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Posted: |
Feb 18, 2013 - 6:59 PM
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By: |
Senn555
(Member)
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INTRADA Announces:
GLADIATOR
Composed and Conducted by JERRY GOLDSMITH
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 231
The 1992 Columbia production Gladiator might have been part of a sports movie quartet for Jerry Goldsmith—he’d tackled basketball in in 1986, baseball in 1992, and football in 1993. Gladiator boasted some of the inspirational qualities of Goldsmith’s other sports-related movie projects, but the overall tone was much darker, dominated by desperation, poverty and violence. Goldsmith had been employing an extensive palette of electronics in his scores since the mid-1980s, and his Gladiator score balances traditional orchestra and synthesizers equally. One key approach to the score is a funk-based, staccato bass line; clicking, metallic-sounding synth effects; a bluesy low piano line; acoustic rhythm section (including bongos); keening strings; and, finally, a burst of distinctive action licks for flute, marimba and piano that characterize Tommy Riley’s fighting abilities. The score also features a moody love theme for piano and woodwinds, sparked by the smash of Simmons electronic drums, a staple of Goldsmith’s late’80s-early ’90s electronic effects. Although Goldsmith's score was removed from the film, Intrada is proud to present his complete score (from the original stereo elements) for the first time.
Brooding actor James Marshall plays Tommy Riley, a former Golden Gloves champion whose real ambition is to be a writer. After his mother dies and his father takes on too many gambling debts, Tommy finds himself enrolled in a run-down high school on Chicago’s South Side. He is soon stuck between two feuding gang members: closet family man Abraham Lincoln Haines (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and vicious ringleader Shortcut (Lance Slaughter). When Tommy gets in between the two, his obvious fighting skills attract the attention of grizzled boxing manager Pappy Jack (Robert Loggia). Pappy has been organizing illegal, underground boxing matches and Pappy sees a quick opportunity to make some cash off Tommy. Tommy sees opportunity too—to erase his father’s gambling debts and get himself out of the slums. But Lincoln is fighting for his own personal reasons—his wife and child—and despite their growing friendship, the two young men soon find themselves facing each other in the ring.
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 231
Retail Price: $19.99
Available Now
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.7973/.f
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I would never peg this for a sports movie (well, tr 17 is triumphal). Sounds more like something for a 70's caper movie. But it's good, I may have to break into my piggy bank for this.
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Sounds like a Jerry Goldsmith stress test for audio compression algorithms.
I'm glad by the time Rudy came along he had gotten this stuff out of his system...
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Wow... Some of you guys really are keeping whatever enthusiasm you have for this title to yourselves. Look, it's a fun, energetic score, perhaps a 90's corollary to his early 70's SHAMUS score (both infused with the musical style of the period, a kinetic, enthusiastic attempt to provide personality and momentum to a lifeless, cliched, crime related drama). You make it sound like it's bottom-drawer Goldsmith and it's not. (Save that for CRIMINAL LAW and a few others, including - I dare say - an uninspired, wince-inducing fan favorite like SUPERGIRL).
Sure, it would probably have overwhelmed the modest, unimpressive film it was intended for... but the best Goldsmith could make even the hoariest turkey soar (THE FINAL CONFLICT, anyone?). But we'll never know because the filmmakers were looking for something apparently more TERMINATOR-esque - literally.
If only this score could have been linked to the right film it might have been magic, but we'll never know.
Take it for what it is, popcorn-munching-movie-music with a sizable adrenaline rush. There's any number of lesser film composers from the 90's I can suggest, and if any one of them had written it, many of you would be - well, I'll be kind and just say "salivating" over themselves for this release. It's a score entirely of its era, I'll definitely admit that, and maybe that makes it a guilty pleasure... but then so many film scores are that, aren't they?
Intrada deserves applause for putting their money behind the release of yet another rejected score from an important composer. And I put my money behind it as soon as I read the announcement when I got off work.
Bravo Intrada!!!
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Ordered right away!
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