Excellent all the way! At last, something challenging and strong: keep them coming. Two holy grails to start 2013! Perfect! Fantastic! Bulls eyes! "Hell is For Heroes" plays like "Combat!". "Escape from Alcatraz" is as experimental as "Demon Seed". I have 3 holy grails now: "Joe Kidd", "Hell is For Heroes", "Escape from Alcatraz".
And the sherry on top of the cake: let's hope The Men from FSM will get us "The Wild Bunch"!
And only short time ago the releases for Coogan's Bluff and High Plains Drifter. Marvelous times and a renaissance for the vintage score aficionado!
Intrada's continuing courage in releasing more challenging scores is one reason I want to support their efforts. I may not listen to this CD often after the initial enthusiasm of getting it, but I will have great affection for Doug and the hamsters everytime I pull it off the self to reacquaint myself with these two more offbeat scores.
I like the Rosenman....but the Fielding I agree is pretty meh. Especially with that one cue that has really bad sound quality compared to the others...
No matter what he does, it sounds like him. Fielding could throw a folding metal chair at a Zimmer fan's head and it would sound like no one else!
I LOVE this stark, spare Jerry score. In fact, it evokes childhood. That is, if your childhood was spent chipping away from the air vent grate in your bedroom to escape the sound of your parents arguing in the next room. Whoa, too much personal info...great release. Glad Intrada is back on with Jerry, though I'll never forgive them for deleting The Black Bird and Gray Lady Down--or the fans for not making those scores sell outs.
I couldn't finish the second sample before I said "pass" but that is fielding for you. Still, if this is what some people want I'm happy for them. The Bernstein is all I need.
I have always been fascinated and surprised by Fielding's creative choices in this score.
When i first saw it in 1979 i kinda expected the music accompanying the escape and the epilogue to be "triumphant" - a celebration of their great accomplishment. I was disappointed that it was not. Instead, Fielding chose to score the 'mystery' of the escape, which is also valid and a very satisfying decision ! bruce
I have had the classic ADVISE & CONSENT on RCA Victor since I was a kid and spent the entire 60's wondering whatever happened to Jerry Fielding? -
I could never pass up something of his today. Why, I haven't seen half the movies he composed music for, but I enjoy his style, his musical language, its uniqueness, and as somebody else mentioned, the fact that he always sounds like Fielding.
EFA is a treat and words are not enough to express gratitude towards Intrada's boldness. But Hell is for Heroes is pretty amazing too. Can't wait to receive this together Alexander the Great.
EFA is for sure the best atonal soundtrack ever and one of the most mysterious. It could have worked perfectly in a movie like Shining. I wonder what influences are in EFA. Lutoslawsky, Scelsi, Morton Feldman?
Any Fielding, no matter how esoteric or "difficult", is an immediate buy for me....I don't even need to listen to the samples. I love his music whether it is melodic or action-adventure or jazz or "musique concrete". If the speculation that THE WILD BUNCH is FSM's last release is correct, I will buy it (yet again). It's probably the score I have bought more versions of than any other. One of the greatest scores ever for one the greatest films ever. (OK, I'm a little off topic).
Escape from Alcatraz is a great movie, but 45 minutes of score by Jerry Fielding has not, at least in the Spanish version. From the times I've seen, I'd swear it has very little music. Transfer of prisoners to jail, end credit titles and incidental yet another issue and no more. The rest should be rejected in its day music.
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