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LOG IN Forgot Login? Register General Discussion • Trading Post • Non-Film Score Discussion  Profile • Preferences • Community Rules • Help/Contact • Search Board Search Terms:  Search Within:  topics posts since 2019 2018 posts 2017 posts 2016 posts 2015 posts 2014 posts 2013 posts 2012 posts 2011 posts 2010 posts 2009 posts 2008 posts 2007 posts 2006 posts 2005 posts 2004 posts 2003 posts 2002 posts 2001 posts 2000 posts users  search tips  You must log in or register to post.   Go to page:  1 2      General Discussion: First Man Top-Notch     1 2    NEXT   LAST   Last Post   Posted:   Nov 27, 2020 - 4:28 PM     By:   Warlok   (Member) I knew I loved the First Man soundtrack as I watched the surprisingly excellent film. Now that I have listened to it (finally!) on its own, I find its power to absolutely be Barry'esque. Justin Hurwitz was totally unfamiliar to me before this. What he has done is easily on par with Barry's best space opera from The Black Hole, You Only Live Twice, and Moonraker. Hurwitz gets power from a love theme, developed and permutated to capture tragedy and grand triumph. One of the best soundtracks I have heard in a while.    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 12:15 AM     By:   Ny   (Member) Love the film, love the score in the film. Looked into getting it a while back but afaik the only non-lossy format available is vinyl, which I'll probably pick up at some point, if it stays that way, it's just a bit pricey is all.    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 12:33 AM     By:   Thor   (Member) Not to be a party pooper, but I found the film only so-so. And the score did nothing for me, as with most of Hurwitz' work. I guess I'm just not seeing what everyone else does in this composer -- nor the other Chazelle films he's scored. I thought WHIPLASH was a great film, though.    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 2:13 AM     By:   Grecchus   (Member) I only recently got to see it because my sis sent me the DvD as a pressie. Armstrong did, thankfully, give some interviews which you can find online. They provide some input or insight into the very personally secluded person he seems to have been. I'd have used a different approach to paint an impression of the man. I did like the scene where he's on the gantry and while walking forward to the Gemini VIII capsule everything is shaking and the overhead lights are dancing around because just off to the right . . . Armstrong and Scott's Agena target vehicle is launching just ahead of them. I only remember two aspects of the music. The haunting female vocal and the repetitive instrumentation equivalent which follows the Eagle all the way down to the lunar surface, following separation from Columbia. Overall, the film is generally a study of a personality type's sense of detachment despite the necessary involvement required to lead the life of a fully fledged astronaut, both family-wise and professionally.    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 2:29 AM     By:   Ny   (Member) What I liked most about the film was the way it handled the family stuff, particularly the relationship with the wife. Hollywood tends to over-manufacture the family element in their movies, as a perceived essential component in their formula, so it's great to see a film of this stature go with a much more natural and understated approach. It's generally a far more effective way to go.    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 2:33 AM     By:   Grecchus   (Member) The ending, with Neil and Janet separated by the glass, but nevertheless inseparable, is kind of unique because the relationship is so deep, they don't even need to speak a single word to each other. It's a perfectly balanced equation, with the glass acting as the equals sign.    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 6:46 AM     By:   Warlok   (Member) Not to be a party pooper, but I found the film only so-so. And the score did nothing for me, as with most of Hurwitz' work. I guess I'm just not seeing what everyone else does in this composer -- nor the other Chazelle films he's scored. I thought WHIPLASH was a great film, though. No problem Thor. Each of us appreciates emotional power, but not in the same way. Such is art.    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 7:01 AM     By:   Ado   (Member) taking the opportunity to agree with Thor, I found it a good film, not a great film. The score is only so so, it only hits any real musical quality once or twice    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 7:52 AM     By:   Solium   (Member) Film sounds depressing and annoying. A complete fabrication of the mans journey in order to emotionally manipulate the audience. In other words a "reality TV" version of events.    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 11:13 AM     By:   Grecchus   (Member) YouTube sure likes to talk.    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 2:41 PM     By:   .   (Member) Haven't seen the film, but thanks to this thread, I listened to a large part of the score on Spotify. Much of the score sounds to me like music for a parody, sometimes reminding me of the old Forbidden Planet score by Bebe and Louis Barron. But the new film is set in the 60s and Forbidden Planet was 1956, so maybe it's fairly appropriate. I listened to a track entitled "Docking Waltz". Is this serious? Not having seen it, is this REALLY a scene with a spacecraft docking to a waltz as in 2001? The old track (1947) from Les Baxter's "Music Out of the Moon" (Lunar Rhapsody) that is featured on the soundtrack made it worth the listen.    Posted:   Nov 29, 2020 - 4:20 AM     By:   Warlok   (Member) I listened to a track entitled "Docking Waltz". Is this serious? Not having seen it, is this REALLY a scene with a spacecraft docking to a waltz as in 2001? The old track (1947) from Les Baxter's "Music Out of the Moon" (Lunar Rhapsody) that is featured on the soundtrack made it worth the listen. ... As in 2001... it sounds as though if Stanley Kubrick does it with an *actual* i.e. classic waltz its inspired, if Hurwitz does it tastefully and artfully as an homage to such past impulses its absurd. The actual work is not out of place or inappropriate - watch the movie (!). Lunar Rhapsody is one of the weakest, though not bad, tracks of the score. Totally apt as well, but simply not emotionally powerful like the rest of the score. Whitey On The Moon is an amusing song I skip when I listen to the soundtrack. Totally apt again, wisely included in the film, with important lyrics, but not a listenable part of the soundtrack arc.    Posted:   Nov 29, 2020 - 4:45 AM     By:   Nicolai P. Zwar   (Member) I just watched First Man yesterday and was very impressed by the movie. Very good film, and a completely different approach to similarly themed historic NASA/astronaut movies such as The Right Stuff or Apollo 13. Whereas Howard's Apollo 13 was a very accurate recreation of the events of the ill fated Apollo 13 mission, Chazelle takes a deeply personal point of view(point) of an introvert character, which is of course risky, because, though the actual events depicted in the movie are largely accurate, Neil Armstrong was a historical person who lived until a few years ago. But "First Man" is gripping, very well made, and emotionally compelling. Thumbs up. It is also found Justin Hurwitz score to be very effective, it stood out and "worked" within the movie (and was not merely background "sound"), but it is of course a highly, er, carefully worded "influenced", or better said, derivative film score. Having not paid much attention to Hurwitz music so far, I don't know what his own musical voice is like, but in the movie I heard large parts of Philip Glass and Max Richter, among others. Still, I enjoyed this score for what it was, I will seek it out on album and see (or hear) how well it plays on its own. I listened to a track entitled "Docking Waltz". Is this serious? Not having seen it, is this REALLY a scene with a spacecraft docking to a waltz as in 2001? Yes, it is serious, yes, it is a docking waltz, and yes, it is a scene with a spacecraft docking waltz as in 2001. It was a very effective scene though, and it did make me smile. Interestingly, I while I found some of Hurwitz' music derivative, the waltz and the entire scene I enjoyed, it was more like a homage. It was an obvious reference to 2001, not a derivative one, and it both music and visuals worked well together. An obvious homage to a movie that came out at around the same time some of the events within the movie take place.    Posted:   Nov 29, 2020 - 7:19 AM     By:   Grecchus   (Member) That haunty theme is not a vocal. It sounds like a theremine. Whatever it is, it appears to be a synth. Also, something about The Landing is reminding me of Last Of The Mohicans.    Posted:   Nov 29, 2020 - 7:29 AM     By:   Solium   (Member) I haven't seen the film so can't comment on the effectiveness of the "docking waltz". But there is a big difference between 2001 and First Man (which should really be called "Second Man", but ya know American ego and all) 2001 was fictional while First (Second) Man is supposed to be biographical. I also question doing a homage to a fictional movie in a biographical film. It sounds like so many films nowadays which are about style over substance.    Posted:   Nov 29, 2020 - 7:35 AM     By:   Grecchus   (Member) I haven't seen the film so can't comment on the effectiveness of the "docking waltz". But there is a big difference between 2001 and First Man (which should really be called "Second Man", but ya know American ego and all) 2001 was fictional while First (Second) Man is supposed to be biographical. I also question doing a homage to a fictional movie in a biographical film. It sounds like so many films nowadays which are about style over substance. Oh, I don't know Sol. They did go for a spin with the Agena, after all.    Posted:   Nov 29, 2020 - 7:54 AM     By:   ClaytonMG   (Member) It is a theremin. I believe Hurwitz stated he learned to play it for the score and is featured in almost every cue.    Posted:   Nov 29, 2020 - 8:04 AM     By:   Grecchus   (Member) It is a theremin. I believe Hurwitz stated he learned to play it for the score and is featured in almost every cue. Thanks, Clay. I went to YT to have a listen. Just goes to show how confirmation bias can wriggle about on first impressions. But then again, it was from the DvD soundtrack I originally heard it, so being distracted by the storyline my focus was off. I really did think it was a vocal. I think the inlay on the score DvD has the spelling of Agena all wrong. It seems to have been spelt, "Aegena." Or, that's the way it is spelt on YT. https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/justin-hurwitz-first-man-theremin/    Posted:   Nov 29, 2020 - 10:21 AM     By:   ClaytonMG   (Member) It's actually funny, I saw it in 70mm IMAX and couldn't tell if it was a theremin or a solo vocalist since it was mixed pretty low in some scenes. Plus I had never heard one used in the same way it was used in this score. I had always heard it as like a weird sci fi thing. I reminds me of the powerful electric violin solos in Armageddon. If I remember correctly , the reason Hurwitz went with it was because Armstrong loved the instrument.    Posted:   Nov 29, 2020 - 10:42 AM     By:   Grecchus   (Member) Yeah, I get the same impression. But I automatically think The Day The Earth Stood Still. Maybe Armstrong did, too. Imagine if the first words he used on the Moon, having lapsed into fond memory, were, "Klaatu barada nikto!"     General Discussion: First Man Top-Notch    < 1 2  > >>  Go to page:  1 2   First Post    General Discussion • Trading Post • Non-Film Score Discussion  Profile • Preferences • Community Rules • Help/Contact • Search Board You must log in or register to post.   Go to page:  1 2

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