 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I think it was really dumb for ST TMP to open on a blank screen, and stay blank throughout the overture. When I first saw it in December 1979, my companions and I had no idea the film had started. We were talking, didn't notice the coming attractions had ended, and then gradually noticed that some easy-listening instrumental was playing. But there was no sense that this was STAR TREK music, to say nothing of the film itself starting up.
I thought the projector was off and the theater was playing Muzak for some reason. Like they were having technical difficulties, and the ten year wait for this movie was about to get a little longer.
Was your theatrical experience anything like that, if you're that old?
WEST SIDE STORY opens with an overture, but there's a visual to go with it. It's a colored silhouette of the NYC skyline that very gradually resolves into a full photo. It works. TMP didn't work.
I don't know if the blank screen was an artistic decision, or a case of having no time and money left to do anything visual. I would assume it was the latter, as the blank screen seems like an insane decision-- except that the state of Gene Roddenberry's artistic judgement (and his over-the-top desire to make STAR TREK understated, high-brow, and classy) by 1979 was pretty bad.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I seem to remember being a little put off by what was happening. TMP was very rushed at the end. Goldsmith apparently finished his recording sessions on the same Monday of the release week. The clumsy editing has been the source of much discussion. Many sound effects produced for the film didn't get mixed in for lack of time, all the prints had to be manufactured and delivered to theaters in a matter of hours. So the overture section being botched isn't a surprise. The "Director's Cut" produced in 2001 addressed a number of issues, including showing a receding starfield visual during the overture music.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Overture was on all the original release prints. And they were all 35mm, there was no 70mm. Of the hundreds of movies that had overtures over the years, most were over a blank screen. It was nothing unusual. The intent was to play them with a closed curtain.
Robert Wise didn't like how overtures sounded through curtains (often the high frequencies were boosted to compensate) so he put a visual on the overture for West Side Story and later on Star! (the orchestra is shown playing on screen!) but was unsuccessful in convincing Fox to do a visual for The Sand Pebbles. There was an intention of having "a space visual" on Star Trek but there was no time. There were two versions of the Overture, long & short, and only at the last minute did they add the short one based on the running time of the film, which had to be 130 minutes minus end credits.
Two weeks after Star Trek opened, The Black Hole came out, and it too had an Overture over a blank screen. I was very young and had never experienced an Overture at the cinema before these two releases, but I didn't think anything was wrong; I just thought it was something different. The lights dimmed half way in each case so it was pretty obvious that the movie was about to start. Later someone explained to me that this had been going on for a long time, all the way back to the 1930s.
Mike M.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The "Director's Cut" produced in 2001 addressed a number of issues, including showing a receding starfield visual during the overture music.
Well, that sounds a lot better than nothing. But something more artistic might have been nice too.
I saw the film several times in 1979 (save your "self-torture" jokes --- I actually liked the movie), and I have no memory of the overture from back then. Was it in every showing/version of the film? Or just "special" presentations of it, like the premiere, 70-mm projections, etc.?
Maybe some theaters "got wise" to the problem and skipped the first 1:43 of the film to get right into it. That would be wrong, but I wouldn't put it past them. In those days, our ABC affiliate would cut out the opening titles of their local "late movie" and, at 11:30 pm, dissolve right from the news anchorman's face to the first scene of the film. Disgusting but true. You'd be sitting there with your audio tape recorder, feeling like a fool.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks, Mike!
Was it "Ilea's Theme" playing as the overture? Or was there another separate piece of music recorded for this? (It's been a while since I played my 3-disc ST:TMP CD release.)
It was a shortened version of Ilia's Theme.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I saw the film on opening day with my family and do remember the overture well. (The Black Hole as well.) The volume level was loud enough so everyone in the theater knew it went with the film and was an overture. It was at the Century 21 theater in San Jose, Ca. What I remember most about the experience was how bitterly disappointed I was in the film but have warmed to it over the decades, though I still could not recommend it were I a film critic.
Indeed, one might say that the movie does have flaws, but for me, some of its often mentioned flaws are no flaws at all. One may call some of the acting wooden, some of the pacing lame, but it is clearly my favorite of all the Star Trek movies.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I remember this very clearly and was delighted (and with the film as well, never had a problem with it, except the Starfleet jammies). Didn't bother me at all that there was no visual. First time I heard Goldsmith's music given full and complete attention. And thought the new and different music was a nice way to say, hey, this isn't just the TV series.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The only part I thought was boring was flying through the cloud. The rest had me pretty well riveted. I was almost 11. I hadn't "seen it all" yet.
I don't remember the overture in TMP. (Not saying it wasn't there, just saying I don't remember it.) But we saw The Black Hole the same week. We were a few minutes late to the film so we missed the opening (we came in when Palamino is flying over Cygnus). So The Kids stayed for a second showing. I remember the overture because at that point we'd already heard the theme in the film.
I still love both of those movies.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
