Film Score Friday 8/31/01

Ain't It Cool News has reported that the main title to Star Trek: Enterprise (premiering in September on UPN) will indeed feature a SONG, not an original theme by Jerry Goldsmith or any other previous Trek composer for that matter. Oh my lord, better write your congressman. According to AICN the song will be an existing Diane Warren piece called "Faith of the Heart." See the article and reactions at our message board: http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/Forum1/HTML/002900.html

Intrada's next Special Collection CD is Jack the Bear, a small-scaled early '90s James Horner score that was never released -- until now. The CD is planned for October.

Harry-Gregson Williams and Porno for Pyros rock guitarist, Peter DiStefano, are teaming up to release their first album on Immergent Records (non-soundtrack) on September 25, under the name "Rambient."

Mark Bagby sent in the following information from the Disneyland website about a neat upcoming event:

Wednesday, October 3, Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas" descends on the grounds of the Disneyland park's Haunted Mansion, and we're unveiling the event with our special Haunted Evening sneak preview, where you're the "ghost" of honor! Come enjoy a frightfully fun night, which includes admission to Disneyland® park, a panel discussion with Tim Burton himself, Danny Elfman (the voice of Jack Skellington and score composer) and other ghoulish special guests, a preview of the Haunted Mansion Holiday ride, a commemorative gift. Plus, you'll have the opportunity to pre-purchase limited-edition "Nightmare Before Christmas" collectibles, like pins, shirts, sweatshirts and other merchandise. Tickets are on sale now. Call Walt Disney Event Services at 866-247-1203. http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneylandresort/index

From: Michael Merritt, Micmerritt@aol.com

You guys hit the bullseye two months running with Between Heaven and Hell/Soldier of Fortune and the latest Silver Age addition, Morituri/Raid on Entebbe.

I've been a long time follower of Hugo Friedhofer's film music, especially his mid to late fifties work at Fox. I have seen both films on TV many times and always wanted a soundtrack recording. Too bad all of Soldier of Fortune wasn't available-there are several distinct cues I remember that didn't make your release, so thanks for the explanation as to why the stems were unusable. Anything else available from this composer should be released, simply because he was one of the best, and everyone from film buffs to aspiring composers to the general public should know of his contributions to the art of film scoring. One of his most outstanding scores was for a film done for another studio, Paramount's Ace in the Hole. I guess I'll have to wait until TCM or AMC runs that one again.

Morituri is a score I've always wanted, because it's from the time when Jerry 's work consistently advanced the state of the art of film scoring. It's not run on TV very much, I saw it years ago on the ABC Sunday Night Movie and the action writing is first rate, I'm ordering right away. Raid on Entebbe I'm not familiar with, but I do know Shire's work on The Conversation, which I like very much.

Thanks for your support! Believe it or not, these two new CDs -- Morituri/Raid on Entebbe and The Best of Everything -- are our 34th and 35th Classics releases. As long as there's interest, we'll keep on rescuing 'em from oblivion....

Thanks for the link to the NPR interview with Thomas Newman [last Friday]. The irony is that I work an hour a day at an NPR affiliate doing breaks where I announce underwriters, promote upcoming programs and insert little informational bits. The fun for me is than I can use whatever music I want within certain parameters and as a film score fan, and particularly a fan of Mr. Newman's work, I often use his music for these breaks. It's good to know that he's got more scores in the pipeline.

From: ED REILLY <oneand334@yahoo.com>

I just came across some back issues in Tower Records (one of the few shops over here that stocks your mag). I'd just like to say a few words in defense of last year's most neglected score - namely X-men. Michael Kamen's work is tremendous - richly textured, resonant and haunting. It is infinitely superior to any of his previous scores. Certain tracks such as 'Deathcamp' and 'Magneto's Lair' send shivers down my spine no matter how many times I hear them (and that's saying something). I feel this score was sorely underrated by most critics and its time Kamen got the praise he deserves.

From: Michael D Lynch <fatcats3@juno.com>

I was sad to see that Jack Elliot passed away. I love so many of his themes. Reading his list of music (thanks for the IMDB linky), I was in couch potato nostalgia land. Question: his NBC Mystery Movie theme -- as far as I know, a grand theme that is NEVER played when cable airs its McMillan and Wife, Banacek or Columbo reruns -- has it ever been recorded? Is it on DVD? Now that we have a Vic Mizzy CD it's time for a Jack Elliot one.

From: Corey Witte <galt1138@prodigy.net>

This summer has been one disappointing mediocre-to-awful film after another. At the end of the season, I've found one film that has truly stood out. Regrettably, at least for the state of Hollywood films today, it was released over 20 years ago.

Apocalypse Now Redux -

This new release is truly a revelation. Admittedly, it's a bit longer than it needs to be. However, this is such a small complaint compared to how amazing this new print is. Now I finally know what all the people meant when they said us young folk were missing out by watching Technicolor films on video. Any of you with even the slightest interest and appreciation of what film can aspire to owe it to yourselves to find the best theater in you area and go see this film. The shear range of color in this print is amazing. The value of dark to light is extremely impressive. The colors are SO vibrant. This film looks better than damn near every thing I've seen so far this year (it is said that when the film's cinematographer, the great Vittoria Storraro, saw the new Technicolor dye transfer print, he wept with joy). There is so much talk about the soon to be digital camera revolution. Perhaps that will happen. I just don't know if it will ever match the image quality of this film (a single frame of film contains more than 12 million pixels of information, and film stocks are getting better everyday). If even a quarter of the films released today were printed in the similar manner as Apocalypse, audiences would be getting a great gift.

The sound design of this film is also phenomenal. It is such an incredible thing to experience a true collection of artists at the top of their game. We who are so accustomed to digital sound in theaters now have an opportunity to to watch and hear a film that actually knows how to take advantage of today's top notch sound systems. Too many hacks get the credit of "sound designer" in films today. Apocalypse actually has a man who deserves that credit and is responsible for the very term itself - Walter Murch. His layering of sound to create an actual environment to immerse the viewer in is stunning. No matter how good your home theater system is, I guarantee you you've never heard the beach attack properly until you see this new print.

What's particularly interesting about this new print of Coppola's masterpiece is how stark the contrast is between itself and everything else in the theaters. As an audience, have our standards been lowered so much that seeing Coppola's vision of Vietnam filtered through Conrad's novel is akin to getting one's vision and hearing back after years of being blind & deaf?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those cineasts who insist that film is dead and the last great movies were done in the 1970s. There's a fair amount of examples of damn good if not truly great films to come out of Hollywood in the past 10 - 20 years. The issue for me is that now, what were once B movies are treated like A level films. Studios are stacking huge amounts of money on ideas and projects that are stillborn. I think a lot of it has to do with the pervasiveness of reporting on nearly all aspects of movies (box office, production problems, star gossip, etc.) and the fascination with the style of MTV and commercials. I continue to argue that if all we in Hollywood give the audiences are shitty thrill rides, then they will naturally have lower expectations and flock to the films that have the best thrills (similar to rushing to check out the best new roller coaster).

Hell, even a man responsible for one of the best sagas to come out of Hollywood ever, George Lucas, seems to have lost his vision and dumbed down his wonderful universe in Phantom Menace (and I don't care what anyone says, even the Ewoks in Jedi weren't as cringe inducing as Jar Jar Binks and those awful announcers during the pod race.)

Still:

The Fugitive, The Matrix, Toy Story, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, Fight Club, Seven, Toy Story 2, Ed Wood, Shrek, Chicken Run, Antz, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Cast Away, Boogie Nights, Nurse Betty, Traffic, Out of Sight, The Shawshank Redemption, Apollo 13, Liar, Liar, Meet the Parents, Twelve Monkeys, The Lion King, Forrest Gump, The Sixth Sense, American Beauty, Rain Man, Goodfellas, A Bug's Life, Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, The Birdcage, Shakespeare in Love, Rush Hour, Babe, Babe - Pig in the City, Good Will Hunting, JFK, The Silence of the Lambs, There's Something About Mary, Three Kings, The Truman Show, Philadelphia, The Hunt for Red October, City Slickers, Die Hard, Analyze This, Get Shorty, In the Line of Fire, Unforgiven, Schindler's List, Contact, Crimson Tide, Cape Fear, Jurassic Park, Braveheart, The Insider, Last of the Mohicans, Quiz Show, Star Trek VI, Grumpy Old Men, Bullworth, Bowfinger, He Got Game, Shaft, Dead Presidents, The Negotiator, Wag the Dog, Courage Under Fire, Dave, Pleasantville, L.A. Confidential, Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, The Crow, Interview with the Vampire, The Gift, Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Dolores Claiborne, Misery, Stuart Little, Searching for Bobby Fischer, October Sky, The Thin Red Line, The Iron Giant, Rushmore, When Harry Met Sally, The Straight Story, Wonder Boys, Scent of a Woman, Best in Show, The Contender, The Score, Dazed and Confused, Dark City

All of the above films were released by Hollywood studios in the past 15 years (Miramax is in New York but more and more acts like a Hollywood studio). There's bound to be some films I'm missing as well. Perhaps all is not lost in Tinsel Town.

Whatever your opinion, you must go see Apocalypse Now to be reminded that movies can be thrilling entertainment and provocative works of art.

I saw the restored Apocalypse Now locally and it is fantastic -- what a great experience. As far as music goes, it's a welcome reminder of the late '70s early '80s aesthetic of electronics performing "compositional" music -- that is to say, taking a symphonic piece and performing it with synthesizers rather than using them for pop or rock purposes, or simply emulating live instruments. It's an eerie, chilling but strangely evocative effect -- also strangely nostalgic nowadays. Unfortunately the style is long gone because synthesizers have advanced to high-quality samplers and hip-hop stuff that a simple electronic ensemble would probably seem hopelessly naive.

Here's a link for downloading a "virtual theremin" on your computer. Have fun! http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/playground/theremin1.shtml

And regarding our recent review of a soundtrack CD called Solarmax, Laird Malamed writes to say that the CD can be purchased from the Chicago Museum of Science at http://store.yahoo.com/msichicago/solmaxsoun1.html.

Have a nice Labor Day weekend!

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