What is this, a test?
I'm kidding, I'm kidding. These are wonderful questions, and I hope other people beside me respond to them. I just don't know how well I'm going to do answering these. But here goes.
1) I remember when I was a kid being almost offended when I heard even a slight variation of a music theme I loved. So yes, I ALWAYS am bothered when someone "improves" on an original score. In any way. Someone pointed out that the most available CD of THE BIG COUNTRY music (With the Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Tony Bremner), not being the original soundtrack, has a glaring flaw in the opening track that they found unforgiveable. I don't have quite that strong of a reaction, but I have to say Bremner didn't do himself any credit by not staying fully faithful to Moross. I equate it to trying to do a rewrite on Shakespeare. Another example of "somewhat faithful" recordings of original soundtracks is the David Temple/Nic Raine recording (Silva Screens Records) of what I consider one of the ten best soundtracks of all time, John Barry's THE LION IN WINTER. While most of it is pretty faithful, the opening track is slightly off of Barry's brilliant original recording, and the track "How Beautiful You Made Me" (which is, to me, quite possibly the most haunting expression of despair ever put to music) drops the ball pretty badly. What a shame.
2) I happen to think Thomas Newman's work (THE PLAYER, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) is equal to anyone who's ever done a soundtrack. Also Peter Gabriel is brilliant, although he's only done three movie soundtracks (that I'm aware of). Those are the best I've heard in the last 15-20 years, but if you want to go back as far as people who started in the 60's, well, it's John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith, Maurice Jarre, and Michel Legrand for me. Oh, and I think Vangelis has done some great stuff (BLADE RUNNER, MISSING, THE BOUNTY), although to be honest CHARIOTS OF FIRE didn't do that much for me.
Oh my God, this is really going on. Okay, you almost answered the last question yourself: the studios these days hook their movies too much on pop songs, often originally done completely independently of the film they're used for. They don't WANT the soundtrack composer to top that pop song that cost them millions to get the rights for. That's the major force in undermining distinctive original soundtracks. Although I'm old enough to know what goes around comes around.
Do I need to point out that all this is my opinion? I mean, is there anyone out there who thinks all this is The Literal Word of Truth?
If anyone does, then here comes my next pronouncement:
SEND
ME
ALL
YOUR
MONEY
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Marokl
20 years ago
Dear DD-931--
The check is in the mail.
Those alternate recordings strike me as kind of like those "pops" concerts where clips of a film are shown on a big screen while the orchestra saws out an approximation of the original score.
Perhaps a solution can be found through the magic of DVD. I don't think this option is available yet, but I should think it would be possible at some time in the future to be able to select a "music only" option for the play mode. That way, film score lovers can just sit back and enjoy the score as they originally heard it.
Even more annoying than the pop tunes in most contemporary movies is the rock song tacked on at the end of, say, a Western, just so a music video of it can be cross-marketed on MTV.
If "Big Country" were made today, I imagine a hip-hop version of its score would make the rounds of the cable video jukeboxes.
Thanks for responding...
P.S. I was also rather peeved that when "they" reconstituted Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil" a few years ago, they removed the score along with the opening credits the studio had tacked onto the beginning of the film. All, apparently, so we could have the pleasure of hearing miscellaneous sound effects, like a goat braying (or whatever sound it is that goats produce).
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20 years ago
[deleted]
Marokl
20 years ago
I stand before you properly chastened. Doh!
Far as I know, the opening tracking shot in "Evil" remained unchanged; the credits and music were just removed. I'm used to having a score set the tone for the rest of the film, and Mancini's overture did just that. We only got to hear this music in a somewhat truncated form just before Welles strangles Tamiroff, if memory serves.
As for other great scores, I often read that Alfred Newman's for "Captain From Castile" (1947) is one of the best; as it has been pointed out on this thread, swashbucklers lend themselves to exciting musical accompaniment. As for Westerns, the little-seen "The Scalphunters" (1968) has a memorable and playful score by Elmer Bernstein. "Lord Jim" (1965) ran on AMC today and included sad, haunting, but very beautiful music by Bronislau Kaper.
By the way, the ever-irascible John Ford reportedly said Max Steiner's score for the Ford Western classic "The Searchers" would have been more suited to a film about cossacks. He was kidding (I think).
Thanks for the tip re "The Trial."
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DD-931
20 years ago
You may already know this, but I thought I'd point out that the "Director's Cut" of TOUCH OF EVIL doesn't have Mancini's score because, since Mancini was studio-imposed, the "purists" who were trying to restore the film to Welle's original vision of it deduced that Welles didn't intend to have ANY score over that marvelous opening shot. So they dropped Mancini. Personally, I loved Mancini's work in that film, and I don't like the Director's Cut quite as much because they cut out his score. But I guess it's a case of Win Some, Lose Some.
I think having a "Music Only" selection on future DVD re-issues is a great idea. Here's hoping the powers-that-be pick up on it.
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liscarkat (17147)
5 years ago
There used to be a "music only" option on many laser discs, including the laser disc of "The Big Country". I haven't encountered this feature on a DVD or Blu Ray yet. The complete original soundtrack of "The Big Country" is available on CD.
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