Film Score Friday 5/18/01

Music from the Movies has the scoop on Michael Kamen's departure from Tomb Raider (replaced by Graeme Revell). See http://www.musicfromthemovies.com/pages/kamen_michael.html.

Meanwhile, Harry Knowles at Ain't It Cool News has word on Howard Shore's music to Lord of the Rings. See http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=9028.

Here's some John Williams info from Ricard Befan at www.jwfan.com ("Your Daily Dose of John Williams"):

You probably already know this, but Don Davis' JURASSIC PARK III score can now be pre-ordered at http://www.iclassics.com/iclassics/album.jsp?selectionId=5257. The CD cover (which is available on the pre-order page) reads "Original Themes by John Williams - New Music Composed and Conducted by Don Davis". As it's been reported earlier, the score will be released by Decca on July 10.

On a related Williams note, the new trailer for Spielberg's A.I. -which shows a lot of footage from the film and new Williams music expressly composed and recorded for the movie- premiered Wednesday on several TV stations and can now be downloaded at http://www.spielberg-dreamworks.com/ai. The AI soundtrack will be out on June 19 from Warner Bros. Records.

I bought the Superman box set of DVDs of all four films. It's a must-have mainly for the first film, Superman: The Movie, with three documentaries, isolated score, director and writer commentary, screen tests, and much more. A few observations:

As has been discussed on our message board, Richard Donner reveals that he originally asked Jerry Goldsmith to score the movie, having worked with Goldsmith on The Omen, for which the composer won his only Oscar (to date). As the schedule kept getting pushed back, he kept alternating between Goldsmith and John Williams (Donner says he really wanted Williams all along, but felt obligated to offer the movie to Goldsmith first). Finally, when it was time to score the movie, Williams was the composer available so he got the job. Donner and writer -- excuse me, "Creative Consultant" Tom Mankiewicz -- discuss the score during the "Chasing Rockets" sequence on the commentary track.

There is an extra menu of unused score cues on the documentary side of the Superman: The Movie DVD. There's really nothing on the DVD that isn't on the 2-CD Superman set from Rhino, but the extra cues menu includes the original main title as Williams recorded it. Now I finally understand what people mean about the piece having been edited for the film; as originally recorded, Williams builds the theme gradually before going to the explosive rendition of the theme heard over the "S" logo. I like the way it's cut for the film better.

One other interesting piece on the extra cues menu is the last selection, the unused pop version of "Can You Read My Mind?" complete with the string section -- a pretty nice pop arrangement -- which was missing on the Rhino track. Or maybe it's some other version altogether.

Donner says that when he first heard the theme in the main title, he exploded with delight because the music seemingly speaks the word "SU-per-MAN!" Indeed the triplet motive really is all over the score and this construction is an example of Williams' genius almost as simple -- yet profound -- as the two-note Jaws motive. Basically, "Su-per-man" is heard everywhere, from the rhythmic motive that propels everything to the final answer of the fanfare to the main theme over the logo.

Overall the commentary track is fantastic! DVDs have become film school in a box. I did not know that Christopher Reeve dubbed Jeff East as young Clark Kent...or that Glenn Ford had been kicked by a horse while filming some western and only liked to be photographed looking camera left (watch his scenes).

I also spent some time with the sequels. Unfortunately these DVDs do not have any commentaries or deleted scenes. However, I've been reading up on the films at a great website: Superman Cinema, http://www.deceptions.net/superman. The discussion at Superman Cinema is especially fascinating about Superman II. For the uninitiated: Superman I and II were originally planned to be filmed simultaneously. Richard Donner undertook this until he had to put all of his efforts into Superman I to meet its Christmas 1978 release date. He was then fired before he could complete Superman II, and director Richard Lester was hired to finish it. Although Donner estimates he had shot some 70% of Superman II, Lester reshot a great deal of this. However, by this time Marlon Brando has had a dispute with the Salkinds and refused to be in Superman II, so all of his scenes were removed and reconceived with Susannah York as Superman's mother. As a result, the final version of Superman II is comprised of around 30% of Richard Donner footage -- particularly of Gene Hackman, who never even met Richard Lester until some time after the sequel's release. You can often tell the difference watching the film due to the cinematography.

Superman Cinema has a pretty exhaustive breakdown of which director shot which scenes, and also what Donner and Mankiewicz's planned Superman II would have included -- most notably, a powerful sequence in which Brando as Jor-El (which was already shot) sacrifices his last spiritual form in order to give Superman his powers back. (Aha! So that's what was supposed to happen!)

Anyway, see Superman Cinema and spend hours mulling through details of the longer TV versions, the various Superman II scripts, and even pictures of cut scenes culled from magazine articles and trading cards.

About the music in the sequels, Ken Thorne did a respectable job on Superman II cutting and pasting John Williams's music. Unlike Superman III, where Thorne wrote a good deal of original material, some of it quite nice (like the opening slapstick montage), Superman II is almost entirely arrangements of Williams's cues. Superman Cinema speculates (I don't know if this was ever confirmed) that Williams did not score Superman II anew out of loyalty to Donner -- I always thought he had simply had a scheduling conflict. Whatever the case was, the more I think about it, the more I think about what a loss it was not to have Williams do the film. This was the same year of The Empire Strikes Back and it's possible he would have written a theme for the villains as memorable as Darth Vader's theme -- or perhaps a new love theme, or new material of some sort. His absence deprived the world of another classic John Williams score from his most exciting era of blockbuster writing.

Finally, Superman IV is as wretched as you remember, although Alexander Courage did a nice job adapting Williams's music. There are new themes in Superman IV for Lacey (Mariel Hemingway's character) and Nuclear Man which have been attributed to Williams over the years but to this day I do not know who penned them -- Williams or Courage. Courage uses more of Williams's music than Thorne in Superman III, but does not utilize the cues as literally as Thorne in Superman II. The only drawback is the sub-par playing -- there are some appalling performance problems. (I heard a great quote attributed to Cannon's Mencham Golan: "We do not stab you in the back. We stab you in the front!")

Superman III is pretty stinky too...look for English spellings on Smallville signage, and listen for the accent to come through on the young actor playing Lana Lang's son.

re: John Walsh's essay:

From: lloyd@vannessfilms.com (Lloyd Hardy, Van Ness Films)

One of the most brutally honest and intelligent articles I've read in Film Score Daily.

A couple of other people felt the same way! I am sorry I did not print this when John originally wrote it...in 1996.

re: yesterday's mood soundtracks article:

From: "Sam Krezma" <krezma@hotmail.com>

Attention, Neil Shurley: This is your wake-up call from your Phildickian mood organ. I don't know if you remember or not, but right before you went to sleep last night you programmed me to wake you up with some bitchadelic hate-mail. So here's what you asked for:

Boy are you ever wrong about Stephen Warbeck's SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. It's the biggest bland-out since Patrick Doyle reared his boring head. Admittedly, there's a few good tracks. Like "The Beginning of the Partnership" & "Greenwich" & "The Prologue". But "The Prologue" is Coplandesque to the point of being borderline-plagiarism.

You also recommended Vangelis's ANTARCTICA. And even though I haven't heard it, I nonetheless insist that it can't hold a candle to Vaughan Williams's SINFONIA ANTARCTICA. (Specifically, the Leonard Slatkin version.)

re: some Golden Age muckity-muck recently:

From: Arthur Lintgen <ablintgen@home.com>

Mr. Siska is basically correct on Waxman using Newman's themes from The Robe only in the flashbacks in Demetrius and the Gladiators. Waxman was also using these as a homage to Newman and his score for The Robe. I believe that Waxman resigned from the Academy in protest when Newman's score for The Robe was not nominated for an Oscar. Waxman was an incredible musician who basically did strive to avoid repeating himself if at all possible. It is a well known fact that he seriously resented being asked repeatedly by directors to write music "in the style of Rebecca." Nevertheless, he had to do it, as clearly seen in his brooding romantic scores for My Cousin Rachel, Night unto Night, and The Two Mrs. Carrolls, all of which are typically excellent in every conceivable way. Also, note the similarity of the main theme from Untamed to the theme from Mr. Roberts.

From: joecaps@earthlink.net

In response to Robert Siska's letter about the scores to The Robe and Demetrius.

Newman's themes are used throughout the score of Demetrius - the opening chorus and orchestra prelude over the Fox Logo is a variation of The Robe theme, the prologue uses the love theme from the Robe and the Main Theme. The Main Title "Demetrius" march uses the "I Am With You" motif from The Robe as the basis for Demetrius theme. Lucia (Debra Paget) theme is an inverted version of the love theme from the Robe. the Peter theme from The Robe is heard throughout.

As for Waxman reusing his own music, this happened very little. Chase music from The Silver Chalice is reused in a murder scene in the Nun's Story. Rear Window uses themes from Place in the Sun and Elephant Walk. Of course Waxman reused many of his Peyton pLace themes in Return to Peyton Place but that doesn't really count.

I am often asked where one can get a hold of film scores -- meaning the actual, orchestrated manuscripts. Sadly the answer is simply, you can't. They are not available. However, we have a section in our FAQ on the subject and one of the biggest score mavens, Hal Jackson, keeps writing in about more ways in which one CAN see this material.

Basically you have to go to various libraries holding the material and often make a special appointment to review the documents. Hal says that the Library of Congress has the full conductor score of Alien (Goldsmith, 400+ pages) plus the complete condensed score for Cleopatra (North).

If it was up to me, every film score would be scanned and available as a .pdf download! But it's up to the publishers who fear that doing this would compromise their ability to control public peformances. So for now, pack your bags and head to the libraries....

Have a SUPER weekend!

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