FILM SCORE FRIDAY 8/1/03

The latest CDs from our own Film Score Monthly label are now available. Our Silver Age release features three TV movie scores from Jerry Goldsmith: HAWKINS ON MURDER, WINTER KILL, and BABE. Hawkins starred James Stewart as a lawyer defending client Bonnie Bedelia in a murder indictment. It later became a short-lived series, featuring a Goldsmith theme (included on the CD). Winter Kill was an uncredited spinoff of the film They Only Kill Their Masters, with Andy Griffith taking the James Garner role of a small town sheriff (he would play similar roles in three more TV movies, the final two written by Masters writer Lane Slate and even giving Griffith's character the same name as Garner's in the movie, "Abel Marsh."). Babe earned Goldsmith his third Emmy for this tearjerker biopic starring Susan Clark as the Olympic athlete Babe Didrikson.

Our Golden Age disc, TOYS IN THE ATTIC, is our first release from composer George Duning, who is most famous as the composer of Picnic yet probably most familiar to our readers for his Star Trek TV scores like "Metamorphosis," "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" and "The Empath." Toys was a family melodrama directed by the late, great George Roy Hill and based on a Lillian Hellman play, and starring an unusual mix of actors -- Dean Martin, Geraldine Page, Yvette Mimieux, Wendy Hiller and Gene Tierney. Our disc presents the complete score in stereo.

Oscar winning director John Schlesinger died on June 25th in Palm Springs, California at the age of 77. He had suffered a debilitating stroke in December of 2000 and his condition had worsened in recent weeks, and he was taken off life support last Thursday.

Born in London, he had made movies since being given a home movie camera at the age of 11. Entering the British Army during World War II, he served as a draftsman and ended up helping put on revue skits with the Combined Services Entertainment unit. After the war, he entered Oxford and was named president of their dramatic society's Experimental Theater Club (one of his classmates was fellow director Tony Richardson), and also made experimental films.

He worked as an actor on the stage and in such films as The Pursuit of the Graf Spee, before giving it up to concentrate on directing. One of his shorts, the acclaimed Terminus, led to his first feature, A Kind of Loving starring Alan Bates. This was followed by the hit Billy Liar, a Walter Mitty-ish story which later inspired the smash hit stage musical Billy (songs by John Barry and Don Black).

Billy Liar's composer was Richard Rodney Bennett, whom Schlesinger had known socially before he hired him. Bennett remarked in a Film Score Monthly interview, "I realized immediately that he was an extremely musical person who knows a lot about music, and his responses to music were quite intelligent."

While continuing to direct for the stage, Schlesinger made Darling, one of the classic films of the "Swinging London" era, which earned him the first of three nominations for Best Director, and the film received Oscars for Actress (Julie Christie), Screenplay (Frederic Raphael) and Costumes. The film's unusually frank depiction of modern sexual mores should be no surprise, as Schlesinger was one of the very first openly gay film directors.

He reunited with Christie for his next film, a widescreen, lavishly photographed (by Nicolas Roeg) adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, which also starred Peter Finch, Terence Stamp and Alan Bates. The film was a boxoffice failure, but even Pauline Kael, who was not a Schlesinger fan, wrote "it's a botch, but you can feel that it was made with love." The film received its only Oscar nomination for Richard Rodney Bennett's gorgeous score, featuring one of most achingly beautiful love themes ever written for the screen. Bennett worked closely with Schlesinger on the score, the director playing Holst and Vaughan Williams for the composer, and Bennett labored especially hard on the complex cue "Bathsheba and Troy," where Christie imagines Stamp as a charging cavalry battalion.

Schlesinger's first film in the U.S., Midnight Cowboy, proved to be his most acclaimed achievement, winning him the Best Director Oscar and providing Jon Voight with his breakthrough role. According to the book John Barry: A Life in Music (by Geoff Leonard, Pete Walker and Gareth Bramley), it was Schlesinger who found the pre-existing Harry Nilsson song "Everybody's Talkin'" which became inextricably linked with the film, and even Barry, the film's composer (who had scored commercials for Schlesinger in the early 60s), admitted "it worked incredibly well." Barry's own contribution showed remarkable variety, including a pastiche cue for a sci-fi movie clip as well as the film's famous main theme which he wrote "in an apartment on 72nd street in 20 minutes," inspired by the "terrific sadness" of New York's less fortunate denizens.

Sunday Bloody Sunday (from a screenplay by New Yorker film critic Penelope Gilliatt), followed two years later and is arguably his finest film, its depiction of a love triangle between a gay doctor (Peter Finch), an employment counselor (Glenda Jackson) and a younger, bisexual artist (Murray Head, whose other claim to fame was his pop single rendition of "One Night in Bangkok") far surpassing Darling's look at modern sexuality, and even 32 years later there are few films about gay lifestyles that can compare to it. (Sean Connery later expressed regret that he didn't get to play the Finch role, a notion which is fairly mindblowing.) Schlesinger, Finch, Jackson and Gilliatt were all Oscar nominated for their work.

After contributing a segment to the Olympic documentary Visions of Eight, he directed the unsuccessful but beautifully crafted (with crew members like Conrad Hall, John Barry, Albert Whitlock and production designer Richard MacDonald, it could hardly be otherwise) adaptation of Nathaniel West's classic Hollywood satire The Day of the Locust.

Schlesinger followed it up with one of his few boxoffice hits, the film of William Goldman's bestselling thriller Marathon Man. Goldman himself (in the book The Craft of the Screenwriter) felt that Schlesinger took on the atypical project because of Locust's failure, and spoke highly of the director -- "when Schlesinger wants to do a certain kind of thing and thinks he can make it play, I am very happy to have a man of that caliber do a genre piece." The film hit some rocky ground during the post-production period, as one negative test screening in San Francisco resulted in many of the more violent moments being toned down. Schlesinger hired composer Michael Small on the basis of his work on The Parallax View, and told the composer "This film is about pain." Small spoke highly of the director in an exhaustive profile of the composer (by Rudy Koppl) in the August 1998 issue of Music From the Movies, stating "He's very open minded, but very tough. He's an artist who has a great delight in the creative process, who likes to be surprised, who always pushes a performance to a new level. He might say 'You can do better than that trombone note,' rather than 'I don't like it.' There is always the underlying confidence, which is so infectious and makes one work always a little harder."

1979's Yanks (by Walter Bernstein and Chariots of Fire writer Colin Welland) is perhaps Schlesinger's most underrated film, a charming romance about American soldiers (Richard Gere, William Devane) stationed in England in World War II and their relationships with the local women (Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave). It was Richard Rodney Bennett's third project with the director, and in an interview he commented on Redgrave's character, "a lady who played the cello in a little country string orchestra, and that goes back to my childhood. John is older than me, but I come from that sort of background where people make music, and he did too, which was very near to his heart."

The comedy Honky Tonk Freeway, an expensive disaster, was followed by television work including one of his most acclaimed projects, Alan Bennett's An Englishman Abroad, in which Coral Browne played herself in a fictional treatment of her encounter with the exiled spy Guy Burgess (Alan Bates) in Moscow. He returned to features with another story featuring real life spies, The Falcon and the Snowman, starring Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn in outstanding performances and introducing the David Bowie song "This Is Not America."

The horror film The Believers, the Shirley MacLaine vehicle Madame Sousatzka, and the slick psychological thriller Pacific Heights were much less satisfying, and his film of Ian McEwan's novel The Innocent, which seemed to be ideal movie material, was a big disappointment not helped by questionable casting -- Anthony Hopkins may be a superb actor but is less than convincing as the embodiment of all things American.

Schlesinger received more acclaim with two British TV projects, A Question of Attribution (another Alan Bennett script, with James Fox as the spy Anthony Blunt and Fawlty Towers' Prunella Scales as Queen Elizabeth) and Cold Comfort Farm, a comedy which featured a breakthrough performance from Kate Beckinsale in the lead and which received a theatrical release in the U.S. He also made a little seen cable version of the Sweeney Todd story (not based on the Sondheim musical), and Richard Rodney Bennett was so pleased with his score that he tried to turn it into a concert suite but was unfortunately unable to get the rights. Schlesinger also made a return to acting with small roles in two gay-themed TV movies -- the British adaptation of David Leavitt's excellent novel The Lost Language of Cranes (starring Brian Cox in a powerful performance as a man whose son's homosexuality forces him to acknowledge his own), and The Twilight of the Golds.

Schlesinger's final two features were unfortunate by any standards. Despite a fine cast (Sally Field, Ed Harris, Joe Mantegna), Eye For an Eye was an irresponsible revenge saga, and the gay-themed comedy-drama The Next Best Thing was truly ghastly, starring a charmless Madonna alongside Rupert Everett, who complained publicly about not receiving screenplay credit for his contribution (trust me, this a film that no sensible person would want the credit for writing).

Schlesinger is survived by his companion of 36 years, photographer Michael Childers, as well as his brother Roger and his sister Hilary.

TERMINUS (documentary short) - Ron Grainer
A KIND OF LOVING - Ron Grainer
BILLY LIAR - Richard Rodney Bennett
DARLING - John Dankworth
DAYS IN THE TREES (TV)
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD - Richard Rodney Bennett
MIDNIGHT COWBOY - John Barry
SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY - Ron Geesin
VISIONS OF EIGHT (segment "The Longest") - Henry Mancini
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST - John Barry
MARATHON MAN - Michael Small
YANKS - Richard Rodney Bennett
HONKY TONK FREEWAY - Elmer Bernstein, George Martin
SEPARATE TABLES (TV)
AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD (TV) - George Fenton
THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN - Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays
THE BELIEVERS - J. Peter Robinson
MADAME SOUSATZKA - Gerald Gouriet
PACIFIC HEIGHTS - Hans Zimmer
A QUESTION OF ATTRIBUTION (TV) - Gerald Gouriet
THE INNOCENT - Gerald Gouriet
COLD COMFORT FARM - Robert Lockhart
EYE FOR AN EYE - James Newton Howard
THE TALE OF SWEENEY TODD (TV) - Richard Rodney Bennett
THE NEXT BEST THING - Gabriel Yared

Hawkins on Murder/Winter Kill/Babe - Jerry Goldsmith - Film Score Monthly
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Denny Zeitlin - Perseverance
Le Divorce - Richard Robbins - Grandstand
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Trevor Jones - Varese Sarabande (mail order only)
Toys in the Attic - George Duning - Film Score Monthly
Varese Sarabande 25th Anniversary Celebration vol. 2 - various - Varese Sarabande (mail order only)

American Wedding - Christophe Beck - Song CD on Universal
And Now Ladies and Gentlemen - Michel Legrand - Song CD Piano Bar by Patricia Kass on Sony
Freaky Friday - Rolfe Kent - Song CD on Hollywood
Gigli - John Powell - Score CD due Aug. 19 from Varese Sarabande
The Magdalene Sisters - Craig Armstrong
The Secret Lives of Dentists - Gary DeMichele

August 12
Open Range - Michael Kamen - Hollywood
S.W.A.T. - Elliot Goldenthal - Varese Sarabande
August 19
Freddy vs. Jason - Graeme Revell - Varese Sarabande
Gigli - John Powell - Varese Sarabande
Passionada - Harry Gregson-Williams - Varese Sarabande
August 26
Jeepers Creepers 2 - Bennett Salvay - Varese Sarabande
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - Alan Silvestri - Varese Sarabande
Date Unknown
The Abominable Dr. Phibes/The Shuttered Room -Basil Kirchin - Perseverance
Amerika - Basil Poledouris - Prometheus
Battle Cry - Max Steiner - Screen Archives/BYU
The Hellstrom Chronicle - Lalo Schifrin - Aleph
Mighty Joe Young, etc. - Roy Webb, et al - Monstrous Movie Music
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation - Henry Mancini - Intrada Special Collection
Night and the City - Franz Waxman/Benjamin Frankel - Screen Archives
A Summer Place - Max Steiner - Screen Archives/BYU
This Island Earth, etc. - Herman Stein, et al - Monstrous Movie Music

August 1 - Walter Scharf born (1910)
August 1 - Jerome Moross born (1913)
August 1 - Paul Sawtell died (1971)
August 3 - Louis Gruenberg born (1884)
August 3 - Robert Emmett Dolan born (1906)
August 4 - David Raksin born (1912)
August 6 - Oliver Wallace born (1887)
August 6 - Cyril J. Mockridge born (1896)
August 7 - Joseph Kosma died (1969)

CAMP - Stephen Trask

"Composer Stephen Trask ('Hedwig and the Angry Inch') contributes a gentle score that punctuates the many musical numbers."

David Rooney, Variety

LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE - Alan Silvestri

"In case the audience has dozed off, De Bont makes sure to introduce each stunt and new gadget with a thumpingly synthetic musical cue."

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

"Other off-camera contributions are strong, including returning production designer Kirk M. Petruccelli's grand-scale sets and Alain Silvestri's orchestral suspense score, mixed with occasional techno-rock elements."

David Rooney, Variety

SEABISCUIT - Randy Newman

"Randy Newman's music is plangent, yearning: The chords descend, yet the notes seem to beckon toward something in the distance -- I'll give you 10-to-1 odds it's 'the ineffable.' Newman scored The Natural (1984), and, as in that film, the subtext of every shot is, 'Wasn't that a time!'"

David Edelstein, Slate.com

"The movie is a special sort of betrayal. Ross, who adapted the book as well as directed, takes everything that Hillenbrand trusted her audience to understand and makes it explicit. He calcifies the emotion of the book into standard Hollywood prestige-movie tropes. Shafts of dusty sunlight pour through the immaculately appointed period interiors. Triumphal music (composed by Randy Newman -- the bad Randy Newman) swells on the soundtrack."

Charles Taylor, Salon.com

"Randy Newman's score is not always as subtle as it might have been."

Jean Oppenheimer, Dallas Observer

"When added to the old-fashioned glossiness of the cinematography and the sentiment inherent in Randy Newman's music, they make a story that actually happened seem somehow less than real."

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"The way Mr. Bridges carries Howard's grief in his eyes and shoulders makes the director's telegraphic reminders of his loss feel heavy-handed and superfluous. The score, a rare exercise in humorlessness by Randy Newman, has the same effect."

A.O. Scott, New York Times

"The relationship between Woolf and Pollard, with its mix of hijinks and gallantry, is one of the most moving things in a deeply moving picture, a film awash in reverie, nostalgia and bittersweet Randy Newman melodies."

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

"Randy Newman's moving score charts the emotional course as the camera shoulders into a pack of horses fighting and thundering for the finish line."

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

"Seabiscuit is narrated by PBS historian David McCullough, who performed a similar role for Ken Burns's The Civil War. (Indeed, the distant trumpets of Randy Newman's score might have burdened even Burns to a fanfare-thee-well.)"

J. Hoberman, Village Voice

From: "Don Davis"

Dear Film Score Monthly,

The point I want to respond to is the reference to the Matrix "posse", in which Larry and Andy Wachowski have relegated a certain amount of their profit participation to be distributed among key talent including the director of photography and a few others. The article made a point that it seemed to be a dis to me that I was not included, but I would like to point out that certain members of the talent team are entitled to residuals, and the residuals are higher if the film is successful. Those who are entitled to residuals are the actors, the directors, the writers, the producer, and of course the composer. The Wachowskis felt that it was an injustice that those members of the "posse" are just as key to the success of the Matrix films, yet they get no residuals, so the brothers set aside some of the residuals that would have gone to them to be distributed to the posse, and therefore to include me in that distribution would be inherently unfair. It should also be pointed out that due to the creative accounting that all major studios indulge in, it may well be possible that no one in the "posse" will receive any money at all, whereas my BMI checks are not subject to the studio's accounting tricks. It would be well to point out, in addition, that the reason this charity of the brothers was made public is because Larry Wachowski's divorce filings were posted on the internet, and the distribution of these residuals were being disputed by his ex-wife, and so I feel that public discussion of this very private matter of the Wachowski brothers is really not appropriate.

Thanks,
Don Davis

Just emailing to say how much I appreciated Knell Noekebreck's article on the Matrix Reloaded and its music. It shed light on one aspect of the film I'd had a great deal of difficulty with -- the Zion goes bananas scene -- a scene that cried out for something a little more heartfelt from Don Davis, but got the dregs of techno instead. Knell links it well to the intellectual concerns of the trilogy.