Superman II - John Williams. His sequel scores from this time period were astounding. Of course that film was a mess anyway with Lester taking over a half-finished film and Ken Thorne doing a relatively fine job re-arranging Johnny's original score. This is a real case of what might have been...
I wish Elmer Bernstein had scored Alien. Other than some interesting textures, I find Goldsmith's score very workmanlike (he hated the film, and it shows). Plus Bernstein had never done a sci-fi movie so he would have come the genre fresh.
Bernstein should also have scored either Live And Let Die, For Your Eyes Only or Never Say Never. But I guess Gold was the closest we ever got to hearing a Bernstein 007 score. I'd also have loved to have heard Henry Mancini score take a crack at a Bond film. He was the obvious choice to do one. It's odd that it never happened.[/endquot
And Herrmann could have added brilliant depth to THE EXORCIST, which he was actually consulted about scoring, but it didn't happen. Cryin' shame.... Would have taken that picture into a completely different dimension.
Have you read the anecdote about Herrmann treating Friedkin like an asshole and insisting the film be scored with church organs? I think we dodged a bullet there. Listen, Herrmann is THE GREATEST composer of music for film, but as the religiously-inclined often say this one "happened for a reason."
It would have been great if Goldsmith's relationship with Micheal Crichton had included Westworld and Looker. Perfect Goldsmith projects.
There was in interview a long time ago on the radio with sound effects genius Ben Burtt, who stated that his dream project would be to score a movie with sound effects alone, the effects performing the same function emotionally as music would have. I always thought that Alien would have been a great candidate for that approach, since the film had a documentary feel to it, and weird ambiance was what Ridley Scott ended up preferring in what he used of Goldsmith's score.
It would have been great if Goldsmith's relationship with Micheal Crichton had included Westworld and Looker. Perfect Goldsmith projects.
From an interview with Jerry:
Jerry Goldsmith: "That was the first time I worked with Michael Chrichton. It wasn't called PURSUIT in the States, it was called BINARY. (In fact it was based on Chrichton's novel BINARY, written under a pseudonym). I've since done COMA and THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. I'm not doing LOOKER with him though, because I'm doing this picture now [OUTLAND], which is a direct conflict. I would be scoring LOOKER in three weeks if I had accepted it, which is virtually impossible since I'm not done with this one yet. I will do his next film, CONGO." [Which Schaffner didn't film after all]
