Mail Bag 3/6/01

It's time for one of our regular letter columns. If you want to start discussing one of the topics without waiting for our next Mail Bag, use the messageboard -- it's pretty busy.

See the archive for the final results on the best score to a Paul Verhoeven film.

From: "Josh Gizelt" <swashbuckler332@hotmail.com>

The current poll is a difficult one for me to answer owing not only to the generally excellent track record Verhoeven has had with film music (well, there is always "Showgirls"), but also because of what is NOT represented in the poll.

Of what was listed, I ended up voting for "Starship Troopers," but "Total Recall" would be a close second. I do not deny the power of the "Basic Instinct," "Flesh and Blood" or "RoboCop" scores, and I would not part with my copies of any of these soundtrack albums.

However, I can easily say that my favorite score for a Verhoeven film hands-down would have to be "The Fourth Man" by Loek Dikker. This gothic fantasia is totally bewitching.

Verhoeven gets a fresh and engaging score out of Jerry Goldsmith each time he works with him, and Basil Poledouris rises to new heights of muscularity (although nothing could ever match the brute force and amazing lyricism of his acme, "Conan the Barbarian"). It is Dikker's more intimate, much darker score, however, that has entranced me time and again within Verhoeven's oevre, more than any other.

Similarly, it is in "The Fourth Man" that Verhoeven's interest in erotica and intrigue meet most perfectly. Much better than the similar-mood "Basic Instinct" (with a great central performance by Jeroen Krabbe), one finds certain thematic concepts that seem less developed in the later, splashier film. Furthermore, the immature sexuality of its protagonist is explored in a much more tongue-in-cheek manner than one finds in either "Basic Instinct" or "Showgirls," allowing the film to indulge in some bizarre iconography (all of which leads up to a taut climax in the film) that is much more entertaining than the (less explicit though more gaudy) "Basic Instinct."

What, then, is Loek Dikker's somber score doing in the film? Well, Krabbe's character is a devout Catholic, and the score approaches the film as a whodunit with spiritual overtones (i.e. the score is "in on" the joke). Matching intense thematic material with Verhoeven's repeating and obsessive imagery (the point of departure for the film being a black widow spider shown over the main and end titles, Krabbe's recurring vision of the Virgin Mary offering salvation), the score buttresses the psychology of its protagonist and allows the film to develop its text and subtext while commanding rapt attention.

Although the other scores on the list are all excellent, it is Loek Dikker's barely heard gem that is the most fulfilling artistically as well as being a great listen. Too bad Varese Sarabande never saw fit to bring their original LP out on CD. It's a fantastic score.

From: "Bob & Lynn Bryden" <bryden@interlynx.net>

As a film collector since 1961 I am definitely in 'IN LOVE WITH THE OLD GUARD' and even 'IN LOVE WITH THE LAST GREAT WAVE' (Goldsmith, Bernstein, Williams, etc.) I have gone through such a love/hate relationship with film and film music since, well since about 1970!!! I agree with your recent writer who indicates the problem really is that films (arguably) aren't quite as imaginative as they used to be and this is reflected in the scores. I also lament the apparent dwindling lack of coverage in your magazine of older scores and composers. (I am a Tiomkin fanatic and find so little on him.) However, stop right there - this really isn't one of THOSE letters.! In the past year I have grown to love and respect a new crop of film composers and their styles. For post-rock-and-roll bred generations I can now appreciate the relevant and exciting scores of James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer, Thomas Newman, Mark Isham, Michael Danna, James Horner, Chrisopher Young, Lisa Gerrard, Cliff Martinez, Danny Elfman, David Arnold, Randy Edelman, Trevor Jones, etc. I do feel that the tone of most films today is so unrelentingly dark and bleak that this limits the composers, but all in all they are beginning to come into their own and do a good job of at least 'serving the films' with imagination and gusto. So, all that said, here's my list for 2000 with some qualifications:

1. Gladiator (Avoided it like the plague at first because of all the bad flak Zimmer took. Saw the film, loved it. Bought the CD, loved it [deriviateness and all.] Remembered that most of the Golden Age composers were shameless 'borrowers' as well. Remember Tiomkin's speech accepting Oscar for 'High and Mighty'? He thanked his collaborators - all the great classical composers.)

2. Pay It Forward (Underrated film. Glorious score in the current vernacular of plucky, eccentric-rock-a-doodle-  blues-disjointed type underpinnings. T. Newman honing his post-Unstrung Heroes approach which even Danny Elfman is now apeing. By the way this approach was first introduced in Mallick's 'Badlands' way back. That score sounds like it was written today. Also - this score could be almost tied with another Newman 2000 score from 'Erin Brokovich'.)

3. The Patriot (Average film but Williams returns to his glory days and writes 'themes and variations' with real heart and variety. The score conveys things the film doesn't even hint at.)

4. Unbreakable (I like this one and this film better than '6th Sense'. This film and it's score both make my skin crawl in a way I never expected. Plenty of Khatchachurian but relentless in a most subtle way.)

5. Traffic (Great, gritty film which doesn't compromise but doesn't rub our noses in the squalor either. Same with score. Even the choice of 'other' music [Eno, etc.] is exquisite.)

6. 13 Days (Have been excessively bothered by Trevor Jones music in the past. Only liked 'Dark Crystal' and 'Last of the Mohicans' then found him reusing his 'Mohicans' motif over and over!! [Listen to the TV soundtrack from 'Cleopatra', etc.] But here Jones rises to a lofty occasion. Brilliant film. Brilliant percussive, melodic score with only a faint hint of Mohicans. For Jones - that's an accomplishment.)

Getting a little difficult to make this a 'top ten' list now:

7. The Perfect Storm (Pure Horner shlock - but found myself loving it anyway despite abysmal John Mellencamp vocal 'version' of main theme. Film wasn't as bad as many said either despite flimsy characterizatons.)

8. Dinosaur (Newton Howard scores an animated feature which I liked [rare] and gives it a stirring, melodic score which is a pleasant listen on it's own.)

9. Rules of Engagement (An atypical post 80's score [all 'sturm und drang'] but fits the film and is listenable as it's own entity as well.)

10. Tie: Mission To Mars/I Dreamed of Africa (Morricone and Jarre prove they're not completely over the hill yet even if the films are terrible.)

Well, that's my list. Hope it's of interest to somebody.

Painful P.S. I regret I do not suffer from 'The Emperor's New Score Syndrome'. Goldsmith's work these days is simply dreadful. He should have retired in 1990 or foregone his much talked about 'paring down' style which is really just his 'subjects' way of staying in denial.

From: "Roman Deppe" <roman.deppe@planet-interkom.de>

Hi, here just my short thought sonthe last year...

Well, I would say in terms of films the year 2000 was by far the worst we had. Even the summer "blockbusters" were neither entertaining, nor impressive in any technical way (except HOLLOW MAN, which had really astounding effects), man, the Perfect Storm looked so ridiculous... intelligent they weren't, but nobody expected that. But not even the more "serious" movies could generate any interest (who likes UNBREAKABLE?) and as they say I don't know which movie should be nominated for an Oscar...

In terms of the scores, there were at least a couple of scores, which left some impression besides their (mostly) awful movies: My favorite score of the year is THE CELL and makes me believe that Howard Shore may be really a great choice for LORD OF THE RINGS. This score made the movie a lot more fascinating than it acually was.

As a James-Horner-hater for almost 10 years now (You got one, you got them all) I have to admit, that I liked PERFECT STORM and was impressed how much emotions he brought into its score, although you couldn't care less about the annyoing fishermen. Even in the biggest actionmusic is a constant sadness, which I thought was really good. But it didn't help the horrible movie at all and if I was more familiar with the recent music by Horner I probably wouldn't like the score that much as I would know from which scores he already took the bars (but KRULL was pretty obvious anyway).

The runner-up composer of the year is JAmes Newton Howard, who brought us the spectacular DINOSAUR (no wonder with the beautiful imagery the movie had, the wonderful lyrical UNBREAKABLE (I wonder where his inspiration came from for this yawner), and the action-bombast VERTICAL LIMIT (although the nice and quite long Varese misses most of the head-banging action cues). All three scores are remarkable and stand as some of the best filmscores of the last years. I've always been a great fan of Howard, but now I can't wait what he is doing next. He became really one of the best.

But there were also some dissapointments: I am not very into HOLLOW MAN, which is better than usual 90ies Goldsmith-stuff, but nothing spectacular. GLADIATOR is in compositional terms as in the way it is used in the movie just bad from the very beginning (hey, I thought you wanted to make the battlescenes and the Gladiator-fights evil, showing how cruel the time was... but you actually made them fun, exciting and heroic, whcih they weren't, at least not for the one who fought, and that's were we stand, Mr. Zimmer!). Also Christopher Young (my favorite composer) wrote a pretty lame score for BLESS THE CHILD, but the movie sucked so much, I guess he can't be blamed.

CHARLIE'S ANGELS was a great, funny movie (which made no sense, but who cares? It was just fun!), but had a lousy score. Probably Shearmur just didn't even try to run up against the 50 songs. Wayyyyy too many songs in this movie.

Oh, and I don't understand why everybody is raving about Arnold's SHAFT score? Besides being annoyingly repetitive, it was so overscored... I mean, that damn 70ies-guitar played foprever under all kinds of scenes, whcih didn't need music at all. But as the movie was so lame, the makers probably thought, putting some music in every scene everybody will think that the music makes the scenes cool. God, it just got so much on my nerves and from a compositional point of view it was just repetitive and boring and simple. But I guess there are just too many people who like 70ies-music and are happy that a new movie has this dated-scoring-style (it's okay for a movie about the 70ies, but "hello" I didn't get why this score was like that...). A big runner-up for the worst score of the year.

So in the end... the movies were more disappointing than ever, but there were as many good scores as bad ones. So it was an average year in my opinion.

From: MHazotte@aol.com

2001 will be a great year for movie soundtracks : Hans Zimmer's Hannibal and Pearl Harbor, John Williams' A.I. and Harry Potter, James Horner's Enemy at the gates, Four Feathers and Windtalkers, Elliot Goldenthal's Final Fantasy, Don Davis' Valentine and JP3, Joseph Lo Duca's Brotherhood of the Wolves (a french film), John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars, Danny Elfman's Spy Kids and Planet of the Apes and many many others. How exciting!!

But I'm still looking for cd release of many scores that are still unavailable and I'm wondering if there's any chance to see them release : Marco Beltrami's Dracula 2000, Christopher Young's The Gift, Danny Elfman's The Family Man, Hans Zimmer's The Pledge, Alan Silvestri's What Women Want and Don Davis' Antitrust. Does someone have any informtations?

From: "Randy Derchan" <rderchan@visualdatainc.com>

With all the talk about Goldsmith's score for "Hollow Man", I feel little left out on why people think it's one of his best. Now, don't get me wrong, I am Jerry's biggest fan -- no really, I am, and I have been unable to find his Hollow Man more significant than his other action scores of the same genre. I bought the dvd and will definitely compare-study his use of score within the film. I am sure I will find it fantastic and renege my current opinion. I've listened to the cd several times and enjoyed it very much, but it doesn't make my favorites list. I saw the disappointing film -- hey, I saw "Mom and Dad Save the World" in the theatre so you know I'm loyal. I think I was cringing and laughing so hard at the dialogue that I missed Jerry's subtle usage of music. The main titles were especially interesting though from what I remember. I will also want to compare the score to Stravinsky's "La Sacre du Temps," as another fellow film music lover pointed out.

Anyway, Goldsmith is and always will be my favorite. Speaking of score of 2000, did anyone catch the sleeper (literally) "All The Pretty Horses"? The score was quite lovely, with some really nice guitar work. I fail to remember the composer(s) names. Oh, and one more point about a recent comment I just read here....

How many 007 films will there be in the future? As many as God will allow. Hey, pick on sequels, but Bond deserves better than to be considered a part two of something. %#^@*$))) to you, buddy.

MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com