THE BLUE MAX The Attack PLANET OF THE APES The Hunt & No Escape 100 RIFLES Escape and Pursuit PAPILLON Antonio’s Death THE WIND AND THE LION The Horsemen & Raisuli Attacks TAKE A HARD RIDE Cliff Dwelling Battle (The Wagon on FSM CD) LOGAN’S RUN Intensive Care THE OMEN The Dogs Attack & The Demise of Mrs. Baylock CASSANDRA CROSSING Helicopter Rescue & The Climber ISLANDS IN THE STREAM Eddie’s Death CAPRICORN ONE Breakout DAMNATION ALLEY Cockroach Attack THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL Find it OUTLAND Hot Water THE CHALLENGE Fish Market & No Defense POLTERGEIST Escape from Suburbia & Night of the Beast & Twisted Abduction FIRST BLOOD First Blood & Hanging On RAMBO FIRST BLOOD PART 2 Pilot Over & Village Raid/Helicopter Flight TOTAL RECALL pretty much everything BASIC INSTINCT Roxy Loses
Arthur's Farewell (First Knight) Avalanche (Mulan) The Casket/Box Car Fight (Breakheart Pass) Chest Pains (The Shadow) Clever Girl (Total Recall) Escape from Torture (Rambo: First Blood Part II) Josh's Death (Bad Girls) The Mummy (The Mummy) Over the Top/Fish Market (The Challenge) Stop the Car (Innerspace) The Wagon (Take a Hard Ride) Without Help (Star Trek V)
I love his action music. My favorite is when Goldsmith composes a main theme and then seamlessly integrates that theme into his action music. You can hear the main theme from Rio Conchos at the 2:45 mark. Action motif comes in at 6:37, and then at 7:18 he really rocks his main theme into a virile action piece. (Ignore the song.)
I got no beef with any of the choices so far (special nod to Rio Conchos), so I'll add a few favorites I don't think have been mentioned yet. One per decade 60's through 90's.
List of Adrian Messenger: Beagles And Fox & It's A Drag (the two fox-hunt cues)
Islands in the Stream: Is Ten Too Old?
Innerspace: Gas Attack
U.S. Marshals: Sinking the Plane and Following Chen
No Escape - Planet of the Apes Breakout (album version) - Capricorn One Flaming Link - Link Clever Girl - Total Recall The Scorpion - Star Trek: Nemesis
In the beginning of this youtube from Take A Hard Ride, he composes a great main theme. Then you hear a lot of his action music which is quite dissonant. At the 5:07 mark and at the 8:52 mark, he once again dovetails his main theme into action cues, and they are both quite varied in their approaches.
No Escape (Planet of the Apes) You're Renewed (Logan's Run) Break Out (Capricorn One; arguably his single greatest action cue) First Flight (Night Crossing) Final Flight (Night Crossing) Into the West (Night Crossing) First Blood (First Blood) Mountain Hunt (First Blood) Nightmare at 30,000 Ft. (Twilight Zone: The Movie) Darkness Fails (Legend) Without Help Star Trek V) Clever Girl (Total Recall) The Fire Dragon (The 13th Warrior) Odds and Ends (Star Trek...what was it called -- the bad one with Tom Hardy)
Great selections here, also would like to add these:
Deadfall (The Edge) Vacation's Over (River Wild) Bank Job & Ambush (Bad Girls) Meet Monroe Kelly (Congo) Getaway (Satan Bug) The Snake (Take a Hard Ride) Hot Fire (One Little Indian) Box Car Fight (Breakheart Pass) Repel Boarders (Sand Pebbles)
I have to bring it back to "The Hijacking" from Air Force One for a moment. I do give enormous respect to his action material from his scores from the 60's, 70's and 80's, there's no questioning that. He was obviously a master at it from the beginning, truly gifted -- we all know this.
What makes "The Hijacking" truly stand out to me -- and similarly his other firecracker action pieces from the final years of his career -- was this is a man who had been writing tons of action music for over three decades and still had the fire and intensity and ferocity in him to come up with "The Hijacking." This is a man who was nearing 70 years of age and proved that he still had enormous, sustainable energy in his writing to match an insane sequence of a 7-minute hijacking of Air Force One. This is a man who could adapt and keep up with any changes in contemporary film scoring no matter how long he had been doing it, and still thrill audiences for a colossal Harrison Ford action movie that was one of the biggest hits of the year.
So while I admire and cherish the younger Goldsmith's action writing and what made those cues unique and special, there's something amazing about the advanced stage of life that he was at, all he had been through and seen, and his tireless ability to conjure up even more. It just so happens that I think "The Hijacking" represents the most adrenalized pinnacle of this late career stage.
