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Yeah, "Shoeless Joe" has probably destroyed many a speaker in its 20 years.
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Ahhhh...this has become one of my fave scores of all time over the years. I'll never forget when I first got it (having never seen the film) because I was such a huge Horner fan. I listened through it while reading a book, thinking it was pleasant, but sorta low-key and meandering...a snippet of theme here, some ambiance there. Of course, as some have already mentioned, he just unleashes he orchestra in the last two cues and it LAID ME TO WASTE! I couldn't believe how effective it was at the time, and have since realized how unbelievably rare it is in any score for a composer to really just feed you enough to keep you in the story, but really save the fireworks for the end...and have them be meaningful, not just big and loud. It's such a payoff, you really feel you "earned" that release, which makes it all the more enjoyable.
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Posted: |
Jul 6, 2009 - 10:11 PM
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By: |
Mr. Jack
(Member)
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Definitely one of Horner's strongest efforts, both melodically (although the main trumpet theme was "adapted" from his earlier Journey Of Natty Gann score, but since I heard Field Of Dreams first, I've got it bass-ackwards in my head) and conceptually (I also love how the etheral synths of the opening scenes gradually flower into a fully orchestral finale...would it be that more composers used such scoring restraint). Wonderful movie, too. Damn, I need to watch this one again. I haven't pulled out the DVD since I got that fifteenth anniversary edition released in 2004.  Remember that amazing streak of great films/scores featuring Costner in the late 80's and early 90's? Amazing Stories' "The Mission", The Untouchables, Dances With Wolves, JFK, Robin Hood...? How far we've fallen. 
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Posted: |
Jul 7, 2009 - 9:18 AM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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It’s a remarkable coincidence that this thread should originate yesterday, for the evening before found me searching for a place to shoot hoops—the usual hometown court being taken in full—and I ended up at the middle school in a town over. While strolling to the baskets with not another soul around nor within sight, I looked to my right upon a huge sun-drenched athletic field and spied the baseball diamond in the shadows in the distant corner. And it occurred to me that this was the field where my successful coaching career was pretty much launched in a single game precisely 30 years ago. I had not been back since.
Yes, Shaun, I’m a sucker for those ‘second chance’ productions all right. Field Of Dreams made my FSM “desert island” film-and-score list more than a decade ago. Although it has never cracked the list of Top 10 personal soundtrack faves, I enjoy the occasional LP perusal. The music underneath the scene when Ray stares out at the snow-covered field is a particular delight. It closes the track, Deciding To Build The Field. Oh my, such a strong melancholic streak that captures the have-I-done-the-right-thing wonder creasing Ray’s expression.
On the opposite end, I don’t care for The Timeless Street in that the use of synthesizers seems cut-rate, especially since I find the scene when Ray meets Doc Graham very Twilight Zone-ish in content, which thus requires a deeper TZ-ish music complement.
Thankfully, Horner (in tandem with the incomparable Billy May, I’m sure) shined with his Old Ballplayers with the way he captured that old-time-late-afternoon-on-the-ballfield-in-August mood, something I have experienced in spades. And I really get into The Drive Home when Ray and Terence Mann ride back to the farm at night and schmooze, and then the lights of the field suddenly loom in the distance. Again, it adds a very nostalgic/melancholic touch.
Doc’s Memories is one of the highlights, for me, in that the cornstalks swaying in the breeze beyond the outfield, together with Doc’s heartfelt appreciative exit (“win one for me, boys”), and, as previously mentioned, it being the late great Burt Lancaster’s swan song…it just blows me away.
Of course, The Place Where Dreams Come True can blow anybody away as Ray meets his youthful dad and all. I especially love the moment, though, when Joe exits the field (“no, Ray, it was you”) for the final time. Horner positively overwhelmingly NAILS IT as Joe, while walking, looks up in a moment of contemplation before disappearing into the corn. He employs a trumpet wail of utter denouement. It is sheer perfection.
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All you guys know how big of a JH fan I am. THIS is one of my favorites and one of his best. I mean from the freaking get go with the pretty main title, then that omniscent music with him the field. Man it gives me goosebumps. I love the track the drive home, I think it's track 6 on the sdtk. When the three of them go back to Ray's house, just an incredible track.
If the end doesn't choke you up, then you are heartless. The ending is just so poignant. The speech and music with Terrance's speech at the end, is what great film making is all about. I think Field of Dreams is a good example, of when the right people get together to make a film, some times it can just be magical and 20 years later, it really is.
When the Doc goes off the field and helps the girl, that track and when he leaves, is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard. Man Horner you are incredible!!
Great soundtrack, has almost all the music, all the best parts are on it!!
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dkfz I feel sorry and I think all of us, fellow film score friends should say a prayer tonight for you. I feel very sorry for you.
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dkfz I feel sorry and I think all of us, fellow film score friends should say a prayer tonight for you. I feel very sorry for you.
Whatever I might have said in response to the previous comment, I couldn't possibly top this, Petie. LOL
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If the end doesn't choke you up, then you are heartless.
I don't remember the end. It has been many many years since I saw this movie. I do NOT want to see it again. All I really remember is thinking that this movie is DUMB. So, no, I was not choked up.
So how is this film "officially" a classic? I didn't see any proof presented by the person who started this thread. I prefer "The Natural" or "A League of Their Own".
It's not my fault you wouldn't have a catch with your father!
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So how is this film "officially" a classic? I didn't see any proof presented by the person who started this thread. I prefer "The Natural" or "A League of Their Own".
--Well, DUH. You just look for this logo:
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So how is this film "officially" a classic? I didn't see any proof presented by the person who started this thread. I prefer "The Natural" or "A League of Their Own".
For one thing, the film is now 20 years old. For another... the proof of the pudding is in the taste, and in this case the outpouring of affection that most people have been lavishing upon the title since it was brought up demonstrates that it touched a lot of people.
I also really enjoyed Robinson and Horner's next collaboration Sneakers as well.
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Posted: |
Jul 8, 2009 - 5:37 AM
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By: |
estgrey
(Member)
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dkfz: I don't remember the end. It has been many many years since I saw this movie. I do NOT want to see it again. All I really remember is thinking that this movie is DUMB. So, no, I was not choked up.
Just a note to let you know that you are not alone in this opinion. I found the film to be the biggest load of tripe I have seen in a long time. Its popularity, I think, relies almost entirely on a personal connection many may feel in thinking of their fathers taking them to ballgames. (And Kevin Costner dials in his usual vapid performance, which certainly does not help.) Even for a fantasy film, it has no logical coherency, and for all its heavy sense of touching some deep vein of profundity, ultimately what does it really say?
I don't remember the score at all, but my negative impression of the film may be coloring my recollections of the music.
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Posted: |
Jul 8, 2009 - 6:07 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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dkfz: I don't remember the end. It has been many many years since I saw this movie. I do NOT want to see it again. All I really remember is thinking that this movie is DUMB. So, no, I was not choked up.
Just a note to let you know that you are not alone in this opinion. I found the film to be the biggest load of tripe I have seen in a long time. Its popularity, I think, relies almost entirely on a personal connection many may feel in thinking of their fathers taking them to ballgames. (And Kevin Costner dials in his usual vapid performance, which certainly does not help.) Even for a fantasy film, it has no logical coherency, and for all its heavy sense of touching some deep vein of profundity, ultimately what does it really say?
I don't remember the score at all, but my negative impression of the film may be coloring my recollections of the music.
As stated above, I love the film and the score. I have no interest in baseball ... I have very little interest in sport generally ... and I had a wonderful relationship with my father for all of 46+ years ...
I don't like fantasy films; I do like films which deal with human relationships.
I simply recognise this film as being about a young family man who wished he had a (better) relationship with his father ... and he's given the chance to rectify what he now sees as his errors. Was the film about baseball? I don't think so.
As for Kevin Costner: I think Dances With Wolves is probably my favourite film; Open Range is one of the best films I've seen in the last ten years; he is superb in The Guardian, The War, Message In A Bottle, Tin Cup, etc. ... oh, and in Field Of Dreams - IMHO, of course
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You read it as if I'm saying that "Shoeless Joe" blew my speakers with that low bass rumble as well, and I'm sure it has done the same to many listeners' speakers.
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Posted: |
Jul 8, 2009 - 10:15 AM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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dkfz: I don't remember the end. It has been many many years since I saw this movie. I do NOT want to see it again. All I really remember is thinking that this movie is DUMB. So, no, I was not choked up.
Just a note to let you know that you are not alone in this opinion. I found the film to be the biggest load of tripe I have seen in a long time. Its popularity, I think, relies almost entirely on a personal connection many may feel in thinking of their fathers taking them to ballgames. (And Kevin Costner dials in his usual vapid performance, which certainly does not help.) Even for a fantasy film, it has no logical coherency, and for all its heavy sense of touching some deep vein of profundity, ultimately what does it really say?
I don't remember the score at all, but my negative impression of the film may be coloring my recollections of the music.
It would be fun to see both of you transported to the neighborhood back in the era of Willie, Mickey & The Duke and watch you get the swirly of a lifetime.
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Posted: |
Jul 8, 2009 - 11:24 AM
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By: |
Hurdy Gurdy
(Member)
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I saw this film in the Summer of '89 in L.A. during my first trip to America.
I really wanted to like it, but I found it dull and I never connected with it, mainly because it never even operated on any kind of built-in internal logic. Things just happened as it went along, without any reason or explanation. As someone said above, it was just plain dumb. I did love the music though, certainly the best thing about the whole affair (and a chance, along with Land Before Time, to sample the Natty Gann theme, which was unavailable back then). I understand the love for this film, and all the father-son issues within, but it was all just too American for me. The sport means nothing to me, I never had any hang-ups with my Dad and it was all so daft. Thank God for James Horner!
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" 
