be denied that Jerry Goldsmith is the medium's truest and greatest exponent.

From: Jay Cox, Musicunite@aol.com

You will forgive me if I disagree with Michael Ware's review of the film, "Hollow Man".

Goldsmith's score ? Not bad. The movie ? Positively among one of the worst pieces of Hollywood drivel to pass as "entertainment" in years. Michael Ware apparently believes that "Hollow Man" is right up there with Paul Verhoven's masterpiece, "The Fourth Man". Not so.

Indeed, with the possible exception of "Basic Instinct", Verhoven hasn't made a decent film since "The Fourth Man". For Mr.Ware to have wasted so much fine verbiage on such ilk, makes me wonder if his original intent was to use so many fine adjectives, for another review of better merit?

From: Sean Nethery, vramin@pcisys.net

Very much enjoyed Michael Ware's article today on HOLLOW MAN.

Since my priorities changed once my (now 2 1/2 year old) daughter came along, I see precious few movies, and haven't seen HM yet (though I've wanted to despite what everyone says. I have a soft spot in my heart for Verhoeven's vicious nightmares ). But being an unreconstructed lover of Goldsmith's thriller scores all the way back to The List of Adrian Messenger and the Twilight Zone, I bought the score the day it came out, and I too have been mightily impressed by it -- for my taste, it's one of his very best in this genre. In fact, it was in my player when I clicked to the article, so of course I had to start listening while I read. (Geez, what a dweeb! And PROUD of it.)

I've also been struggling for a couple of years with the idea of buying a DVD player. I have more than a thousand VHS tapes, and I didn't want to go through the same rigmarole of going from tape to DVD that I've gone through in the last fifteen from vinyl to audio cassettes to compact discs. But as a result I've also almost stopped renting videos because I want to see films widescreen, and I know that sooner or later I'll tet a player.

Well, this article is the last straw. How can I, proud owner of over 120 goldsmith CD scores (and dozens more records and cassettes) NOT see Hollow Man and then listen to Goldsmith's commments on the score? I've resisted for a long time, but thanks to you, I can resist no longer.

A request: I'm spoiled by publications, like the New York Times Book Review, which always say a little something about the reviewer at the end of each article. Have you considered doing this with your contributors? Would you? For Heaven's sake, who IS this Michael Ware anyway?

And anyway, anyway, thanks again for fine work. I figure if you have one good article a week on your ambitiously daily site, you're doing well. This is already a good week.

The Scores of 2000

See the poll archive for the results of our recent poll on the quality of scores from last year. People tended to think the year was either average or slightly below. Here are some longer discussions; feel free to send in your thoughts today!

From: "Maarten van Herpt" <maartenvanherpt@hotmail.com>

I'd like to add some remarks and opinions concerning the recent Poll: What was the quality of new film scores in the year 2000?. An often heard complaint is : What happened to the quality of film music? Where are the elaborated masterpieces from the past, like Star Wars, Alien and Vertigo? The question is: IS THE QUALITY OF MUSIC WRITTEN FOR FILMS NOWADAYS WORSE, COMPARED TO THE EARLIER WORKS?

Well, initially I would say: YES (and have voted "average"). But I have some explanations for it.

* I think that a great lot of film scores is seen as uninteresting because of the lack of originality that show many films nowadays. This has some important reasons.

-Firstly, the audience has been satisfied: a filmmaker simply can't surprise the big crowd anymore. That's why a lot of films made today are the same ones we saw years ago, but "in another coat". You can take the expression "the same ones" quite literary : We'll get a new "Planet of the Apes", we've had a new "Psycho", and I heard of a remake of "Superman. But often, films are (bad) rip-offs of successful ones from the past. Sure, "The Mummy" had great special effects, but I found it one of the most uninspiring films I've ever seen, and when I watched "Raiders of the lost Arkî again recently, I wished I had never seen that other movie.

-Secondly: many films have only one purpose: to serve the taste of the public. If it grosses lots of money then the studios have made themselves a new formula to make more money. "The Mummy II" is on it's way. How many 007-films will follow? And how many chances will M. Night Shyamalan get to equal the success of "The Sixth Sense"? Will there come a Jurassic Park IV? I for one am very tired of this kind of commercial thinking. I think that for a film composer it must be very difficult to add some originality to something that everyone has seen already. Even "our' (I'm a Dutchman) Paul Verhoeven has become a victim of this "formula thinking". The final scene of his "Hollow Man" was a great disappointment: it was nothing more than a typical, standard action-thriller ending with lots of uninteresting action and chases. (It must be said however that Jerry Goldsmith's score was excellent work).

* Another very important reason why film scores are judged as uninteresting these days, is the UNBELIEVABLE amount of soundtracks that are pressed. Every movie that gets a chance in the theatres has a soundtrack. Also all the bad movies. So simply said: lots of films that "look the same" generate lots of soundtracks that "sound the same".

But, on the other hand: I think that the quality is still out there, even in 2000. As I said, I hated the Mummy, but I loved the score. Persons like Thomas Newman and James Newton Howard bring us their own new styles. The most important thing is: make your choices: ignore the trash and search for things that you consider worth listening. My personal highlights of the last year(s):

-HOLLOW MAN-. A magnificent score. I'm a big admirer of Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps" and Goldsmith's score is "like a brother to it".

-AMERICAN BEAUTY: Bizarre, beautiful and swinging.

-MISSION TO MARS: Very original and captivating. Sometimes hypnotizing. Track 9 ('Where?") brought me the same excitement that "THE UNTOUCHABLES" did. I haven't seen MTM, and I never will (I havenít read one good review), because it may ruin the images this score paints in my head.

-THE SIXTH SENSE: Everything has been said: subtle and moving.

-LA VITA E BELLA (LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL): The perfect example of how to capture a film's heart in a piece of music.

-ANGELA'S ASHES: John Williams has composed a very lyrical, sometimes sentimental but subtle score for Alan Parker's movie. The end of "Angela's Prayer" harks back to the enchanting "Leia's theme" from Star Wars.

-SLEEPY HOLLOW: Very elaborated score, that isn't a very easy listen because it's very bombastic at times, but I learned to love it.

-THE LEGEND OF 1900: Beautiful score, like most Morricone-Tornatore collaborations. It offers a melancholic and uplifting love theme, a highlight in the composer's "love themes assortment". In track 3 ('The Crisis"), this theme is carried by a 4-note motif with two dissonant notes in the third note. This works brilliantly.

From: Lanky14@aol.com

My favorite score of the year was Howard Shore's for THE CELL...I spend most of my meager cash on those scrumptious DAGORED re-issues of Morricone's scores to the crime-horror-euro-sleaze films...I re-discoved Wojciech Kilar's score to THE NINTH GATE (now that is a gem) and I'm digging Chapter 3's effort's to bring out some forgotten nuggets (Vic Mizzy!? Woo hoo!)...Yep, it was a poor year for soundtracks...I've been loving those re-issues!

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