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Personally for me, I will always hold First Blood higher than Goldsmith's sequel work mostly due to the tone of the film itself which dictated a very different score than the other two. I found Rambo:FB2 and Rambo 3 to be a little forced in the emotional dept. whereas the pathos in FB was genuine and real. It didn't help that the character became a parody of itself...
I think I'll read the book again this evening. It's probably my favorite book. An awesome read. And very scary too. Rambo is more psychotic in that than what was portrayed by Stallone.
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First Blood was one of the first Goldsmith LPs I bought.
All the scores for the first three films were great scores by Jerry. I did a cue sheet years ago, based on the timings of each cue on the videotape of First Blood, as someone asked me to write score analyses for the (what was then a) trilogy. I didn't get around to the job but I have the cue sheet somewhere still.
I love the Rambo films also, they were some of my Dad's fave films. I read Morrell's three books also. If they hadn't changed the ending from the book, he wouldn't have been able to write the two novelisations. How often is the original writer given the chance to turn that around and write books based on a screenplay of his character?
I love the first score for the mixture of introspective character-based music and short, sharp action licks and Part II expanded that with the ethnic elements and the synths are fine with me. Rambo III, it's a shame they ditched parts to track in some of II but they did a good job with the tracking. III - at least on album - is the most lyrical of the three, I think this was when Jerry was tiring of action films but the Afghanistan setting gave the composer the necessary inspiration to write another fine score.
But this thread is about the first film and it was a perfect film, if British memories are marred due to the accusation that this film is what made someone kill many residents of Hungerford. The BBC took the film off their schedules for years but did start to show it again.
I am really looking forward to seeing this new film, regardless of what people think of the music. I'll give my opinion when I've seen it (and got my autographed CD from Buysoundtrax!).
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Posted: |
Jul 28, 2014 - 4:17 PM
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By: |
Brad Wills
(Member)
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I've resurrected this thread because it contains interesting discussion from a decade ago. I actually have the Varese single CD and was thinking of going for the Intrada 2 CD, but, upon close listen it has one annoying trait.
Apart from the obvious improvements in pulling a new image for the Intrada 2-fer, I noticed the entire score has that 'hall-like' echo which is something I abhor. The sound is 'wet' and I prefer 'dry' sound which is absorbed so that it doesn't have that shrill sound that comes with continued reverberation. It creates, essentially, a background noise effect which is self-interfering and detracts from focus on different parts of the orchestra.
It's such a shame there's no way to filter it out in such a way as get that crispness of sound you get from older recordings. Other than that, First Blood would have been fantastic. Take Seven Days In May, with it's heavy emphasis on percussion. You don't hear the drums with sustained echo. It is more intimate and self-contained. My 2 cents.
FIRST BLOOD has always had more of a wet ambiance, not distractingly so, and to my ears the 2CD release sounds great with natural-sounding sonics. But I'm with you as to a more dry sound. Case in point, I dislike the reverb added to LaLaLand's ST:TMP because it sounds artificial, and I feel that it robs the sonics of their muscle and punch. And of course the Varese GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY was a total slushy disaster, the worst remaster imaginable.
Conversely, I thought that Intrada's release of DRESSED TO KILL did a bit of disservice to the lushness of the writing by stripping it of almost all the reverb, to the point where it sounds like an accompaniment to a low-budget thriller instead of a glossy, tarted-up slasher melodrama.
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To my ears Varese has much better sound. The hiss on the intrada version takes away from my enjoyment of the score. I seem to be in the minority though.
I actually prefer the Varese recording as well. The Intrada 2 disc set sounds a little faster in places re: tempo compared to the Varese one. I especially notice it on tracks like Hanging On.
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Of course, I still have yet to purchase the expanded FIRST BLOOD PART II album from Silva, so that might have to happen soon... 
