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Listening to that big action cue at the end, I had forgotten that Silvestri strangely used some of the Western-y music from Back To The Future III in there.
Also, unless Varese doesn't own the rights to this anymore, there is literally no way this is ever coming out in expanded form.
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Posted: |
Feb 13, 2015 - 4:19 PM
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By: |
DeputyRiley
(Member)
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Thanks for posting your thoughts, edern! Glad you enjoy the score so much, too. I didn't realize that "Busted!" source music was Silvestri's! Between the "Hard Copy" theme for Predator 2 and the "Busted!" stinger, Silvestri could've had a whole other career in sensationalistic early reality TV music if his film career didn't pan out!
You're welcome 
I forgot to point out another highlight of the score, IMHO. The unreleased cue you titled "Blake in Hospital". I absolutely love how Silvestri's score plays with the picture in that scene (and with Lithgow's delightfully chilling performance). It is the total opposite of restraint, but it is so much fun!
I also like the strident flute sound in the following cue you call "Blake's Cell". It works a bit like a motif for Blake's twisted and hateful thoughts (and I find this more interesting than the "synth overdub" motif).
Wow, edern, you sure know your stuff! I'm really enjoying reading your thoughts on the score and film. It's nice that someone enjoys both as much as I do. You know so many specifics -- did you recently watch the movie, or do you just know it by heart?
I'll have to check out the flute sound you mentioned for Blake's motif used in "Blake's Cell." Seemingly the only point we disagree on is the "synth overdub" motif, which I love, but I am a huge synth nut, I love those dark echo pulses. There is so little (if any) synth in Ricochet and I think Silvestri usually handles electronics quite well, so I welcomed that synth echo overdub, almost like Blake's twisted, psychotic heartbeat quickening when he thinks of his quarry.
Another interesting scene/track is what I called "Nick on the Move" when Nick gathers his family to take to Odessa for protection. As far as I can tell it's the Main Title tracked into that scene, it's nearly note for note, but it's interesting to see/hear that cue (which I'm so used to enjoying playing on its own against the main titles) set against a suspenseful scene and see how the music works in that sense. I think it works well.
You know, the more I talk and think about the score, the more I'm intrigued by it. Honestly at first glance it seemed a little repetitive and lacking in variation but in discussing it in this thread and taking a close look at the different themes, motifs, and applications to film the score used, as well as tracking the complete score through a close viewing of the film, there is a lot more going on than at first it seems. Never realized how much I love this classic Silvestri action/suspense score until I started this thread and score analysis.
And now, a word on the Varese track "The Escape." What a fantastic action track! The first ten seconds, all swirling high-pitched string ostinato, is great writing...and when it transitions after ten seconds into high-pitched fluttering tense strings and delicate Back to the Future-esque harp (?) clusters (with the waterphone-like glassy effect in the background), it's already a killer start to a prison escape cue, but the sporadic, thunderous, dramatic cymbal hits and horn blasts Silvestri injects to punctuate the tension really push the thrills over the top. The final minute of the cue is a tasty preview of the spectacular action that culminates "Blake Gets the Point."
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Posted: |
Feb 13, 2015 - 4:44 PM
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By: |
edern
(Member)
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Glad to see that you find some interest in my short posts.
I'm not fluent in english, so, I find it hard sometimes to try to express my thoughts about music.
I saw the movie a year ago for the first time, and re-watched it right away!
I knew the score only from the album (I'm a big Silvestri buff). It was a bit like rediscovering it entirely. And I had a blast viewing the movie. It's, in my opinion, a very "unashamed" movie, very pulp, very trashy. It's totally unrealistic, very "only in movies...", it made me feel like when I watched a lot of action movies in my teenage years during the nineties. Definitely a movie of its time, with very big flows but also a strange, twisted charm to it.
I simply loved every minute of Lithgow's performance. It looks like he had a lot of fun with this psychotic cartoonish villain character. The "Power Out" scene, man!
And the score, well, seeing the movie reminded me so much why I'm so fond of Silvestri's music. He's very straightforward (or unsubtle?) but he does it with so much bravura, I love it
When the "Gladiator Fight" scene poped up, with Silvestri's furious action music cranked up, I knew that was one a very silly but very entertaining movie, in big parts due to its score. Silvestri added a lot of energy to the movie but also crafted a very effective creepy mood.
About the synth motif, in fact, my problem is not with the synth sound but more so the fact that the overdub is very obvious. It feels like it was "pasted" over the existing music late in the game. It doesn't mesh well with the rest, IMHO.
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I have never listened to this score, but with all the buzz sounds like I need to find this in my stash and give it a spin.
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You're leaving out Raising Cain, but I don't think anyone in the known universe would argue that his best role in decades was the Trinity Killer.
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Just supplanting your breakdown with some cue titles I discovered on the BMI repertoire:
Festival Band
Hospital
New Arrival
Blake Gets Pilled
Wall Of Fame
Eavesdropping
Ferris Gets It
Kidnapped
Arm Wrestling
Mystery Clown
Nazi Bookworm
Literature Kills
Blake Leaves Bar
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I wrote about the score months ago at another score forum:
"Richochet" (Silvestri)
It's a fine Silvestri score. It's kind of like a "Predator" meets "The Quick and the Dead" combo, with light touches of "Back to the Future".
It's more motif and ostinato driven, though there is one theme (which is nice).
The score wastes no time and immediately from track one opens with a driving repeating pattern with occasional brass bursts (like in "Predator").
It's a great sounding CD even for it's time, but it could sound better, plus the CD is on a the short side, with only twenty-eight minutes of score. So, it could certainly use an expansion, not just for some crystal clear sound, but to not only eliminate that Godwaful five minute Ice-T rap song that opens the disc, but give a chance for cues that contain more of the theme (or other themes not represented on the original CD) to be fleshed out more and give the overall score a more satisfying unity.
If you like those powerful brass scores with energy Silvestri used to compose and don't mind such a short CD, it's well worth checking out.
I'd also ad that driving opening cue seriously needs some work. The driving material underneath is so quite you can barely hear it, so you turn the volume all the way up -- which barely does a thing (at least to the level my volume goes) -- and then the brass hits occur and it practically blows the speakers out.
I ran the cue through Audacity several time raising the quieter parts and lowering some of the loud ones, and even then I had to give up because of time restraints at the time and still it's too low. That opening cue from "Star Trek: Generations" has nothing on this.
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Yep, it's a glorious mishmash of some of his aggressive writing for Predator and The Abyss. I did some more research and excavated a more thorough list of the unreleased material from ASCAP:
Festival Band
New Arrival
Hospital
Busted Logo
Personal Property
Things To Live For
Church Organ
Xerox Machine
Wall Of Fame
Eavesdropping
Ferris Gets It
Kidnapped
Arm Wrestling
Play Me
Kiddie Play Source
Mystery Clown
Nazi Bookworm
Literature Kills
Blake Leaves Bar
Blake Gets Pilled
Everything's Ready
(I'm not sure in which scenes those last two titles belong to)
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Nice find !
Some of those may be alternate names for already released tracks. "Blake Gets Pilled" could an alternate title for "Blake Gets The Point", same thing for "Nazi Bookworm", probably changed to "Nazi Bookstore" for the album... I guess ?
I suppose that "Nazi Bookstore" is simply the album version of "Nazi Bookworm" and "Literature Kills" combined
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Posted: |
Jan 24, 2018 - 10:53 PM
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By: |
GoblinScore
(Member)
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Yep, it's a glorious mishmash of some of his aggressive writing for Predator and The Abyss. I did some more research and excavated a more thorough list of the unreleased material from ASCAP:
Festival Band
New Arrival
Hospital
Busted Logo
Personal Property
Things To Live For
Church Organ
Xerox Machine
Wall Of Fame
Eavesdropping
Ferris Gets It
Kidnapped
Arm Wrestling
Play Me
Kiddie Play Source
Mystery Clown
Nazi Bookworm
Literature Kills
Blake Leaves Bar
Blake Gets Pilled
Everything's Ready
(I'm not sure in which scenes those last two titles belong to)
Just endured the DVD of this film, which I like in a trashy Joel Silver way, but damn the dvd(?!?) looks & sounds atrocious. Is this on blu? Nevermind, I won't watch it again for 25 years when I'm 64ish!
Still love the modern-action-riff-spoof of Herrmann's NxNW in the main title, still a favorite MT from the 90s.
The Nazi book scene is so quick, 2 cues won't fit there, and it sounded like it was a retrack of the MT anyway - Silvestri's quixotic march on the album isn't heard in the film.
Blake Gets Piled is surely part of the finale, again, more tracking here & unreleased sections.
There is a nice outro cue, variation on Drunken Nick a la all Silver 90s flicks. It segues to a weird faux-hop Arsenio Hall dogpound type thing before the great Ice T song.
The short Varese album covers some good ground, but I would have sacrificed Power Out for Play Me (great reprise of MT ideas, where Denzel runs out of the house) & Mystery Clown, the following cue. You guys ever do that, play the "replace the album cue" with another of similar length?
You would think I'm wasted on a Nick Styles Speedball Cocktail every time I post in this thread, reading back on earlier, idiotic comments of mine. However, I'm not, just tired, sue me....
-Sesn
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