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Posted: |
Feb 28, 2004 - 12:10 PM
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By: |
Jostein
(Member)
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I wrote a piece on this score when I was in University College, and I just want to post my thoughts about this brilliant suspense/action score and see if anyone has thought the same things I have.
The main theme Goldsmith fashioned for this score is brilliant; it's very flexible, and is used both as an action fanfare and as a sad melody lamenting Rambo's loss of all his comrades from the war. The opening guitar that introduces the theme is vaguely reminiscent of the rock and roll music that soldiers (and indeed other young people) heard on the radio in the 60s, and I don't know if that's intentional or not, but it's still a nice effect.
The score plays around, in similar fashion to the film, with the duality of "Rambo the human being" and "Rambo the killing machine". The human element in Rambo is represented by the theme mentioned above. But as his troubles grow and the tension in the film escalates, a mechanical 5-note motif emerges that represents the "killing machine" inside Rambo. It is fitting that this motif is often played on synths: it adds to its mechanical, machine-like quality. The rhythm is forceful, with a kind of inevitability to it, and lingers in the mind almost as much as the main theme.
In addition to these two main elements of the score, a solitary trumpet-fanfare is used whenever Rambo reminisces about the past, helping to create sympathy for the character.
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Yes, an excellent action score. I also liked RAMBO:FIRST BLOOD II which was another brassy and propulsive score....sounds good while driving!
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I love that theme. And the versatality of it. Three spectalucar scores, spectacularly different. Kinetic. Rhythmic. Bombastic at tiems (at least Part II).
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Yes, good score, but Goldsmith's contribution to the series just got better and better as the films got increasingly worse. FIRST BLOOD is pretty bare bones to me, but the ornamentation that the composer added for the sequels makes for more enjoyable listening.
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Yes, good score, but Goldsmith's contribution to the series just got better and better as the films got increasingly worse. FIRST BLOOD is pretty bare bones to me, but the ornamentation that the composer added for the sequels makes for more enjoyable listening.
You put it very well Graham...I'd certainly go along with that!
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I have to disagree with Graham and Simon - although Goldsmith's 2nd and 3rd Rambo scores are fine works, they are fairly simplistic for the most part and are overlayered with synths that sound pretty crappy today.
As far as RAMBO is concerned, I'd have to strongly disagree.
I was just playing it today and to my ears and tastes it's one of the BEST action scores of the 80's.
The Synth work is first rate and IMHO holds up rather well.
I think you might wish to review it again before dismissing it out of hand.
Ford A. Thaxton
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I have to disagree with Graham and Simon - although Goldsmith's 2nd and 3rd Rambo scores are fine works, they are fairly simplistic for the most part and are overlayered with synths that sound pretty crappy today. They don't even come close to First Blood which is a genuine masterpiece.
I agree. While I wouldn't dismiss those who favor the other two sequel scores, I do think that there is a lot more going on contrapuntally and texturally in First Blood. I actually found RAMBO to be stripped down compared to the first score. There are a lot of genuinely exciting moments in First Blood; take "Hangin On" which is a compositite of 2 cues from the film. The first half has some nice assymetrical rhythms with muted trombones alternating with piano pedal figures. Then Goldsmith brings in some frenzied 16 note flurries in the violins building to a great thematic exposition. And then the track segues into the "Hanging On" portion of film where Rambo has to scale down a cliff to avoid capture. Goldsmith introduces a 5 note alternating motif that starts inconspicuously enough in the violins whilst muted trombones play a sforzando chord to augment the phrase. Goldsmith beautifully builds tension by increasing the dynamics and texture as the cue moves along. He also modulates keys which is almost like the classical technique of sequencing where a composer will take a phrase and continually move up or down in key centres to keep things interesting and building tension. By the end of the "Hanging On" the motif is now being played by the full string section and the trombones are played "senza sordino" as well as being augmented by tuba.
And this is just but one track!
I'll admit I'm biased about this score. As I've stated in other threads, it's probably my favorite action score of all time because there's a stylistic breadth that continues to amaze me. You've got a plaintive, beautifully written main theme that I believe is one of Goldsmith's finest themes ever written, some great modernist writing when Rambo attacks the idiotic police in the forest (atonal brass, string harmonics and quarter tones, col legno strings), and the ballsiest action writing ever written. If given the choice, I'd take First Blood before Raiders to a desert island. And I'm a bigger JOhn Williams fan than a Goldsmith fan too!
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Just guessing but I imagine that people who think Rambo 2 and 3 are better are probably the same people who think Goldsmith's 90's work is his best and go out of their way to champion such things as Leviathan and Deep Rising as undervalued gems.
Well that theory certainly isn't true in my case. I'm not a hard-core Goldsmith fan and my own collection of his music is fairly small actually. And to be honest, I'm not at all enamoured with his recent work. Give me the stuff he did in the seventies and eighties any day of the week.
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