The latest release from Quartet presents the score for director J. Lee Thompson's off-beat 1977 monster Western THE WHITE BUFFALO, with Wild Bill Hickock (Charles Bronson) and Crazy Horse (Will Sampson) hunting the mythical beast (animatronic effects courtesy of three-time Oscar winner Carlo Rambaldi). Quartet's CD actually features two scores for the film -- the John Barry score used in the release version of the film (with sound improved from Prometheus' previous release of the Barry score) and the first-ever release of David Shire's original, unused score.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Boston - Jeff Beal - Sony [CD-R]
The Sons of Katie Elder - Elmer Bernstein - La-La Land
Two for the Road - Henry Mancini - Kritzerland
We're Going on a Bear Hunt - Stuart Hancock - Sony (import)
IN THEATERS TODAY
The Fate of the Furious - Brian Tyler - Score CD due April 28 on Backlot
Finding Oscar - Paul Pilot, John Stirratt
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki - Laura Airola, Joonas Haavisto, Miika Snare
The Lost City of Z - Christopher Selman
My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea - Rani Sharone
Norman - Jun Miyake
Sandy Wexler - Rupert Gregson-Williams
Spark: A Space Tail - Robert Duncan
Tommy’s Honour - Christian Henson
COMING SOON
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
April 14 - Ali Akbar Khan born (1922)
April 14 - Shorty Rogers born (1924)
April 14 - A.C. Newman born (1968)
April 14 - Win Butler born (1980)
April 14 - Georges Delerue wins his only Oscar, for A Little Romance's score; David Shire wins song Oscar for Norma Rae's "It Goes Like It Goes" (1980)
April 15 - Gert Wilden born (1917)
April 15 - Michael Kamen born (1948)
April 15 - Dick Maas born (1951)
April 15 - Carlo Crivelli born (1953)
April 15 - Bernard Herrmann begins recording his score for A Hatful of Rain (1957)
April 15 - Lalo Schifrin begins recording his score to The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971)
April 15 - Francis Lai wins the score Oscar for Love Story (1971)
April 15 - John Greenwood died (1975)
April 15 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score for Parts 1 & 2 of Masada (1980)
April 15 - John Williams records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "Ghost Train" (1985)
April 15 - Tim McIntire died (1986)
April 15 - Arthur Morton died (2000)
April 16 - Charles Chaplin born (1889)
April 16 - Warren Barker born (1923)
April 16 - Henry Mancini born (1924)
April 16 - Perry Botkin Jr. born (1933)
April 16 - Chaz Jankel born (1952)
April 16 - David Raksin records his score for Pat and Mike (1952)
April 16 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score for The Detective (1968)
April 16 - Basil Poledouris begins recording his score to Quigley Down Under (1990)
April 17 - Jan Hammer born (1948)
April 17 - David Bell born (1954)
April 17 - Ernest Gold wins his only Oscar, for the Exodus score (1961)
April 17 - Elmer Bernstein begins recording his score for Summer and Smoke (1961)
April 17 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score for Dennis the Menace (1993)
April 17 - Paul Baillargeon records his score for the Enterprise episode “Vox Sola” (2002)
April 18 - Miklos Rozsa born (1907)
April 18 - Tony Mottola born (1918)
April 18 - Buxton Orr born (1924)
April 18 - Mike Vickers born (1941)
April 18 - Kings Row released in theaters (1942)
April 18 - Andrew Powell born (1949)
April 18 - Ed Plumb died (1958)
April 18 - Maurice Jarre wins his second Oscar, for Doctor Zhivago's score; presumably decides to stick with this David Lean kid (1966)
April 18 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score for Players (1979)
April 18 - Dave Grusin begins recording his score for The Goonies (1985)
April 18 - John Debney records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Progress” (1993)
April 18 - Recording sessions begin for Marco Beltrami’s score for Red Eye (2005)
April 18 - Robert O. Ragland died (2012)
April 19 - William Axt born (1888)
April 19 - Sol Kaplan born (1919)
April 19 - Dudley Moore born (1935)
April 19 - Jonathan Tunick born (1938)
April 19 - Alan Price born (1942)
April 19 - David Fanshawe born (1942)
April 19 - Lord Berners died (1950)
April 19 - Ragnar Bjerkreim born (1958)
April 19 - John Williams begins recording his score for Fitzwilly (1967)
April 19 - Michael Small begins recording his score to Klute (1971)
April 19 - Thomas Wander born (1973)
April 20 - Herschel Burke Gilbert born (1918)
April 20 - David Raksin begins recording his score for Kind Lady (1951)
April 20 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “The Die Is Cast” (1995)
April 20 - Johnny Douglas died (2003)
April 20 - Bebe Barron died (2008)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
"The plaintive, swelling horns and lunges for the heartstrings start immediately upon kickoff in 'My All American,' a polished, earnest but oddly antiseptic college football biopic about Freddie Joe Steinmark, who in 1969 helped to lead the University of Texas Longhorns to a national championship."
Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
"One could possibly find some perverse fascination in seeing a sports biopic about such a resolutely flat central character: no dark nights of the soul, no seismic shifts in attitude, just pure, virtuous essence all the way to his untimely end. Those who get onto the film's feel-good wavelength may well brush off the kinds of questions others might wonder about -- such as whether Steinmark's insistence on playing through the persistent pain in his left leg was, in the end, more foolish than heroically selfless. Such nuances are ultimately negated by the film's relentless canonization of its subject, punctuated by a choir accompanying Steinmark's ostensibly triumphant spectatorial appearance at the Cotton Bowl and a final shot that pans from the University of Texas's Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium up to the sky, giving Steinmark and the film a literally heavenly send-off."
Kenji Fujishima, Slant Magazine
"Sure enough, once 'My All American' stops playing out like a grating montage with some football games mixed with shiny moments of Freddie Doing Good, as set to incessant Aaron Copland-esque fanfare, something bad happens. It takes about 90 minutes for 'My All American' to take its true form as an homage to a football program, when UTexas ascended from a low record to the 1969 Cotton Bowl while Freddie had a personal battle off the field. During this, Pizzo’s film does not aim towards any rich emotional victory, but it does want to show Freddie getting a five-minute standing ovation. To a credit for which he deserves better gigs, Wittrock shows a commitment to Pizzo’s bizarre vision, going along with the film’s desire to feel like its script was found in a 50-year-old time capsule, as originally composed with a PSA’s squeaky cleanliness."
Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com
"Absolutely nothing is left to interpretation in the sports movie 'My All-American.' Every key plot turn is telegraphed at least twice, just in case you missed it the first time. Every emotional moment in the movie is foreshadowed a few beats in advance by the manipulative musical score. The characters either talk in pure exposition ('That’s Bill Bradley! One of the top quarterbacks in the country!') or sports-as-life motivational slogans. There are entire scenes where you’ll swear actor Aaron Eckhart has thrown away the script, and started reading inspiring messages needle-pointed on throw pillows across the room."
Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
"Based on a bestselling biography on Steinmark, 'My All American' was written and directed by one-man pep rally Angelo Pizzo, who penned both 'Rudy' and 'Hoosiers'. You have to admire, on some level, his commitment to the sport: This is a football movie that stops showing people playing football -- in grandiose slow-motion, the crunch of a tackle always augmented by orchestral fanfare -- only long enough for them to talk about football. When not setting the time and the place with blatantly expository dialogue ('Can you believe a man just walked on the moon?'), characters quote records and statistics at each other as though reading aloud from almanacs. This trend begins with the framing device, in which retired Longhorn coach Darrell Royal (Aaron Eckhart in bad old-man makeup) is regaled with a list of his own accomplishments by a college journalist, before he hijacks the interview to reminisce for two hours about his favorite player."
A.A. Dowd, The Onion AV Club
"Igor, who’s falling in love with his onetime circus comrade Lorelei (Jessica Brown Findlay, 'Downton Abbey') starts having second thoughts, but by that time, Victor is already getting funding from rich rotter classmate Finnegan (Freddie Fox, 'Banana'), whose ultimate goal is to steal Victor’s technology for his wealthy family to exploit. Then comes the lightning, the sparks, the fights against railings and the goes-to-11 score by Craig Armstrong ('Far From the Madding Crowd')."
Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
"Scored by Craig Armstrong with the same bombastic gracelessness that typifies the rest of its aesthetics, McGuigan’s film piles on the trailer-ready one-liners and zooms into close-up while progressing toward the inevitable birth of its creature. Unlike the monster imagined by Shelley (or inhabited on-screen, in 1931, by Boris Karloff), this creation is merely a hulking brute whose soullessness predictably confirms the error of Victor’s ways. By that point, however, 'Victor Frankenstein' has fallen to pieces, ditching any pretense toward making this Igor’s take on the story -- during the chaotic finale, the assistant is rendered a mere passive on-looker -- and compelling its over-acting leads to amplify their histrionics to cartoonish levels. And as for horror? Aside from a few woeful jump scares, the film is too consumed with showcasing dreary digital effects, and photographing its players amidst gears and gadgets and funhouse-mirror glass, to bother crafting suspense. Deformed from the start, it confirms the very thing argued by its narrative -- namely, the folly of unwarranted resurrections."
Nick Schager, IndieWire
"McGuigan, whose directing credits include episodes of 'Sherlock' and the overcooked crime drama 'Lucky Number Slevin', has concocted some handsome evocations of Victorian London. Exteriors of a cliff-top castle in Scotland heighten the mood of the climactic sequence, as does the visceral sound design. And the well-proportioned music soundtrack, with excerpts from Strauss, Schubert and Delibes and a score that incorporates choral elements, is restrained in comparison to the visuals."
Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter
THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.
Screenings of older films, at the following L.A. movie theaters: AMPAS, American Cinematheque: Aero, American Cinematheque: Egyptian, Arclight, LACMA, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.
April 14
THE HATEFUL EIGHT (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (John Williams) [Nuart]
KING KONG (John Barry) [Silent Movie Theater]
NEAR DARK (Tangerine Dream), FRAILTY (Brian Tyler) [Cinematheque: Aero]
OROCHI, THE MARK OF ZORRO [UCLA]
RESERVOIR DOGS, PULP FICTION [New Beverly]
THE STAR (Victor Young), JOHNNY GUITAR (Victor Young) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
April 15
ALL ABOUT EVE (Alfred Newman), MILDRED PIERCE (Max Steiner) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
DAYS OF YOUTH, 7TH HEAVEN [UCLA]
NEAR DARK (Tangerine Dream) [New Beverly]
RESERVOIR DOGS, PULP FICTION [New Beverly]
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (John Du Prez) [New Beverly]
THE TERMINATOR (Brad Fiedel) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THREE AGES [Silent Movie Theater]
WILD IN THE STREETS (Les Baxter) [Silent Movie Theater]
April 16
DONNIE DARKO (Michael Andrews) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (John Debney) [New Beverly]
SUPERMAN (John Williams), THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (Bernard Herrmann) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (John Du Prez) [New Beverly]
WELCOME (Nicola Piovani), LA PROMESSE [UCLA]
April 17
THE MASTER (Jonny Greenwood) [Arclight Hollywood]
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (John Debney) [New Beverly]
April 18
CLAMBAKE (Jeff Alexander), FUN IN ACAPULCO (Joseph J. Lilley) [New Beverly]
8 MILE (Eminem, Luis Resto) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
MEAN GIRLS (Rolfe Kent) [Arclight Santa Monica]
POLYTECHNIQUE (Benoit Charest) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE SCARLET EMPRESS (John Leipold, W. Franke Harling) [LACMA]
April 19
SOMETHING WILD (Laurie Anderson, John Cale), MARRIED TO THE MOB (David Byrne) [New Beverly]
April 20
CAPE FEAR (Bernard Herrmann), WILD WEED (Raoul Kraushaar) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
DREAM STALKER (Stevie Hawkins), BLACKENSTEIN (Cardela DeMilo, Lou Frohman) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
HOT FUZZ (David Arnold) [Silent Movie Theater]
PHASE IV (Brian Gascoigne) [Silent Movie Theater]
SOMETHING WILD (Laurie Anderson, John Cale), MARRIED TO THE MOB (David Byrne) [New Beverly]
April 21
THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (Basil Kirchin), THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (Michael Dress) [New Beverly]
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (Ennio Morricone, Gillo Pontecorvo) [Silent Movie Theater]
BOAT PEOPLE (Wing-Fai Law) [UCLA]
ERASERHEAD (Peter Ivers) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE HATEFUL EIGHT (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
IDIOCRACY (Theodore Shapiro) [Nuart]
April 22
THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (Basil Kirchin), THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (Michael Dress) [New Beverly]
THE APPLE (Coby Recht) [Silent Movie Theater]
FLASH GORDON (Howard Blake, Queen) [New Beverly]
INTOLERANCE [UCLA]
PSYCHO (Bernard Herrmann), PSYCHO II (Jerry Goldsmith), PSYCHO III (Carter Burwell) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
SAMMY, THE WAY-OUT SEAL (Oliver Wallace) [New Beverly]
SOULS ON THE ROAD [UCLA]
April 23
THE DOLL SQUAD (Nicholas Carras) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
EL NORTE (Los Folkloristas) [UCLA]
HICKEY & BOGGS (Ted Ashford), A NAME FOR EVIL (Dominic Frontiere) [New Beverly]
SAMMY, THE WAY-OUT SEAL (Oliver Wallace) [New Beverly]
SPIDER-MAN (Danny Elfman), SPIDER-MAN 2 (Danny Elfman) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
SPIRITED AWAY (Joe Hisaishi) [UCLA]
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