Film Score Friday 4/27/01

Don Davis is adapting John Williams's score from the original Jurassic Park for Jurassic Park III, due this summer. He will provide original music (in Williams's style) where appropriate.

Milan has released the CD to The Golden Bowl, the new Richard Robbins score for a Merchant/Ivory production.

Look for music from just about everyone except for composer Michael Kamen on Elektra's CD to Tomb Raider.

This doesn't directly pertain to movie music, but they advertise in our magazine and are worth a plug here: Posteritati is a New York gallery specializing in movie posters and they are moving to a new location on May 10. The new space is just downstairs from their existing one, a street-side gallery at 241 Centre St, across from the historic Police Building between Soho and Little Italy. See www.posteritati.com.

The Hollywood Bowl has announced their summer schedule, with movie music aplenty as always: June 30: Sound of Music sing-a-long. July 6: Bugs Bunny on Broadway. July 13, 14: John Williams' Movie Memories -- Williams film music concert, featuring the Los Angeles premiere of Steven Spielberg's millennium film, The Unfinished Journey, with narrators. August 10, 11: The Great American Concert: Heroes and Superheroes, including film music pieces Superman, Indiana Jones and Batman (new suite). August 26: Don't Touch That Dial...It's T.V. Night at the Bowl! John Mauceri cond. the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in a celebration of over 50 years of television. September 21: The Big Picture -- 2001 and Beyond! The annual movie music concert, with a spotlight on sci-fi. See www.hollywoodbowl.com for all the great details, such as how to spend 70 minutes in gridlock before and after the concert.

Jerry Goldsmith will conduct the London Symphony Orchestra in a film music concert on June 28 at Royal Albert Hall. See www.lso.co.uk for ticket and other information; there will be a pre-concert talk with the composer as well.

Some more concert news from our friend...

Guenther Koegebehn <guenther@bernardherrmann.org>:

"L'Opera National du Rhin" is touring France with Korngold's opera, Die tote Stadt.

Upcoming performances:

Mulhouse
"La Filature"
May 4 at 8:00 p.m.
May 6 at 3:00 p.m.

Paris
"Theatre national du Chatelet"
May 14, 17, 21 at 7:30 p.m.

More info: http://www.opera-national-du-rhin.com/2000-01season/opera/opera.htm

Here is another one:

Walton's Henry V via Christopher Palmer
narrated by Michael York
National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Slatkin

http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NBCTA

Along Came a Flame War

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

Having just finished listening to the new CD from 'Cleopatra' I am suitably overwhelmed at the astounding good taste of North's work. I am equally appalled at Goldsmith's 'Along Came A Spider'. Guys, folks - when will be wake up and realize that Jerry just doesn't care anymore. (No matter what stance he may take in public to keep getting work.) I am horrified at the lack of commitment inherent in this music. If I hear the 'da-da-da' big horn motif from 'Chain Reaction' one more time....! Please, go through your soundtracks and eliminate every one that you WOULDN'T keep if there were only a handful you could take with you to 'the home'.

OK, before we get a hundred letters: of course Jerry still cares! That's like saying an athelete plays for the money -- they are driven, competitive people. Same with Goldsmith. I'm sure he cares about every note or else he would have up and quit a long time ago.

I think the problem is simply that movies have changed to the point where they demand music less interesting and complex than Goldsmith used to provide. He can't do the score for The Illustrated Man in Along Came a Spider. Which is a shame. But not Goldsmith's fault.

Please follow up to our message board, not to the Mail Bag -- that way the discussion will happen sooner...and I won't have to read all of it!

From: "Josh Gizelt" <swashbuckler332@hotmail.com>

Jason Comerford's comments about the vagaries of reaction to criticisms are interesting.

He certainly hit on the central paradox of criticism with his experiences about Forrest Gump; one sometimes will have a strong personal connection to a work that colors the perception of it. Mr. Comerford's reaction to the film was what the filmmakers had intended, while Maltin's was a more pragmatic view.

I myself shared Mr. Comerford's reaction to the film upon my initial viewing. It was easy to let oneself get swept away, but in reflection, the film began to lose much of its initial luster. By the time I had seen it a second time, I actually found myself getting somewhat offended by some of the more reactionary elements to the story, and I also found Robert Zemekis' manipulations to be a little more overbearing than I had first thought.

I think that one of the problems with the process of criticism is that it must often be done based on first impressions, and once one writes something down, it often takes on a permanance that it may not have had originally..

Of course, what must be taken into account is not only the attitudes of the filmmakers themselves and the social environment within which the motion pictures themselves are released, but also what their target audiences are. This is obvious when one compares the latest Steven Seagal movie with the most recent Merchant Ivory production, but even within the mainstream itself, one often finds that there are films geared towards a certain group, with elements that could only truly be appreciated by them.

Andy Dursin's comments at the end of his recent review of the Krull DVD sum it up... "It's glossy, it's lavish, it's Krull!" Fans of that film are aware of the flaws within the film itself, but the appeal of the movie is sort of axiomatic to those that "get it."

I've always found that one of the other biggest problems a critic finds when writing a piece is that often enough he may find himself caught in a trap, trying to reconcile the entertainment value of a film with its artistic value. In explaining Charlie's Angels to a friend of mine, for example, I found it difficult to explain that while the movie may not be worth much, it was incredibly fun to watch. I ended up paraphrasing a comment that William Goldman made in his excellent Adventures in the Screen Trade, that it is essentially "empty calories." Like a Twinkie, it is enjoyable for the moment, but does not really do much for you in the nutritional sense. Did I enjoy Charlie's Angels? Absolutely. On the same level as I enjoyed The Matrix? Not at all.

From: Samanthasmom <tspcds@swbell.net>

Thanks for bringing The Towering Inferno to me, it brings back all those childhood memories. I was around 13 or 14 in 1974 when I purchased John Williams The Towering Inferno, my parents thought I was crazy, and strange, and they were glad when I purchased John Williams Jaws the next year, so that I would give The Towering Inferno a rest!!!

I am listening to it now, great score, great fun, And yes I have The Towering Inferno on DVD, this was a great guilty pleasure film, pure hollywood, that seems to recycle itself, ie Titanic, Independence Day, Die Hard, and Armageddon and Deep Impact. I think those films own alot to Irwin Allen and his productions.

But I was reading your CD Production Notes, and I must say, that the Original LP Album that was released in 1974 was different and was a rerecording. If you will take a few moments and listen and watch the DVD of the Towering Inferno, when Irwin Allen's Name appears when the helicopter passes by the ship in the habor, there is a cymbal crash!! BUT not on the original LP. Planting the Charges seems to be the same, at first hearing, on the LP it seems to be more refined.

John Williams did do a lot of rerecordings of his original LP works. That was certainly noticed on Jaws, as well as The Towering Inferno. It just seems a little different, which is not bad, but good.

Thanks again. I love this expanded score.

You're welcome!

I have received several queries like this, so let me answer them all at once: The Towering Inferno LP was NOT a re-recording. It was the original film soundtrack. It is a different mix, and on a different format, and has some different edits, but it is the same performance. I know because when we were working on our new CD, we had access to the album master and we listened to each cue against our new mixes from the film elements and they were the same.

It is true that in the film there are two cymbal crashes over the opening credits which are not on the LP or the CD. These were recorded "wild" according to the paperwork and overdubbed later. They have been lost so we did not include them.

From: Brad Igou, BRADIGOU@aol.com

Just a quick note to say that the two new releases, UNTAMED and TOWERING INFERNO, are wonderful. I have every release from the beginning. Some are familiar (from my now scratchy LP's) to others that are brand new. While I like some more than others, each has been an enjoyable and "educational" experience. I subscribe to receiving every CD you release because how else can you keep on putting them out if you don't get the support of collectors like myself. The booklets are great since I am of the "more information" not less category, and find Varese's packaging with just a couple photos pretty pathetic. (They have redeemed themselves, temporarily, with CLEOPATRA.) Anyway, kudos and bravos and way-to-go's, to all involved. Lest you think your hours of hard work and devotion are not appreciated.

See the review of a recent screening of Superman, plus a letter about the review in last Friday's column:

From: Greg Bryant <bryant_g1@yahoo.com>

From the letter about the review:

<If the edits are that jarring how can there be any enjoyment involved. How do we know that these edits aren't what was originally intended and the ORIGINAL versions don't jar the creators as much as Mr. Lewis has been jarred by there restoration. Surely it is only an over familiarity that breeds such contempt for these fairly minor top 'n' tails of the material.>

To me, what is indelibly etched in my mind is the experience of the first viewing of a film (especially if it is a great film). Invariably, that first viewing determines what I will think of the film for many years t come. Only occasioanlly does my opinion of a film not well received change with a future viewing (The Accidental Tourist comes to mind).

So many of the re-edits that add or change material do not come off well, because that first EXPERIENCE of the film is "jarred" to use the writers word. "Close Encounters" especially comes to mind. I have a hard time watching any of Spielberg's subsequent versions of that film because of the experience of seeing the film the first time. Only on rare occasions do I prefer the re-edit, because it RESTORES the directors original vision, which had subsequently been tampered with by others. Blade Runner, Spartacus and Lawrence of Arabia are good examples.

I don't know if Superman was tampered with. But I have seen the extended version on broadcast television and have felt that (with the exception of Eve Teschmacher being fed to the lion pit) the additions were unnecessary.

...And from the author of the letter about the review:

From: Giles Edwards <gilesfde@yahoo.co.uk >

Just saving face here really - thanks for your considered and level headed response to what was a genuinely curious response. I'm a film graduate and music scholar so am not ignorant of either form and am well used to beefing up the most tenuous connotations and analysis to review and article length. I just thought it a pertinent query in placid repost to the barrage of critiques I blessedly receive every week/month/year when I subscribe to publications such as FSM. I guess I never really got that philosophical before and took a step back and looked at what we're really doing when we critique films so passionately and enthusiastically (and - sometimes - vitriolically!). Are we losing sight of the wood for climbing the tree to check each so thoroughly - I dunno. But it's certainly intrigued me to think and I hope provokes SERIOUS INTELLIGENT discussion amongst film fans on and off the net.

Wolfgang Jahn has launched a new site for collectors of great Italian soundtracks: www.italiansoundtracks.com, featuring information a variety of rare titles. For the time being it is set up to work only with Internet Explorer browsers.

Finally, here's an essential piece of web viewing: a profile by ABC's Sam Donaldson of John Williams, with new interview material -- this is all exclusive to ABC's website: http://abcnews.go.com/webcasts/samdonaldsonnew/20010423/index.html

Have a nice weekend!

MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com