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Posted: |
Jun 16, 2015 - 2:23 AM
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By: |
DeputyRiley
(Member)
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This is another entry in my Complete Score Breakdown Series, focusing on the complete scores to films that have had abbreviated previous releases or have gone unreleased.
Today we are looking at Volunteers (1985) by James Horner.
I suppose James Horner’s 1985 score to the adventure/comedy Volunteers is one of his most sought-after unreleased scores, as not one note has ever been turned out in all of these years for apparent licensor issues. I had never seen the film nor heard the score until just recently when I watched it in order to do this CSB, and overall I thought it was a pretty good score. Not quite the unearthed treasure I thought it might be, but there was a lot to like about the score and I do very much hope that it finds its way to a CD release one of these days.
Compositionally, it’s very diverse, featuring orchestra, exotic Far East accents and instrumentation (though not as much as you might think), buoyant and witty comedy music, rousing and exciting adventure cues, a very good main theme, plenty of snare drums, metallic percussion, some sultry saxophone moments, some Star Trek echoes, some pretty romantic music, and so on. The highlights of the score are certainly “Bridge Building”, a rousing and terrific cue scoring the sequence where the bridge is constructed; this cue most resembled Star Trek II to my ears, featured metallic percussion and swirling strings, and really had a nice sense of ‘building’ musically. “Entering the Fortress” was also a nice piece. “Arrival in Thailand” had an epic sweep to it, presenting the main theme in full with orchestra as the film pans over Thailand, while maintaining a bouncy, jaunty tone. “Escape” is a wonderful cue and had a Willow meets Aliens feel to it. “Blowing Up the Bridge Pt. 1” and “Pt. 2” had more Star Trek II feel to it (plus danger motif), and was a great final action/adventure cue, with strong brass bursts and steady snare rhythms with metallic percussion. Finally, “Finale / End Credits” features an excellent grand finale and wonderful end credits music summarizing the score (minus action music).
COMPLETE (AS HEARD IN FILM)/UNRELEASED SCORE: 29min 05sec
Complete Score Cue Titles and Cue Times (unreleased cues named by me for the sake of identification):
1. Drive to the Airport (0:44)
2. Arrival in Thailand (1:47)
3. Soldiers (0:21)
4. New Player (1:00)
5. Chung Mee’s Fortress (1:18)
6. Bodyguard (0:44)
7. Bridge Building (2:34)
8. Lawrence’s Place (2:10)
9. Nefarious John Reynolds (0:50)
10. Lucille’s Ploy (1:52)
11. Nail Attack (0:11)
12. Entering the Fortress (3:56)
13. Escape (2:24)
14. River Jump (1:05)
15. Dynamite (0:16)
16. Blowing Up the Bridge Pt. 1 (2:42)
17. Blowing Up the Bridge Pt. 2 (1:10)
18. Finale / End Credits (4:00)
Thanks for reading, see you next time!
Deputy Riley
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Roger at Intrada has been working on this one for years and I really hope he's ultimately successful in getting it out!
Yavar
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There was an update on that. Posted May 26:
Roger:
I wish, but we only had one cue to test out the elements. The licensor is 100% unresponsive. I can't seem to get any traction. Very frustrating -- it reminds me of trying to get that Slipstream license. But I'll figure it out eventually.
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Roger says
As many of you know, I've been trying to pull this project off for 10 years now. I finally heard definitively from the licensor that they have no interest in licensing any back catalog. It's unfortunate because earlier on we transferred a test reel and there was some deterioration present. I mentioned that the situation only gets worse and we really should get the rest transferred, but that didn't seem to resonate much. So for now at least it's not a possibility.
http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=84284#p84284
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Heartbreaking.
Yavar
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Given all the rights issues involved, does that ultimately rule out any possibility of doing a new recording of Volunteers in lieu of the original tracks?
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I’d pay good money for the Testament CD with the End Credits from Volunteers. Can anyone share which CD this is?
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Sorry guys. I could have sworn I saw a release of TESTAMENT on CD that had the VOLUNTEERS Bonus Track. Perhaps I am wrong, or it was on an Unmentionable Release? I guess that youtube video tricked me. I apologize.
It was an Unmentionable and the End Titles are taken directly from the film. They are just edited so that it wouldn't be noticeable. The actual beginning is missing, because in the film it's buried under dialogue and SFX. Someone just used a passage from the middle to work as an opening. Works well, but it's not what was composed/recorded.
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