I'm loving all the love for Beltrami, he is one of my favourite composers also. The Watcher was the second soundtrack I ever bought (the first was Elfman's Planet of the Apes) so I have a lot of fond memories of it, the main title is great (awful film though). I love his Scream scores, which don't seem to have got a mention here, and I've enjoyed most of his horror stuff since (I think Cursed is some of his most fun material). Just yesterday I was giving Flight of the Phoenix a second listen, and it's such vital, menacing music. I think Marco is one of the top composers to get great music out of lesser projects (The Omen is maybe my favourite score from him). Although I'm not such a fan of the Die Hard stuff, I hope he continues to be hired for large-scale blockbusters along with his developing interest in independent and/or foreign films, as I think he can out-Silvestri even Silvestri in the bombastic action and fantasy stakes (I, Robot, Terminator 3 etc). The highest compliment I could pay him is that even though Danny Elfman is my favourite composer by a mile, I think Marco's Hellboy score towers over his and was truly disappointed not to hear a Beltrami Hellboy 2.
But the topic of least favorite scores is interesting too. If I had to pick three it would be probably Resident Evil, The Incorporated and.... hmm... difficult to decide Probably First 20 million is always the hardest...
Lokutus, many things to say.
First, did you see Bornedal's Vikaren? Easily the worst Beltrami-scored movie I've seen. I thought it was dreadful. The score was quite lovely.
Second, more thoughts on Deep Water. Thanks for those two unreleased samples! I'll always devour new Beltrami, even from Deep Water, so thanks. The two cues were pretty good, better than most on the promo album. I love at the end of "Nim-phone-maniac" when the woman breathily utters Buck Sanders' name 'Buck.....' like she's in the throes of passion. I'm sure Buck had a good time putting that together. Second, my favorite cue on this album is easily "Reconciliation." So sweet and tender. Reminds me of a cue on Beltrami's Land's End score album. Heard that one? "Half Mast" is also great. I love how "Road to Hellerup" sounds Scream-ish.
Third, I saw that you are a big non-fan of Tyler Bates also eh? Your taste still has a very good rating.
I guess the third Beltrami score in my top 3 least favorite would also be The First $20 Million Is Always The Hardest also. I feel I should tell you that I love the score to Resident Evil and The Incorporated. The Incorporated was pretty simplistic, but it closely mirrored the first Scream score in a lot of its use of electronics, groaning/whining strings, and interesting percussive rhythms.
Have you heard The Minus Man? There is a track "Hunt For Gene" that I think is the most heartbreakingly beautiful cues Beltrami has ever written -- next to "Organ Grinder" and so, so, so many others.
Knowing never grabbed me. It's got terrific moments in spades, each cue has something to offer and the double threat of "Shock and Awww" and "Caleb Leaves" is riveting and powerful. Somehow it totally didn't add up for me, but I can't really explain why. "Door Jam" rocks though...
I love his Scream scores, which don't seem to have got a mention here, and I've enjoyed most of his horror stuff since (I think Cursed is some of his most fun material). Just yesterday I was giving Flight of the Phoenix a second listen, and it's such vital, menacing music. I think Marco is one of the top composers to get great music out of lesser projects (The Omen is maybe my favourite score from him). Although I'm not such a fan of the Die Hard stuff, I hope he continues to be hired for large-scale blockbusters along with his developing interest in independent and/or foreign films, as I think he can out-Silvestri even Silvestri in the bombastic action and fantasy stakes (I, Robot, Terminator 3 etc). The highest compliment I could pay him is that even though Danny Elfman is my favourite composer by a mile, I think Marco's Hellboy score towers over his and was truly disappointed not to hear a Beltrami Hellboy 2.
Beltrami's Scream scores are my favorites of his. I love them so dearly. Although Beltrami and Sanders are not yet attached to Scre4m, I fully expect they will be and I can't wait to hear them revisit my favorite score trilogy of all time. I agree Cursed was pretty fun, more fun than the dreary horror of The Eye, but more down 'n dirty than The Omen, all of which I love. How about the Cursed Love Theme that plays over the final scene of the movie, which Petra Haden vocalizing Beltrami's theme over Buck Sanders' guitar work? That is one of my top 3 all-time Beltrami musical moments, along with Scream's "NC-17" and Minus Man's "Hunt For Gene". I, Robot's "Round Up" isn't far behind. "Put Away the Wet" and "Big For the Shrink" and "Face Down" from The Watcher all possess enormous orchestral might and sweep.
Yes, Die Hard 4 wasn't terribly exciting, but very impressive. I prefer his other big blockbuster scores...I Robot, T3, Yuma, even the very underrated Underworld: Evolution. Thank heavens that got a score release! Die Hard 4 holds a special place in my heart, however, as it was the one time I got to meet Marco, Buck, Marcus Trumpp, and attend the scoring sessions for 4 days. I even met Bruce Willis who popped his head into the sessions. This, as you might imagine, was the most magical time of my life, before and since. To see the orchestra bring his music to life, to see the maestro himself conducting a good portion of the score, working from the control room, Sanders as co-pilot...simply a dream come true. The Die Hard 4 cue "Copter Chase" (when the terrorists pursue McClane and the kid through DC in a helicopter -- pretty imaginative title no?) was the most thrilling cue to watch come to life. The session players really gave their all for that one. I remember walking past the sheet music and the top cue was labeled "Dyin' Hard, Yo!" and I smiled because that is such typical irreverant hilarity from Beltrami when naming his cues. "Apartment Shootout" was incredible too.
Flight of the Phoenix is so strange -- in the best way! "Model Citizen" and "Heat Dream" are my favorites.
That is quite a Hellboy compliment -- I agree wholeheartedly but not surprisingly I'm sure. I like Elfman a lot, and his Hellboy score was terrific, but unfortunately it still pales in the shadow of Beltrami's definitive Hellboy sound. Shame on del Toro. I can understand him going to Navarrette for his Spanish-language features, but stick with Marco man!
I got The Watcher cheaply on eBay and didn't like it at all, so I gave it away to a complete stranger on FSM. What goes around comes around, and not only did I make a great pal in Odlicno in that transaction, but he turned me on to other Beltrami scores, and I ended up being a big fan.
So indirectly, a Marco Beltrami score that I didn't like won me a friend and and made me an admirer of the composer.
I like Beltrami in general, but one of his tunes that stands out for me is Judy Greer's transformation scene in Cursed. It features a low tone, brooding rhythm that's playful, dangerous, and catchy. Even though there's no album for it, I can't get that tune out of my head.
I'd still like to hear how he would approach a romantic comedy.
I love that music, too. The finger snaps, the twangy bass guitar, high strings -- typical brilliant Beltrami to bring this kind of inventive scoring approach to that scene.
I've heard a few times that Beltrami has no interest in doing romantic comedies. Thank the gods, I say. Look what happened to Christophe Beck. Slightly joking, but I do wish he'd stop doing romantic comedies and comedies. I think Beltrami has an inherent dark streak that comes out aplenty in his music, and I don't know what he'd do with a romantic comedy, although I suppose The First $20 Million Is Always The Hardest comes closest.
I got The Watcher cheaply on eBay and didn't like it at all, so I gave it away to a complete stranger on FSM. What goes around comes around, and not only did I make a great pal in Odlicno in that transaction, but he turned me on to other Beltrami scores, and I ended up being a big fan.
So indirectly, a Marco Beltrami score that I didn't like won me a friend and and made me an admirer of the composer.
Funny how it all works.
Cool story. Did you come around to The Watcher again?
There is a boot and an isolated score on director's cut edition of the film - also featuring Marco's commentary and a few more moments not included on the boot (as he didn't record some of the extended scenes and there are only mock-ups included in the director's cut in at least one added scene).
Was the Beltrami Hellboy commentary any good? Hell, I'm sure it was. I'll have to seek that out. I listened to his commentary for I, Robot and I really enjoyed listening to what he had to say. A very interesting and whimsically funny man. I really felt like the gods smiled on me the day I noticed the new I Robot DVD had a composer commentary. Composer commentaries are so rare, let alone one by Beltrami. Are there any other composer commentaries besides Hellboy and I Robot that he's done? I know he participated in the DVD commentary for The Crow: Salvation, but he was talking with three other guys from different departments and I don't think they let him talk enough.
You know what drove me crazy?!?! I listened to all three Wes Craven director commentaries for the Scream films and not once do I recall him mentioning Marco or the music. C'mon Wes, you can do better than that! What also pissed me off is when Kathryn Bigelow won her many awards at the Oscars and thanked everybody who worked on Hurt Locker except Beltrami and Sanders, two of the only HL nominees that actually didn't win. I thought it was pretty tacky of her, as the director, to not mention her composers (that were nominated and lost!) since she was up at the podium so many times and had ample opportunity. I mean, they kept playing "The Way I Am" from HL every time anyone won from that movie, so you'd think the music would inspire someone to thank the gracious non-winners! Okay, this is probably just my biased Beltrami fandom that's making me feel this way, I'm sure you guys don't want to hear about all this, sorry...
I have seen a few minutes from VIKAREN only. The opening space shots with the main theme were beautiful, hyperdramatic Main Titles quite impressive as well, but the film looked too much like a clone of The Faculty. :-)
The Minus Man is a lovely little score from a pretty weird movie. Hunt for Gene cue is very nice as well as the Main Titles or Rancheros Bolero. Land's End is quite variable score with many different styles Marco later developed in some of his film scores (from dreamy solo voices, through hypnotic electronic to fast guitar-perfomed motifs and mariachi music). I like that one a lot The Waterfall myth is one of my favorite cues from Land's End.
Unfortunately there are only 2 commentaries so far - I, Robot and Hellboy. I haven't heard Crow 3 commentary as I haven't got US DVD yet and it's not included on the DVD released around here.
The Waterfall myth is one of my favorite cues from Land's End.
That is a great one. Mine is "Solitude/The Search," which actually sounds a lot like JNH's cue "Swimming" from Waterworld. Check out "Swimming" sometime and compare. I think "Solitude/The Search" is in my top 5 all-time favorite Beltrami cues. It's so dreamy and contemplative, with such creative instrumentation.
I also thought "Chase Ramone" was a great precursor to Beltrami's percussively and rhythmically inventive sounds ahead of him at the time.
I also love the Main Titles to The Minus Man. Read the book, too, which was great...I love Beltrami's Main Titles to Angel Eyes, which I find similar to The Minus Man (the main titles that is).
The wonderful and haunting song La Terre Tremblante which fits perfectly the great film In the Electric Mist (don't see the bad US cut).
Love this song. I play it on a loop sometimes, over and over and over. I really like the female vocalists, Courtney Granger and Anna Laura Edmiston. They have such wonderful voices. And the main theme by Beltrami, works so well in this song, it kind of makes me wish Marco would write more songs with vocals.
Is this another instance of the choir being dropped from the score album for financial reasons? This topic came up recently in the STAR TREK and LAST AIRBENDER threads as well. I wonder if, like Howard, Beltrami was kept out of the loop for such decisions.
Is this another instance of the choir being dropped from the score album for financial reasons? This topic came up recently in the STAR TREK and LAST AIRBENDER threads as well. I wonder if, like Howard, Beltrami was kept out of the loop for such decisions.
Well, on the Varese album, tracks 2, 8, 13 and 14 all have prominent choral elements, but I'm pretty sure you're right, the track "Hellboy and Liz" towards the end of the movie is missing choir on the Varese release (the scene where they share a "hot kiss"). I've heard Hellboy dozens of times before and I've never noticed it was missing choir on the cue "Hellboy and Liz". As far as I know, there were no other choir deletions on this release, although surely there were cues in the movie with choir that were not featured on the score release either...compared to the amount of score in the film, the Varese album is pretty scant.
I seem to remember Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson talking about Beltrami on the 1st Scream commentary, near the beginning of the film when Neve Campbell tensely walks out to her porch in a tracking shot only for it to be a flase alarm, Williamson says it's his favourite score moment and then they briefly discuss plucking Beltrami from TV obscurity. Don't quote me on that though, it's been a while.
I love to revisit the Watcher whenever it's on TV! It's one of my favourite awful films, I love the part where Reeves waves a stick that's on fire (or something) in James spader's face, going "I bet this really aggravates your migraine, huh? HUH?!".
That's a good Die Hard story, I'm jealous! I'll have to revisit the music, it's tainted in my head by memories of the film, which I found a relentlessly grey-coloured bore.
How about if you guys had to pick just one Beltrami cue to draw in others? Many of you have done this with a few examples already I know. My shortlist would include the main Hellboy theme (short but you just have to hear more after!), spider-bots from I, Robot or Ben takes the stage/Something else (can't be bothered to look it up) from 3:10 to Yuma. If I were to go for something slower, then definitely something from In the electric Mist (the opening, film-named cue probably).
For my ultimate cue it's got to be the main titles from the Omen. It may sound simplistic but I think it does incredibly well in carving a unique horror voice out of the same traditional elements as Elfman or Young (favourites of mine), without making it sound anything like them.
The highest compliment I could pay him is that even though Danny Elfman is my favourite composer by a mile, I think Marco's Hellboy score towers over his and was truly disappointed not to hear a Beltrami Hellboy 2.
I'm in two minds about it, since I love the original score and would've preferred Beltrami to develop his material, but on the other hand, Elfman's score proved to me that he hasn't lost it.
This might be of some interest to Marco Beltrami fans, his score for Wes Craven's new movie, My Soul To Take, has been digitally released today by Relativity Media and is available at several digital music webshops (iTunes, Qobuz...). It's a 35 minutes album. I don't know if a CD will be available at some point.
Probably First 20 million is always the hardest...
Second, my favorite cue on this album is easily "Reconciliation." So sweet and tender. Reminds me of a cue on Beltrami's Land's End score album. Heard that one? "Half Mast" is also great. I love how "Road to Hellerup" sounds Scream-ish.
