FILM SCORE FRIDAY 6/7/02

One final reminder, tomorrow (Saturday, June 8th) at Creature Features in Burbank, actor David Hedison will be signing copies of THE FLY TRILOGY, a two-CD set which is the first ever release of the scores for the three films in the original Fly series -- The Fly, with Hedison in the title role, scored by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter; Return of the Fly, also scored by Sawtell and Shefter; and Curse of the Fly, scored by Shefter alone.

The signing will be held from 1pm-3pm at 1802 West Olive Avenue in Burbank. Creature Features is also accepting orders for signed CDs from those who cannot attend in person. To place an order, call (818) 842-9383. Price for the 2-CD set (including a 56-page booklet!) is $29.95 + $3.50 for shipping.

Blade II - Marco Beltrami - Varese Sarabande
Enough - David Arnold - Varese Sarabande
The Fly Trilogy - Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter - Percepto
Queen of the Damned - Richard Gibbs, Jonathan Davis - Warner Bros.
Spider-Man - Danny Elfman - Sony
The Sum of All Fears - Jerry Goldsmith - Elektra

Bad Company - Trevor Rabin - Song Album on Hollywood Records
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood - T. Bone Burnett, David Mansfield - Song Album on DMZ/Columbia/Sony

THE SUM OF ALL FEARS - Jerry Goldsmith

"Jerry Goldsmith's score will especially bring joy to fans of his great '60s-era work."

Robert Koehler, Variety

"The Sum of All Fears" has a female chorus. It's that important a movie. The women's voices soar eloquently over views of Red Square, and everything else in the picture says, "Big movie about a big crisis."

David Denby, The New Yorker

"It also should be noted that the score by Oscar winner Jerry Goldsmith is excellent."

Paul Clinton, CNN.com

"-- a rousing Jerry Goldsmith score --"

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

This week we pair two controversial European composers who achieved enormous success early in their Hollywood careers, who wrote their most popular scores on an epic canvas, and who are equally comfortable with orchestral and synthesized music -- Maurice Jarre and Hans Zimmer.

Almost an Angel - The Preacher's Wife
The Black Marble - The Pledge
Dreamscape - Paperhouse
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds - Radio Flyer
Enola Gay - Pearl Harbor
Fatal Attraction - Pacific Heights
Firefox - Broken Arrow
Gaby: A True Story - Regarding Henry
Grand Prix - Days of Thunder
Jesus of Nazareth - The Prince of Egypt
The Longest Day - The Thin Red Line
The Mackintosh Man - Mission: Impossible 2
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome - Gladiator
The Man Who Would Be King - The Road to El Dorado
Mandingo - Driving Miss Daisy
Only the Lonely - As Good As It Gets
Red Sun - Black Rain
Ryan's Daughter - Fools of Fortune
Uprising - Invincible
The Year of Living Dangerously - Beyond Rangoon

From: "Woods, Erik" <erik.woods@hbc.com>

Hello Lukas,

I thought you would be interested to know that I am producing a three hour FSM Golden Age Classics Series show this Saturday (June 8, 2002) from 12pm - 3pm (EST) on my radio show CINEMATIC SOUND. Here are the details.

On this week's show we will be presenting music from Film Score Monthly's Golden Age Classics Series CD releases. On this show you will hear music from 36 HOURS (Tiomkin), BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF (Herrmann), THE EGYPTIAN (Newman/Herrmann), FROM THE TERRANCE (Bernstein), A MAN CALLED PETER (Newman), PRINCE OF FOXES (Newman), DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS (Waxman), PRINCE VALIANT (Waxman), and SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (Freidhofer)

You can hear the show on C101.5FM in Hamilton, Ontario or via Real Audio during show time. The C101.5FM web page is located at http://www.mohawkc.on.ca/msa./cioi

In July CINEMATIC SOUND will be producing a Film Score Monthly Silver Age Classics Series show in the similar style of the Golden Age show.

Stay tuned for more info.
 
-Erik Woods-
host and producer of CINEMATIC SOUND
http:/www.geocities.com/filmmusic1

From: Strombates@aol.com

Your forgot Alfred E.

Best regards,
Steve Stromberg

Mr. Stromberg wrote to us again:

Subject: I don't get the Seinfield joke

I never watched the show so please enlighten me. Thanks, Steve.

From: "tom linehan" <tojosline@hotmail.com>

So Wayne Knight is the magazine's new Mascot, eh? Good thing Alfred E. Neuman wasn't on the list or you'd be owned by TIME-WARNER. Yes, I Know it's a different spelling.

From: Johnwlsh6@aol.com

Sorry if this is old info, but did you mention in your listing of re-scored movies the first Hellraiser?

The original score by Coil is one of those, um, errr, "sound sculptures" which Barker charmingly referred to as "bowel-churning". On CD I'd have to assess it as "Off-switch turning".

Subject: Undergraduate film classes

Good People:
 
New York University used to have undergraduate film classes as far back as the early 70's, because I used to attend them as part of the academic requirements for my degree in Acting from the School of the Arts. They were conducted by renowned film historian William K. Everson, who resembled an immensely likeable truck driver. The best ones that I remember, and I took 6 or 7, were one on the Film Noir, and another on, natch, Film Music. I remember one evening, he showed nothing but clips from Rozsa scores. (Remember, this was long before the prevalence of video; so all these films were usually culled from his personal collection.) That night, we saw the last reel of IVANHOE, and a long sequence from THAT HAMILTON WOMAN, as well as a number of others.
 
Though I took it all for granted at the time, it was really a marvelous experience to be able to go to classes like that. Mr. Everson is long gone, but he is now regarded as one of the premier film historians in the world.

From: Tyson Bach <juneor_99@yahoo.com.au>

Last night was a very special night for me. I had the privilege to see my very own Adelaide Symphony Orchestra perform "Bill Collins Presents The Golden Years of Hollywood".

I'd never dreamt I would see some of my favourite music peformed live in front of me without travelling overseas!

A friend and I were just three rows from the front and it was as though they were performing just for me (and Bill, who sat on stage with the orchestra with some particularly fascinating anecdotes regarding the likes of Herrmann, Waxman, Young, Tiomkin, etc. whilst the orchestra had some much-needed breathers).

It was also exciting when US conductor Rachael Worby read a letter from a 90-plus year old David Raksin, addressed to the orchestra and their audience.

There were many highlights, including their superb rendition of the "Vertigo" suite, "El Cid", and a couple of rare surprises - Waxman's 'Rosanna' from "Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man", and a beautiful orchestral arrangement of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'.

But nothing could have prepared me for Bill Collins' huge plug of you guys at Film Score Monthly. He sincerely tried to open up the surprisingly large Adelaide audience to the world of film music and your magazine, including where it is available locally and that you have a website which is updated daily.

Hearing him speak knowingly about FSM was thrilling, and, if out of two thousand people I'm sure he'd be satisfied.

He also mentioned how grateful he is to you for releasing some of his favourite Golden Age scores for the first time, which he said excitedly just before Rachael had the audience fascinated when she announced Bernard Herrmann studied with Australia's own Percy Grainger as his mentor for two years.

The orchestra then launched in to the phenomenal opening bars of the "Vertigo" Main Title and Nightmare Sequence.

What an exciting night.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!

With all the attention film music fans have been giving to John Williams and Attack of the Clones, I thought I should instead focus on a less heralded but still significant new chapter in an ongoing film-and-music series -- the Jack Ryan movies.

THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER still remains the gold standard of the Tom Clancy movies, improving hugely on his rather dry first novel while remaining faithful to his vision. An intelligent and witty script, superb direction, marvelous photography and design, a rousing Basil Poledouris score and a perfect cast -- everyone from a wonderful Alec Baldwin as Ryan to the least significant Russian sub crew member is adroitly chosen. If I have any criticism of the film, it's that I wish Poledouris had a little more time to write the score (the release date was bumped up several months), as the film could have used some of that Goldsmith-style musical intercutting between parallel actions that I suspect Poledouris simply didn't have time to do.

PATRIOT GAMES was a disappointing followup, slickly made but with a weak storyline, essentially Cape Fear with an IRA backdrop -- it's the only movie in the series with no real sense of politics, just a tired revenge plot. Harrison Ford made a credible Ryan (though as an Alec Baldwin devotee I wish he had continued with the series), but Patrick Bergin must be one of the dullest actors alive, and the film resorted to the dramatically unsatisfying copout of having villains kill each other off.

James Horner's score was a letdown, especially his reuse of his Khachaturian ripoff (previously heard in Aliens and Project X) for the film's highlight, the "Electronic Battlefield," scene, a genuinely memorable and plausible sequence full of creepy moral ambiguity. Horner's use of Irish orchestrations for the villains, while obvious, was fairly inventive, though it did have the vaguely racist effect of implying that the villains' evil and their Irish heritage were inextricably linked.

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER was a huge improvement, with a satisfyingly complicated storyline and one of the finest action setpieces of 1990s cinema, the "Ambush" sequence. Horner's score was a big improvement over his Patriot work, especially his rousing main theme, and this time the re-use of his Khachaturian motif at least gave his Jack Ryan scores a certain consistency. One minor quibble -- was anyone else distracted by Joaquin de Almeida's resemblance to the great Phil Hartman?

Which brings us, eight years later, to THE SUM OF ALL FEARS. It's no Red October or even Clear and Present, but it's certainly a big improvement on Patriot Games. Director Phil Alden Robinson, in his first feature in ten years, wisely brought along his ace cinematographer John Lindley, who helps turn the Canadian locations into a convincing international landscape.

The gimmick of restarting the series with a young Ryan in a contemporary setting is an inspired one, and Ben Affleck does a capable job in the role. It can't be easy to fill the shoes of Harrison Ford, one of the few current stars who's likely to be remembered in future decades the way we remember the great stars of the Golden Age.

It doesn't hurt that he's surrounded by the most impressive supporting cast I've seen in ages -- the peerless Morgan Freeman, Ciaran Hinds (a talented Irish actor completely convincing as the Russian leader), Colm Feore (one wry joke shows him watching Antiques Roadshow right after buying an atomic bomb for $400), Ron Rifkin, Alan Bates, James Cromwell, Philip Baker Hall, John Beasley, Bruce McGill, and in a surprising but utterly effective bit of casting-against-type, Liev Schreiber as Clancy's ace field operative Clark (the role Willem Dafoe played in Clear and Present Danger).

The final montage, intercutting U.S./Russian reconciliation with violent revenge to the tune of Puccini's "Nessun Dorma", is an obvious homage to the finale of The Godfather with an interesting undertone -- are the filmmakers equating our two governments with the Mafia?

There are some unfortunate improbabilities in the second half. Affleck's inability to contact Freeman at a crucial moment and his later access to the U.S./Russian computer link both strain credulity, and I'm extremely doubtful that the Baltimore police would be available to come to Affleck's aid so quickly in the middle of an urban nuclear crisis.

As for the big nuke scene, I felt the filmmakers copped out a bit by downplaying the radiation element. They throw in a line about how the fallout's heading northeast so Ryan should be safe, but I'm guessing that in a major city leveled by a homemade nuke, radiation would be a much bigger problem. It's certainly the sum of my fears, especially living in a big city like Los Angeles.

Years ago, during my short-lived career as a hack screenwriter (yes, there is another kind), I was writing a project for a major producer that included a scene where the villains kill the population of a small midwestern town with a neutron-type weapon. One of my bosses asked if I could change the location of the carnage to a Third World country, to make it "less offensive."

Understandably shocked by this less-than-PC remark, I ended up keeping the midwestern locale, and after the script was finished (it wasn't very good, and never got made) one of my bosses felt that I'd been right not to change it. A Third World town full of corpses might disturbingly evoke a real life disaster, like the Union Carbide incident in India, while the American setting made the disaster seem safely movie-like. Alas, I doubt anyone would say that now.

I only bring this up because Sum Of All Fears' villians had the same effect on me. By changing the threat from Middle Easterners to wealthy neo-Nazis, the filmmakers move its otherwise plausible and disturbing storyline back into the safe, cozy land of movies. One especially egregious example of this is the stunningly unoriginal scene (probably the film's lowpoint) when one of the co-conspirators has second thoughts about the plot, and Bates pretends to let him leave just before having his henchman strangle him. Didnít we see this identical scene in Goldfinger and A View to a Kill? At least in those movies, the murders had cool gimmicks -- one victim is shot then compacted along with a car, the other is dropped out of a zeppelin. (And can someone tell me why Goldfinger spent all that time lecturing the gangsters on his plan when he was going to gas them all immediately anyway? Not getting enough use out of his Ken Adam-designed map room?)

No, I'm not forgetting about the score. In his first work since The Last Castle, Jerry Goldsmith provides an impressively thoughtful and varied accompaniment to the complicated storyline. His choral main title ("The Mission" -- cue number two on the CD) is stunning, so impressive that the rest of the score suffers slightly in comparison, while the early cues depicting the Middle East evoke his marvelous TV scores for QB VII and Masada.

Unlike some recent Goldsmith scores where it felt like he was just going through the motions (though as always with utmost professionalism), it seemed like Goldsmith really took his time here, and the effort paid off. There are a few minor quibbles: his Russian motif at times distractingly evokes Air Force One (one of my fellow FSM contributors suggested "Maybe Goldsmith views all his international thriller projects as one big score") and the synth patch in "Deserted Lab" seems like a retread of the one he overused in Along Came a Spider, though here the distinctive sound is cleverly introduced when Schreiber cuts his way through a cyclone fence -- the twanging of the fence leads into the buzzing of the synth.

All in all, an enjoyable and surprisingly grim but not completely satisfying movie, and a first-rate score by my hero. I like to say that it was Bernard Herrmann that made me a film music fanatic, but it was Jerry Goldsmith that made me stay one. My tendency to say things like this is probably the main reason I don't date much.

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