FILM SCORE FRIDAY 5/13/05
By Scott Bettencourt
The latest CDs from our Film Score Monthly label are now in stock and
ready to order. Our Silver Age disc, JERICHO/THE
GHOSTBREAKER, includes music from two obscure TV projects from
the 1960s. Jericho was a WWII thriller series with episode scores
by Jerry Goldsmith, Lalo Schifrin, Morton Stevens, Richard Shores,
and Gerald Fried, and our CD includes suites from their scores.
The Ghostbreaker was an unsold supernatural pilot starring Kerwin
Matthews (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad), and our disc also includes
the complete score by none other than "Johnny" Williams.
Our Golden Age disc is our first CD by the great David Raksin,
who unfortunately passed on last year. TWO
WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN was a drama about moviemaking which reunited
several of the makers of the classic The Bad and the Beautiful,
including Raksin, director Vincente Minnelli and star Kirk Douglas. Raksin's
score is largely original while incorporating some themes from Bad,
and is presented in its entirety and in stereo.
And if you haven't noticed the ad at the side of our home page, our
CD of Leigh Harline's score to the Western BROKEN
LANCE is currently on sale at our site for only $14.95.
Varese
Sarabande will release Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek's
score for George Romero's newest zombie epic, LAND OF THE DEAD,
on June 21st. The composers first achieved wide notice with their collaboration
with director-composer Tom Tykwer on Run Lola Run, and the pair's
other scores include One Hour Photo, Swimming Upstream, the upcoming
The Cave, and episodes of Deadwood.
Lalo Schifrin's score to MAGNUM FORCE, the
second of the Dirty Harry films, will be released by Aleph
on July 12th.
The American Film Institute has announced a concert to
take place at the Hollywood Bowl on this September 23rd: The Big Picture:
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. The AFI has sent a ballot listing 250
film scores to over 500 people in the film community to vote on the top
25 film scores of all time, selections from which will be performed at
the concert by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra under the baton of John Mauceri.
Tickets are now on sale at HollywoodBowl.com. The complete ballot can be
found at this
site.
The following criteria have been suggested for choosing the scores:
FILM SCORE: An original music composition written to serve as the
dramatic underscore to an American film released in the sound era. (AFI
defines an American film as an English language motion picture with significant
creative and/or financial production elements from the United States. Additionally,
only Film Scores from feature-length American films released in the sound
era (1927 to present) will be considered. AFI defines a feature-length
film as a motion picture of narrative format that is typically over 60
minutes in length.
CREATIVE IMPACT: Film Scores that enrich the moviegoing experience
by bringing the emotional elements of a film's story to life.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Film Scores that create a new sound and,
therefore, present the film in a distinct fashion while advancing the art
forms.
LEGACY: Film Scores that are also enjoyed apart from the movie and
evoking the memory of its film source, thus ensuring and enlivening both
the music and the movie's historical legacy.
The 250-score master list is an unusually comprehensive one, including
not only 11 scores from each of several major composers (Bernstein, Goldsmith,
Newman, Rozsa, Steiner, Waxman and Williams) but entries from such perennially
underappreciated composers as Rosenthal (Becket, Miracle Worker),
Poeldouris (Conan) and Broughton (Silverado). Along with
the predictable entries (Gone With the Wind, Dr. Zhivago, Titanic),
there are scores of every genre and style, from Golden Age horror (Bride
of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Ghost of Frankenstein, Cat People) to
James Bond (Goldfinger, Tomorrow Never Dies) to groundbreaking electronics
(Forbidden Planet, The Andromeda Strain) as well as some unexpected
choices (Blade Runner, Equus, Hoffa, Sleuth). AFI's voters are allowed
five write-in votes, allowing room for some of the major scores not included
on their list such as The Blue Max, Catch Me If You Can, The Diary of
Anne Frank, Far From the Madding Crowd, JFK, Poltergeist, Saving Private
Ryan, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Under Fire, and Who Framed Roger
Rabbit.
John DuPrez received a Tony nomination this week
for writing (with Eric Idle) the songs for the Broadway musical version
of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT.
The cast album is now available from Decca, and other new cast albums available
include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Women, the revival of Pacific
Overtures, and a CD called Sondheim Sings Vol. 1 (1962-1972),
featuring the composer's original demo versions of several of his songs,
some of which didn't make it into the final scores.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Carrie - Pino Donaggio - Varese Sarabande
House of Wax - John Ottman - Varese Sarabande
The Incredible Film Music Box - various - Silva
Jericho/The Ghostbreaker - Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Lalo
Schifrin, Morton Stevens, Richard Shores, Gerald Fried - Film Score Monthly
Music From the Films of Steven Spielberg - John Williams, Billy
Goldenberg, Quincy Jones - Silva
Two Weeks in Another Town - David Raksin - Film Score Monthly
IN THEATERS TODAY
Brothers - Johan Soderqvist
A Hole in One - Stephen Trask
The Holy Girl - Andres Gerzenson
Kicking & Screaming - Mark Isham
Layer Cake - Lisa Gerrard, Ilan Eshkeri - Song CD on EMI with
5 score cues
Lost - Russ Landau
Mindhunters - Tuomas Kantelinen
Modigliani - Guy Farley
Monster-in-Law - David Newman - Song CD on New Line
Tell Them Who You Are - Blake Leyh
Unleashed - Massive Attack - Score CD on Virgin
COMING SOON
May 17
Angel - Robert Kral - Rounder (U.S. release)
Hour of the Gun - Jerry Goldsmith - Varese Sarabande
Spartacus - Randy Miller - Intrada Signature Collection
May 24
Cinderella Man - Thomas Newman - Decca
The Film Music of Stanley Black - Stanley Black - Chandos
Mysterious Skin - Robin Guthrie, Harold Budd - Commotion
Rediscovering Lost Scores Vol. 1 - Wendy Carlos - East Side
Digital
The Wedding Date - Blake Neely - Buysoundtrax
June 7
Battlestar Galactica: Season One - Bear McCreary - La-La Land
Caveman - Lalo Schifrin - Aleph
Crash - Mark Isham - Superb
Hostage - Alexandre Desplat - Superb
National Geographic Presents: The Last Vikings & Dr. Leakey
and the Dawn of Man - Ernest Gold/Leonard Rosenman - Intrada Special
Collection
June 21
Land of the Dead - Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek - Varese Sarabande
Loch Ness - Trevor Jones - Perseverance
June 28
War of the Worlds - John Williams - Decca
July 12
Magnum Force - Lalo Schifrin - Aleph
August 23
The Punisher - Dennis Dreith - Perseverance
Date Unknown
The Big Empty - Brian Tyler - La-La Land
Book of Stars - Richard Gibbs - La-La Land
The Chairman - Jerry Goldsmith - Prometheus
Farscape Classics Vol. 2 - Guy Gross - La-La Land
The Howling - Pino Donaggio - La-La Land
Johnny Belinda - Max Steiner - Screen Archives
Killer Klowns From Outer Space - John Massari - Percepto
Marjorie Morningstar - Max Steiner - Screen Archives
Mirrormask - Iain Ballamy - La-La Land
Rediscovering Lost Scores Vol. 2 - Wendy Carlos - East Side
Digital
Seed of Chucky - Pino Donaggio - La-La Land
Son of Fury - Alfred Newman - Screen Archives
Undead - Cliff Bradley - La-La Land
We Are Not Movies? - Mark Mothersbaugh - Commotion
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
May 13 - David Broekman born (1902)
May 14 - Charles Gross born (1934)
May 14 - Kenneth V. Jones born (1924)
May 14 - Tristram Cary born (1925)
May 14 - Frank Churchill died (1942)
May 14 - David Byrne born (1952)
May 15 - Bert Shefter born (1902)
May 15 - John Lanchbery born (1923)
May 15 - Brian Eno born (1948)
May 15 - Mike Oldfield born (1953)
May 15 - David Munrow died (1976)
May 15 - John Green died (1989)
May 16 - Elmer Bernstein begins recording score to Hawaii
(1966)
May 17 - Taj Mahal born (1942)
May 17 - Heitor Villa-Lobos died (1959)
May 17 - Hugo Friedhofer died (1981)
May 18 - Meredith Willson born (1902)
May 18 - Rick Wakeman born (1949)
May 18 - Mark Mothersbaugh born (1950)
May 18 - Kevin Gilbert died (1996)
May 18 - Albert Sendrey died (2003)
May 19 - Irving Gertz born (1915)
May 19 - Tom Scott born (1948)
May 19 - Edwin Astley died (1998)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
CRASH - Mark Isham
"The moments of rest, deepened and prolonged by Mark Isham's gentle
electronic score, serve as caesuras between the high-tension scenes."
David Denby, New Yorker
"In the meantime, quite a lot happens. Guns are pulled, cars are stolen,
children are endangered, cars flip over, and many angry, hurtful words
are exchanged, all of it threaded together by Mr. Haggis's quick, emphatic
direction and Mark Isham's maundering electronic score."
A.O. Scott, New York Times
"The characters pass each other in the night, only to (predictably)
circle back later; the soundtrack's portentous liturgies and the multiple
montages full of brooding warn us over and over again that every affront
and prejudicial slight will come home to roost tenfold."
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
"From the hilltop drive, Cheadle gazes at the twinkly/blurry lights
of L.A. to the accompaniment of Mark Isham's shimmery synthesized keyboards,
and you just know you're going to see a lot of lonely people lashing out
at a lot of other lonely peopleójust to feel something."
David Edelstein, Slate.com
"What's more, these interlocking stories don't move along as swiftly
or as urgently as they should, and much of the dialogue thumps along on
square wheels. And the picture has that mildly grainy look and those drony
soundtrack effects (the cinematography is by J. Michael Muro, the music
by Mark Isham) that are commonly used to denote serious, no-frills filmmaking."
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
HOUSE OF WAX - John Ottman
"The deaths that follow are so gruesome that composer John Ottman references
the 'Friday the 13th' theme, which is the closest thing to humor in the
entire film."
Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN - Harry Gregson-Williams
"Harry Gregson-Williams' score emphasizes the uniformly solemn tone
of the proceedings while mixing in such diverse sounds as traditional and
liturgical songs, Arabic and world music and, most surprisingly, bits from
The Crow, Blade II, and a piece by Jerry Goldsmith called 'Valhalla.'"
Todd McCarthy, Variety
"Harry Gregson-Williams' music contains nice Eastern touches but can
be a tad aggressive on occasion."
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
ON THE SCORE FOR SOME SCI-FI MOVIE DUE
NEXT WEEK
FROM: Michael Karoly
Am I the only person out there who is extremely disappointed
in the end titles for Episode III? I think they make no sense whatsoever,
and I wish I knew who to blame! Firstly, isn't this movie called REVENGE
OF THE SITH? Where is Anakin's theme? Where is Vader's theme? Couldn't
they at least ONCE state the Emperor's theme? Instead we get a Throne Room
theme (heard in Episode IV AFTER the destruction of the Death Star) that
takes up most of the cue and it ends with the JEDI ending. WHY??? To me,
the JEDI ending is a big, triumphal, musical THE END. The book is closed.
I have no idea why Williams would use that ending for the middle film in
a 6 part film series....the story isn't over yet!! He may be a victim of
the awful assertion in the trailers that THE SAGA IS COMPLETE.....no it
isn't. There are three more films after this one (though I know what the
intention is behind saying that).
After hearing what George did to Williams' score to Episode II
(the meadow scene, tracking in music from the first film for some of the
end battle scenes, and then chopping up the ending brilliance of Williams'
end titles), I am wanting to put the blame on Lucas' shoulders. Since he
isn't releasing the full scores to Episode II or Episode III, I can only
judge based on what I have. Now, when I listen to the scores in order,
with Episode III I get, essentially, the same themes I'll hear again in
Episode IV with the "THE END" ending from Episode VI.....I just feel like
someone really dropped the ball on this one. Let the Empire have its day!
Williams built to Vader's theme in the other films and now it's not even
used in the end titles! It just makes me mad- I feel Lucas has put out
two very sub-par films and is proving that the third film will be no better.
Too bad-
FILMS BETTER THAN THEIR SCORES, THE NTH
CHAPTER
FROM: "Randy Derchan"
Jack Nitzsche gets my vote as one of the worst film composers
of all time. What an unimaginative hack he was. Touche!
As far as the Gone with the Wind review,
I don't agree. Does anyone agree?
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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