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Posted: |
Jul 13, 2020 - 10:47 PM
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By: |
Score-Man-X
(Member)
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At the end of a sad week, which I had largely devoted to the music of Ennio Morricone in my spare time, I had watched the two films ORCA and MISSION TO MARS again on DVD on Sunday evening.
Watching the film MISSION TO MARS was on my calendar regardless of Ennio Morricone's death.
However, it was originally supposed to take place a month ago.
I originally planned to watch the film around June 9th.
As a lifelong science fiction fan, I made a list a long time ago when which science fiction film would be overtaken by reality;
for example BLADE RUNNER - November 2019.
The opening scene of the film MISSION TO MARS, with the last evening of the astronauts of the first Mars mission on earth,
was dated June 9, 2020!
When I saw the film in the cinema 20 years ago, the year 2020 was so far removed from the present, that I could think of a time comparison from my childhood.
In the 1970s, when I saw the TV seriens SPACE 1999, the year 1999 was so far away, as if it were a whole century.
But in the end the time passed.
And when I look back on the time between 2000 and today, I have the feeling that time has passed much faster.
And once again the vision of a science fiction film has to be beaten by reality.
With all the Mars probes and Mars rovers in the time between 1997 and 2004, a manned flight to Mars seemed to be the most believable of all science fiction film visions.
But here we are today and it is still a science fiction vision that no one dares to say when it could become a reality.
Although I have dreamed of all these space missions since childhood, I have to admit that at the moment (regardless of the corona pandemic)I could not find any justification for spending so much money on it. It took a long time, but after almost 50 years I'm afraid I'm growing up. I really don't know why humans should fly to Mars in the near future. There are so many unsolved problems on our good old earth that I don't know why we and our problems should now also be exported to another planet.
In the case of MISSION TO MARS it shows once again that the future does not bring what we had hoped for from her. Unfortunately, the future brought a lot of unsightly things.
However, the few beautiful things certainly include all the soundtrack releases, that were unimaginable 30 or 40 years ago in this perfect form.
I remember that the film MISSION TO MARS received mainly negative response.
But I still like the film as much as I did 20 years ago.
If I think alone how many science fiction films there are with negative utopias, as an old STAR TREK fan I am very happy when there is a positive film like this.
And the excellent music by Ennio Morricone still supports the film just as it did back then.
I would be happy if there would be a new full release of the soundtrack.
For Ennio Morricone, the film was certainly not a big challenge. Musically he had created two previous soundtracks, THE HUMAOID (1979) and THE SECRET OF THE SAHARA (1987).
The TV series THE SECRET OF THE SAHARA also has the same ancient alien story as INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008).
When I listen to the MISSION TO MARS soundtrack, I usually pick up the CDs of L'UMANOIDE and IL SEGRETO DEL SAHARA to listen to parts of these two CDs as well.
I could imagine that Morricone's sci-fi compositions may have also influenced Hans Zimmer at INTERSTELLAR. I don't know how well Hans Zimmer is familiar with Ennio Morricone's sci-fi scores and especially MISSION TO MARS.
It was nice to end this sad week like this.
Life goes on and when I look in my special film calendar, there are still two moments to synchronize the film MISSION TO MARS with reality.
The Mars incident of the first Mars expedition takes place 13 months after the film opening scene on Earth.
So 13 months after June 9, 2020, that would be July 2021.
And the rest of the film about the second Mars expedition takes place at least 173 days later, in January 2022.
I think I will take advantage of this second appointment to watch the film as a double feature together with the film SOYLENT GREEN.
SOYLENT GREEN was the first dystopia film that I saw as a child and that showed me, that the future doesn't just have to be positive.
Fortunately, our world has not yet developed as far as the world in SOYLENT GREEN, apart from the greenhouse effect, that is slowly emerging.
But there are still about two years until 2022, so let's see how the world has evolved by then.
The COVID-19 virus shows how quickly the world can change to our disadvantage …
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Beautiful post. Thank you!
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Score-Man-X, the period of the theatrical release of Mission to Mars was a fecund one for American pop cinema, with the likes of Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead and David Fincher's Fight Club being additional prime examples.
It was great to have a Morricone score with all that "heart" in the midst of harder-edged movies. And it's a little coincidental and/or strange to look back and realize that all three of those movies feature themes about personal crisis and transformation; with each of the films giving us a different take on what-it-means/how-it's-accomplished that people transcend tragedy and terror, and move on to a different plane of personal development.
In the case of Mission to Mars, in most spectacular fashion!
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"De Palma has always had a knack for getting great scores from his composers"
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Indeed erik.
Especially Italian ones.
Between Pino & Ennio, he was blessed with the compositions he got for his films.
And then to be able to fall back on John Williams, Danny Elfman, Patrick Doyle and Sakamoto!!
Blessed I tell ya!
And don't forget Bernard Herrmann!
Thank you again for bringing the movie and the score back to my attention.
I was too cynical for the movie back then and too hyper to have the attention span to appreciate the score.
What a treat to rediscover both now!
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Always thought it was a fantastic score. There is one piece in particular that stands out for me. Can’t remember the title of the track but it’s the last minute or so of a track that has a huge, triumphant fanfare that gives me chills.
Viva Morricone!
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David Sones (Allardyce): There is one piece in particular that stands out for me. Can’t remember the title of the track but it’s the last minute or so of a track that has a huge, triumphant fanfare that gives me chills.
That would be track nine of the "original score" CD, titled "Where?" Morricone and Goldsmith had a thing for short, pithy titles. As did some other scoring greats.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrzKFfXOHZQ
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