His golden spell for me was from Capricorn One (1978) to Narrow Margin (1990). Yes, some of his films were real clunkers (to me at least) like Hanover Street & The Presidio, but even his lesser efforts I found generally enjoyable. His thriller scores always tended to feature a musical pulse or heart-beat effect more often that not. He has worked multiple times with Bruce Broughton and John Debney and twice with Jerry Goldsmith and twice with Billy Goldenberg, on his first feature film Busting and his Amazing Stories episode, Amazing Falsworth. Also two collab's with David Shire. What are your Top 5 scores from his films?
I'm reminded of the "Peter Hyams Principal of Quality Negation" from the pages of FSM back in the day, that stipulated that Hyams started off great with Jerry Goldsmith, and every score afterwards was progressively worse.
I would have included Monster Squad too, but it's a Fred Dekker film. I was only including Hyams-directed films.
Good call - Interesting though because it looks like Monster Squad introduced Bruce Broughton to Hyams - he used him for his three subsequent films as Director.
I recently rewatched Relic on Amazon prime and was not as disappointed as I expected, though Debney's score didn't really do much for me--I think it was more Penelope Anne Miller.
A fun if cheesy/predictable Jurassic Park knockoff that would never get made in modern Hollywood. The last quarter is actually kind of tense.
"Our Time" (1974) by Michel Legrand, which is also - by a mile - my favorite Peter Hyams film. "Hanover Street" and "Capricorn One" follow, but most of his films have good or great scores.
It's a toss up between Capricorn One and Outland. So that old double CD of both was played to death. The scores work excellently in the films. There's a couple of chase tracks in Outland I love and the general Alien tone of a lot of it. Capricorn One has one of the best themes going and the Break Out track is tremendous. Great stuff.
Call myself a Peter Hyams fan??!! I've never seen his first three films as director (Busting, Our Time, Peeper), although they are hardly known and rarely seen. Plus, I was under 10 when they debuted. I'll have to look out for them.
Hyams wrote and produced it with Herbert Ross directing.
Just remembered. Have the LP and there's a Jazzy Gentle Rock Theme on there that's totally awesome.
Was the composer Jack Elliot?
I think there's a cue called "Con-Amalgamate" which the phrase would turn up again in CAPRICORN ONE and OUTLAND as the name for a fictional company of bad guys or the villains of the story. A Hyams "In Joke" so to speak that would sometimes turn up in his films. Like Horner's "Danger" Motif.
A suite from T.R. Baskin by Jack Elliott. The awesome theme for me starts at 3:00 and has a real Lee Holdridge / Burt Bacharach feel to it.
I think there's a cue called "Con-Amalgamate" which the phrase would turn up again in CAPRICORN ONE and OUTLAND as the name for a fictional company of bad guys or the villains of the story. A Hyams "In Joke" so to speak that would sometimes turn up in his films. Like Horner's "Danger" Motif.
Hyams films often have a character named "Spota", his wife's maiden name.
