As I said in another thread, I'm also very grateful for having this score released in a legitimate format. I have already thrown my age-old bootleg (combining crappy-sounding rips with the nice-sounding Silva suite tracks) in the trash bin. Of course, I would have been even happier if it had been arranged more for listening, but in this case, just having it out there was more important. It fills an essential hole in Williams' discography.
Here's hoping for more such hole-filling in the year(s) to come.
I'm finally listening to the score this very moment. I was already acquainted with it thanks to the footwarmer and the film, but hearing it in this amazing sound is revealing and mesmerizing. It's really listening to it for the first time.
This is an incredible score. It's a masterpiece of suspense and action/thriller scoring. Period.
I am also happy to see LK go back to the format of combining cues and trying to limit the total to 25. Makes a big difference, to me at least (wish KLUTE/PRESIDENT'S was done that way). Lotsa short cues are a pain (right Thor?) well done FSM!
I agree, the climactic action is really a "created in the editing" number with really lousy footage to work from, seriously gutting the suspense. Williams score still remains the best single element of the film.
wish the studio could take BS back to the editing room and redo the fx (ala STAR TREK) same with ISLANDS - THINK OF HOW MUCH BETTER it would play with the swordfifhing sequence done right!
Watched the film for the first time in a few years the other night and it still holds up very well. The editing I think is quite good in the climax to sell the illusion needed, with the only flaw being the fake explosion FX for the helicopter and the blimp.
Was some of the music from the track 'Commando Raid' used on the original trailer for ST:TMP? I recall seeing pre-release footage for ST:TMP on a Saturday morning tv-show here in the UK as a kid, looked like trailer footage but I'm sure the music temp-track (certainly wasn't Goldsmith's score) sounded like 'Commando Raid'. At the time I had recorded the footage on an audio cassette (which I lost many years ago) so I had heard it several times. Never knew what the music was from, but listening to 'Commando Raid' on the FSM disc it sounds very much like what I heard all those years ago. Some of the track 'Speed Boat Chase' sounds eerily familiar too. Black Sunday was a Paramount film so it makes sense.
There was a preview reel of ST:TMP -- I think for exhibitors -- that did use as a temp track Black Sunday and Marathon Man. You might be able to find them at youtube.
Aha! That would be it then. I remember replaying it to death before the film came out- the 'action/thriller'-music used made the film seem like an epic action movie. Turned out a bit different... more of a slow-motion action picture.
Thanks Lucas. Was a strange experience just listening to the Black Sunday CD (just arrived here in the UK) and out of the blue hearing music I remembered from that old ST:TMP footage from so many years ago.
There was a preview reel of ST:TMP -- I think for exhibitors -- that did use as a temp track Black Sunday and Marathon Man. You might be able to find them at youtube.
Lukas
I saw a TV preview clip of STTMP in 1979 that used "The Refugees" cue from Islands In The Stream for a scene between Kirk and McCoy. Very dark, mournful effect. Worked beautifully. Might have been a work print montage rushed out for early publicity purposes, or as Lukas says.
