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The picture got a big bad D in Entertainment Weekly, which is the watermark
for ALL entertainment, so mesa worried now 
Actually, and the above is laced with sarcasm, their review really doesn't make
the picture sound so hot, so I'm hoping they're wrong.....
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I've been listening to film music a while. Oh, all right...nearly five decades (that's "50" for those of you who don't know what a decade is! )
I haven't been excited by more than a few up-and-coming composers over those years...composers who weren't exactly new to the scene but who were just getting established in feature film.
An early few were John Williams...and John Barry...and Jerry Goldsmith.
Others include Basil Poledouris...and, more recently, Michael Giacchino.
I didn't find "John Carter" predictable as did Mr. Rutherford. I found it thrilling. I also don't think we've heard all Giacchino has to offer musically. In fact, I don't think he's even begun. If I had thought "How to Steal A Million" was all he'd have ever offered musically, I'd have condemned Mr. Williams as Mr. Rutherford, regretfully, did Mr. Giacchino.
Even when he surprised us with "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno," I don't think anyone was "ho-hum" about "Jaws"...and NOBODY knew he had a "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind" or "Star Wars" in him. No-siree.
Dont' throw Giacchino under the bus just yet. I know it damns him to have won Emmys and Oscars....to have industry recognition. Some of us know he deserves it and that his talents are still unfolding.
As for titles having catchy names, Basil, do I need to point out the silliness of suggesting that "Ben-Hur"-like solemnity in track names should be engaged for a film like "John Carter"? The contemporary (21st century) trend is toward catchiness in phrasing...something Giacchino has a clever penchant for. I don't think he has someone else naming his tracks, but I could be wrong.
Miklos Rozsa, classically trained in the early part of the 20th Century, certainly had a sense of humor, but I daresay it never occurred to him to apply any of it to his music titles. I'll also point out that those who say Giacchino repeats himself too much obviously haven't listened to Rozsa very much. Score after score after score sounds TOTALLY like Rozsa because he repeats phrasing and runs and all sorts of Rozsaesque sounds although the melodies in the scoring are always fresh and original.
Ditto Giacchino. There's more to him than there is to most other composers working today. A gift for melody is his main strength...plus he has that rare ability to get under the skin of the scenes he's scoring and invests emotion and warmth, intellect and God-given musical talent into each of his scores.
He's not a 19th Century Romanticist, by no means. But for the 21st Century, he's DA MAN!
Perfectly put!
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Posted: |
Mar 9, 2012 - 6:44 AM
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By: |
Mark Ford
(Member)
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Ron pretty much sums up my feelings about Giacchino. Thanks Ron, now I don't have to type all of that!
I always get a kick out of people saying Giacchino's music to "x" sounds like LOST or it has LOST-isms. Yes it does, because that is the sound of Giacchino's musical voice, the one he considers his own when he wrote the music for the series. That is Giacchino's sound and it just happened to come to the fore in his writing in LOST. He has developed his own trademark sound unlike so many composers today whose sound is interchangeable with each other.
How many times do you hear people bitch about Composer X not having their own sound or musical identity and then when someone does have it, they bitch that everything they write sounds the same or like the music from movie "x"! Like Ron said, Rozsa used the same musical bag of tricks over and over again, but with different variations applied and that is his trademark sound and musical style. Ditto Barry. When you get down to it, the same can be said of any number of other composers that people love because of their distinctive sound.
Also, if you aren't real familiar with a wide range of a composer's work or not too intimate with your knowledge of it, it's sometimes easier to see only the similarities in the scores and not the differences. I'm certainly guilty of that myself at times for some composers.
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Posted: |
Mar 9, 2012 - 7:19 AM
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By: |
JSWalsh
(Member)
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I toss on the CD and never look at the titles. If they're labelled "Track 1" or "Track 27" they're still movements of the same piece. Couldn't tell you which part of Mahler's Symphony #2 I like best, just toss it on and there it is.
I got a LOST soundtrack and didn't care for it, but I've liked his other scores, so maybe the trick is to throw out LOST and never think of it again, and you've got hours of listening enjoyment from all those LOST-alikes the guy wrote!
P.S. Some of you guys are insane.
P.P.S. I never thought we'd get a John Carter movie and that I'd have no interest in seeing it. This one just looks dreadful. I'll see it when I have a chance, but it might be best to just buy the CD and imagine my own story to it. I can't quite get a handle on what it is I like and what it is I don't about Giacchino's music, but I can't help it, I like some of his stuff, especially track 7 on this one, tracks 5 and 9 on that one, and a few others.
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Posted: |
Mar 9, 2012 - 7:31 AM
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By: |
Mike West
(Member)
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Ron pretty much sums up my feelings about Giacchino. Thanks Ron, now I don't have to type all of that!
I always get a kick out of people saying Giacchino's music to "x" sounds like LOST or it has LOST-isms. Yes it does, because that is the sound of Giacchino's musical voice, the one he considers his own when he wrote the music for the series. That is Giacchino's sound and it just happened to come to the fore in his writing in LOST. He has developed his own trademark sound unlike so many composers today whose sound is interchangeable with each other.
How many times do you hear people bitch about Composer X not having their own sound or musical identity and then when someone does have it, they bitch that everything they write sounds the same or like the music from movie "x"! Like Ron said, Rozsa used the same musical bag of tricks over and over again, but with different variations applied and that is his trademark sound and musical style. Ditto Barry. When you get down to it, the same can be said of any number of other composers that people love because of their distinctive sound.
Also, if you aren't real familiar with a wide range of a composer's work or not too intimate with your knowledge of it, it's sometimes easier to see only the similarities in their scores and not the differences. I'm certainly guilty of that myself.
I very much agree to Ron Pulliam and Mark Ford.
Some ruminations about MG:
Loving or hating or something in between film scores is at the bottom line a very personal things, though there are also some objective criteria, but at the end of the day it is subjective.
I like Giacchino very much, but sometimes he is a little bit too simple (for my personal taste!) when he tries to write catchy themes and iconic moments.
Because of my background and personal history, I often wish for Giacchino using pencil and paper and imagination instead of trying out with software as a working process.
I can't avoid to hear his composition ("put-together") of different layers he tried out with a computer, altering notes here and there in a layer, adding a new layer there...
I am sure if he would take more time to develop his ideas with other methods than trying out on computers, his music would probably be even more interesting and versatile and inventive.
But that is a very personal point of view based on my own work with music.
With Zimmer for example I can't avoid to hear his method to play a lot of his stuff with his hands on a keyboard putting together layers, trying out sounds and combinations this way.
That's something JNH does also sometimes, though I like the results JNH gets with that method many times - just personal taste.
Back to John Carter,
My first impression of the score was: brillant.
My second impression:
Listening to all of it I think there are very very strong cues and moments in it (like the first track)
and also it forms a unified whole, but the entire score has not that much impact on me I thought at first.
Don't know, I think I would and could like Giacchinos output much more if I would not feel all the layer-contruction-kit-try-out method -
sometimes he can hide it more (yes, John Carter for most parts actually), sometimes it is very obvious in his scores (MI 4)
maybe it is a bit exaggerated, but nowaydays hollywood film scoring is - compared to former times - rather the country of the blind and Giachino is not one-eyed, but something like one-and-4/5 eyed, which is the best you can get I think.
What do you think about that, Ron and Mark, being a long time on the road (50!) - is that wrong or exaggerated?
PS
Since I got the MP3, what is it Stanton and MG say in the liner notes in spite the usual mutual praise?
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I think Michael is that (seemingly) rare modern composer -- he has melody flowing from his fingertips but he's using all the electronic gizmos he can get his hands on to put across his point of view.
Bottom line, I think, is that his music works perfectly with the films/TV shows he scores.
Would I welcome an old-fashioned romantic fully orchestral and sweeping score from him? You betcha! And it may yet happen.
I think, however, that he is that happy convergence of a musician with God-given talents and a man with a knack for embracing modern technology in applying his craft to motion pictures.
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I heard that the movie's original cut was 170 minutes long, and Disney made Staunton to cut 40 minutes of footage.
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The movie sucks big time, but the score is really good.
Most impressive, mr. Giacchino!
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