Yeah, great score! I play it quite often. I also love the "suite presentation" of the soundtrack album.
I think I saw the film once too, but can't remember much of it. Wasn't one of the roles played by that elderly guy from the "Law & Order" TV series (or "Ally McBeal") or something? I seem to remember him walking around on a beach or something.
Was it recorded in Seattle or somewhere similar? A very rousing and uplifting score.
This was the last of those Alexander/Ilya Salkind mega movies, but married with the 1980s James Bond films (John Glen- replacing George P Costmatos- and a lot of his 007 colleagues before and behind the camera). Amazing that Brando reunited with them after the well known Superman politics!
A very good looking and sounding film, if content wise it feels like a flat TV movie rather than an epic.
Worthy of expansion,I think.There must be a ton of extra music in the film.And,if I remember it right,the film was heavily edited down.So there's probably a load we have never heard ,either.
Great score. Top 5 Eidelman for me. The Gloria piece is a highlight for me too. A perfect CD in every way. I'd buy an expansion, but like most others I have, I probably wouldn't enjoy it as much as the original CD. I haven't played this for quite a while, so thanks for the reminder, I will remedy that this week
Worthy of expansion,I think.There must be a ton of extra music in the film.And,if I remember it right,the film was heavily edited down.So there's probably a load we have never heard ,either.
Heck, a Region 1 DVD release would be nice too.
"Americans can't buy a DVD about how I discovered America?! What gives?! This is worse than when they named the place after Vespucci!"
On a guilty pleasure note, I enjoyed this film much more than the boring Ridley Scott attempt 1492. Scott's may have been the better made film, but this one was more enjoyable. And Eidleman beat Vangelis all hands down, score-wise, for me.
A recent acquisition that I'm enjoying immensely, not sure why I never picked it up before. I can't fathom why Cliff Eidelman (and Joel McNeely while we're at it) didn't rise higher and get the major scoring jobs that they deserve. Two very talented guys.
A recent acquisition that I'm enjoying immensely, not sure why I never picked it up before. I can't fathom why Cliff Eidelman (and Joel McNeely while we're at it) didn't rise higher and get the major scoring jobs that they deserve. Two very talented guys.
When this came out it was (and probably still is) Eidelman's longest and most complex score. It would require a 2 disc set to be released complete but I for one would be ALL OVER such a release. Varese holds the rights in perpetuity so I'm not sure how likely it is though, unfortunately...
Apparently Intrada wanted to release the score but Varese outbid them. Doug Fake has said on the Intrada board that he would have made it a longer release (I think since it's a Seattle orchestra the normal AFM re-use fee situation did not apply.)
On a guilty pleasure note, I enjoyed this film much more than the boring Ridley Scott attempt 1492. Scott's may have been the better made film, but this one was more enjoyable.
Which, would you argue, had the better scenery?
My favorite Columbus movie music, even more than that by Arthur Bliss, Eidelman and Vangelis, is the mini-operetta by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin in a 1945 comic fantasy called "Where Do We Go from Here?" Fred MacMurray wants more than anything to serve in the military but is physically unqualified. In his job as a dishwasher, he accidentally washes an ancient lamp with a genie in it, and as his first wish he asks to be in the U.S. Army. The genie grants him his wish, but MacMurray finds himself serving with Washington's army during the American Revolution. When he asks the genie to let him serve in the Navy instead, it's the wrong navy too:
(Watch the volume, it's a little loud.)
It's an accidental moment of Broadway-quality "high art" in a disappointingly dumb B-movie. I expected more from a Morrie Ryskind script.
I think Weill is parodying several well-known scenes from the opera repertoire in this piece, but someone more knowledgeable about opera than I will have to let us know which particular ones.
The original Ira Gershwin lyric was "cleaned up" a little for the filming. "The girls are breathtaking. What claims you'll be staking" (--itself kind of awkwardly suggestive, IMHO) was originally "The girls are delightful. Their sweaters are quite full" -- one of my favorite Ira Gershwin rhymes.
The Weill/Gershwin demo record was released on LP and CD years ago:
A recent acquisition that I'm enjoying immensely, not sure why I never picked it up before. I can't fathom why Cliff Eidelman (and Joel McNeely while we're at it) didn't rise higher and get the major scoring jobs that they deserve. Two very talented guys.
Talent doesn't lead - de facto - to success in Hollywood
