I wonder where all the Michael Small fans are? Probably giving their cherished copies of THE CHINA SYNDROME yet another spin!
Where were the Michael Small fans when the fantastic (!!) score for Comes a Horseman was released with only 1500 copies? It is still available! But we can be very grateful for the label's Michael Small output over the last few years. Who had ever expected that? My favorite: The FSM edition of Klute with the addition of the wonderful inventive little score by David Shire.
After now viewing the movie for the first time on DVD I can only say this little score is a real gem, one of my holy grails. For the music playing over the DVD menu there can an engine noise be heard, so there's obviously only something like a M&E track.
An interesting Night Moves connection, in that two of the film's stars, Gene Hackman and Harris Yullin, also appear though not together, in 1988's Another Woman.
Here's a smarmy review of Night Moves by someone who's in love with their blogging persona and who refers to Michael Small as a "hack composer." Screw him!
An interesting Night Moves connection, in that two of the film's stars, Gene Hackman and Harris Yullin, also appear though not together, in 1988's Another Woman.
Here's a smarmy review of Night Moves by someone who's in love with their blogging persona and who refers to Michael Small as a "hack composer." Screw him!
Some people just don't hear what many of us Small fan's do he was a genius he has me almost hypnotised at times he totally grabs your full attention and more at times when his vibe envelopes you.
Where were the Michael Small fans when the fantastic (!!) score for Comes a Horseman was released with only 1500 copies? It is still available!
COMES A HORSEMAN is a fine score and a demonstration of Michael Small's versatility as a composer. Unfortunately for that one, my guess is that many Small fans are most attracted to his "paranoid," edgy, less melodic scores such as MARATHON MAN, PARALLAX VIEW and STAR CHAMBER. Personally, though I have both COMES A HORSEMAN and MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON, I'm much more likely to cue up STAR CHAMBER or KLUTE than either of those two.
I liked the music in NIGHT MOVES but there is precious little of it as I recall. It would make a nice pairing with something else in a similar genre (maybe some juicy little Billy Goldenberg morsel), but I suspect it is a lost cause.
Yes, a number of other composers could have scored Comes a Horseman just as well (if I were told Conti did it I would have believed it) but Small, when there's menace in the shadows, is in his element. He pretty much owns 70s paranoia.
How did All the President's Men get past him? I always felt Shire was aping his style there.
We have seen a number of wonderful releases from M&E tracks or from music stems now. Perhaps there really is hope that something can be done with this score. A bonus score for another title?
It's impossible to imagine a film like Night Moves being made today. With an ending as bleak as that, with the female lead decapitated(!) and the hero both figuratively and literally adrift, today's producers would confiscate the film, recut it and reshoot it so that in the inevitable sequel Harry Moseby would have to "avenge" her death by going after the "real" killers and at movie's end, "find happiness", all to a wildly-praised Hans Zimmer drone. It is to puke.
Too bad the tapes for Michael Small's score are missing. I noticed that Soundtrack Collector does not include NIGHT MOVES among Small's credits. Unfortunately, I can't see any way of adding the title myself to the data base.
Oddly, Night Moves has no entry at soundtrackcollector.com, nor is it listed in Michael Small's filmography at the same site. Is it under another name?
