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So how do y'all like or not like this early Horner score? I think it's one of his finest, loaded with exciting and interestingly orchestrated themes that never tire IMO. The beat, the rhythm, the twangs! Love it! I've heard some say that GORKY PARK reminds them of the COMMANDO score (which is actually backwards since COMMANDO came 2 years later). I don't remember COMMANDO though. Anyway, just wanted to show some love for an early Horner score that still delivers the goods today.
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So how do y'all like or not like this early Horner score? I think it's one of his finest, loaded with exciting and interestingly orchestrated themes that never tire IMO. The beat, the rhythm, the twangs! Love it! I've heard some say that GORKY PARK reminds them of the COMMANDO score (which is actually backwards since COMMANDO came 2 years later). I don't remember COMMANDO though. Anyway, just wanted to show some love for an early Horner score that still delivers the goods today.
I miss this rock/fusion style of his from the 80s. Gorky Park, 48 Hrs. and Commando were all done in this style and then... nothing.
What happened, Mr. Horner?!?
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Posted: |
Jul 28, 2009 - 12:25 PM
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By: |
Sarge
(Member)
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Two very adult books I shouldn't have been reading at age ten, but did... THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP and GORKY PARK. The former belonged to my mother, the latter to my father. Lest someone think I was a child prodigy, certain elements (i.e. sex) baffled me, but I loved them both.
When the film version of GORKY PARK came out, I plagued my parents to see it. Fearing a repeat of an earlier situation, where I had read the CONAN stories, begged to see CONAN THE BARBARIAN and sulked for days when they refused, my father took me at the fairly inappropriate age of twelve to see GORKY PARK.
The gruesome murders, the Russian setting, the complex mystery... again, my young mind couldn't process it all, but I simply loved it. Since films didn't appear on vhs back then for up to a year, if at all, I bought Horner's score on audio cassette to placate myself and played the hell out of it for years. In fact, pieces of it show up in the backyard action movies I made with my friends. And today I trace my love for film noir directly back to this film.
Yes, Horner cannibalized certain parts for COMMANDO and 48 HRS, but this is its best incarnation. And a somewhat daring approach, given the film's setting and tone. Another composer probably would have gone for a darker, more moody tone. Horner's music punched up what could have felt like a much slower movie.
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Two very adult books I shouldn't have been reading at age ten, but did... THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP and GORKY PARK. The former belonged to my mother, the latter to my father. Lest someone think I was a child prodigy, certain elements (i.e. sex) baffled me, but I loved them both.
Heh. I read GARP when I was a kid, too!
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Clearly, you all have exceptionally good taste. 
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I used to have dreams (nightmares?) when I was in high school that our school's marching band performed an arrangement of "action" theme from this. After all of these years, I still cannot recall how they pulled it off, but apparently it was recognizable as Gorky Park in the dream!
I love the totally dated drum machine sounds in this, too. No joke, I broke down and bought a separate iPod for my soundtracks largely because I wanted to hear "Following KGB" whenever I felt like it, no matter where in the world I was.
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I love the totally dated drum machine sounds in this, too. No joke, I broke down and bought a separate iPod for my soundtracks largely because I wanted to hear "Following KGB" whenever I felt like it, no matter where in the world I was.
OH I like you!
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ah , memories of the 80's come flooding back with this thread. had a friend who worked at FOOTLIGHT RECORDS and when this score came out , he would rush home every nite and put on GORKY PARK, for what seemed like weeks on end. i had read the novel and thought it was a great read. but the film , well thats a different matter. i stayed away because i just liked that book so much, but my friend made me listen to that wonderful score . i just couldnt stop playing it. i still do.
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I liked it then and I remember thinking "This horner fellow is pretty useful"
These days feal like some kind of a "Horner Revival".
The brilliant expanded STAR TREK II, which actually reminded me many years later how really, really great this score actually is and how good Horner was in his formative years.
GORKY PARK (listening to it right now) was always one of my favourites of his work - also due to the quality of the film - and of course WOLFEN, ALIENS, BRAINSTORM and some years later THE ROCKETEER, HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS, SNEAKERS (Wow! subtle and melodic, the last of the great innovative Horner scores, I think) and finally THE PELICAN BRIEF. And maybe TITANIC, for its sheer epic grandezza and melodical beauty. I think the man was REALLY good, from 1982 to 1997. But after that?
Looking forward to AVATAR, though. Maybe Horner turns out to be an actual comeback kid ;-)
Hope so. Really do.
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Posted: |
Jul 28, 2009 - 6:28 PM
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By: |
Trekfan
(Member)
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The brilliant expanded STAR TREK II, which actually reminded me many years later how really, really great this score actually is and how good Horner was in his formative years.
GORKY PARK (listening to it right now) was always one of my favourites of his work - also due to the quality of the film - and of course WOLFEN, ALIENS, BRAINSTORM and some years later THE ROCKETEER, HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS, SNEAKERS (Wow! sublte and melodic, the last of the great innovative Horner scores, I think) and finally THE PELICAN BRIEF. And maybe TITANIC, for its sheer epic grandezza and melodical beauty. I think the man was REALLY good, from 1982 to 1997. But after that?
Well said. And I agree on "Sneakers" - everyone of a certain listening generation will remember what a revelation that was at the time; Branford Marsalis on sax, inspired minimalism (the film was temp-tracked by Phil Alden Robinson with John Adams) and many parts of the score are just plain fun - from the Sneakers "theme" to the Whistler driving stuff (very Williams-ish). Almost enough to forgive some of it resurfacing in "The Pelican Brief" (not itself without its charms).
I've always considered my favorite Horner "era" to be 1982 through about 1996 or so, so roughly matches yours. His concentration of projects 1992-1994 alone had some beautiful scores - "Patriot Games", "Searching For Bobby Fischer", "Man Without A Face", "We're Back!", "Once Upon A Forest", "Legends of the Fall", even smaller efforts like "Jack The Bear", "House of Cards", "Bopha!", etc. It was a time where Horner was doing a huge number of projects and you knew you'd get something interesting each time out.
As for your "But after that?", I know what you mean on the larger scale and there's always ongoing debate (i.e. have films fundamentally changed, is Horner no longer really "trying", has he run dry as a composer, etc.) - but to a new generation of fans joining him after "Titanic", a lot of those scores post-"Titanic" are their reference point and "gold standard", so it's generational, too. I will say that although his more recent work lacks the passion, power and innovation of his earlier stuff, to me, there are some remarkable gems that emerge every once in a while - "Iris" is all stunning, shimmering beauty, and similarly "The New World" is jaw-droppingly beautiful at times. Something like "The Chumscrubber" is cool and innovative, and even "House of Sand and Fog" works amazingly within the picture. We will see on "Avatar"!
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