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Volume 5, Number 6
SUMMER
MOVIE
ROUND-UP
Old-fashioned fun
with the season’s
hits and misses
The Nutty
COMPOSER
David Newman
at the podium
MUSICIANS
FOR HIRE
How agents
promote composers
POCKET
REVIEWS
A double dose
06 >
7 252 74 9 3 7 0 4 2
$4.95 U.S. • $5.95 Canada
CONTENTS J u l y 2 0 0 0
n e w c o l u m n 2 Editorial
Half Year at the
Masthead.
21 Session Notes
The first installment of a new column that gives a 4 News
control-room view of a scoring session in progress. Jerry Fielding, &
This month: Backstage with King of the Hill. Groucho, Star Trek,
By Tim Curran and more.
5 Record Label
Round-up
What’s on the way.
i n t e r v i e w 6 Now Playing
Movies and CDs in
release. Rock stars write underscore,
22 The Nutty Composer 8 Concerts and other heresies.
David Newman’s the king of comedy. But after Live performances page 19
The Klumps and Bedazzled, he’s looking to step off around the globe.
the throne. Plus, some thoughts about his place in 11 Upcoming Film
the Newman family legacy. Assignments
By Daniel Schweiger Who’s writing what
for whom.
15 Mail Bag
c o v e r s t o r y Herrmann’s Journey.
19 Downbeat
Stuck in the Middle.
24 Summer Movie Soundtracks
This season, mediocrity sounds like genius. Our 34 Score
senior editor puts his ear to the screen to size up CD reviews including:
the would-be blockbusters and surprise treats of X-Men, The Perfect Is success at scoring comedy
the long hot summer. Storm, The Patriot a Faustian bargain?
By Jeff Bond and more. page 22
42 Pocket Reviews
Attention Deficit
f e a t u r e Disc Honors.
45 Score
30 Agent History X Internationale
In Part 3 of our in-depth look at the history of Spacemen, Pussycats
artist representation in the film music industry, and Corpses Galore!
we examine about how agents tailor game plans
for their clients, and how buyers select composers. 17 Reader Ads
By Jeff Bond
37 Marketplace
ON THE COVER: “GOOD OLD-
FASHIONED SUMMER FuN” JENNIFER LOPEZ IN THE CELL,
Film Score Monthly (ISSN 1077-4289) is published monthly for $36.95 per year by Vineyard Haven LLC., ARTWORK ©2000 NEW LINE CINEMA.
8503 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232. Periodicals postage paid at Culver City, CA and additional mailing offices. DRiVE- IN PHOTO COURTESY PHOTOFEST.
POSTMASTER: Send Address changes to Film Score Monthly, 8503 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232
F il m S c o r e M o n t hl y J u l y 2 0 0 0
e d i t o r I A L
v o l u me 5
edi t o r i a l s ta f f
Time to check in with the readership (and reality).
Editor & Publisher
Lukas Kendall
SENIOR Editor
H
Jeff Bond ey, I’ll admit, last month’s 10th preservation of film music, who spend their
MANAGING EDITOR anniversary may be just slightly days remastering old tapes or producing new
Tim Curran more impressive than me hitting recordings of older scores. It’s certainly not
Departments Editor my six-month mark with the magazine, but profit that motivates them. It’s passion.
Jonathan Z. Kaplan now seems as good a time as any to reflect on And that’s what drives the magazine, too.
DESIGN Director a few things I’ve learned since I came here. Film Score Monthly started as a labor of love
Joe Sikoryak First, no matter how desperate you get for Lukas 10 years ago, and it remains that
Contributing Writers for lunch, don’t try finding it in Culver City. today, perhaps even more so. People conduct
John Bender You’ll end up with a Hostess fruit pie and a interviews and write articles, reviews and
A.K. Benjamin bottle of Beefeater. Enough said. Downbeats simply because they love to do
Jason Comerford Having been an FSM reader for it. That was a side of the film music mania I
Martin Dougherty Oh, the places he’s been, five years before working here, didn’t think about. Six months ago, I had all
Andy Dursin the people he’s seen— I thought I had a pretty good these great ideas for articles that I wanted to
Jason Foster and not just in beautiful idea of the magazine’s audience. do right away; but frankly, I’m still making
Daniel Schweiger downtown Culver City! I figured it was made up of film room for stories that were backlogged when
James Southall music fans, film fans, working I came on—not to mention the monthly
Chris Stravrakis composers, aspiring composers solicitations from people who want to write
copyeditor and maybe a few students. I was generally for the magazine.
Steve Gilmartin right, which made most of the ideas I had for Not that we haven’t put any of our new
Thanks to the magazine appropriate. But while I may ideas into action. We started Pocket Reviews,
B.A. Vimtrup have correctly identified the demographics, I which has gotten a great response from
had no idea of the personalities behind them. readers so far. This month, we’re debut-
b u s i n e s s s t a f f I mean, damn, you film music fans are pas- ing Session Notes, a candid look at scoring
sionate, to say the least. I might go so far as sessions here in L.A. (or anywhere else if
Associate Publisher to say a few of you are downright nuts, but anyone’s interested in contributing). And
Chelo Avila that might not have any connection to your as far as the nude Herrmann centerfold, I
EDITORIAL & SUBSCRIPTIONS love of film music, so I won’t judge. couldn’t be prouder.
8503 Washington Blvd It’s that passion that drives the emphatic So sure, you may never catch me posting
Culver City, CA 90232 letters we publish in Mailbag every month. an angry message on rec.music.movies. And
PH. 310-253-9595 Maybe C.H. Levenson is a pompous bag of my appetite for the world’s most obscure
FAX 310-253-9588 wind, but I’ll bet most of you enjoyed reading soundtracks is admittedly far below that of
E-MAIL fsm@filmscoremonthly.com the sparring matches as much as we enjoyed the average FSM reader. Still, I’ve certainly
printing them. If it weren’t for people having come to appreciate (and enjoy) the idiosyn-
SALES & MARKETING MANAGER strong opinions like that, we wouldn’t have crasies of film music fandom. Ultimately, it
Bob Hebert a dialogue, we probably wouldn’t have FSM makes for a better magazine—and to me,
ADVERTISING and we’d all be really bored. And C.H. just that’s the whole point.
happens to be the most memorable example As always, feel free to email me with your
8503 Washington Blvd in recent months; there are countless others, comments. Unless they’re negative, in which
Culver City, CA 90232 this issue included. case email Jon.
PH. 323-962-6077 It’s that passion that drives the film music Enjoy the issue,
FAX 310-253-9588 recording industry. It’s a tightly knit com-
Supervising Mail Order Handler munity, for sure: competitive on one hand,
Mailman Al supportive on the other. And I’m not talking
about the huge corporate labels; I’m talking Tim Curran
OUR WEBSITE about the people who devote their lives to the Managing Editor
Is updated five times weekly!
Point your browser at:
WWW.FILMSCOREMONTHLY.COM
J u l y 2 0 0 0 F i l m S core M ont h l y
Limited Edition Original Soundtrack CDs • Now available: FSMCD Vol.3, No.6
The Undefeated
By Hugo Montenegro
Plus
“Holy...!”
NEWS
E V E N T S • C O N C E R T S
R E C O R D L A B E L R O UN D - U P
U P C O M I N G A S S I G N M E N T S
T H E L A T E S T F I L M S
never told her what Groucho Kirk’s romance with Keeler distribution rights for the song,
Groucho/Fielding said and never spoke of the
matter again,” added Redman.
begins to blossom. By the time
of the first video and laserdisc
and both the laserdisc and
video releases featured hastily
Blacklist Shows The shows, scheduled to be
released to cable stations and
releases of the Star Trek episodes
in the early ’80s, Paramount
recorded new music based on
a different Tin Pan Alley song.
Discovered packaged for release on DVD
under the title The Lost Groucho
had neglected to obtain video Both the tone and performance
O
ne of the biggest boons Falcone, “Lealta”
for fans of the original Jay Gruska, Composer Walking With Dinosaurs
Star Trek series has CBS, Johnson/Hancock Productions in Ben Bartlett, Composer
A
ccording to a recent been Paramount’s beautifully association with CBS Productions and DSC; a BBC/Discovery Channel/TV Asahi
report in the New remastered series of episode Columbia TriStar Television Co-Production
York Daily News, more DVDs. The series has reached
than 100 episodes of Groucho Volume 14, allowing Trekkers Felicity, “Help for the Lovelorn” Outstanding
Marx’s 1950s TV show You Bet to purchase all but one episode Danny Pelfrey, Main Title Theme Music
Your Life have been unearthed. of the show’s entire first season W.G. Snuffy Walden, Composers Falcone
Apparently, they were never (the next batch, due Sept. 19, WB; Imagine Television in association with Jay Gruska, Ross Levinson, Composers
syndicated because they were finishes off the first season Touchstone Television Productions, LLC CBS Johnson/Hancock Productions in
filmed between 1950 and 1954, and makes available the first association with CBS Productions and
when the musical director three episodes of Trek’s second Star Trek: Voyager, “Spirit Folk“ Columbia TriStar Television
was Jerry Fielding, who was year). New digital Dolby 5.1 Jay Chattaway, Composer
blacklisted after he refused surround sound mixes have UPN; Paramount Pictures Jack London’s Call of the Wild
to testify before the House been made for all the episodes, Hal Foxton Beckett, Composer
Committee on Un-American and fans can now experience The X-Files, “Theef” AP; Cinevu Films
Activities. DeSoto-Plymouth the music and sound effects Mark Snow, Composer
Dealers of America, the sponsor of the original series with a FOX; Ten Thirteen Productions in association with Jack of All Trades
of the program, subsequently clarity and separation never 20th Century-Fox Television Joseph LoDuca, Composer
demanded that he immediately available before. One nagging SYN; Pacific Renaissance
be fired. Marx later remarked, issue in previous video and Xena: Warrior Princess, “Fallen
“That I bowed to the sponsor’s laserdisc releases of Harlan Angel” The Pretender
demands is one of the greatest Ellison’s “The City on the Edge Joseph LoDuca, Composer Mark Leggett, Velton Ray Bunch,
regrets of my life.” of Forever,” long regarded to SYN; Renaissance Productions. In association Composers
“Groucho clearly gave be the original Star Trek’s finest with Studios USA NBC; Pretender Productions, Inc.; in associa-
Fielding up as part of his hour, has been the disposition tion with 20th Century Fox Television and
deal with the network,” said of Fred Steiner’s partial score Outstanding Music NBC Studios
soundtrack producer Nick for the episode.
Composition for a Miniseries,
Movie or Special
GROUCHO PHOTO COURTESY ABC-TV
Redman, and as a result Steiner based several cues in The West Wing
Fielding was bitter. Years later, his score (including music for
Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of W.G. Snuffy Walden, Composer
Laura Ingalls Wilder
the two ran into each other the climactic aftermath of the NBC; John Wells Productions; in association with
Ernest Troost, Composer
at a party. “Camille Fielding death of Joan Collins’ Edith Warner Bros. Television
CBS Productions
[Jerry’s widow] told me that at Keeler) on the Tin Pan Alley
the party Groucho and Jerry tune “Goodnight, Sweetheart,” Don Quixote For a complete lists of Emmy nominees visit
huddled in a corner for some which was heard as a piece of Richard Hartley, Composer www.emmys.org/awards/52ndnoms.htm
time while Groucho ‘atoned’ for source music issuing from a TNT; Hallmark Entertainment
his crime. She said that Jerry radio in the episode as Capt.
J u l y 2 0 0 0 F i l m S core M ont h l y
of this new music fell far a compilation of German
F i l m S core M ont h l y J u l y 2 0 0 0
R E C O R D L A B E L R O UN D - U P
Goldfinger, Thunderball, (now in release) was appar- ’70s.); Eva, La Venere Sel Waxman); a Malcolm Arnold
You Only Live Twice, On ently a little too Japanese for Vaggia (Roberto Pregadio, CD of Roots of Heaven (includ-
Her Majesty’s Secret Service, U.S. audiences. So TriStar, the limited pressing); and Trinity ing cues by Alfred Newman
Diamonds Are Forever, Live movie’s distributing studio in Goes East (Alessandro based on Arnold’s work) &
and Let Die, The Man With the States, replaced nearly 50 Alessandroni), a new spa- David Copperfield; and a
the Golden Gun, The Spy Who percent of the original score ghetti western feature. Steiner CD of Son of Kong
Loved Me, Moonraker and pre- by Takayuki Hattori with Contact: Prof. Roberto Zamori and The Most Dangerous
sumably A View to a Kill. The additional music by composer P.O. Box 13 - 59014 Iolo - PRATO - Italy Game.
titles will be newly mastered J. Peter Robinson. However, Tel./Fax : +39-0574-625109 Coming from Swiss producer/
and repackaged, but there is the original soundtrack album Mobile : 0338-3991145; Film Music Art Studio : conductor Adriano: Georges
no information as to previ- from GNP/Crescendo features http://www.ala.it/fmastudio Auric: Suites From Lola
ously unreleased music. all of Hattori’s original score, Hexacord Productions : http://www.hexacord. Montez, Notre-Dame de Paris,
as heard in the original ver- com Farandole; and Suites Rififi,
GDI/Hammer sion. La Symphonie Pastorale, Le
Forthcoming is the first- Hollywood Salaire de la Peur; and Dmitri
ever release of Gerard Hexacord Productions Due mid-September is Duets Shostakovich: The Fall of
Schurmann’s complete score Film Music Art Studio and (song compilation); due Berlin (complete original ver-
to The Lost Continent. Sermi-Film Edizioni Musicali in October is the score for sion), with suite from The
have joined forces to form Unbreakable (James Newton Memorable Year 1917.
GNP/Crescendo Hexacord Productions; the Howard).
Coming soon from GNP/ label’s forthcoming first Milan
Crescendo are Farscape, the release will be the score to Intrada Forthcoming is Une Pour
score album from the first two the 1970 Italian thriller Lo Due in the fall is a commercial Toutes (Francis Lai).
seasons of the Sci-Fi Channel Strano Vizio Della Signora release of The Ballad of Lucy
show, and Highlander: Ward (Nora Orlandi) followed Whipple (Bruce Broughton). Monstrous Movie Music
Endgame (Nick Glennie- by La Smagliatura (Ennio www.intrada.com Creature From the Black
Smith). Morricone). Susequent upcom- Lagoon (and Other Jungle
And here’s something of ing releases will include Al Marco Polo Pictures) is now available,
note: The latest installment in Cinema Con Edda Dell’Orso Coming soon: The Treasure of
the Japanese Godzilla series, (compilation from original Sierra Madre (Max Steiner)
Godzilla 2000: Millennium, soundtracks of the ’60s and and Objective Burma (Franz (continued on page 8)
J u l y 2 0 0 0 F i l m S core M ont h l y
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J u l y 2 0 0 0 10 F i l m S core M ont h l y
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F i l m S core M ont h l y 11 J u l y 2 0 0 0
U P C O M I N G F I L M A S S I G N M E N T S
J u l y 2 0 0 0 12 F i l m S core M ont h l y
Original music from the new Michael
Winterbottom film,by Michael Nyman,
the composer of the Piano v
©2000 Virgin Records America, Inc.
Composed, conducted and produced by Michael Nyman
MAIL BAG
ups with the content. Yes, there
R E A D E R are things I would like to see
R A N T S , included, but then, I don’t run
the magazine. My main interest
R A V E S & is classical film music. In order
R E S P O N S E to read about it I have to go back
into the archives. It’s difficult
but not impossible. I don’t expect
Journey to the Center of the Earth Taken directly from the 1952 all FSM staff to be in tune with
Herrmann’s Journey piece: recording, it was not re-recorded, the old Hollywood scores simply
F i l m S core M ont h l y 15 J u l y 2 0 0 0
M A I L B A G entertaining writers. I would music for the films of Krzysztof most recent release, Leonard
never cry to my mommy that Kieslowski is hauntingly beauti- Rosenman’s Beneath the Planet of
FSM’s Critics FSM hurt my feelings. It really ful. Besides the scores mentioned the Apes. This imaginative and
Film Scores
It’s the
Obvious Choice Soundtracks
Composer Compilations
Email: pactimeco@aol.com • Come Visit Us At: www.pactimeco.com Tel: 06 321 9570 • Fax: 06 321 8308
J u l y 2 0 0 0 16 F i l m S core M ont h l y
damn good stuff and then kind F S M R eader A ds
On the other hand, Fox owned Goldsmith’s than to simply call it lame and terrible. of go pffft (the late Brian May
music, so they could pretty much do whatever As for the Jesus issue, there were no to name one...anybody want
they wanted with it. giggles. It seemed only natural. 1,000,000 Soundtrack LPs/VIDEOS
to buy a copy of Dr. Giggles?).
Rare originals, limited editions,
Young has demonstrated time imported reissues.
Pocket Power Too Much Time on My Hands and time again that he doesn’t Catalog—$1.00.
Congratulations on the
new department, “Pocket CD
Reviews,” with its emphasis on
I wanted to take a min-
ute to comment on Jesus
Weinstein’s review for In Too
fall into that category—though
I will admit that he did have a
Soundtrack LP Price Guide—$10.
Video—all genres:
rather barren period over the SF/Horror, B’s, Silents, Cult.
content and type of music and Deep (Vol. 4, No. 10). I found the past couple of years: Both Hush Catalog—$1.00.
little on alleged “quality” or fatalistic statement that ended and Hard Rain were disap- Big descriptive catalog—$10.
value judgments. Your “good” the review to be rather odd: pointing, but the inadequacies RTS/FSD6, Box 93897, Las Vegas NV 89193.
or “bad” ratings seldom coin- “Chris Young’s work used to be in those scores were due to the
lousy films, Young’s obsession F or S ale
Jim Whittaker; P.O. Box 1309, Alttona, PA 16603,
with not being the Bela Lugosi
www.filmscoremonthly.com
track hell he went through while Info from 15 new interviews and over 90 printed
sources details the phenomenon’s history from
composing them. He wasn’t the
the writing of the play to the film’s midnight cult.
ideal choice for either project in Edition is limited to 1,000 copies and is available
the first place—I’d have gone for $20 including postage.
Our website is updated five times weekly with Chris A. Johnson; c/o 1282 Michele Way, Santa
with Edelman for the first and
Rosa, CA, 95404, has Themes 2 (Vangelis, lim-
news, reviews, opin- Mancina for the second.
ited-edition CD, mint condition) for $35; The Next
The Hurricane (and Set It Off) Man (Michael Kamen, sealed LP) for $20; and
ion, and first word of proves that he still has what it Mona Lisa (Kamen, U.K. import LP, mint condi-
new FSM Classic CDs. takes as a serious composer, so I tion) for $30. All prices include shipping.
find Weinstein’s statement a bit Darick Frommherz; 2323 Southwood Dr. #12,
Appleton, WI, 54915, dkfz@yahoo.com, has the
Read, shop, respond silly, to say the least. However,
following mint-condition CDs available for sale or
I’m not going to boil it down trade: Dick Tracy (Danny Elfman)—$12; Frantic
to saying that Young should or (Ennio Morricone)—$30; Guarding Tess (Michael
shouldn’t do more horror and Convertino)—$28; Midnight Run (Elfman)—$22;
cide with mine. But, just when infused with life and promise, suspense scores and less bom- Into the West (Patrick Doyle)—$30. All prices
I’m ready to compliment you but now his creativity may have include shipping. Darick has over 100 CDs avail-
bastic action scores, or quasi- able, starting at $4.
on avoidance of the pedantic been irreparably beaten down suspense Blaxploitation stuff like Alex Zambra; 5644 Lawndale, Houston, TX,
nincompoopery found elsewhere by the industry...he has become In Too Deep and Urban Legend. 77023-3840, Fax: 713-921-5082, has the follow-
in reviews (i.e., “the second half truly subservient to the film—in It’s frustrating to be typecast (I ing for sale: In Harm’s Way (Goldsmith, Japanese
of the theme—the 6/4, 3/4—is a way he’s too subservient. And mint-cond. CD)—$250 OBO; Link (Goldsmith,
know because I’m an actor), but
mint-cond. CD)— $200 OBO; La Reine Blanche
sometimes 5/4, 3/4, or even for those of you who insist that you have a catch-22 when you’re (Georges Delerue, French CD)—$90 OBO; The
4/4, 4/4...” Jeez!) you throw in Young is doing exactly what he is typecast doing what you do Cable Guy (John Ottman, promo CD)—$60;
“an arpeggiation of the tonic supposed to when he composes best, and you desperately want Five Corners (James Newton Howard, booklet w/
chord...” That sounds like some an unnoticeable, underwritten something else just as a breath white-out stain)—$35. Please add $5 for certi-
sort of a kinky musical colonic. score such as In Too Deep, I say fied postage U.S. For foreign orders add $10 for
of fresh air. I’ve read interviews S&H. No sales to countries w/o registered mail
Then, to confuse us further, you to you that this guy was too good with Young where he expresses service—sorry.
list the wrong page number for to turn into wallpaper without frustration at having most of
the department on the Contents anyone caring.” the projects he’s been on since W anted
page in Vol. 5, No. 3. No mat- Point well taken, but about Chris A. Johnson; c/o 1282 Michele Way, Santa
Jennifer 8 temped with Jennifer
Rosa, CA, 95404 is looking for Suspect (Michael
ter—I’d search through the a month later the score album 8. The mediocre Hard Rain and Kamen) and any other Kamen stuff.
whole issue to find it even if it’s for The Hurricane came out. In Too Deep at least gave the
unlisted and on an unnumbered Jesus, do you enjoy eating your composer a reprieve from turning S end Y our A ds T oday !
page. Just don’t leave it out or own words? Young writes one out an endless body of work with Reader ads are FREE for up to five items. After
I’ll really be pissed to search score that you call underwrit- that, it’s $1 per item. It’s that simple. Send to
Jennifer 8 stamped all over it. Film Score Monthly, 8503 Washington Blvd,
and not find it. Oh, and whose ten, and you’re automatically I suppose we can’t blame poor Culver City CA 90232; fax: 310-253-9588;
sly idea was it to have Jesus bemoaning the collapse of his old Weinstein for the occasional Lukas@filmscoremonthly.com.
Weinstein write the review for career? Young is one of the best inaccuracy, especially when he Upcoming Deadlines...are predictable again!
Jesus: The Epic Miniseries? I can and most original composers Send your ads accordingly:
had to write half of that par-
Vol. 5 No. 8 Ads due 9/20, on sale 10/25
just imagine all the giggles in working in Hollywood in any ticular issue, but I’d still like Vol. 5 No. 9 Ads due 11/15, on sale 12/20
your staff meeting when you age, and if he were losing it, it to see some of these gloom and
handed out that assignment! would probably be a very sad doom predictions grounded in a Space Ads for Individual Collectors/Dealers
Bert Zwonechek and gradual process, as has slightly more factual basis. Only $60 For a 1/6 page space ad, simply send
Sun City, California been happening recently to your list and information to the address above;
On another note—and I know you can comfortably fit anywhere from 20 to 60
some of the old warhorses, such this is taboo—what the hell is titles, but try to include less information per disc
If you can think of a simpler way to say as Bernstein and Goldsmith. I wrong with David Arnold as a the more you list, or else the print will be micro-
“an arpeggiation of the tonic chord” please understand where Weinstein is Bond composer? He’s no John scopic. We will do all typesetting. Same deadlines
let us know. It is more fair to the composer coming from—there are plenty and address as above. Send payment in U.S.
Barry, but face it, why didn’t
funds (credit card OK) with list.
to analyze why his music is lame and terrible of composers who write some Marvin Hamlisch or Bill Conti
F i l m S core M ont h l y 17 J u l y 2 0 0 0
M A I L B A G Barry in The Score by Michael Schelle if you
don’t believe me about the last few Barry Nathaniel...your defense of Christopher Young is no more
or Michael Kamen, or even Monty Norman “factual” than Weinstein’s attack—but that’s good. If either
facts.) I find it especially ironic that on one
get bashed when they did their Bond scores? the review or your letter were simply “factual” then there
hand you bash Arnold for not writing a good
They aren’t John Barry, either. If you want would be nothing to discuss or argue about the subject. As
Bond score, then give away autographed
to bash a Bond composer, bash Eric Serra for Arnold’s Bond work, there is more than one contributor
copies of Tomorrow Never Dies for reader
and leave it at that. Besides, did it ever to FSM—just because something gets a subpar review in the
feedback. Hmm...
occur to Arnold-bashers that when Barry magazine doesn’t mean everyone associated with us hates the
On a similar note, I’m sorry to see that
resigned from the series, he wanted the score—though in this case we all do.
C.H. Levenson will no longer be writing to
music to be “updated” by a new genera- Regarding the Tomorrow Never Dies giveaway, there’s
you. I enjoy reading banal tripe like that...but
tion—that was the reason he recommended nothing ironic about that. Just because we slam an album
then, I’m also a screenwriter. Otherwise, a
Serra (which went horribly awry, but was doesn’t mean that we expect or encourage our readers to
good magazine. Keep it up.
done with the best intentions). Before bash- dislike it, too. Good luck with the screenwriting.
ing Arnold for not being Barry, why doesn’t Nathaniel Smith
somebody ask Mr. Barry what he thinks of snorklewacker@hotmail.com Re-record This!
Arnold’s work? (Read the interview with First a note of thanks and congratulations
on a splendid job on the Beneath the Planet of
the Apes CD...another treasure reborn!
My reason for writing is the ongoing com-
mentary in FSM by those I consider “whin-
ers,” regarding re-recordings of classic scores.
These folks are always complaining about
tempo differences, instrumentation differ-
The Way To Download ences from the originals and so on. As a long-
Soundtracks And Score time musician (30+ years), I have absolutely
no problem with these differences and con-
sider it a blessing that these projects are done
Cinema Paradiso - Ennio Morricone
at all! So what if they’re not absolute note for
note replicas of the originals? Are these fans
Ennio Morricone’s award-winning score to the 1988
Italian film Cinema Paradiso. Find DRG’s catalog of so anal retentive that they can’t allow for
Morricone scores and anthologies at EMusic.com. artistic freedom of expression in the interpre-
tation of the score? New recordings will never
reproduce the originals 100 percent. Listen
Star Trek - Alexander Courage to Bernard Herrmann’s own re-recordings
Alexander Courage’s original 1966 score to early Star like “Mysterious World of...” and notice the
Trek episodes The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone
differences compared to the originals. They
Before. EMusic.com features the whole GNP Crescendo
catalog of Star Trek film and TV score. still sound great, just a bit different! Even
classical pieces differ in different conductor’s
hands. I have copies of both Herrmann and
Arlington Road - Angelo Badalamenti John Williams conducting Holst’s “Planets,”
and both sound totally different...Herrmann’s
Angelo Badalamenti’s suspenseful score to the psychologi-
cal thriller Arlington Road, starring Tim Robbins, Jeff Bridges sounds like Herrmann!
and Joan Cusack. Download Will Records soundtracks at We should be grateful to labels like Varèse
EMusic.com. for taking the time and trouble to produce
these CDs at all. Superman, 7th Voyage of
Sinbad, Back to the Future, Somewhere in Time
Independent Film Channel - In Your Ear Vol. II - Scores!
and the Alien trilogy all sound a bit differ-
A compilation of film music on the Independent Film ent from their original counterpart—but
Channel, including Angelo Badalamenti from Lost Highway, so what? How do they stand as an artistic
Mark Mothersbaugh from Bottle Rocket, James Newton accomplishment? Hats off to Varèse, Silva,
Howard from Glengarry Glen Ross, Stewart Copeland from Marco Polo, Monstrous Movie Music and all
Rumble Fish, and Ryuichi Sakamoto from High Heels.
those who labor to give film music fans clean
new recordings of their favorites.
Went To Coney Island On A Mission From God... Charles Thaxton
Be Back By 5 - Midge Ure Fostoria, Ohio
Best known as the creative force behind the multi-platinum
group Ultravox, Midge Ure compliments Jon Cryer’s Went To
Coney Island with his debut electronic score.
C’mon, this is your chance to be heard (we don’t
want to do all of the talking around here).
Inquiries: soundtracks@emusic.com
Send your letters to:
FSM Mail Bag
Click to the EMusic Network:
8503 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
EMusic.com, RollingStone.com, DownBeatJazz.com, IUMA, Tunes.com
or e-mail:
mailbag@filmscoremonthly.com
J u l y 2 0 0 0 18 F i l m S core M ont h l y
DO W N B E A T
the street and asks , “I f you BEHIND-THE-SCENES Writing music for TV & FILM
F i l m S core M ont h l y 19 J u l y 2 0 0 0
DO W N B E A T score, something more contempo-
rary. So Andrew was temping it
They Might Be Tired with a lot of bands, and he reached
Flansburgh and Linnell wanted a break an impasse where he couldn’t find
from the constant grind of touring; they a couple of cues for certain areas
got that, and more. In addition to Malcolm, of the film. At the same time, I
they’ve composed music for The Daily Show happened to be writing music for
and ABC’s Brave New World science spe- the Michael Jordan IMAX film,
cials, and they wrote the opening theme for and was also experimenting with a
the upcoming animated series The Oblongs. lot of different types of music that
“We figured nothing could be as hard as were new to me—a lot of electron-
touring. You know what? This is definitely ica music. Over the last year or so
harder than touring. The number of all- I’d really been experimenting with
nighters I’ve done… But it’s fun, it’s very loops, manipulations, and all kinds
exciting to be involved. We been on a pretty Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves in The Replacements of stuff with ProTools, getting into
wild, lucky streak for a couple of years. that world. I had done a couple of
Everything we’ve been involved with has corn movie—it’s been testing really, really pieces that Andrew thought might
been a hit.” —Tim Curran well. Warner Bros. is very high on it, and work for him. So one weekend I was here
everyone hopes that it’s going to make a lot working, and he was across the street at
of money.” Warner Bros., and so I threw him two or
John Debney three pieces of music, and lo and behold,
The Replacements One Man’s Schedule Conflict, they went into the temp, and the director
J u l y 2 0 0 0 20 F i l m S core M ont h l y
S e ss i o n N o t e s
W
hen my friend Shaun Cashman
called me up to invite me to the
scoring session for the King of
the Hill episode he directed, my first response
was, “What kind of bagels do you think they’ll
have?” He said cinnamon-raisin, so I told him
fine, I’ll go. Actually I was pretty excited; not
only am I a big fan of the show, the music has
always taken a very different approach, par-
ticularly for an animated series—very acoustic
guitar-driven, underscoring the drama rather
than hitting every action.
The session, at 20th Century-Fox Studios at
the Newman Scoring Stage, was engineered
by the legendary Armin Steiner—what a
treat. Also there were the episode’s producer
Joe Boucher, sound supervisor/ music editor/
mixer Bobby Mackston and a couple of assis-
tant engineers. Television protocol is a bit dif- maybe one hitch: In one particular scene Bobby until the episode aired to hear it.
ferent than film in that the producer oversees Hill is telling a joke in front of a large crowd. The most interesting aspect of the session
more of the post-production than the director. The joke bombs, the room grows painfully to me, was just how laid back it was. I’ve
So Shaun was pretty much able to sit back and silent. Roger and Joe had obviously thought been to many a session, both as composer
relax—his back-breaking hours had been put the scene warranted music when they spotted and observer, and I’ve never experienced
in on the episode (called “Propaniacs”) nearly it. But what Roger wrote just wasn’t working. such a relaxed atmosphere. In that way,
six months previous. He kept tweaking it until they finally agreed it had the same feeling as the show itself.
Roger Neill, who also composes for TV’s that it was fine, but neither of them seemed Not that it wasn’t an efficient session (they
Chicago Hope, was the composer for this particularly wild about it. (Incidentally, when I nailed all the cues in barely over three
episode. Shaun and Joe discussed how the watched the scene on TV the following Sunday, hours) or that they didn’t take it seriously;
show rotates composers throughout the sea- they had taken the music out altogether, and it was just refreshing, that’s all.
son, which to me makes it that much more the scene worked perfectly.) What more can I tell you?…Oh, we stopped
impressive that the King of the Hill pro- As an aside, since the episode spoofed off at the gift shop on the way out. I got a
ducers keep a consistent feel to the music. Flashdance, Roger wrote some very funny Twentieth Century-Fox pen that doubles as
Other composers since the show's premiere parodies of that particular ’80s style of pop a cool blue flashlight. Jealous? FSM
in 1997 have included John O’ Connor, Lance music using a Casio synth. But we had to wait
Rubin, John Frizzell, Greg Edmondson, Davey
Johnstone, Pete Anderson, Jeff Baxter and
The Replacements—and guest composers,
including Chuck Mangione and Chuck D of
Public Enemy.
Roger hadn’t slept much. His usual orches-
trator was out of town, so he had been up
most of the night filling out the score himself.
Nonetheless he was chipper and ready to
conduct at the 10:00 downbeat. He had about
20 players—a fairly full string section, electric
and acoustic guitarists and a percussionist/
drummer. No winds, no brass, no other instru-
ments he’d sequenced the night before. Then
again, he didn’t need them to get that specific
King of the Hill sound.
The music went off without a hitch. Well,
F i l m S core M ont h l y 21 J u l y 2 0 0 0
T
NUT
he Newman film scoring dynasty Film Score Monthly: Your comedy scores have
THE
certainly passed on many quali- the kind of screwball energy that Carl Stalling
ties beyond musical genius to gave to his Warner Bros. cartoons. Do you think
its second generation. You could you have a lot in common with him?
say that Randy (Toy Story, Avalon) David Newman: It’s hard to be objective about
inherited the humor of his uncle what you’re doing, because certain movies call for
Lionel, the smart-assed genius certain kinds of music. To me, Carl Stalling’s music
who ran 20th Century Fox’s musical depart- didn’t have any real kind of form. I’m always try-
TY
ment. Along with a unique talent for exper- ing to unify what I’m doing and give everything
imental music, Thomas (American Beauty, some sort of musical meaning. “Comedy music”
The Horse Whisperer) got his father Alfred’s can be a bit thankless for me, because it’s not
gift for sweeping melodies. While Tom’s there to bring attention to itself. You’re just trying
brother David certainly inherited that as to make a funny movie funnier. So to make things
well, he’s even more of a workhorse. Alfred interesting to me, I’ll try to inform all of the music
pumped out over 200 scores (The Robe and with themes. Orchestral music is about having
All About Eve among them), maintaining a themes that are hidden, slowed down and sped up.
quality that was always very good, if not You can treat a melody in a lot of different ways.
exceptional. With over 60 films to his credit I also tend to use a lot of tri-tones. You can build
so far, David Newman is well on his way a lot of interesting harmonies on them, and give
to matching Alfred’s quantity and quality. the score a crazy feel. So when I score comedies,
Dramatic scores like Hoffa, That Night, Other I make sure the director gets what he’s looking
People’s Money, Paradise, Boys on the Side and for, and that I’ve composed music that is interest-
C
Brokedown Palace are distinguished by their ing for me as well. But a lot of that’s hidden. It’s
melodic character, possessing the kind of stuff that another composer would notice, but the
gorgeous thematic framework that Alfred audience won’t. Maybe they’ll notice a score for an
OM
brought to the old studio films. arty comedy. People have commented on my score
But judging by the profits, David for Bowfinger more than my other comedies. It had
Newman’s forte in Hollywood is not drama. a rhythm and blues style that was more accessible.
It’s scoring comedies, and Newman, though I’m sure my score for Bowfinger will get more
reluctant, does his job with absolute, screw- attention than The Klumps will. But I love this
O
ball brilliance. In such youth-driven films movie. I think it has a lot of depth and character
as Bowfinger, Never Been Kissed, Galaxy Quest, development in it. The most interesting thing is
P
Jingle All the Way and both Flintstones and Bill the tremendous amount of technology that’s used
and Ted pictures, the composer is even more to make you not notice that it’s Eddie Murphy
antic than the goofiness on screen. While playing all of these characters.
most “comedy” composers score films as FSM: What’s the biggest difference in your scores for
if they were cartoons, where every punch The Nutty Professor and The Klumps?
line must be hit like an orchestral mallet on DN: The first movie only had 20 minutes of music.
Elmer Fudd’s head, Newman’s music looks This one has an hour! It’s a completely different
at the bigger, funnier picture. Even though movie. The Klumps has so many characters that it’s
his comedy scores go at a mile-a-minute, difficult to put songs into, which wasn’t the case
ER
covering dialogue with the same antic energy with The Nutty Professor. There are also a lot more
S
as the gags, he never loses sight of melody or comic set pieces in The Klumps.
the characters. Strong themes are the glue FSM: Did you try giving each of the Klumps indi-
that connects the pratfalls, the jazzed-up vidual themes?
orchestra brimming with Rube Goldberg DN: We talked about that, but there are six
electronic effects. It’s comedy music that’s Klumps. So I ended up having a motif for the
truly funny on its own, the sheer wackiness Buddy Love character and writing a love theme
of it bringing a smile to the face. for Sherman. I also used a lot of rhythmic ele-
David Newman’s comedy stylings are now ments, and treated each comedy set piece with a
on hyperspeed as he keeps pace with the different style. The Klumps tend to have a crazy
manic energy of The Klumps. It’s a return quality about them. There’s something running in
to The Nutty Professor for Newman, as Eddie their heads, and they can’t stop, or slow down. I’ve
Murphy’s split personalities now take equal keyed into that.
bill with the family’s overweight genius FSM: Most composers will duck out under dia-
and his sex-crazed alter ego. The emotional David Newman’s the logue. But many of your comedy scores don’t seem
heart that helped the original and its music to notice it. They keep that hyper tone, even when
go beyond its gross-out hijinks is even big- king of comedy. people are speaking.
ger here, and that’s perfectly in tune with But after DN: If the director wants music during the dia-
Newman’s approach. While the composer’s The Klumps, logue, you’re going to score it. You can do that in
own struggle to show his dramatic talents a lot different ways, including lowering the tempo
rivals Sherman Klump’s effort to get away
he’s looking to step during the actor’s lines, or not playing much at
from Buddy Love’s antics, Newman gives off the throne. all. But if the director absolutely insists that you
this sequel the kind of conviction that makes punch up the scene, then the choice to do that
his comedy music more than a cartoon. by Daniel Schweiger isn’t mine. At the dub, they’ll feel that the scene
J u l y 2 0 0 0 22 F i l m S core M ont h l y
isn’t working without music. So the director might find
another cue that I didn’t intend to use during the dia-
logue, and they’ll end up putting the music there.
FSM: Your next comedy after The Klumps is Bedazzled.
What can we expect from that score?
DN: Bedazzled has four little vignettes about this guy try-
ing to get this girl to love him, so there has to be a strong
theme. There’s also a theme for the devil, who seduces
him. At this point, the movie will have about 20 minutes
of score and 40 minutes of songs. But I have a feeling that
Bedazzled will probably end up with more score.
FSM: You’ve scored every one of Danny DeVito’s films,
from Throw Momma From the Train to Matilda. What’s it like
working with him?
DN: He kills himself when he directs, and agonizes over
every choice. I have a really great relationship with Danny.
I wish he did movies all of the time, but he’s always off
acting. I’m sure he’ll do another movie though.
FSM: Your recent comedy scores have been recorded on
the reconstructed Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century
Fox. What’s it like working where your family made film
scoring history?
DN: It’s put back the way it used to be in the 1940s,
and I think it’s the best stage in town. We recorded the
new 20th Century-Fox logo there. I’ll always go to the
Newman stage first, and have done every one of my scores
there for the last two years. My players and my engineers
also like it. The Newman stage has everything you need
in a good scoring studio.
F i l m S core M ont h l y 23 J u l y 2 0 0 0
SUMMER MOVIE
SOUNDTRACKS
This Year, Mediocrity
Sounds Like Genius
By Jeff Bond
O
kay, FSM faithful—it’s been a few years But Zimmer’s score wasn’t universally lionized. He was
since I’ve subjected you to my annual up-front about referencing some of the biggest old saws
Summer Movie rant, but as they say of modern film scoring, including Holst’s “Mars, Bringer
while warning you that Star Trek V is of War” from The Planets and Wagner’s “Funeral March”
coming: The vacation’s over! There’s from Siegfried; to many Gladiator was simply too derivative
always something to complain about. in its broad gestures and too timid in its subtleties to reg-
Last year it was The Phantom Menace, but whatever you ister as a good score. Part of the composer’s curse here was
might say about that movie, at least it got people excited the expectation of older viewers raised on masterpieces of
about going to the movies again. The year 2000 has been the genre like Ben-Hur and Spartacus, a problem Zimmer
mostly appalling, with predictable masses turning out acknowledged in a recent interview (see sidebar).
for sequels like Mission: Impossible 2 and the yearly Jerry But at least Zimmer was associated with a movie that
Bruckheimer abomination, both of which generated so was widely praised. Elia Cmiral, who emerged relatively
much pre-release hysteria that they were able to rack up unscathed from Stigmata, must be ruing the day he
a hundred million or so before people even figured out took on the adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard’s sci-fi epic
that they’re not very good. In the weekends following the Battlefield Earth, surely one of the most viciously
release of MI2, movie after movie opened against very little reviewed movies of the past ten years, if not the last half-
competition, scored impressively, then dropped off precipi- century. Battlefield Earth may in fact have been a more
tously the next weekend. Sure things like Me, Myself and entertaining movie than the sleep-inducing Mission to
Irene bombed. It’s telling that Scary Movie, a 90-minute In Mars, but it was positively hilarious in its straight-faced
Living Color episode with raunchier jokes, broke box-office presentation of mind-bogglingly ludicrous plot turns (the
records—weeks prior to the release of the film, there had best occurs when superintelligent alien villain Terl fails
simply been nothing around for people to see. Meanwhile, to notice that the “man-animals” he put to work digging
The X-Men generated a glow of critical goodwill by consis- gold out of a mountain have instead simply stolen a pile
tently not sucking as much as people thought it would. of gold ingots from a conveniently unlocked Fort Knox).
Cmiral’s score has its moments, painting the post-apoca-
An Un-Memorial Day lyptic, alien-dominated landscape of the film’s first half
Musically, summer 2000 has been a disappointment, in crushing industrial terms after an opening that echoes
too—there must be something wrong when Hans Zimmer Goldsmith’s Logan’s Run with its hollow, lonely brass pas-
gets me more excited than John Williams. But Zimmer got sages. But Cmiral is ultimately undone by the movie when
a good ride out of Gladiator, a film a lot of people adored he’s forced to solemnly underscore moments like hero
and some found too simple-minded or too gloomy-looking Johnny Goodboy Tyler discovering the tattered remnants
to compare with the sword and sandal spectaculars of the of the U.S. Constitution in an abandoned library.
past. Zimmer scored the movie the way you’d expect him Battlefield Earth did have one saving grace—at 117 min-
to score it, except in the case of a truly spectacular open- utes, it’s six minutes shorter than John Woo’s painfully
ing battle sequence. Zimmer tackled this scene with gusto, overblown Mission Impossible 2. While it may serve
providing a ferocious waltz of destruction to accompany someone very well as a two-hour demo reel for high-speed
an astonishing vista—a bitterly cold German countryside photography, this sequel to the derided Brian DePalma
ignited by a fusillade of crossbow bolts and flaming mis- TV series adaptation had me immediately nostalgic for
siles. It takes a lot to get me excited at the movies these the gripping feel and impenetrable yet strangely com-
days, but this sequence (at least until its clumsily shot and pelling plot turns of the previous movie. Hans Zimmer
edited finale) actually had me laughing out loud in sheer jumped onto this mega-production immediately after
wonder, and Zimmer’s music was right at the heart of the finishing Gladiator, and many people have pounced on him
scene’s ability to thrill the viewer. for slighting the Woo film in favor of Ridley Scott’s epic.
J u l y 2 0 0 0 24 F i l m S core M ont h l y
F i l m S core M ont h l y 25 J u l y 2 0 0 0
But Zimmer actually does MI2 a favor by losing the heavy, since by its very nature any human cultural idiom here is
orchestral sound of Gladiator and providing an upbeat rock wildly inappropriate. But Howard’s need to support the
and roll sound for the sequel. His catchy (if monotonous) film’s drama and characters is the most straightforward
rhythms intersect perfectly with Woo’s constantly roaming of missions, and his score sports several magnificent pas-
camera, and his sighing, ethereal love music supplies the sages, particularly the underscoring of a grueling march
sort of mythic tone that the Hong Kong director’s floating through the desert. There’s a certain Disney sparkle to
doves and dreamy slo-mo photography beg for. In short, the work that left me cold (for the subject matter, I still
Zimmer’s music suits the style of the film just as Danny prefer Benjamin Bartlett’s Walking With Dinosaurs score),
Elfman’s edgy, ’60s-inspired technological approach suited but when you have to score sequences involving joke-
Brian DePalma’s more intellectual first film in the series. cracking marsupials, that seems to be the way to go.
I much prefer Elfman’s take as a listening experience, but Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell often get
Zimmer’s is a well-informed approach. dismissed as “those Media Ventures guys,” but both have
Florid Fauna written music that’s quite different from the style of the
Hans Zimmer on
After the fantastic BBC pseudod- company’s chief founder, Hans Zimmer. The pair teamed
ocumentaryWalkingWithDinosaurs, up for Chicken Run, from the creators of the Academy
Gladiator
and expectations of the score:
“I had a lot of discussions with Spielberg because his favorite score is Spartacus, and
this went on for quite some time with him saying, ‘Why aren’t you writing Spartacus?’”
Zimmer said. “I don’t think that sounds Roman either. We don’t really know what
Roman is. And I realized that Steven was after the same thrill he got from Spartacus
when he was a young kid. I needed to play for a whole new generation. When I
listened to Spartacus I didn’t really get it. I don’t get a feeling from it. The thing I got
stuck on the longest was I knew I had to get some fanfares in there, and I didn’t know
how to escape the cliché of it. In fact, probably the thing people resent the most is the
little theme I gave Commodus, which is so slight and so tiny. And in the last hour with
the brass section sitting there I suddenly realized what the fanfare should be, which
is that little tune played by 16 French horns very very loud. And it’s a very decadent,
perverted tune. My Rome is Viennese waltzes turned upside down and made very
savage and barbaric. I’m not an anthropologist. That doesn’t interest me. We did have
some research and brought in CDs of music that was supposed to be Roman, but I
didn’t believe a word of it. Even modern music notation is so vague that I don’t think
anybody knows any of that. They didn’t have drums then, that we know. I didn’t even
consciously stay away from that ’50s kind of style, but there’s an evolution that has
gone through Hollywood film music that I’m not really aware of.”
J u l y 2 0 0 0 26 F i l m S core M ont h l y
bewildering plot turns. But despite having to work theme for the Revolutionary War effort comes into play
under the gargantuan shadow of Isaac Hayes’ legendary all subtlety is thrown out the window. Interestingly,
theme song from the 1971 Richard Roundtree original, much of the music has the same sophisticated comic
composer David Arnold manages to produce a juicy book quality as Williams’ Phantom Menace score—not
’70s-style score that to me is more successful than the surprising for a movie that is a high-class comic book
composer’s higher-profile efforts for the James Bond disguised as a historical epic
franchise. Arnold doesn’t skimp on the classic reper-
toire of ’70s percussion as heard in Hayes’ original, but X-Tremely Noisy
he also keeps his score alive with strong action motifs It’s a testament to how bad most comic book movies
and melodies, pushing the music to the forefront in a (and most movies this summer) have been that Bryan
way that’s rarely heard in movie theaters these days. It Singer’s rather modest adaptation of X-Men had a
figures that this would be one of the few scores of the $54 million opening weekend and has caused critics to
summer to not see a commercial soundtrack release. practically wet themselves praising the movie. It’s not
that X-Men stuns the viewer by being so good—what it
Fishing for Greatness does instead is consistently surprise the audience by not
The Perfect Storm purports to tell the true story of being terrible. Singer has the perfect hand for this sort of
a group of fishermen lost at sea during one of the most material—heavy enough to keep the audience’s sense of
powerful storms ever to strike the Atlantic. Based on a disbelief at bay, but light enough to have several laughs
book that used conjecture to tell much of the story of at the expense of the film’s (and comic’s) premise of a
the crew of the Andrea Gail, the film fictionalizes the world that is both aided and threatened by a burgeoning
material even more in order to make it palatable for race of superpowered mutants. Composer and editor John
movie audiences. The result, unfortunately, is too palat- Ottman was hot to repeat his collaborations with Singer
able—a magnificent production that’s far too drenched on films like The Usual Suspects and Apt Pupil by scoring
in Hollywood gloss to be taken seriously as a kind of his- X-Men, but Ottman was off directing Urban Legends: Final
torical document. Part of the problem is James Horner’s Cut. So Singer employed veteran action composer Michael
relentless score, although, to be fair, the movie was Kamen to do the score. With a bruising post-production
temped with music almost literally wall-to-wall. This period, the movie was hard on everyone concerned, and
becomes a crucial mistake both in the early sequences,
in which Horner’s plaintive, lyrical soap opera writ- Kamen reportedly was asked to dispense with a number
ing threatens to drown the viewer long before
the storm does, and during the film’s hour-long
MI:2
“climax.” While director Wolfgang Petersen and
his technical crew convincingly place the viewer
at the heart of the storm, Horner’s score is one
of several film conventions that keep reminding
Zimmer on
and Lalo Schifrin’s original theme:
the viewer that it’s only a movie—hence the film
never achieves the sickening, snuff-film quality
“It’s a really strong tune—you don’t even have to use the
that the documentary approach of movies like A
melody to get people to know what you’re talking about,
Night to Remember, In Cold Blood or even The Blair
Witch Project have in spades. Horner’s score plays you can just use the rhythm. I really wanted to make this
out far better as an album, where its rolling nau- one different, plus I didn’t want to use a big orchestra. I
tical feel marks it as a refreshingly close cousin to thought there was something perversely nice about having
his seminal Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan score. a big summer picture that didn’t have a big orchestra, and
Somewhat swamped by The Perfect Storm at the I wanted to make it more rock and roll. The Schifrin tune
box office, the three-hour Roland Emmerich epic is strong enough that you can really throw anything at it,
The Patriot marked the return of a rare film which I did. I had an idea for this picture which was to
genre not seen since Hugh Hudson’s Revolution: start my own Mission: Impossible band and just get some
the Revolutionary War epic. Although spectacu- of my favorite musicians in and do it like a band.”
lar in scope, The Patriot keeps its focus squarely
on its protagonist, again played by Mel Gibson—a
character only loosely based on a less than admi-
rable figure from Revolutionary War history. It’s clear of individual character themes he’d written for the film’s
from the opening bars of John Williams’ score that the large cast of superheroes and villains. Other sources indi-
ambiguities of something like Saving Private Ryan are cate that Kamen had to deal with techno elements that he
not about to be addressed in The Patriot. For years now did not even write, which may explain a lot of the schizoid
Williams has occupied the very pinnacle of the film scor- aspect of that part of the music.
ing world—he scores one or two movies a year, usually The result neither helps nor hurts the movie, although
for his longtime collaborator Steven Spielberg or for as a soundtrack album it ranges from unsatisfying to
high-profile, prestige productions like Seven Years in Tibet annoying (I’d be fascinated to discover who came up with
or Angela’s Ashes. The Patriot marks the first time, per- the idea of someone whispering the word “Disco!” when
haps since 1986’s Spacecamp, that Williams has worked the action music starts in the early cue “Ambush”). In the
as a hired gun on a summer action movie, and the dif- film, Kamen’s textural approach works well enough with-
ference is noticeable. The opening music for strings (and out getting the pulse racing. Kamen’s work has been criti-
solo violin) is as rich and compelling as any of Williams’ cized even by web mogul Harry Knowles as colorless, but
other work, but by the time the composer’s fanfarish his action music is actually more complex and classically
F i l m S core M ont h l y 27 J u l y 2 0 0 0
Paul Verhoeven on
HOLLOW MAN
and scoring outrageousness:
“In that moment where Elizabeth Shue gets out of the
car the music seems to really go further than what is
shown on-screen. I like to cast composers the same
way I cast cinematographers (now that Jan DeBont
isn’t available, I need someone in addition to Jost
Vacano). I brought in Jerry Goldsmith on this because
there had to be a very gradual transition from the
sound of scientific experimentation to more feelings of
jeopardy and danger, and Jerry is very good at that.
He’s able to add little elements and orchestrations and
sounds that give you the feeling that something is not
right, but without giving the whole thing away.”
written than most of what passes for film music lately. ics and strings that will remind some of Basic Instinct,
This is particularly evident as the film’s climactic Statue but his contemplative main theme thereafter surfaces
of Liberty fight reaches its conclusion and Kamen’s in only a few cues. The rest of the score is pulsingly
score finally comes together for some well-developed rhythmic, driven by two brief, three-note motifs: a quest-
action material (though it’s mostly lost in the sound mix) ing one that forms the spine of the film’s three pivotal
and a satisfying, apocalyptic finale. Even better is the transformation sequences and a darker one that surfaces
film’s resolving cue, “Logan and Rogue,” which recalls as Bacon’s character moves from protagonist to threat.
Kamen’s work on David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone Goldsmith’s music here—almost like his old ostinato-
and perfectly underscores the movie’s humanistic and driven action cues, only without the ostinatos—involves
“healing” conclusion. Kamen has often remarked that the whole orchestra in a more throbbing, stripped-down
he dislikes scoring action movies now because of how approach, but there’s still a feeling of density that recalls
little time he’s given to work on them, and his X-Men scores like Outland or Total Recall. Electronic elements
score seems to reflect that quandary—like the students (including some sequencer riffs that have been around
at Charles Xavier’s institute, it’s got plenty of potential, since Leviathan and a skittering, violin-like sample) are
but it doesn’t always pay off. expected and appropriate. Anyone looking for a depar-
ture in Goldsmith’s characteristic sound will likely be
Special Effects Camp disappointed, although the sound of the recording itself
The summer reached its final third with two ripe cel- is quite rich thanks to something called Direct Stream
ebrations of special effects and camp, Paul Verhoeven’s Digital encoding.
invisibility thriller Hollow Man and the long-awaited Varèse’s album is lengthy at 50 minutes, but the most
return of the world’s most popular rubber-suited giant interesting cue in the film is missing. In the movie,
monster. Hollow Man is, if nothing else, a solid argu- Bacon’s invisible man sneaks into a woman’s apart-
ment for the continuation of the Jerry Goldsmith/Paul ment and accosts her, with Verhoeven uncharacteristi-
Verhoeven collaboration. Verhoeven’s film is often ludi- cally cutting away from this distasteful moment to a
crous, with performances that are entirely sabotaged by rather tranquil image of Elizabeth Shue driving around
cutting-edge special effects. Verhoeven, his screenwriters Washington, D.C. But in a masterful spotting choice,
J u l y 2 0 0 0 28 F i l m S core M ont h l y
piece of music on hand in Godzilla 2000, Toho’s resur- Orchestra and a Morroccan orchestra, the Master Musicians
rection of one of the longest-running film franchises in movie of Jujuka from the Riff Mountains of Tangiers, recorded live
history. Ifukube’s indelible style (a mix of groaning, portentous with the London Philharmonic. According to Singh, Shore
monster themes, brisk military marches and hauntingly lyrical actually had the London players use the same approach that
requiems) elevated what might have been a series of exploit- the Tangiers group employs: Specifically, playing out of syn-
ative monster movies to something approaching mythology, chronization with one another and essentially riffing off the
adding character and even a strange kind of dignity to Toho’s other instruments around them. The result is a nightmarishly
parade of foam rubber monstrosities. Ifukube retired after scor- non-Western sound, and while you can argue that film compos-
ing the “final” Godzilla movie, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, in 1995. ers always seem to move toward the East whenever they have
Taking over scoring duties from Ifukube is Takayuki Hattori, to come up with an “alien other” soundscape, Shore’s approach
whose slight list of credits includes one previous Godzilla movie has to rate as one of the most unique and chilling examples
(the sillier-than-average Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla). Toho of the technique. Right now
used to alternate between Ifukube people seem skeptical that
and Masaru Sato on the Godzilla
movies of the ’60s and ’70s, and
Tarsem Singh on Shore will be able to tackle
the immense world of The
THE CELL
while Sato’s approach was more Lord of the Rings, but a
conventional than Ifukube’s, it listen to his rich Looking
also had an engaging and play- for Richard score should
ful hipness to it. There’s noth- and the expertise of Howard Shore provide some clues that
ing hip about Hattori’s music, “When I met him, I said he had quintessentially defined the serial killer Shore can do a lot more
which seems more mired in film. He did Silence of the Lambs and Se7en, and I said ‘if you see this than serial killer movies
the sci-fi idiom of the ’50s than as a serial killer film, don’t do it.’ That’s just the perimeter for getting into and comedies.
Ifukube’s music written during this opera that I wanted to do, and I told Howard that if he wasn’t going Finally,‑Clint Eastwood
that period. to have fun with it he shouldn’t do it. With this I either would have to hire (and his composer-in-resi-
Written for an orchestra somebody very young who needed to prove something, which I wouldn’t dence, Lennie Neihaus)
that can scarcely be called be able to judge, or someone like Howard. I trusted his judgment and I join forces with a group
“Godzilla-sized,” Hattori’s let him be in a more powerful position than me about the music. Howard
of Hollywood veterans
score often seems strangely in Space Cowboys,
turned things on his head for me because when he came in the movie
timid, neither able to under- an engagingly retro, if
was in a fragile state, it was a rough cut and it was like a Frankenstein
cut the film’s action with wit sometimes dramatically
nor to achieve the compelling monster with the head of this and the arm of that. When Howard came in flatfooted comedy adven-
gravity of Ifukube’s work. Sony/ I said ‘that’s the movie that needs to be seen.’ He came in with a common ture, with Clint saddling
TriStar actually hired American brush and made the whole thing cohesive. up with pals Tommy Lee
composer J. Peter Robinson to ”Howard wrote everything except for the first 30 seconds of flute that’s Jones, Donald Sutherland
rescore some of the film, and played. What was so brilliant that he did was to hire these North African and James Garner to pilot
Robinson’s work is punchier guys, who William S. Burroughs described as a rock and roll band from a space mission involving a
than Hattori’s (sometimes four thousand years ago. Their music is very psychedelic. They sit around mysterious, out-of-control
wandering into Hans Zimmer in caves and they don’t play in sync. They’re not like jazz guys because satellite. Eastwood seems
territory), although still lack- they’re not totally improvising. They know each other’s music but they
to reason that just plant-
ing in Ifukube’s grandeur—the ing a camera in the same
won’t play on each other’s beats. They play off each other knowing where
most satisfying musical moment room with his cast (which
they have to come in and go out and make very interesting patterns.
in the film is the underscor- also includes refreshingly
ing of its apocalyptic final shot What Howard did was to make the Royal Philharmonic play like them. mature female cast mem-
with Ifukube’s title music from He said ‘listen to these fuckers – they’re not playing wrong. They could bers Blair Brown and
Ghidrah, the Three-Headed fall in sync tomorrow if they wanted to.’ He didn’t ask them to play totally Barbara Babcock) will suf-
Monster. The reimagining of out of sync but he asked that the percussive effects weren’t synched up the fice to keep Space Cowboys
Godzilla for the film (and some way they were used to. It’s really hard to tell a guy who plays in sync to going, and he’s actually
surprisingly cheeky humor) is its go off sync, but he did that. The ethnic musicians actually aren’t heard in right about 60 percent of
most successful aspect (although the film very much, but they dictate the way the Philharmonic plays, and I the time. Unfortunately,
he’s up against the least memo- was shocked by that, because I was using such abstract terms to describe the always introvertive
rable monster opponent since the music because I know nothing about music, and he made it so coher-
Neihaus doesn’t lend the
Varan the Unbelievable), but it’s movie the support it needs.
ent that I thought either I was making sense or he’s a genius.”
time Toho reinvented the series’ While scoring restraint is
music with something that can at actually a welcome depar-
least compete with Ifukube’s work. ture from the norm these
days, Space Cowboys’ outlandish premise needs all the musical
Batting Clean-Up help it can get, and Neihaus’ thin score (which varies from
The summer’s stragglers included The Cell, dazzlingly positively Frank De Vol-esque in its comedic training music
mounted by video and commercial director Tarsem Singh, who to some ineffectual, ethereal space stuff) just doesn’t provide
conjures up some superheated, surreal imagery for star Jennifer it. Both The Cell and Space Cowboys won hosannahs from
Lopez’s journey into the mind of a serial killer played by Vincent sensation-starved film critics, and they’re each innovative and
D’Onofrio. Howard Shore cornered the market on this genre successful in their own way; but they’re also indicative of a
long ago with The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en, but The Cell summer in which quality has been so lacking that any glimmer
gives him a whole new ballpark to play in and Shore responds of creativity is being viewed like the Second Coming. Maybe
with a bracing combination of the London Philharmonic next year… FSM
F i l m S core M ont h l y 29 J u l y 2 0 0 0
Agent
History
X
Part 3:
Making the
Game Plan &
Listening to
Buyers
Music supervisor Maureen Crowe (The Perfect Storm,
The evolution of The Replacements) says agents approach her the instant
they know she’s at work on a film. “If the word is out
film music representation that I’m working on a film I will always hear from
agents asking me if a composer has been selected,”
By Jeff Bond she notes. “Even if one has been selected and it’s not
locked in stone they will be calling me and the studio
and the music editor and anyone else connected with
the film. Most of the time agents are very aggressive
and will hit many different sources.”
Gary Foster, producer of films like Sleepless in
Seattle and Desperate Measures, stays in regular
contact with the agents he normally does busi-
ness with like Gorfaine/Schwartz and Blue Focus
Management’s Richard Kraft and Vasi Vangelos.
“They’re always checking in, or I’ll call them and
COMPOSERS ROCK:
say, ‘Here’s what’s going on, who do you guys like?’
Laura Engel of Blue Focus It’s a two-way street.”
Director Jon Turteltaub (The Kid, Phenomenon) says
Management managed he and the studio can begin their search for a com-
Oingo Boingo before poser even before an agent gets involved. “You think
about your favorite names and check to see if they’re
becoming a film composer available,” he explains. “At the same time, depending
on your budget and the level of prestige of your movie,
you go out to get the list of availability for all the ‘A’
names and get recommendations of the ‘B’ names
that could be ‘A’ names but that no one knows yet.
And that will come from the studio itself. The music
people at the studio are very good at recommending
composers. Agents are thrilled to give work to their
biggest clients because they make them the most
money, but they’re also very good at trying to sell you
on the newer names.”
J u l y 2 0 0 0 30 F i l m S core M ont h l y
J
ust about every composer working in Hollywood completely out of line with the creative point of view myself
has an agent. Those that don’t (primarily com- or the studio has, that’s what will drive the deal,” Foster
posers beginning their careers) may be desper- explains.
ately trying to get one. But do they really need Kraft notes that composers can also make the mistake
one? Blue Focus’ Richard Kraft points out, “If you’re of believing that a previous association with a director
a composer just starting out, I think the biggest misconcep- or producer is going to lead to automatic employment on
tion and the biggest hindrance is the notion, ‘I have an that person’s next project. “A lot of times the people they
agent, so I don’t have to take care of my career anymore.’ work with don’t see them in a complete light,” Kraft says.
It’s better you don’t have an agent if that’s how you feel, “They may think they’re great for one project but won’t
because then you at least know you’re 100 percent respon- be appropriate for another. It’s incumbent on the agent to
sible for hustling yourself. At the very beginning of your help illustrate beyond the relationship why artistically the
career when you get an agent you should still feel 99 per- composer is right for the changes. The other factor is that
cent responsible. An agent can make contacts and an agent there are a lot of people who make a decision on a movie,
can promote you, but it’s like if you were single, thinking and just because the director has worked with you before
you don’t have to ask anyone out because you told a few of doesn’t mean the producer on his new film may embrace
your friends that you were looking to be set up and then the idea. It’s the agent’s job to know all the parties involved THE BIG BREAKOUT:
you stopped looking on your own, thinking ‘Well, I told in the decision and not rely solely on history.”
them I wanted to date so they’re going to take care of that.’ For composers who are in high demand, an agent’s job Agents helped composers
That may happen, but it’s certainly not a game plan.” can actually involve avoiding work. Howard Shore acknowl-
Composer Howard edges that screening material and projects an agent knows Christopher Young (top)
Shore says most com- won’t be of interest to his client is part of an agent’s job.
posers are in the posi- “You want to have a productive relationship,” Shore says, and John Debney (bottom)
tion to make their own “but you also want to see what’s being offered to you.”
contacts and their own Agents of in-demand composers may need to be convinced leverage their success
deals early in their to pass on a project to their client by the filmmakers. “I was
careers by necessity. in a situation where I wanted to work with Randy Newman, in order to move out
“When you’re young and the director and I
and you want to work really wanted to work of the genre film ghetto.
you’re excited about with him,” Foster
just doing anything, recalls. “I went to his
but you don’t really agent who said that
know how to protect Randy doesn’t do this
your interests,” Shore or that and Randy
points out. “But doesn’t like to do a
nobody does it well lot of work. At that
without an agent. I point it’s my job to get
was always interested in the music, and that leaves you a the agent to take the
little vulnerable. You just learn and swim eventually and first step of reading
it’s a part of growing up.” the material and feel-
Having worked with a director before also doesn’t ing good about being
guarantee the conditions of the next working assignment, an advocate to his cli-
according to music supervisor Crowe. “The agent gets ent. Hopefully they
involved in making the deal and usually wants to get more feel the same way I
money for the composer in a situation like that,” Crowe do about the material
says. “The hard thing right now is that it seems to me and the agent becomes the avenue through which we can
every movie has the same music budget, and it’s terribly make a strong proposal to the composer. I have to count on
under-budgeted. No matter what kind of movie it is, a 100- them to communicate our enthusiasm to the client in an
million-dollar movie or a 50-million-dollar movie, they have honest and impressive way. One thing I can tell you about
the same music budget. Whether it calls for 100 source cues all the agents I mentioned is they all read the material, they
of songs or a big score it’s the same budget, because it’s the are all smart about creative instincts on the material as
last thing that’s done. And usually the production is taking well as the marketability of the project, and if they’re going
money from the music budget to pay for other things or to to go for it, it’s because they believe in the material.”
get the budget passed and they’ll deal with it later. I think Kraft explains that in today’s market the same 10
a lot of times the agents are put in a position where they’re composers are offered almost every film. “Knowing when
asked to cut fees and they really have to negotiate very to pass,” he says, “is as important as knowing what to
hard, or agree to something up front and find that things accept.”
change.”
C
Gary Foster agrees that getting a composing job on areer building is a major part of an agent’s
a movie depends on much more than a prior composer/ work. Kraft says that one of his biggest respon-
director relationship. “The director either has a previous sibilities is giving clients a realistic view of their
relationship with somebody or has somebody in mind they opportunities and an impression of their career
want to work with. And if that’s the case, and if it’s not as a whole rather than just focusing on one project at a
F i l m S core M ont h l y 31 J u l y 2 0 0 0
time. “I once had a very talented and equally to get him jobs to score movies on his own from those two very successful movies wasn’t
naïve young client who said he wanted to as John Powell, independent of anyone or acted upon by my prior agents and maybe
be scoring that year’s most prestigious film, anything else, which is why it is so important there were some lost opportunities. He felt I
Schindler’s List,” Kraft recalls. “He asked me that he is now doing big films like the upcom- needed to get a lot busier than I had been. So
what he should do to get it and I said, ‘Score ing Pluto Nash solo,” Engel explains. step one of the game plan was to get me really
Gilligan’s Island.’ And he didn’t know what busy so that at the end of the year people
C
I meant. I said score Gilligan’s Island and hristopher Young found that his would look back and say wow, this guy was
Gidget Goes to Rome until you are ready to agent’s personal interaction with really working a lot and he’s really got a lot of
score a low budget film for a first time direc- him extended to literal personal momentum. So he accomplished that beyond
tor, something obscure like The Sugarland management, actually providing my wildest dreams; in the course of a year
Express. My client had no idea that this him with guidance in how to behave after and a half I think I did seven films.”
was the path of John Williams and that he’s been brought in on a movie. “When I Sometimes making the correct career move
Sugarland Express was the film that started first started I was more inclined to be an involves taking on a film that may appear
his relationship with Steven Spielberg that open book to everyone who worked with me,” to be less than the sum of its parts at first
led to Jaws, which lead to a lifelong relation- Young says. “I was a nervous guy and I wasn’t glance. “You never know how a film’s going
ship with Spielberg, which smart enough at the time to turn out. When I first saw Galaxy Quest,
led to Schindler’s List.” to know that once I came I thought it was just a goofy comedy,” Blue
Kraft says film com- onboard a movie I had to Focus client David Newman says of the
posers just starting out make sure it was a smooth sleeper hit. “But it turned out to be a really
need to be realistic about ride for everyone involved. great film for me to do.”
where they need to begin I was willing to show my Composer Trevor Rabin cemented a rela-
their career path. “You’re insecurities about what I tionship with producer Jerry Bruckheimer
not ready to run a Fortune was offering the picture. that led him to score Armageddon, Enemy of
500 company when you’re I’m a lot more confident the State and this year’s Gone in 60 Seconds.
in what I’m doing now. “Richard Kraft and the team including Laura
Richard Kraft has always and at the time Lyn Benjamin really worked
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED: been extraordinarily per- hard at solidifying Armageddon,” Rabin says.
ceptive and helpful in try- “I had wanted to do it and there was some
Stewart Copeland has ing to mold me to the point interest from Jerry Bruckheimer, but obvi-
where my ability to work ously it was such a huge-budgeted movie. We
learned to trust his with the people involved in had meetings and it was decided that I should
the movie was on a par with submit something, and a lot of the direc-
agent’s commercial instincts my ability to deliver the tion on how I should achieve it came from
fresh out of music. Richard and his people have brought Richard. What solidified getting Armageddon
on less-obvious projects. college,” he to my door films that I never would have had was me writing the theme before starting. A
points out. a chance of getting involved in based on the lot of the themes in the movie were written
“You need power that my previous agents had. I was before I even started on the movie, and the
to go and really thrilled that for the first time jobs were same thing happened on Enemy of the State.
have experiences that prepare you for when coming my way because of the work of the I might have thought twice about doing that
the right opportunities arrive. And I think agents. Prior to that I would say 90 percent if it wasn’t for Richard being very stubborn
there’s an impatience in society currently, a of everything I worked on was based on rela- about the idea that I should.”
real instant gratification mentality. Too often, tionships I had established and films that I At the same time Rabin threw a curveball
people feel like they’re failures if they haven’t had hunted down on my own.” into the mix by scoring the fanciful children’s
scored a dozen films before they’re 30, or won “For years Chris Young has been develop- film Jack Frost with Michael Keaton. “I wasn’t
a fistful of Oscars as soon as they are nomi- ing an impressive body of work,” Kraft adds. sure about doing a kiddie movie at the time,”
nated, or are has-beens if they don’t have a “I am a huge fan of his music, but it has Rabin admits. “Richard was very good with
hit movie every six months.” almost exclusively been in the horror genre. scheduling on that because there were major
Coming up with a game plan for their Through my agency’s relationships with film- scheduling problems between Jack Frost and
clients in order to keep their careers moving makers we have been able to reposition Enemy of the State.”
forward is one of the most important aspects Chris by placing him in collaboration with Stewart Copeland, who moved into com-
of an agent’s job. “Richard tries to steer major directors like Norman Jewison, Curtis position for films and television after a high-
certain jobs toward me that might give me Hanson and Sam Raimi on films like The profile career as drummer for The Police,
a chance to flex different muscles, both for Hurricane, Wonder Boys and The Gift. Having works with Engel and has learned to trust
my own well-being and to expand peoples’ known Chris since he was scoring Filipino her judgment even when he might question
perception of me,” composer Marc Shaiman biker flicks, it is extraordinarily gratifying the advantages of a project initially. “She’ll
says. to see him finally getting the recognition he call up for something and I’ll say, ‘What,
Agent Laura Engel of Blue Focus has faced always deserved.” are you out of your mind?’” Copeland jokes.
specific challenges in that area, everything “Then she’ll say, ‘Look at it like this: There’s
A
from ensuring that filmmakers see clients ccording to composer John Debney, this aspect of it that’s interesting, and I think
with rock backgrounds as legitimate film a major factor in taking his career you should take a look.’ She got me into
composers to altering the image of compos- to the next level was simply volume She’s All That, which required me to be more
ers like John Powell, who had to emerge of work. “I had had some suc- committed to the concept of working with
from the shadow of Hans Zimmer’s Media cesses with Liar, Liar and I Know What You the pre-bought songs on the forthcoming
Ventures company and establish his own Did Last Summer,” Debney recalls. “Richard soundtrack album. I would use the song and
identity. “What I set out to do with him was Kraft felt that the heat that was generated do sound-alike stuff where she just said, ‘Put
J u l y 2 0 0 0 32 F i l m S core M ont h l y
a clothespin on your nose and do it, and you Vangelos at Blue Focus, says the advantages
won’t be sorry.’ And I wasn’t sorry. It was fine. of an agent with a game plan can be unex- D ownbeat (continued from page 20)
It was quite rewarding. The song wasn’t a hit pected. “I’ve been with Vasi for the last two like any artist, you want to branch out
when we were doing the movie but you could and a half years, and we’ve talked about how and do different things. I’ve been trying to
hear that it was gonna be a hit. It was a really to let people know that I can do a great job make people in town see me in a little dif-
cool piece of material—bankable, and it really scoring films other than comedies,” Newman ferent light. So the idea of doing an End of
hit the emotional spot. Once you get past the says. Adds Vangelos, “We just made the deal Days, or something like The Replacements,
idea of ‘What am I going to say to my musician for David to score Hilary Swank’s new drama, is really fascinating for me—to grow as an
friends when they sneer at me across the table The Affair of the Necklace, which is a period artist and not be thought of as ‘that guy.’
at the club?’ Laura’s job is to cut through all romance. It represents a conscious choice on It’s very difficult, because people want to
that bullshit and say, ‘Look, what all of your our part to shift David away from the pigeon- think of you a certain way. In our business,
chums over brandy will be impressed by is a hole of being a comedy composer and to illus- there’s not a lot of support; once you’ve
hit movie, which this is gonna be.’” trate more of a range as an artist.” FSM been typecast, it’s very hard for them
Copeland shares his rock background with Tune in next time for to accept the idea that you’re able to do
composers like Danny Elfman (of Oingo Agent History X: The Final Conflict! something else.” —Jason Comerford FSM
Boingo) and Trevor Rabin (of Yes), as well
as with agent Laura Engel, who managed
Oingo Boingo before becoming a film com-
poser agent. “I first met Laura Engel on the
stage of the L.A. Forum, where I observed
her browbeating the Police roadies, telling
them to get the Police equipment off the
stage because her band, Oingo Boingo, would
be doing a sound check,” Copeland laughs.
He agrees their shared background plays a
positive role in their working relationship.
“It has helped, not because we’re both from
a rock and roll background—it’s not like we
talk rock and roll-ese to each other like ‘dig,
baby,’” Copeland says. “It’s because we both
go way back, and I know her to be a woman of
extremely high scruples, and who is not a fair-
weather friend and who goes all the way—I
have absolute faith in her and her judgment.”
Engel admits she often looks to the world of
popular music for future clients. “I think my
background leads me toward looking at who
are the next rock musicians, producers who
can do this brilliantly,” she says. “Film scor-
ing is a very different animal than the rock or
pop world, and it doesn’t always translate that
a brilliant songwriter, rock or pop musician
can just be a brilliant film composer—there’s
only the one out of a huge number that does.
But because of my background in rock music
I’m always looking for the person like Danny
Elfman or Stewart Copeland or Trevor Rabin
who can do it. I think that’s really interesting
and I have no prejudice about it—they can
either do it really well or they don’t do it.”
T
revor Rabin acknowledges his
agents helped take much of the
onus of being a rock musician off
of him. “One thing they did for me
was to take away the perception that I was a
guitar player and I wanted to get into scor-
ing,” Rabin says. “Guitar is an instrument I
play in the same way that other composers
play piano, and I started studying orchestra-
tion and piano at a very early age so it was a
very natural thing I wanted to do. The things
I do in scoring are things I could never do with
a band.”
David Newman, who works with Vasi
F i l m S core M ont h l y 33 J u l y 2 0 0 0
SCORE
R atings
R E V I E W S O F B est ★★★★★
R ea l l y G ood ★★★★
C U R R E N T
A v erage ★★★
R E L E A S E S W eak ★★
O N C D W orst ★
J u l y 2 0 0 0 34 F i l m S core M ont h l y
instincts. The nonstop rhythmic being Franc Roddam’s miniseries
kind of variation (even if it’s not beat of this style works well of Moby Dick), and it’s hearten-
motivic) that’s lacking in much with director John Woo’s con- ing to discover that his crisp
of the underscore. This track stantly swooping, gliding cam- sound has remained constant,
is actually all right—it benefits era and slo-mo kung fu moves. despite the difference in the
from an eerie superimposition of Soundtrack purists will hate it, material at hand. Gordon’s score
an American folk tune over the while the man-on-the-street who traffics in the usual military-
percussion of impending battle. does not collect score albums film clichés—the snare drums,
And needless to say, none of this will probably find it a hell of a the marches—but he counter-
music is bad; it’s almost impos- lot more listenable than the lat- balances these with enough
sible to get all the way through est Jerry Goldsmith album. The unexpected musical effects that
most albums of this length by album opens with “Hijack,” lay- the overlong album becomes
other composers—sometimes ing down the score’s rock grooves a worthy listen. For instance,
even half-hour discs can be a with a hint of portentous choir the main military theme is in a
struggle. The Williams sound is in a cue that displays all of the refreshing mixed meter, when
ever-present—The Patriot has scores strengths and weakness: he easily could have bent it into
bursts of Saving Private Ryan, It’s catchy but a trifle preten- 3/4 or 4/4 alone. Similarly, “The
and there’s even more of the tious, as befits a movie that takes Great Ocean Road” starts off
regal, pompous style from The a measly germ (no pun intended) with up-tempo percussion effects
Phantom Menace. Most of the of a plot and treats it like the and low-end piano and pizzicato
battle music is plodding. The second coming of Christ. strings (it sounds like a drunken
Redcoats occasionally sound Zimmer makes an in-joke and Bruce Broughton comedy march),
almost as threatening as dino- a bit of a plug in the second cue, Accomplished” and “Nyah and before moving smoothly into sec-
saurs, SCAT Walkers or even “Zap Mama ‘Iko-Iko’”—yes, it’s Ethan” settles everyone’s hash tions that are alternately lyric,
Richard Nixon (“Tavington’s an even more annoying version with a big, guitar-based dash of threatening and somber. There’s
Trap” is an especially fine of the song popularized by Rain romance, but it only emphasizes so much diverse writing packed
example). It’s hard to compare Man, Zimmer’s first American the emptiness of one of the most into this four-minute cue that it’s
this to stuff like the Ewok battle score and his first collabora- hollow movies of the summer. doubly impressive that Gordon
music in Return of the Jedi. The tion with Tom Cruise. “Seville” That said, as a rock-based handles the tonal transitions
action music isn’t helped by lays down some flamenco vibes score this album works fairly with such ease and confidence.
the poor, compressed-sounding for Cruise’s over-romanticized well, although it’s overlong at 45 For every off-moment and
recording. This problem isn’t first meeting with Thandie minutes. I much prefer Danny standard orchestration that the
really noticeable during the lush, Newton, after which we get a Elfman’s work on the first score offers, there are more than
string-driven passages, but the rather perfunctory, 39-second Mission: Impossible movie, but enough interesting ideas and tex-
densely textured battle music is rock version of Lalo Schifrin’s Elfman had a much better movie tures to take precedence. There’s
washed together and annoying to Mission: Impossible theme. “The to work with. —Jeff Bond plenty of mournful cello writing
listen to. The ear can’t focus on Heist” utilizes tapping percus- in the gloomy sections of the
what is important as every line sion and guitar in the manner album (“The Beginning of the
collides together in a mess. It’s of some of the found music cues On the Beach ★★★★ End,” “Homecoming”), but cues
amazing how weak and distant from last year’s remake of The CHRISTOPHER GORDON like “Through the Darkness”
some of this action music sounds. Thomas Crown Affair, while “Big Varèse Sarabande 302 066 153 2 and “Anchorage” have a quiet
And it’s not my headphones—it’s Techno” lives up to its name in 26 tracks - 73:49 emotional directness that tends
the lousy recording. The main
theme rings loud and beautifully
in my ears.
a cue that will sound familiar to
fans of The Matrix. Zimmer’s lat- T here seem to be only so
many ways to score a war
film—and while Christopher
to transcend some of the tired
instrumentation. Gordon knows
est fetish, vocalist Lisa Gerrard, when to scale back—his most
The Patriot will please shows up in “Injection,” a good Gordon’s score for the cable mini- delicate writing is also some of
Williams fans, but it’s not a tre- example of the over-mythologiz- series On the Beach (a remake the best on the album (“Final
mendous album by his standards. ing of the movie’s plot, although of a 1959 Stanley Kramer film, Farewells”)—but he also excels
Maybe all the best music—the it’s one of the more melodically based on the Nevil Shute novel in the splashy, sturm und drang
stuff I’ve been complaining about attractive cues. about the aftermath of WWIII) that gives the score appropriate
missing—has simply been left off Like many current film com- doesn’t break any new ground, proportions of Wagnerian trag-
the album, as with The Phantom posers, Zimmer was forced, it deserves credit for bouncing edy. There’s even some elegiac
Menace. And more important, undoubtably at gunpoint, to around comfortably within the choral writing (“Melbourne
Mel Gibson’s neck is too thick on adapt Carl Orff’s “Carmina story’s thematic confines. The Decays,” “Lacrimosa”) that
the cover of the album. —Jonathan Burana” when “O Fortuna!,” the film, after all, is about people put me in the mind of Bill
Z. Kaplan most overused piece of music in coming to terms with the irre- Stromberg’s spectacularly apoca-
film history, found its way into versible after-effects of nuclear lyptic score for the documentary
Mission: Impossible 2 ★★ this film’s temp track (for “Bare war. But while the story may Trinity and Beyond. The album
HANS ZIMMER Island”). The rest of this cue have lost its timeliness, Gordon concludes with a pair of sublime
Hollywood HR-62277-2 • 5 tracks - 45:54 adapts the Mission: Impossible still manages to invest a tan- cues: “Lux Perpetua,” a quiet
F i l m S core M ont h l y 35 J u l y 2 0 0 0
S C ORE Walberg. (There’s an electric gui- The album opens with the
tar in Courage Under Fire for no six-plus-minute title cue, which
minimalist fashion, to beautifully
discernible reason other than it’s introduces Young’s approach:
restrained sections for flute and
an atypical color for Horner.) Its lounge-styled, rhythmic percus-
low-register strings.
presence does nothing to detract sion with a small ensemble.
—Jason Comerford
from the energetic seafaring Unfortunately, the music doesn’t
sequences in the movie. go much further than that.
The Perfect Storm ★★★ 1/2 Horner’s dramatic sense is “Philed With Fuller” and “God’s
JAMES HORNER right-on as usual, pushing all the in the Closet” offer a change of
Sony SK 89282 • 10 tracks - 79:08 right buttons, but doing so with pace, but this material, while
T
sink or swim on their main he prolific Randy Edelman’s too similar to his other recent
sound, but in getting away from
themes, because his incidental most recent scores suffer efforts. The score could have
the heaviness of the horror/sci-
action/suspense writing is inter- from compositional medioc- been better—if only he had
fi style that made him popular,
changeable from film to film. rity and a subsequent lack of included more heart and less
he’s also lost some of the visceral
Fortunately, The Perfect Storm is popularity among film score fans. Dragonheart. —Martin Dougherty
impact of his work.
boosted by a strong tune, unlike Edelman’s Passion of Mind lies Thomas Newman’s American
Deep Impact, which was marred in this string of misfires. The The Big Kahuna ★★ 1/2 Buffalo is a good example of how
by a meandering, forgettable highlights of the album are his CHRISTOPHER YOUNG to vary the musical palette when
melody. The action cuts (“Small two themes—the rest of the Varèse Sarabande 302 066 140 2 faced with stage-like material.
Victories”) are fun and certainly underscore is unmemorable. The 14 tracks - 33:32 —Jason Comerford
come closer than Titanic did to
recapturing the drive and energy
of early Horner classics like Star
“Main Title” consists of both
themes: one for Demi Moore’s
character, written for strings,
T he appearance of the old
Mancini/Mercer tune
“Charade” (from the Stanley Canone Inverso ★★★★★
Trek II and Brainstorm. This and the other for piano. The Donen film of the same name) ENNIO MORRICONE
is because they are full of the second theme is used frequently on the Big Kahuna album (24:35 Virgin Italy 8 48942 2 • 21 tracks - 50:14
exact same motives and familiar
chord progressions as those older
scores (check out 2:06 in “Small
throughout the score, but only in
piano solos, making it similar to
“Latura’s Theme” in Edelman’s
of score) inevitably leads me to
wonder if Christopher Young
was trying to capture that same
C anone Inverso, which has
so far been released only
in Italy, gives the impression
Victories” for the B-theme from Daylight. old-style jazz/lounge music with a of being a retread of The Red
Clear and Present Danger). The Edelman has a knack for modern sensibility. Young’s score Violin (though perhaps focusing
opening track, “Coming Home utilizing the acoustic guitar, for this three-character drama more on the characters than the
From the Sea,” lays down most piano, strings and synthesizers based on a stage play, faces the violin itself). Morricone’s score
of Horner’s thematic material the same way in almost every notoriously difficult obstacle of is certainly reminiscent of John
before segueing into some trade- one of his scores. Here these trying to enliven material that’s Corigliano’s Oscar-winning effort,
mark Horner/Britten bustling, instruments are used in tandem fundamentally grounded in a but it’s even more romantic
complete with a dirty electric almost any time the main themes small number of settings and and will almost certainly prove
guitar that Horner-bashers sound or during lighter on-screen characters. Like much of Young’s more popular with the public (if
carped incessantly about on the moments, as in “Snapshots” and work, it’s all well orchestrated, they hear it). Not surprisingly,
internet. The guitar is suppos- “Bedtime.” Edelman does well in conducted and played, but it Morricone’s music fea-tures a
edly there to represent “working the dramatic sense, but his come- can’t find a way around the film’s series of violin-based
class” George Clooney and Mark dic cues do not have the same dramatic potholes. (continued on page 44)
J u l y 2 0 0 0 36 F i l m S core M ont h l y
with bonus tracks of a vocal version of the
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theme plus six tracks repeated in newly
The Undefeated/Hombre mixed stereo. $19.95
Two never-before-available, original scores on one CD!
In the late 1960s, the western went nova, brimming with radical change
and experimentation. We present two never-before-available scores from Wonderful Williams
that period: The Undefeated (1969) with John Wayne and Rock Hudson (!);
and Hombre (1967) with Paul Newman. The Undefeated is a sprawling
escapist western with a score by Hugo Montenegro, steeped in tradition
yet with a pop gleam in its eye. Its terrific main theme could easily be at
home in a modern-day NFL broadcast. In contrast, the music for Hombre
by David Rose is a short, sparse score both meaningful and melodic. This
CD is chock-full of excitement and emotion—in stereo from the original
multitrack masters—and offers tribute to two distinguished, prolific but
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laserdisc of the film, with nearly twice as
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sions within each click-tempo—including ible information and—most of all—esti-
books for compound meters... Listing and tutorial mated values. The listings are annotated
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of standard timing-conversion formulas to help collectors differentiate between
composers for 24 fps film speed...Tutorial in SMPTE- originals and reissues, commercial albums
to-Absolute time conversion...Frames-to- and rare promos. Find out what’s out there,
Seconds conversion tables for U.S. and what your prized rarities are worth, and how
European film and video speeds. 430 pp. much you should expect to spend to fill out
Price is the industry standard for click your collection. Author Robert L. Smith also
books; this one gives more value for the surveys the present state of the market and
money! $149.95 provides a checklist for the top 50 collect-
ible CDs. Published by Vineyard Haven LLC,
154 pp., softcover. $17.95
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and several scores for the films of Jean-Luc tracked and credited; Classic Trek manu- Shaiman Pt. 1, Sandy De Crescent (music
Godard. A supplemental section features script excerpts from Fred Steiner, Gerald contractor), Valencia Film Music Conference,
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Brown’s probing interviews with Rózsa, Fried, Sol Kaplan and George Duning SPFM Conference Pt. 1, StarGate liner notes,
Shostakoholics Anonymous. Basil Poledouris:
Raksin, Herrmann, Mancini, Jarre, Schifrin, (in their own hand); and complete cue
#53/54, January/February ’95 Shaiman His Life and Music
Barry and Shore. If you are a film student, sheets from selected episodes and films.
Pt. 2, Dennis McCarthy (Star Trek); Sergio An intimate visit
or interested in writing about film music, Published by Lone Eagle Publishing. 224 Bassetti, Jean-Claude Petit & Armando with the composer
you have to read this book. Published by pages, softcover, illustrated. $17.95 Trovajoli in Valencia; Music & the Academy of Conan the
University of California Press. 396 pp., soft- Awards Pt. 1; rumored LPs, quadraphonic Barbarian, Big
cover. $24.95 LPs.
Wednesday, Free
backissues of FSM #55/56, March/April ’95 Poledouris (The
Jungle Book), Silvestri (The Quick and the Willy, Starship
Dead), Joe Lo Duca (Evil Dead), Oscar & Troopers and
Volume One, 1993-96 Music Pt. 2, Recordman’s Diary, SPFM Lonesome Dove. Take
Issues are 24 pp. unless noted. Conference Report Pt. 2. a tour of his work
perspective, and specific coverage of his Most 1993 editions are xeroxes only #57, May ’95 Goldsmith in concert, Bruce and lifestyle—in his
major landmarks (Lost Horizon, High Noon, Broughton on Young Sherlock Holmes, Miles own words—from his methods of
the Hitchcock films, Giant, 55 Days at * #30/31, February/March ’93 64 Goodman interviewed, ’94 Readers Poll, Star
pp. Maurice Jarre, Basil Poledouris, Jay composing to his love of sailing
Peking and many more). Also includes a Trek overview.
Chattaway, John Scott, Chris Young, and the sea. The video runs 50
complete filmography, 41 b&w photos, and #58, June ’95 Michael Kamen (Die
Mike Lang; the secondary market, Ennio Hard), Royal S. Brown (film music crit- minutes and includes footage of
9 color plates. Rare! $24.95 Morricone albums, Elmer Bernstein Film Basil conducting and at work on
ic), Recordman Loves Annette, History of
Music Collection LPs; 1992 in review. Soundtrack Collecting Pt. 1. synthesizer mock-ups of Starship
#32, April ’93 16 pp. Matinee temp-track, *#59/60, July/Aug. ’95 48 pp. Sex Sells Too Troopers, as well as dozens of
SPFM ’93 Conference Report, Star Trek (sexy LP covers, lots of photos), Maurice Jarre behind-the-scenes and family
music editorial. interviewed, Miklós Rózsa Remembered,
* #33, May ’93 12 pp. Book reviews, classi- photos, and special appearances
Hugo Friedhofer: History of Soundtrack Collecting Pt. 2, film by wife Bobbie Poledouris and
cal/film connection. music in concert pro and con.
The Best Years of His Life * #34, June ’93 16 pp. Goldsmith SPFM #61, September ’95 Goldenthal (Batman
daughter Zoë. Discover the man
Edited by Linda Danly award dinner; orchestrators & what they Forever), Kamen Pt. 2, Chris Lennertz (new behind the music, in a close-up
Introduction by Tony Thomas do, Lost in Space, recycled Herrmann; spot- composer), Star Trek: The Motion Picture way you’ll never see on commercial
Hugo Friedhofer (1901-1981) was a gift- lights on Chris Young, Pinocchio, Bruce Lee (analysis), classical music for soundtrack TV, or experience in print.
ed musician whose Hollywood classics film scores. fans. New Reduced Price!
* #35, July ’93 16 pp. Tribute to David Kraft; #62, October ’95 Danny Elfman Pt. 1,
included The Best Years of Our Lives, An NTSC (U.S. Format) $19.95
John Beal Pt. 1; scores vs. songs, Herrmann John Ottman (The Usual Suspects), Robert
Affair to Remember, The Young Lions and Christmas operas; Film Composers
One-Eyed Jacks. His Golden Age contem- Townson (Varèse Sarabande), Ten Most
Dictionary. Influential Scores, Goldsmith documentary island movie lists, Jeff Bond’s summer movie
poraries (Newman, Raksin, Waxman and #36/37, August/November ’93 40 pp. column, TV’s Biggest Hits book review.
New Updated Edition! others) often considered him the most Bernstein, Bob Townson (Varèse), Richard
reviewed.
#71, July ’96 David Arnold (Independence
* #63, November ’95 James Bond Special
Film Composers Guide sophisticated practitioner of their art. In Kraft & Nick Redman Pt. 1, John Beal Pt. Issue! John Barry & James Bond (history/ Day), Michel Colombier, Recordman Goes to
Year 2000 fifth edition the 1970s Friedhofer gave a lengthy oral 2; reviews of CAM CDs; collector interest Congress, Bond’s summer movie column.
Compiled and edited by history to the American Film Institute, rife articles, classic corner, fantasy film scores #72, August ’96 Ten Best Scores of ‘90s,
of Elmer Bernstein. T. Newman’s The Player, Escape from L.A.,
Vincent J. Francillon with anecdotes, opinions and wit, which is
* #38, October ’93 16 pp. John Debney conductor John Mauceri, reference books,
This is the ultimate resource for finding reproduced as the main part of this new (seaQuest DSV), Kraft & Redman Pt. 2. Akira Ifukube CDs.
out what composers have scored what book. Also included is a short biography by * #39, Nov. ’93 16 pp. Kraft & Redman Pt. #73, September ’96 Recordman on War
films—over 2,600 composers cross- Danly; an epilogue by Gene Lees; the eulo- 3, Fox CDs, Nightmare Before Christmas and Film Soundtracks Pt. 1; Interview: David
referenced with 25,000 films! Never be gy from Friedhofer's memorial service by Bride of Frankenstein reviews. Schecter: Monstrous Movie Music; Ifukube
puzzled again. Also contains agency David Raksin; Friedhofer's correspondence * #40, Dec. ’93 16 pp. Kraft & Redman Pt. 4; CDs Pt. 2, Miles Goodman obituary.
contacts, Academy Award winners and with the late Page Cook; a complete film- Re-recording The Magnificent Seven. #74, October ’96 Action Scores in the ‘90s
nominees, record company addresses and ography; photographs; and even reproduc- * #41/42/43, January/Feb./March ’94 48 (intelligent analysis); Cinemusic ‘96 report
pp. Elliot Goldenthal, James Newton Howard, (Barry, Zhou Jiping); Vic Mizzy interviewed.
more. 8.5” by 11”, 416 pp. Lone Eagle tions of Friedhofer's cartoons. Published
Kitaro & Randy Miller (Heaven & Earth), * #75, November ’96 Barry: Cinemusic
Publishing. Retail price $55; FSM special by The Scarecrow Press, 212 pp., hard- Rachel Portman, Ken Darby; Star Wars Interview (very big); Recordman on War Film
offer: $39.95 cover. $39.95 trivia/cue sheets; sexy album covers; music Soundtracks Pt. 2, Bond’s review column.
for westerns; ’93 in review. * #76, December ’96 Interviews: Randy
* #44, April ’94 Joel McNeely, Poledouris (On overview), Eric Serra on GoldenEye, essay, Edelman, Barry pt. 2, Ry Cooder (Last Man
Deadly Ground); SPFM Morricone tribute & favorites, more. Also: History of Soundtrack Standing); Andy Dursin’s laserdisc column,
photos; lots of reviews. Collecting Pt. 3, Davy Crockett LPs. Lukas’s reviews.
* #45, May ’94 Randy Newman (Maverick), * #64, December ’95 Danny Elfman
Graeme Revell (The Crow); Goldsmith in Pt. 2 (big!), Steve Bartek (orchestrator), Volume Two, 1997
concert; in-depth reviews: The Magnificent Recordman Meets Shaft: The Blaxploitation First color covers! Issues 32-48 pp.
Seven and Schindler’s List; Instant Liner Soundtracks, Kamen Pt. 3, re-recording * Vol. 2, No. 1, Jan./Feb. ’97 Star Wars
Notes, book reviews. House of Frankenstein. issue: Williams interview, behind the Special
* #46/47, June/July ’94 Patrick Doyle, * #65/66/67 January/February/March Edition CDs, commentary, cue editing minu-
Newton Howard (Wyatt Earp), John Morgan ’96, 48 pp. T. Newman, Toru Takemitsu, tia/trivia, more. Also: Bond’s review column.
(restoring Hans Salter scores); Tribute to Robotech, Star Trek, TenInfluential compos- * Vol. 2, No. 2, Mar./Apr. ’97 Alf Clausen:
Henry Mancini; Michael Nyman music for ers; Philip Glass, Heitor Villa-Lobos, songs The Simpsons (interview); promotional CDs;
films, collectible CDs. in film, best of ‘95, film music documen- Congress in Valencia; Readers Poll ’96 &
* #48, August ’94 Mark Mancina (Speed); tary reviews (Herrmann, Delerue, Takemitsu, Andy’s picks; Bender’s Into the Dark Pool
Chuck Cirino & Peter Rotter; Richard Kraft: Pt. 2
Overtones and Undertones: The Music of Star Trek: advice for aspiring composers; classical
“The Hollywood Sound”).
* Vol. 2, No. 3, May ’97 Michael Fine: Re-
Reading Film Music Profiles in Style #68, April ’96 David Shire’s The Taking
music in films; new CAM CDs; Cinerama of Pelham One Two Three; Carter Burwell recording Rózsa’s film noir scores; reviews:
by Royal S. Brown by Jeff Bond LPs; bestselling CDs. (Fargo), gag obituaries, Apollo 13 promo/ Poltergeist, Mars Attacks!, Rosewood, more;
Royal Brown is best-known as the longtime The first-ever history of Star Trek #49, September ’94 Hans Zimmer (The Lion bootleg tips. Lukas’s & Bond’s review columns.
film music columnist for Fanfare magazine, soundtracks, from the original series to the King), Shirley Walker; Laurence Rosenthal on #69, May ’96 Music in Plan 9 from Outer Vol. 2, No. 4, June ’97 Elfman (Men in
whose illuminating reviews have placed film movies to the new incarnations, by FSM’s the Vineyard; Salter in memoriam; classical Space; John Walsh’s funny movie music Black), Promos Pt. 2, Martin Denny and
music in a serious academic context as well own Jeff Bond, with a foreword by Star music in films; John Williams in concert; glossary; Herrmann & Rózsa radio pro- Exotica, Lady in White, the Laserphile on
Recordman at the flea market. grams; Irwin Allen box set review; Bender’s DVDs, obituary: Brian May, The Fifth Element
as entertained with their sharp observa- Trek director Nicholas Meyer. Featuring
#50, October ’94 Alan Silvestri (Forrest “Into the Dark Pool” column. reviewed.
tions. Overtones and Undertones is his 1994 interviews with composers Jerry Goldsmith, Gump), Mark Isham; sex & soundtrack #70, June ’96 Mancina (Twister), final desert Vol. 2, No. 5, July ’97 Goldenthal (Batman &
book, the first-ever serious theoretical study Alexander Courage, Fred Steiner, Gerald sales; Lalo Schifrin in concert; Morricone
of music in film. It explores the relationships Fried, Ron Jones, Leonard Rosenman, Beat CDs; that wacky Internet; Recordman
between film, music and narrative and
chronicles the aesthetics of the art form
Dennis McCarthy, Cliff Eidelman, Jay
Chattaway, David Bell, Paul Baillargeon,
on liner notes.
#51, November ’94 Howard Shore (Ed Wood), Check Your Order Online Visit our website at www.filmsco-
through several eras. Key works analyzed are producer Robert Justman, and music edi- Thomas Newman (Shawshank Redemption), remonthly.com/cds/order.asp to place an order using our secure server. You will
The Sea Hawk (Korngold), Double Indemnity tor Gerry Sackman, the book also contains J. Peter Robinson (Craven’s New Nightmare), receive an automatic confirmation. All of your information (including your
Lukas’s mom interviewed; music of Heimat, credit card number) is confidential and encrypted for your protection. Save pre-
(Rózsa), Laura (Raksin), Prokofiev’s music an up-to-date, complete list of every score
Star Trek; promos.
for Eisenstein, Herrmann’s music for written for all four TV series; a guide to * #52, December ’94 Eric Serra, Marc cious days that might otherwise keep you from your music!
Hitchcock, understanding how certain shows were
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Robin), Mancina (Con Air, Speed 2), George
S. Clinton (Austin Powers), ASCAP & BMI FSM: The Complete Collection to over $100 depending on where you are in the world; overseas
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award photos; Reviews: Crash, Lost World. customers should expect to pay duties as well.
Vol. 2, No. 6, August ’97 Schifrin (Money Get every issue of Film Score Monthly from 1990 Many readers have been with us for some time and do
Talks), John Powell (Face/Off), Shaiman to the present in one package for one low price! not need duplicates of more recent editions. Tell us when you
(George of the Jungle); remembering Tony We have collected every edition of FSM ever published, started reading and we will pro-rate a package to include only
Thomas; Summer movies, TV sweeps.
beginning with the first photocopied newslet- those older editions you need to complete your collection.
Vol. 2, No. 7, September ’97 Zimmer vs.
FSM (big interview, Peacemaker cover), ters circulated by Lukas Kendall Remember, for the first few years all issues of FSM
Marco Beltrami (Scream, Mimic), Curtis while in high school. were photocopies. We have gone back to the original
Hanson (L.A. Confidential); Dursin’s: The Complete Collection starts “master pages” to generate new xeroxes. Most of
Laserphile, Bender’s: Film Music as Fine with these primordial publica- the offset printed issues of the mid-1990s
Art, Recordman. tions and continues through are long since sold out; but these were
* Vol. 2, No. 8, October ’97 Poledouris every issue of FSM in its present black and white with few pictures,
(Starship Troopers), Shore (Cop Land, The color-cover format. so photocopies make very acceptable to the Future: The FSM Timeline; The Film
Game), Zimmer vs. FSM Pt. 2 (interview),
The stack of issues is a foot substitutes. A few 1997 editions with Score Decade: the composers, music and
Alloy Orchestra (scoring silent films), Golden
high, weighs 16 pounds, and color covers are also extinct, so we have events that made it memorable; Jaws 25th
Age CD reviews.
represents a whole decade of substituted black-and-white xeroxes of Anniversary CD review; J. N. Howard on
Vol. 2, No. 9, November/ December ’97
soundtrack fandom—you can those as well—sorry. The originals are Dinosaur; more.
Arnold (Tomorrow Never Dies), John Frizzell
(Alien Resurrection), Neal Hefti (interview), re-experience reviews, personalities, simply long gone.
Index
U-Turn & The Mephisto Waltz (long reviews), debates and more as they unfold. Supplies are limited! It is expensive for How much stuff have we printed in FSM?
We’ll also throw in a handy index for sorting the vast amount us to keep reproducing sold-out issues—not to mention store We’re not even sure anymore. Here’s a
of info. them. This offer will not last forever—and it’s the only way to handy index of all reviews and articles
The price for The Complete Collection is $99.95 plus ship- acquire the initial newsletters #1 through #29, done by Lukas through Vol. 4, No. 9, compiled by Dennis
ping. This we will charge for cost-only. In other words, tell us Kendall from June 1990 through January 1993. Schmidt. Cost: same as one back issue.
where you are and how you want the package shipped—sur- If you are interested in obtaining the entire FSM run, please *photocopies only
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the exact cost of the postage. Expect to pay anywhere from $15 write FSM Complete Collection, 8503 Washington Blvd, Culver
Laserphile, Downbeat (Ed Shearmur), Fox ist Emil Richards; ASCAP awards.
Classics reviews. Vol. 4, No. 8, September/October ‘99
Vol. 3, No. 5, June ‘98 Mark Snow (X-Files Tribute to Stanley Kubrick: interview (Jocelyn
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Pocket CD Reviews Attention Deficit Disc Honors!
Ernest Gold: Film Ernest Gold is an oft-forgotten composer known mainly for his Oscar- Exodus (1960) stands a step above everything else on the
Themes and Suites winning Exodus and his association with auteur of earnest Stanley album—not because it’s famous, but because it’s simply
★★★ Kramer. This Artemis album is a restoration of a 1963 Decca recording better. It’s the only really good theme here, at the caliber
ERNEST GOLD of 11 film suites composed and conducted by Gold himself. The record- of a Miklós Rózsa biblical theme. I remember liking parts
Artemis ART-F 001 ing is vivid (most of the time), and the music is a honed mixture of of On the Beach (1959) when I watched the film, but none
11 tracks - 40:08 European and Golden Age Hollywood styles. While most of these suites of what I remember is represented on this album. All in all,
are closer to Golden Age and source music writing, The Last Sunset this is an average compilation that doesn’t do justice to an
(1961) is more Silver Age in nature, foreshadowing such Goldsmith above-average composer (even if he himself is responsible
greats as Lonely Are the Brave (1962). for the program)—and the cover art is putrid.
Committed Director Lisa Krueger was instantly “slayed” by Calexico (John There are about 30 minutes of Calexico, which is mainly
★★★ Convertino and Joey Burns), finding it the perfect sound for the heroine repetitive, mellow loops of gentle percussion, guitar riffs
CALEXICO, VARIOUS in her black comedy about a woman (Heather Graham) devoted to her and solo string bass pedals. Most of it does sound like
Chapter III CHA 0200-2 faithless husband. She compliments the “Desert-flavored Quest Music” underscore, especially considering there’s so little going
24 tracks - 49:22 of Calexico with source songs from the ’60s and earlier—a time when on—it’s obviously acting as support. Without the film, the
ideas of “romance and commitment” were plausible, or at least weren’t limited colors and subdued nature of the music can get
laughed at. boring quickly. There are varying energy levels (like in
“Chasing Carri”) but few standout tracks.
Little Evil Things 4 Jim McDonnell recites scary short stories (written by Frank Macchia and Macchia’s “Little Evil Overture” is a dense and aggres-
★★★ 1/2 Tracy London) over a near-constant bed of exciting, fully orchestral sive musical assault of gothic horror—it’s well played
FRANK MACCHIA & underscore (composed by Macchia). The five varied tales on this album by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, but the recording
TRACY LONDON make for an interesting horror library—plus, every one is jam-packed is on the washed side. The rabid orchestral introduction
Little Evil Things Volume 4 with orchestral underscore. This is an audio book without much room to “Infection” is a great change of pace after the 1940s
6 tracks - 65:41 to breathe. The music and the stories are both decent, but some of it’s source-styled “Hazardous to Your Health.” “In Your Head”
hard to listen to with the constant superimposition of dialogue and music has wacky, Howard Shore-like pastiche and electronic
(both very audible). Much of the underscore pays extremely careful elements. “The Violin’s Curse” is more melodic and tradi-
attention to every word and nuance in each line of dialogue, but it often tional—another nice contrast to the previous two tracks.
works overtime, almost mickey mousing the images we’re supposed to There’s a lot that’s good to be had here, if your ears can
conjure in our mind’s eye. sift through the busy layers of information.
Dinner on the Diner According to the package, this is “2CDs and 64 pages of recipes, Composer Randy Armstrong is along for the ride, contribut-
★★ 1/2 photos, and travel adventures from South Africa, Spain and Southeast ing two solid hours worth of ethnic world music to carry the
RANDY ARMSTRONG Asia.” Translation: dinner-party music. Ostensibly this is a companion show from locale to locale. Armstrong helpfully includes
Elipsis Arts CD 3680 soundtrack to the PBS series (which, we assume, is all about riding on detailed track-by-track notes in said 64-page booklet. Most
Disc One: 19 tracks - 61:22 trains and finding yummy dishes to stare at). of the music is pleasant, at least in a keep-the-guests-at-bay
Disc Two: 21 tracks - 55:39 kind of way. So if you throw a lot of dinner parties...
Airwolf Themes Chalk it up to some really, really dedicated fans: Airwolf aficionado Cairns’ effort is loving enough to make you wonder about
★★★ Mark J. Cairns may be of dubious sanity, but he deserves a lot of credit how far fans will go, but the success of this type of album
SYLVESTER LEVAY, VARIOUS for taking three seasons’ worth of Airwolf music and then rearranging depends on one’s knowledge of the show and its music.
Rearranged by Mark J. Cairns and performing it himself—seeing as he couldn’t obtain (or afford) the Levay’s compositions are faithfully rendered, but there’s a
GERCD 3 rights to the original tracks. Original composer Sylvester Levay is on definite ’80s cheesiness to them that will either sink or float
Disc One: 22 tracks - 73:32 board to provide a brief second disc of re-recorded material. depending on your love for other Levay masterworks like
Disc Two: 3 tracks -11:58 Cobra, Mannequin and Stone Cold.
28 Days Betty Thomas liked Richard Gibbs’ score for Dr. Dolittle, so he’s back for Gibbs’ material is refreshingly dark in tracks like “A Way
★★★ 28 Days, the Sandra Bullock rehab comedy. This score features Gibbs to Die,” recalling Brad Fiedel’s early ’80s work. “Can’t
RICHARD GIBBS in full pop mode; even the reflective cuts like “Out the Window” are Breathe” has nice mediant-related string writing over a
Varèse Sarabande propelled by light percussion. drone. Juxtapose this with wacky cuts like “Ode de Toilet”
302 066 151 2 and you’ve got a well-balanced, tasteful album that you
16 tracks - 36:21 probably won’t want to buy unless you’ve seen the movie.
I just saw the movie on an airplane—it blew.
J u l y 2 0 0 0 42 F i l m S core M ont h l y
Who did it? What is it? To buy or not to buy?
Piercing the Piercing the Celluloid Veil is intended to be a stand-alone concert album of It would be wonderful if this moment-to-moment/dra-
Celluloid Veil: An music that sounds like film music...but isn’t. Most of the tracks here are short, matic style of writing (often employed solely in film
Orchestral Odyssey demo-like underscore cues. Certain tracks (“Wondrous Journey”) are heavily music) could succeed as albums like the one attempted
★★★ 1/2 generic, and others (“Slasher”) are simply awful. But there are also pieces like here. Piercing the Celluloid Veil is a decent album but a
MARK WOLFRAM “Dogged Pursuit,” which mixes fandango-like Bernard Herrmann elements better concept. Even if this attempt shapes up more like
Wrightwood WRCD-1562 with an exciting Jerry Goldsmith-styled action track. “Farewell” crosses Elmer a demo, soundtrack fans should try and support this kind
19 tracks - 50:31 Bernstein with Lee Holdridge, and even a bit of Mancini. Most of the music of music—it really does sound like movie music. Go and
performed by the Sinfonia of London (the first nine tracks plus a couple of prove that you’re not just collecting film music albums
others) is well-played and recorded, and very listenable...even enjoyable. (like stamps or baseball cards) just because of the movies
or famed composers they’re associated with.
Baltimore-based shock merchant John Waters’ films have certainly become but daughter Zoë is responsible for the majority of
Cecil B. Demented more accessible since the divine heights of Pink Flamingos, but they’re no the album, credited as co-writer and/or performer
★★★ less outrè. The soundtrack to Cecil B. Demented has the far-out feel of a of an admittedly varied set of rock songs. Basil’s one
BASIL & ZOË POLEDOURIS, Waters film, ranging from hardcore gangsta rap about low-budget filmmak- track, “Dying to Meet You,” (written with Zoe) won’t
VARIOUS ing (“Bankable Bitch,” “No Budget”) to thrash-rock (“Nice Tranquil Thumb thrill anyone still drooling over Robocop or Starship
RCA Victor 63722-2 in Mouth,” “The Locust”). Troopers. Still, the album is varied enough to make an
12 tracks - 31:08 Of primary interest to FSM readers is Basil Poledouris’ name on the CD, entertaining listen, especially if you’re in the mood for
something a little left-of-center.
Up at the Villa Pino Donaggio’s music works best in films where his Morricone-esque lyri- Up at the Villa is nearly an hour long, and while it’s
★★ 1/2 cism provides a counterpoint to on-screen imagery; hence the success of his interspersed with plenty of big-band, loungy source
PINO DONAGGIO scores for early Brian DePalma films like Carrie, Dressed to Kill and Blow- cues, Donaggio tries to stretch his romantic style much
Varèse Sarabande Out. Ever since, however, Donaggio’s sound and style have been in flux. too far—and it’s all too similar to Morricone. Even
302 066 128 2 the darker cues crib heavily from Morricone’s array
21 tracks - 55:30 of techniques. The album’s final cues, such as “The
Princess’ Goodbye” and “No Set Plans,” ostensibly
provide an emotional send-off to the film, but on the
album, they’re just more of the same...only louder.
The Crow: Salvation If there is one theatrical series that does not deserve salvation, The Crow is The album consists mainly of loud guitar-driven noise
★★ it. Like the vigilante Death Wish movies of the ’80s, this one has lost sight of (during the action cues) and ambient new age melo-
THE CROW MARCO BELTRAMI any creativity and aims for the lowest common denominator. Marco Beltrami dies (for more reflective moments). The one good idea
S A L V A T I O N Koch KOC-CD-8075 has inherited the scoring duties from Graeme Revell, who did both the origi- is the love theme, reminiscent of Angelo Badalamenti,
20 tracks - 51:53 nal as well as the sequel The Crow: City of Angels. It may not be Beltrami’s which might make a nice underscore for a figure
fault that most of the music is pretty faceless. The script doesn’t give him any skater one day. While this is a serviceable score, it
chance to explore the depth of the characters. would be nice if Beltrami got more challenging work.
There’s a simultaneous release of a Crow: Salvation
song CD with music by Hole, Filer, Kid Rock and other
hard rockers—it’s a better album.
I Dreamed of Africa Jarre returns to the desert (sort of) in this score for the early-summer flop Jarre’s main theme has a leisurely travelogue feel
★★ 1/2 starring inexplicable Oscar-winner Kim Basinger. Jarre’s music is primarily that’s nice but grows repetitive. Fortunately, the score
MAURICE JARRE acoustic, which is surprising given his penchant for electronic experimenta- is organized into five lengthy suite-style cues that
Varèse Sarabande tion. There are plenty of sweeping, wide-open-space cues, with percussive allow for the material to breathe and develop more
302 066 143 2 African-traditional cues thrown in to keep the album from getting redun- organically as an album. While Jarre wisely doesn’t
8 tracks - 60:04 dant. lean on ethnocentric instrumentation, his themes are
so relaxed that the album desperately needs a shot of
energy. Jarre’s score plays out at 46:07.
Boiler Room Much was made about this January New Line release being Wall Street Fans of electronica and techno will get a kick out
★★★ 2000, but give composer/arranger/producer The Angel credit for not rub- of this. It doesn’t have the aggressive, in-your face
THE ANGEL bing your nose in the film’s finger-pointing idealism. The score represents dance stylings of Fatboy Slim; if anything, it resembles
New Line NLR 90022 what will probably become the next wave in film-music composition: Moby’s early albums with clever permutations of a jazz
26 tracks - 35:15 through-composed electronica, mixing and matching sounds and musical ensemble into a surprisingly quiet and sparse mixture
styles without sticking to anything in particular. of backbeats, loops and sonic experimentation. A
traditional film score it’s certainly not—but it is a good
example of things likely to come.
F i l m S core M ont h l y 43 J u l y 2 0 0 0
S C ORE playing in “Corsa” rivals any- Reel Life: The Private Music
thing by Joshua Bell in The Red of Film Composers Vol. 1
(continued from page 36) Violin).
pieces with virtuosic perfor- Canone Inverso represents the ★★★ 1/2
mances by a variety of Italian pinnacle of what good film music HOWARD SHORE, BRUCE BROUGHTON, VARIOUS
soloists. The best cue of the can possibly hope to reach, and Arabesque Z6741 • 12 tracks - 69:17
album is the third, a miniature
concerto actually performed on-
screen (by Gabriel Byrne!). This
is not only the best score of 2000
so far, but probably Morricone’s T his Arabesque compila-
tion album features eight
premiere recordings of original
best romantic work since Once
richly orchestrated work is one Upon a Time in America. It’s sad chamber music written by popu-
of Morricone’s most delightful; that, because of the obscurity of lar film composers. The lively
while unquestionably pastiche, it the film, so few people will actu- first track, “Odyssey,” by Bob
is still unmistakably Morricone. ally hear this music. Do yourself James (a jazz writer who penned
Featuring exceptional perfor- a favor and find this remarkable the theme for “Taxi”) is the
mances by soloists Gabriele score. —James Southall kind of thing you’d hear opening
Pieranunzi (violin) and Gilda almost any generic live chamber
Buttà (piano), the piece will stun Peyton Place (1957)★★★★ 1/2 concert. The piece should give
into complete silence anyone who you a good idea right off the bat
hears it. That there is music like FRANZ WAXMAN whether this album is for you.
this being written within the Varèse Sarabande 302 066 070 2 It’s moderately jazzy, with flute
confines of film puts to shame 18 tracks - 50:10 and piano in loose sequencing
any claims that film music is
somehow a lesser art form.
The rest of the score cannot
F ranz Waxman’s work shows
a greater variety from score
to score than that of any other
Waxman exceeds the norm. An
and imitation of rapidly scaling
figures—and it’s not a sound or
extended cue like the seven-min- style that film music fans are
live up to this four-minute piece Golden Age composer. The ability ute “Hilltop Scene” doesn’t once necessarily accustomed to.
but is nevertheless all of the to leap between projects seem- descend into cheap soppiness, Howard Shore and Rachel
highest standard. Morricone ingly miles apart was not a skill retaining an air of dignity and Portman each contribute two
develops a series of themes, unique to Waxman, but to write charm throughout. The more pieces to the album. “Hughie”
largely classical in origin, though scores for them that also seemed intense parts of the story receive has Shore in his diabolical,
sometimes with jazz roots. He miles apart may have been. appropriately dramatic cues: brooding mode. Instruments
also incorporates a children’s Waxman’s sweeping, beautiful “The Rape” and “Chase in the pair up in a quasi-fugal setting
choir, which sings a fairly inno- score for Peyton Place is about Woods,” for example, are heart- where everyone’s playing the
cent lullaby, creating a striking as far removed from something breaking despite their brutality; same basic idea (except for the
contrast with the accompanying like Prince Valiant or The Spirit the contrast with “Summer violin, which hangs over top).
classical violin solos. of St. Louis as you can get, even Montage,” the cue that falls It may sound messy, but that’s
“Canone Inverso Primo” though they were written in between them, further heightens part of the point—this would
presents the most thorough roughly the same period. their impact. work well as torture music in
arrangement of the score’s While the film itself may now This new recording, with Shore’s films. His “Piano Four”
main theme, while second- seem dated, Waxman’s score for the Royal Scottish National is sparse and plaintive, and it’s
ary themes appear in “Tema Peyton Place is as vital and beau- Orchestra led by Edwin Paling more tonally grounded (if only
d’Amore Disperato” and, most tiful today as it ever was. Perhaps and conducted by film composer by comparison to “Hughie”).
delightfully, “Intermezzi.” There it has aged so well because it Frederic Talgorn, is excellent. Each of these pieces could almost
are also other set pieces, like wasn’t necessarily composed with Producer Robert Townson’s fit into Shore’s film repertoire.
the playful “Goliardi e Sport.” the sensibilities of most scores oft-criticized, concert hall-style They sound like Howard Shore,
The film is directed by Ricky of the time: Rather than writing recording technique works beau- but there are certain modern
Tognazzi (whose previous works music that rigorously reflected tifully with Peyton Place; the techniques or conventions (one
with Morricone have resulted in the on-screen action, Waxman lush, sweeping music engulfs the of the biggest being the mere fact
bleak, edgy thriller scores), so wrote a score that plays more listener, as a score like this one that these are chamber works)
it’s not a surprise that maudlin as a tone poem, reflecting the should. As an additional bonus, that he just wouldn’t be able
action music appears later on the events in broad, colorful dramatic this recording includes four cues to get into most films. Rachel
disc in cues such as “Avvolgente” strokes. This concept is more in (totaling about 10 minutes) that Portman’s “Rhapsody” and “For
and “Elmetti di Fuoco”— keeping with the European film have never been released before. Julian” are the most tonal pieces
Morricone’s driving rhythms still composers who would follow him It is difficult to overstate the on the album. She uses attrac-
make these satisfying pieces. a decade or so down the line. beauty inherent in pieces like tive, long-lined melody over
Morricone also interpolates Waxman’s themes for Peyton “After School” and “Swimming piano arpeggiations in English
the music of a few of his prede- Place are instantly attractive; Scene,” and as such, Peyton Place folk settings. Portman is likely
cessors into four cues, featuring needless to say, many of them comes highly recommended. most comfortable working in
Debussy, Paganini, Bach and are played by violins straining Waxman is not one of the better- film, as she’s completely tonal
Dvorak. Fabio Venturi’s record- to reach their upper registers, represented Golden Age compos- even here, where she doesn’t
ing is vivid and brings the music with the subtlest homophonic ers, so this album will hopefully have to answer to a director.
to life just as it should, and the horns as accompaniment. But generate more attention for his Perhaps she’s just answering to
performance by the Accademia despite being lush and beautiful, work among younger film music the public, which often cries out
Musicale Italiana is first-rate, this music never comes across fans. It’s a wonderful score, for the death of abstract music,
especially given some of the diffi- as even vaguely sentimental or justice by this terrific recording. or to her heart. “For Julian” at
cult material (Ettore Pellegrino’s melodramatic—this is where —James Southall (continued on page 47)
J u l y 2 0 0 0 44 F i l m S core M ont h l y
S C ORE I N TER N A TIO N A L E
Spacemen, Pussycats
B
eginning in the ’60 s , author
and Corpses Galore!
W a lt e r E r n s t i n g (C l a r k
“Hymn to
tion with aplomb, without over- a tough little main title jazz/rock released two impressive collections totaling
whelming the melodic identity of speedball. La Chiesa was dealt almost 40 cues. However, both Pleonasma
his own compositions. Instead, with by employing a shifting and Vix dug deep and came back with at least
these two themes, while posing the Future” mix of liturgical clausulae (using 15 new tracks; more than half of Piombo
organ and chorus) and gothic
as cinematic works for late ’60s
European science fiction, have
is a great rock rhythms. Not an uninter-
Rovente’s 26 cuts are digital and/or total
inedits. This is a slick CD, featuring lots of
successfully been infused with a title track esting effort, Roller is Goblin highly energized jazz/ rock/blues blends that
healthy dose of ’90s-style youth- exercising their native tenden- describe the impossibly frenzied virulence of
ful vigor. similar to cies. All five tracks show off the the Poliziotteschi detective’s daily routine—
Stu Phillips’ band’s proclivity for classic rock enough to give Harry Callahan a nervous
We Are the Chosen à la Yes, Genesis or Emerson, breakdown! Sliced into it are soundtracks
DRG Records and their amazing overture for Lake and Palmer. As with all by Franco Micalizzi, the DeAngelis broth-
Classic Italian Soundtrack series of the other Classic Italian ers, Pulsar, Francesco DeMasi and Riz
provides strong evidence that
Battlestar Soundtrack releases there are Ortolani. For all you DeMasi collectors—
God loves American collectors of Galactica. rare, full-color poster reproduc- Piombo Rovente together with Viva Musica’s
Italian Silver Age film music. The tions and detailed liner notes. Francesco DeMasi Film Music—Violence
F i l m S core M ont h l y 45 J u l y 2 0 0 0
S C ORE I N TER N A TIO N A L E otherwise, I find all 11 cues from this film
to be very approachable—even the raw
and Suspense supplies most of DeMasi’s thesizer, piano, strings, percussion and, of suspense tracks are beguiling. The loveli-
great score for The Big Game (La Macchina course, jaw harp (track 6). Included on this est piece, “Labyrinth” (track 4, reprised as
Della Violenza). A real pleasant surprise: disc is a full half-hour of previously unre- “Barlington,” track 9), is an effervescent
Track 8 of this disc is the leased music. Let’s hope that icon of womanhood (Martine Brochard, the
steamy torch song from Lionel and Roberto have plans beautiful red-headed star of Eyeball). There
The Big Game, “Time afoot to release many more are so many good reasons to fall in love
on My Hands” (unfortu- film works by the great Bruno with Silver Age Italian film music, not least
nately the female vocal- Nicolai. of which is the shared tendency of many
ist is not credited). And of the (male) Italian composers to write to
one final plus—this pro-
Red Cats on CD the seemingly endless stream of painfully
duction has 12 full-color desirable women who graced these pic-
Another Nicolai score currently
poster reproductions (a tures. Nicolai’s score has been paired with
on the market is Gatti Rossi in
few badly photographed), another giallo, I Corpi Presentano Tracce di
un Labirinto di Vetro (Red
and new interviews with Violenza Carnale, aka Torso, The Corpses
Cats in a Labyrinth of Glass),
Franco Nero (Django) Show Evidence of Rape and The Devil’s
aka Eyeball, The Secret Killer
and the number-one Saw Blade, music by Guido and Maurizio
and Wide Eyed in the Dark
Poliziotteschi composer, DeAngelis. The DeAngelis brothers have
(Nicolai/ DeAngelis, RCA
Franco Micalizzi. As Eric a tendency to write scores with a flip-
OST 145, 22 tracks - 46:56).
Cartman has frequently pant, silly attitude (sometimes with a goofy
Craig Ledbetter
stated: “Sweet!” American-folk affectation),
and Adrian
Luther Smith, and so I screen carefully
Pop Goes the Synthesizer in their indis- before buying. No need
Lionel Woodman (Hillside pensable pub- to worry here. Sergio
CD Productions) and Roberto lished compi- Bassetti has been gracious
Zamori (The Film Music Art Studio/ lations examining the Italian enough to double-up a
Hexacord) have two new releases available: gialloes, refer to Nicolai’s fine Nicolai score with an
an upgrade of an earlier Morricone reissue, score for this 1974 film as, excellent DeAngelis effort.
Prince of the Desert (not available for review), respectively, “indifferent” Listenable incidental cues
and a quirky, entertaining Bruno Nicolai and “throwaway.” I disagree. mixed with a well-dressed
work entitled Una Giornata Spesa Bene, aka In fairness, both Ledbetter and downright friendly
The Price of One Good Day (Bruno Nicolai, and Smith have addressed main theme make Torso the
GDM 2019, 16 tracks - 62:55). Released in the score in, as some would perfect companion piece to
1972, this film was recently screened on hold, the ideal context of Eyeball... those last eight
British television. Word of mouth is that it’s a film review. But the fact words sound like a cannibal
an excellent film. The principal structure of that I am being freshly discussing cuisine! I wonder,
this particular score has been orchestrated exposed to the complete would it be possible to build a
for strings, percussion, harp synthesizer score apart from the film complete body, Frankenstein-
and Moog. It’s a peculiar composition, a has, I suspect, allowed style, using only “body-part”
psychedelic jingle, reminiscent of a curious for a more pronounced film titles? Let’s see, there’s
pop instrumental called “Popcorn” (by the appreciation of the music that Michael Caine flick The
band Hot Butter) that climbed the charts itself. Both Ledbetter and Hand, the sado-erotic German
over two decades ago. Whereas this “gim- Smith describe the film as inane and ludi- hor- ror The Head (a great score),
mick” radio-hit was just for fun, Nicolai’s crous, and apparently the director seriously Million Dollar Legs, The Long Arm of the
piece hides a darker nature just under the overused Nicolai’s main theme, causing a Godfather, Booty Call, and so on. May I
surface. As with similar scores by Morricone good piece of music to become an irritant. humbly suggest that all fun-loving readers
(The Stark System, The Toy, Investigation The main theme, called “Red Cats,” fol- flood the FSM mail-room with attempts at
of a Citizen Above Suspicion) the lowed the uniquely Italian trend solving this conundrum?
“Red Cats”
cosmetic lightheartedness of the of supplying violent thrillers
instrumentation is meant to par- with charming and elegant title The Music to Beat
tially obscure the more disturb- cuts. “Red Cats” does feature The third and final volume of Crippled
ing implications of a doggedly followed the a repeating phrase on piano Dick Hot Wax’s Beat at Cinecitta series has
insistent melody. Besides several
variations on the main theme
uniquely that harbors some flavor of the
mysterious, but this portion is
finally appeared (various, Crippled Dick
Hot Wax CDHW 058, 16 tracks - 47:50). The
there are also present a light Italian trend swept along by the adventur- packaging is the same, stuffed to the gills
“travelogue” cue (track 8), an ous pace and glittering instru- with wild and raunchy European movie-
actual Bach cantata synthesized of supplying mentation of the whole. Just as magazine covers, excerpts from Euro-pulp
à la Wendy Carlos (track 6), a violent with Una Giornata Spesa Bene, photo-novels, film posters, and several new
marvelously expressionistic tone this score also has its repre- and welcome portraits of the “Beat girl”
poem of sweetened anxiety (track thrillers with sentative “March of Corruption” (sadly, the boys at Crippled Dick don’t
10), and a quintessentially Italian theme (tracks 2 and 8), here officially acknowledge their luscious distaff
film music staple of the ’70s—a
charming and called “Chain of Murders” and mascot—even worse, they again have stu-
mechanistically relentless “March elegant music. “Warning Signs.” Unlike most pidly neglected to print her phone number!).
of Corruption” anthem for syn- scores for thrillers, gialloes or The only big difference is in the album
J u l y 2 0 0 0 46 F i l m S core M ont h l y
credits. I assume that while this third
volume was in the early conceptual stage Score (continued from page 44)
Peter Blumenstock (Lucertola Media) and
Toner Van Bach (Crippled Dick) went their
times sounds like a Broadway tune or a con-
cert piano arrangement of a grand orchestral Screen
separate ways, and so Blumenstock’s name
is absent. The change doesn’t seem to have
drastically affected the disposition of the
theme originally intended to be a main title.
Michael Kamen and Bruce Broughton Archives
Entertainment
are each represented by only one work,
anthology; Volume 3 possesses the same but Kamen’s is over 11 minutes long and
ratio of monster jazz and blues tracks to Broughton’s is over 20. Kamen’s “Cut
lighter swing and/or pop. On the way heavy
side is Doris Troy’s Kill! vocal, identified as
Sleeves” is an episodic, eerily pleasant piece
that’s similar to his film work. It’s all about Large selection of
“Kill Them All!,” by Berto Pisano with J.
Chaumont and R. Gary. This is an extended
melody and orchestration—harmony is not
much of an issue. There’s more syncopation
new domestic and
inedit version of Pisano’s incredible theme
of towering rage. Pisano’s masterful and
and pop influence here than anywhere else on
the album—five to six minutes in, the piece
import releases,
beautiful film music has otherwise been
sinfully overlooked for digital restoration;
sounds like light Japanese pop without a back- older releases and
beat (not an insult). As it turns out, Kamen
titles such as Death Smiles on a Murderer, intends this piece to depict a Chinese legend. out-of-print CDs
Superargo, Goldface, Interrabang, Killer Bruce Broughton’s “A Primer for Malachi”
Kid, and many others should most cer- is a story about the cycle of life (on this disc, Major credit cards accepted.
tainly be made available on CD. Carrying many of these composers end up writing Write for free catalog!
over from Volume 2 the Beat curators are programmatic music even without a film).
still understandably drawing upon Piero There’s a constant not quite cartoonish play- PO Box 500
Piccioni’s opus An Italian in America, this
time using the wonderfully larger-than-
fulness (much better than his Roger Rabbit Linden, VA 22642
cartoon scores) and great energy throughout.
life love ballad “Amore, Amore, Amore.” The colors of the flute, clarinet, cello and ph: (540) 635-2575
Typically, Christy (Diabolik, Navajo Joe) piano get tiresome after 20 minutes, and the
sings as if she was trying to blow out the mood is almost too consistent until the final
fax: (540) 635-8554
back wall of the recording studio—what a movement, but this piece is well worth hear- e-mail: NipperSAE@aol.com
gal! A big chunk of this anthology’s best ing—especially for Broughton fans.
cues are by Piccioni. “Party Music 2” from Last but not least is David Raksin’s “A visit: www.screenarchives.com
Playgirl 70 is an aggressively percussive Song After Sundown,” a heavy dose of jazz
and hard-hitting go-go number. “Once and Americana right out of the old school. It’s
Again” from The Fox With the Velvet Tail nice to hear this style in such a nice, cleanly
and “Right or Wrong” from After She Kills performed recording. All in all, this is an
the Male and Eats Him, aka Marta, are both
performed by, and co-written with, a young
illuminating album. The varying styles of
Kamen, Shore, Broughton and Raksin are
Sound
woman named Shawn Robinson. Typically
for Piccioni front-liners, these title tracks
still identifiable in their concert settings—and
yet it’s obvious that most of this can’t be film
Track
are feverish and almost defiantly erotic.
Importantly, the composer is able to com-
music. Portman’s stuff is more on the generic,
folksy side, but it sounds more like film music
Album
municate such inflammatory passion with-
out resorting to the overt or the clichéd.
than anything else here. It’s marginally iden-
tifiable
Retailers
Piccioni’s oeuvre over the past 20 years as Portman (or Thomas Newman), and more
has made clear to me that Madonna and
Specializing in
important, it paces the album well. It’s nice
her corporate-sponsored ilk know only that to have some tonal, folk material (Kamen’s SOUNDTRACK, BROADWAY
sex sells and lack an understanding of sen- helps with this as well) amid the more busy and STUDIO CAST CD’s
suality in art or as art. “Once and Again” and difficult, rampaging works like “A Primer DOMESTIC and IMPORT
and “Right or Wrong” amply demonstrate for Malachi.” The liner notes by Doug Adams,
the hand-in-glove quality of Piccioni and RELEASES
Michael Whalen and Charles Yassky are thor-
Robinson’s musical collaborations. Piero ough and provide much more background e-mail or write for your
should’ve left his wife and kids, hooked up and interpretation than I can in this review. FREE CATALOG
with Shawn, and the two could have gone If you’re a fan of any composer represented
on to produce a steady stream of passion- on this album—or you’re curious about how P. O. Box 487-Dept. FS
ate love (lust) ballads the likes of which the film composers function on the outside—you New Holland, PA 17557-
world has never seen. Just a silly dream, should check this out immediately. —J.Z.K. 0487
but a glorious silly dream! Other desirables
on this anthology are Armando Trovaioli’s Escape From New York ★★★ 1/2 NEW e-mail: starcd@infi.net
“big-sound” ’60s pop-rock classic, his theme (Silva Expanded Edition)
for The Archfiend, and Roberto Pregadio’s phone/fax:
JOHN CARPENTER, ALAN HOWARTH
funky reprise of his main theme for Eva: The Silva Screen SSD 1110 • 20 tracks - 57:33 (717)351-0847
I
Savage Venus. This cut is a prime example of f ever a score deserved to be remastered Visit our website at:
Italian “surf-style” blues/rock fusion, a very for CD, it’s this one. Carpenter’s distinctive www.soundtrak.com
cool design that even washed over into some electronic sound is nowhere better suited than
spaghetti western scores. FSM (continued on page 48)
F i l m S core M ont h l y 47 J u l y 2 0 0 0
Score (continued from page 47) minute exchange which becomes tiresome
pretty quickly. Worse, dialogue interferes with
up and mixing was done within the com-
puter, which did editing as well as the mix,”
in his seminal future-noir masterpiece, score, at the end of “Everyone’s Coming to purportedly restoring “its original film ver-
Escape From New York. The director has New York,” the goofy musical number written sion.” The computer must not have seen the
often compared his genre films to westerns, by an uncredited Nick Castle. On the original film, because the eerie rendition of Debussy’s
and Carpenter’s early musical stylings evoke Varèse disc of Escape, it trails off into a som- “Engulfed Cathedral” seems to be missing a
futuristic Morricone. It’s disheartening that ber piano solo. Here, it’s cut short by a line reverb track, leaving the previously sonorous
what might have been this score’s ultimate from Ernest Borgnine, as in the film. If we bass notes hanging in mid-phrase. The loss
incarnation in crisp, digital sound falls short wanted dialogue over the music, fellas, we’d of reverb was so jarring that I wondered
of the mark. Silva’s remastered, expanded watch the movie! whether Howarth had actually re-performed
disc has its share of worthy qualities, but The other troublesome glitch is in the the cue. After comparing it to the film, it’s
these just barely outshine a few irritating apparent mishandling of certain tracks. Alan undoubtedly the same piece, but what a dif-
flaws. Howarth states in the scant liner notes that ference a bit of a sustain and vibrato make!
Most rankling is the inclusion of no less the original analog tapes were transferred to The same problem plagues the jagged chords
than eight dialogue tracks; a total of 4:03 of a digital workstation, and that “all the clean of “Over the Wall,” and clumsy digital mixing
listening time. The longest is a nearly two- has left “Romero and the President” with a
flaccid ending. “Over the Wall/Airforce One”
has acquired a weird synth sting that doesn’t
appear in either the Varese disc or the film.
NOW AVAILABLE FROM YOUR What’s up with that?
Fortunately, not all of the tracks are marred
by these mysterious imperfections. In fact,
FAVORITE the rest of the disc sounds superb. Howarth’s
use of additional stereo separation is a plus,
especially on heavily layered, multi-track cues
CHRISTOPHER FRANKE such as “The President Is Gone.” The classic
New Music For Films, Vol. 2 “Main Title” has never sounded better; nor
has “69th Street Bridge,” with its rapid-fire
“A very enjoyable album... I
highly flanging and jaunty steel-drum-styled orna-
recommend it.” mentation. “Police Action” is another real
Yu Lui, Film Score Magic standout, as the western themes hinted at in
The second album in the series of original other cues coalesce into a twanging six-note
film music by Christopher Franke, former motive reminiscent of a gunfight sequence,
member of the legendary electronic while a heartbeat-like bass cadence repre-
group Tangerine Dream and composer for sents time ticking away.
the epic science fiction series BABYLON 5. The real meat of this disc is the inclusion
This new collection includes orchestral and of six unreleased tracks, and they are worth
electronic suites from his scores for the the price of purchase. “The Bank Robbery”
films SOLO, TARZAN AND THE LOST CITY, is the crowning glory of these. Lost to the
THE INHERITANCE, PACIFIC BLUE and proverbial cutting-room floor when Carpenter
removed a 10-minute prologue, this cue never
stops moving. Using the same basic rhythm
as “President at the Train,” this cue sets the
Sonic Images Prime Time
mood for Plissken in action, and creates a the-
Action! Suspense! Sci-Fi! A great collection of matic base in which we can now recognize the
original main titles and music from prime time
Duke’s theme as a variation on Snake’s.
TV series. Featured on this compilation album
are memorable melodies and fan favorites from Interesting, but absolutely wrong for the
Babylon 5, The Outer Limits, Chicago film is “Snake Shake,” the original end credits
Hope, Lois & Clark - The New Adventures of theme, featured here for the first time. While
Superman, The Sentinel, Poltergeist, the not bad per se, this piece is more apropos of a
award-winning GENE RODDENBERRY’S Earth: parody, akin to the quirky end credits theme
Final Conflict and more. from They Live. Had the movie ended on
Composers like Mark Isham, James Newton this note, its foreboding quality would have
Howard, Basil Poledouris and Christopher Franke been lost in a fast-paced “Just kidding, folks!”
take you on a journey from the old west to punchline of a cue.
the edges of the universe. Silva’s releases are uniformly excellent,
so the clumsiness with which this disc was
assembled is surprising. In all, it serves as a
decent companion piece to the original Varèse
tt oo oo rr dd ee rr oo nn ll ii nn ee :: CD, rather than a replacement. The new cues
w
wwww w .. ss oo nn ii cc ii m
m aa gg ee ss .. cc oo m
m are admirably represented, while their previ-
®
ously released counterparts, sadly, are not.
PO
PO Box
Box 691626
691626 This release is recommended to Carpenter
West
West Hollywood,
Hollywood, CA
CA 90069,
90069, USA
USA completists and die-hard Escape fans only.
—Chris Stavrakis FSM
J u l y 2 0 0 0 48 F i l m S core M ont h l y
If you do spotting sessions; edit music, compose, con-
Film & TV
directors, music supervisors and heads of licensing who
Music
Series www.hollywoodreporter.com