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Posted: |
Jun 25, 2018 - 2:31 PM
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By: |
Brundlefly
(Member)
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Don't exaggerate it, guys. The film Total Recall is not a masterpiece, so it is not a sin not to have seen it. However, it is one of the most simply entertaining movies I know. It epitomizes the term "Guilty Pleasure". It's simple, violent and funny.
The score, however, is everything else, but not simple and I have to admit that I'm also quite shocked that it never "clicked" with Yavar. But at least he appreciates Warlock, which is not fairly judged by many people, maybe because of the occasionally cheap sounding synths.
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It's not that I can't admire the score; it's just that I've never been able to connect with it emotionally -- that's what I meant by saying it "leaves me cold"...not that I think it's a poor composition or anything like that. Compositionally it's quite impressive indeed. But I can say that about a lot of pieces I'm not wild about.
But I do have significant hope that seeing the film will make me appreciate it much more. Growing up I was never a huge fan of Arnold, and I just never got around to it.
Yavar
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Anybody else receive their copy yet? Ordered on the 18th, no shipping emails yet.
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Total Recall was the first CD I had ever bought.
Just sayin'…
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I agree with Yavar and I've seen TOTAL RECALL many times and I enjoy the film.
Hurray! TWO OF US. 
Whereas any random action sequence in films like TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING, CAPRICORN ONE, CASSANDRA CROSSING, BOYS FROM BRAZIL, FIRST BLOOD or LOGAN'S RUN (just to pick a random sample) would blow my mind with their intricacies and harmonic details, I find the action bits in TOTAL RECALL sound more programmed and controlled throughout.
Aside from there not being any standout thematic material in this score (IMO), THIS is indeed the reason I think I fail to connect with it...lack of surprise and spontaneity which I often get in Goldsmith. Somehow Warlock (or Star Trek V) from a year before manages that much more, IMO. Total Recall is almost *too* slick and perfect, *too* smooth.
There's a uniformity to them that take away that WTF aspect of his earlier action writing.
I know it's been noted that this film was a turning point in his handling of writing complex action material and I just find it less interesting than any number of other scores by him in this area.
Yeah people say this all the time and I don't buy it that Goldsmith "dumbed down" his action style as a result of the mix burying his complex work on Total Recall. Go listen to his work on The Shadow from the mid-90s (also a very complex soundscape sort of action score like TR...only with multiple great and developed themes!  ). Or listen to the best action cues from The Mummy and tell me those are lacking the complexity of pre-90s Goldsmith. Or hell, how about LOONEY TUNES? The action cues in that are quite complex, engaging, and surprising. Somehow all of those excite me many degrees of magnitude more than Total Recall.
And to bring this back to the thread topic, the themes and action music in Small Soldiers (particularly in complete form) engage me much more than Total Recall as well. This is a GREAT new expansion, and if the "Fire in the Hole" cue sample on Varese's site doesn't sell you on getting this I give up. 
Yavar
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Actually I hope they did! I’ve always wanted those to be separated.
Why? The two cues play seamlessly together as one musical statement - with "Alan's Town" returning to the assembly theme at its close. They were clearly designed to be joined (To the point where I reasonably assumed they were a single piece of music)
There’s a deleted scene that immediately followed the Main Title that Goldsmith scored. So the Alan’s Town part is a different cue they joined editorially after the other scene was cut.
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