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Powder was an enjoyable film and was a case of (rare for me these days) of buying the CD before seeing the film and although it was a nice mix of dramatic and pleasant music, it sounded 'weird' with the sudden end to the climactic cue ('Everywhere'). It was only upon seeing the film on VHS (it never got a release in my neck of the woods) that I understood why it ended like that.
The film was very well done and one could see that the character of Powder was modelled on the writer/director himself - somewhat of an outcast. Then of course there was all the controversy that, I kind of quote, 'why was a convicted child molester making a film for Disney'. That damaged the release of the film, methinks.
Jerry Goldsmith appeared to be on an emotional high with the film. The scene where Powder places his hand on the dying, frightened deer and holds the hand of the deputy who shot it in his other and transfers the deer's pain and terror to the deputyworked very well emotionally and even more so with Jerry's cue.
The scoring of the outdoor 'nature' scenes contains what I think of as Jerrys 'nature sound', cf. Congo and The Ghost And The Darkness for other examples (Jerry also had a signature sound for 'small town life' in some of Joe Dante's films like Small Soldiers, Gremlins and so on).
Then of course some years after, Matthew Zippel added lyrics to the Powder theme for Sarah Brightman to sing as 'No One Like You'.
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Not the biggest Goldsmith fan around, but I remember liking this music when I saw parts of the film on TV.
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POWDER boasts a nice theme, but the incidental score is fairly monotonous.
ALso, I can't listen to the music without thinking about the less than enthralling back story to the making of this movie.
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Jerry's "Powder" is simple marvelous! YOR loves it!
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Beautiful theme. I am lucky enough to have the original CD plus an unmentionable CDR
Same here. Time for an official release!
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I am a huge Goldsmith fan but this score is way to saccharine and "sweet" for me. IMO it`s almost as saccharine as Angie. BTW also the director thought that way:
"It didn't take long to realize that Jerry was going through a phase as an artist that was resistant to what I wanted the score for POWDER to be. Jerry was tired of his dark scores. His actions scores. He didn't want to go dark anymore. Jerry wanted to write beautiful music. Music full of emotion and power and light. He was in effect through with his darkside. At least this is what he alluded to. Even though he was one of the greatest that ever lived at writing dark, scary and just plain strange filmusic unlike anyone else.
As a result, the score I kept hearing in his sketches was continually sweet, ethereal and upbeat -in direct opposition to how I felt the first half of the film should feel. I didn't want the audience -or the music- to decide what this strange albino boy was.
Not too early. I wanted the music to be eerie. Maybe even scary sometime. I wanted the audience to be caught up in the mystery of POWDER. Jerry from the moment we first glimpse the boy in his basement had the music announcing him as some kind of angel that we did not need to be afraid of.
This was killing the edge that I had in my temp score that I was certain I needed to off set the ideas of love and unity that the film ultimately is about . There needed to be a healthy skepticism in the music so that its true sweetness and beauty couldn't be too easily discarded by audiences who might feel they are being manipulated by the story.
In the same way, they shouldn't feel manipulated by the music. The problem was getting this message across to Jerry.
And I couldn't. I was too in awe and too intimidated. See the problem with working with Jerry Goldsmith was the same as the joy that came from working with Jerry Goldsmith --and that was that he WAS Jerry Goldsmith!
And as a result, I couldn't tell Jerry when I wasn't happy. Who the Hell was I to tell one of the greatest composers in the movies that I wasn't happy with what he was doing?
Finally one day I just mustered my courage and said, " Jerry, to me the score feels too sweet too soon." I said that I was afraid that the music was becoming something that is rushing what should be our gradual discovery of the innocence and goodness and the very human being that POWDER turns out to be.
When I said this, he patted me on the head, said he understood and sent me on my way, not changing even one note and leading me to believe that I didn't understand what my own film needed."
http://pohocounty.blogspot.de/2009/05/jerry-goldsmith-and-powder.html
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When you think about it, even in Jerry's darker period, the melodies were still beautiful, take for example scores like THE OTHER-72- THECASSENDRA CROSSING-77- THE OMEN-76- [PIPER'S DREAM] THE FINAL CONFLICT-81-POLTERGEST-82-[LULLABY] ETC ETC ETC ETC.
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JERRY was always a great melody man .
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Gorgeous score. One of my favorites. I'd love to have an expanded, but I must say the album we got years ago was a great representation of the score. The final cue and that 8min cue are incredible.
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Posted: |
Oct 4, 2012 - 6:12 AM
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By: |
Spymaster
(Member)
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As a result, the score I kept hearing in his sketches was continually sweet, ethereal and upbeat -in direct opposition to how I felt the first half of the film should feel. I didn't want the audience -or the music- to decide what this strange albino boy was.
Those are some genuinely fascinating comments.
The problem is that Powder was never portrayed, dramatically, to be anything other than sweet and ethereal. He was cast that way (it was young Indy for pete's sake!) Steenburgen and Goldblum are doe-eyed in wonder from the start. The movie was distributed (by Hollywood/Disney) that way. Never once, even ignoring Goldsmith's approach, did I ever expect this character would turn out to be anything other than good. The only time he behaved "naughtily" was in response to being bullied.
Had Goldsmith gone dark (which, incidentally, he did just one year later with Star Trek: First Contact) I suspect the music would have patronised the audience somewhat. Trying to convince them of something that clearly wasn't there on screen.
Perhaps Salva understood the movie, but Goldsmith understood the audience?
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Had Goldsmith gone dark (which, incidentally, he did just one year later with Star Trek: First Contact) I suspect the music would have patronised the audience somewhat. Trying to convince them of something that clearly wasn't there on screen.
Perhaps Salva understood the movie better, but Goldsmith understood the audience?
Interesting thoughts, John. But is a composer who says (I'm now overstating the case) 'get out of my way, I know what I'm doing' a rarity? The producers and so on tend to get their way, the composer is often given short shrift. Maybe in the case of Powder, it's because Salva was an inexperienced director. Or maybe he wans't, I'd have to check the all-knowing, all seeing imdb.
Regardless, although I haven't watched the film for years (and only have it on VHS, in storage), I did enjoy it - as evidenced by my recalling scenes verbatim from memory.
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