Goldsmith was a marvelous film composer. Today I watched "City Hall" which has a superb Goldsmith score. His music worked perfectly in the film and works away from it as well.Yes, he was Still, he had some flaws other composers don´t have. Well, it all depends on ones abilities I think. When it comes to "City Hall" I´ve never seen the movie and on it´s own I find the music a bit... dry or boring. But hey, it´s only taste. I love "Along came a spider" and that is hated by most people.
Was "City Hall" influenced by Bernstein? I always thought that it seemed to be influenced by Copland´s americana. But I wouldn´t know since I rarely listened to Bernstein´s compositions.
Ah!, CITY HALL, Rich. Was that the one where Goldsmith was asked to imitate Leonard Bernstein's ON THE WATERFRONT? Or am I thinking of L.A. CONFIDENTIAL...
You're thinking of "L.A. Confidential." Bombastic best describes that score.
Goldsmith's "City Hall" is a gem of a score. Moody and at the same time haunting. The film is not bad either.
The best John Barry homage I've heard is Guy Farley's The Hot Potato, a 60s style caper movie with a score that sounds a lot like The Knack without Alan Haven. The recording even sounds like it was done at the old CTS studio in Bayswater.
I liked how (I think it was Silvestri...maybe Elfman) the soundtrack to What Lies Beneath was at times so Herrmann esque. That's a movie that seemed as though it could have been done so much better...but not for lack of a good score imo.
I tend to like Elfman (and Dinaggio) best when they emulate Bernard.
We've just re-watched The Dish (2000) - scored by Edmund Choi. Much of the film is tracked with pop songs from the era but what underscore there is ... is wonderful.
I missed seeing the credit (if it was there at the start) and did not recall the composer ... and I would have laid money on this score being from the hand of James Horner ... except that I'm sure I would have known if it was one of his titles.
Not quite Apollo 13 (1995) but certainly in the same territory ... but then there is an overlap in the film's subject matter
Johnny Williams seemed to be imitating The Henry Mancini Song Sound with his vocal version of "Make Me Rainbows" in FITZWILLY. The small vocal chorus (heavy on the females) is very like HM.
The 2 most obvious examples that I've ever heard are both from Johnny Mandel, and both examples of Mandel not straying far at all from the temp track. In The Verdict there is a cue where Paul Newman is trashing his office; it is virtually note for note a cue from Barry's The Lion in Winter. Previously, Mandel had expressed great admiration for that score in an interview.
The second example is from a tv movie about LBJ that starred Randy Quaid. An early cue of a rollicking car ride is taken almost verbatim from a cue from Goldsmith's Wild Rovers.
I'm guessing that this was Renny Harlin's dictum, as there are moments of Debney's Cutthroat Island and Jones's Cliffhanger that are unmistakeably Silvestrian.
Still, he had some flaws other composers don´t have. Well, it all depends on ones abilities I think. When it comes to "City Hall" I´ve never seen the movie and on it´s own I find the music a bit... dry or boring. But hey, it´s only taste. I love "Along came a spider" and that is hated by most people.
