As always, it is nice to hear the complete motion picture score of a talented film composer...but...even though I did enjoy seeing this movie on the big screen, I was not overly fond of it until I attended a SCI-FI convention and saw a promotional film -- 20 minutes? -- for the up-coming release of "LOGAN'S RUN" and heard the overture and other slices of Legrand's score intertwined with many slices of Goldsmith's score for the movie...this did and still does snatch me interest...so...I am rather fond of it now...
The track, Under The Ice, is a perfect example of how a piece of music conjures up flashbacks from the film itself. The sequence is the major departure from the rest of the score. It has the same sort of musical magnitude as Goldsmith's electronic parts to Logan's Run. In fact, the marriage of "music" to image is amongst the most memorable. The Tigerfish is navigating the pressure ridges under the ice, trying to locate a zone of thinner ice above, the idea being to use the submarine's conning tower as a battering ram to penetrate the solid mass overhead. Other than the visuals from the film there is a regular sonar ping from the sub which is not part of the score soundtrack, but to which the music adheres for want of a better expression, as it trudges forward.
Saw this movie on TV in my early 20s and thought it was wonderful. What a great part for Patrick McGoohan and how well he plays it. Love the music, I have the wonderful FSM CD - just looking at it now with that wonderful booklet. Haven't seen the film or listened to the score for years - time for a revisit methinks.
Regarding scores standing out or not, it depends on so many things...
One example I always remember where a score did not stand out for me is the arrival in Auschwitz scene from Schindler's List. I saw the film, was blown away by it... got the CD a bit later... listening through and came to the Auschwitz Birkenau cue and went "holy crap... what a cue... never heard that in the film... must be Spielberg didn't track it in the movie". Then quite some time later, I got to see the film again on video or DVD... and there is that haunting violin and dissonant orchestra... the scene was so strong that I just did not hear the music in the cinema... what a wonderful experience...
