I remember this. Low budget viking film. 6 million dollar man. I think they could only afford about 15 vikings! Thought at the time the score was fairly forgettable but i could easily be wrong - especially as i lifted some of it from video onto audio tape.
Sounds awesome. That CONAN-like main/end title march is terrific.
I haven't perused through the entire film yet but I do like what I've heard thus far. Performed by the Munich Symphony Orchestra, no less - Though I thought during this time they were still the "Graunke Symphony Orchestra".
Always been interested in this composer though, indeed, very little of his film scoring work is out there.
Lee Majors starred in "The Norseman," along with Cornel Wilde and Mel Ferrer, as the leader of a band of Norse warriors who land on the New England coast four centuries before Columbus. They fight with the Indians, then leave. The film was written and directed by Charles B. Pierce, who had developed somewhat of a cottage industry by creating independent films about Native Americans (“Winterhawk”, “Grayeagle”) and films set in rural areas (“The Legend of Boggy Creek,” “The Town That Dreaded Sundown.”). “The Norseman” had a stirring musical score by Jaime Mendoza-Nava, a little known composer who, although he had nearly 80 film and television scores to his credit, saw only one score released: “The Savage Wild,” a 1969 nature documentary.
“The Norseman” was released on VHS in a pan-and-scanned version of its Panavision frame, but didn’t have a DVD release until August 2013.
Here’s the film’s trailer:
As shown in the first post, the full film is available on YouTube in a version that is even further cropped from the already cropped VHS. The stirring main title theme starts at the 7:00 minute mark.
As the world's number one Lee Majors fan, I have been aware of this movie and score for years....and yes, it certainly is more epic than the film itself!!! While the movie is not the high point of Lee's career, the score is quite dramatic and totals ABOUT 45/50 mins...I know this as I ripped the music(dialogue,effects et al) from my vhs tape years ago. A lot of blaring horns accompanying Vikings battling Indians...and yes, a tad Roszaish, as previously suggested. Would it get released?.....I doubt it's at the top,of any label's release schedule....but Lee's classic piranha heist movie KILLERFISH received a lovely release from Quartet....so who knows? Maybe Mendoza-Nava has a bigger fan base than we know.....
Amazon credits him as a composer along with Jim Fox, the credited composer on the cover. To make this more mysterious I looked up the film on IMDb and it *only* lists Jaime Mendoza-Nava without mentioning Jim Fox at all -- anybody got some insight into this?
“The Norseman” had a stirring musical score by Jaime Mendoza-Nava, a little known composer who, although he had nearly 80 film and television scores to his credit, saw only one score released: “The Savage Wild,” a 1969 nature documentary.
Amazon credits him as a composer along with Jim Fox, the credited composer on the cover. To make this more mysterious I looked up the film on IMDb and it *only* lists Jaime Mendoza-Nava without mentioning Jim Fox at all -- anybody got some insight into this?
There's some confusion here. That CD is from a 1999 western written and directed by Christopher Coppola (which is why it's "presented" by Francis Ford Coppola). That's why the CD doesn't mention Jaime Mendoza-Nava, as he had nothing to do with that film. The IMDB lists this film under the title GUNFIGHTER.
Mendoza-Nava was an associate producer on 1964's BALLAD OF A GUNFIGHTER (and perhaps the composer; the American Film Institute lists him as producer only). That was a Marty Robbins western, and the score includes several of Robbins' songs. The IMDB mistakenly shows a picture of the video cover for the 1999 film in its listing of the 1964 film.
In short the CD for the 1999 film has no music by Mendoza-Nava, and there has never been a soundtrack release for the 1964 film.
I wonder how the Amazon CD listing got mixed up...
Yavar
In 1998, Jeff Bezos, founder, owner and CEO of Amazon.com, struck a deal with the principal shareholders of IMDB to buy IMDB outright and attach it to Amazon as a subsidiary, private company. This gives IMDb the ability to pay the shareholders salaries for their work, while Amazon.com is able to use the IMDB as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. I believe that somehow, information from the IMDB is used to populate the video product descriptions on Amazon. In this case its seems like information from two IMDB entries found its way into the CD listing, because of the similarity in titles. And, I believe that photos of products from Amazon are used to populate the image fields in the IMDB, which is how an image from the video for the 1999 film ends up illustrating the entry for the 1964 film.
MGM released an MOD DVD for the 1970 Gordon Eastman nature documentary "The Savage Wild." Mendoza-Nava's score was briefly available on a long-out of print American International Records LP. It would be interesting to see how much of the music in this 103-minute film did not make it onto the 36-minute LP.
MGM released an MOD DVD for the 1970 Gordon Eastman nature documentary "The Savage Wild." Mendoza-Nava's score was briefly available on a long-out of print American International Records LP. It would be interesting to see how much of the music in this 103-minute film did not make it onto the 36-minute LP.
Based on The Norseman this could be really good too. Sadly I couldn't find samples on YouTube.
I have enjoyed reading these posts. As Jaime Mendoza Nava's son, my hope is to keep his music and information about his life available for any interested person. Music was so important to him and to who he was. Thank you. Jaime Ignacio Mendoza