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| Film Music Masters: JERRY GOLDSMITH Music From the Movies 1995 DVD |
| Posted By: Bruce R Marshall on October 2, 2005 - 10:00 PM |
Film Music Masters: JERRY GOLDSMITH Music From the Movies 1995 DVD
Directed by Fred Karlin
by Bruce R. Marshall
Pity the "poor" Goldsmith fan(atic) and collector. In the past year he
has twice been confronted with an agonizing dillema: to buy or not to
buy. First, Varèse Sarabande unveiled a lavish, expensive
(approximately $150) box set containing three CDs of classic Goldsmith
works that everyone already owned, along with three more discs of
unreleased, much sought after scores. For me this was a great
opportunity to hear familiar and unfamiliar music and I gladly forked
over the cash.
Now, in the wake of the Maestro's passing, comes this re-issue of Fred
Karlin's 1995 documentary on Goldsmith. I have never seen the previous
VHS incarnation, so I come to this edition with open eyes, ears and
wallet. This new DVD comes with two hours of "bonus" material,
consisting of addtional scoring session footage and extended interviews
with Jerry's colleagues (alas, no more with Jerry himself). The DVD is
being sold by the U.K. magazine Music
From The Movies and, with a poor exchange rate, goes for over
$40! So, if you already own the VHS version, is this worth acquiring as
well? I'll get to that later.
The late Fred Karlin was a talented composer, songwriter and author.
Unfortunately, he is not quite as accomplished in the realm of
documentary filmmaking. He does a competent job here, to be sure, but
the effort falls a bit short when held up against the acclaimed
documentaries on Bernard Herrmann, Ennio Morricone, or even Tony
Thomas' Music From the Movies (which
featured vintage footage of Jerry in his prime conducting The Mephisto Waltz!). Shot on
video, it often has the feel of one of those "Making of..." featurettes
that often pop up on HBO and later on the DVD supplements. It has a
choppy feel, jumping around between interviews with Jerry and his
colleagues, and to scoring sessions for The River Wild (1994). Most of the
material is contemporary, but we also get some older footage. I was
most appreciative with the interview of one of Goldsmith's greatest
collaborators, the late Franklin J. Schaeffner (Islands in the Stream, Planet of the Apes). His comments
on Patton are especially
poignant. Plus, we get to see some of the recording session for Lionheart (with Goldsmith himself
manning the keyboards). Karlin also supplies much interesting
biographical material on Goldsmith's youth -- including always fun to
watch super-8 home footage -- and early career.
The centerpiece of the film, however, is material from the scoring
sessions from The River Wild.
And herein lies part of the problem with this production: the film is
mediocre at best, and contains a decent but unspectacular musical
score. Granted, Goldsmith often rose above sub-par material to write
some of his finest music, but not this time (where the main folk theme
was imposed on him). That's what makes the emphasis The River Wild a bit disappointing.
But obviously, if this is all that was documented, it's a lot better
than nothing. Much of the running time is taken up with footage of
Meryl Streep riding the rapids while Jerry conducts and dissects the
score. If only Karlin could have documented the scoring of First Knight; a good film with a
wonderful score that was produced at around the same time, and recorded
in the same city. I suspect that casual Goldsmith fans will be bored by
much of this.
Most of the documentary's other clips feature the title themes played
over a montage/trailer (The Wind and
the Lion) or film stills (Basic
Instinct). Viewers who are unfamiliar with Goldsmith might
wonder what all the fuss is about. I feel the best way to convey
Jerry's genius is to present actual, full-length scenes from the films.
Imagine, someone seeing "Raisuli Attacks" from Wind for the first time. Talk about
motivating someone to dig deeper! Happily, Karlin does supply some
brief scenes from Planet of the Apes
("The Hunt"), Islands in the Stream
and The Omen, but the clips
are in pretty poor shape.
The best thing about the scoring segments are the interactions and
interviews with the musicians. Many are long time colleagues and
collaborators, and offer unique insights. The highlight was the
presentation by the percussionists. Jerry's mastery of rhythm is his
trademark -- no one can touch him -- and is often the ingredient that
makes the music so thrilling. As I'm a percussionist, it was a special
thrill to see the great Emil Richards, et al, discussing the exotic
instruments they played for Goldsmith (e.g. mixing bowls for Apes). Plus, I finally got to see
what the hell a blaster bleam is!
Jerry comes across as a friendly, thoughtful, soft-spoken gentleman.
His alleged prickly, cantankerous personality is nowhere in evidence.
In fact, the only hint of it is provided by Jerry himself. Accepting an
award from the Society For the Preservation of Film Music he quips
"...I must be doing something right....look at all the directors here
and they're still speaking to me!"
The bonus features consist of about an hour of scoring sessions from The River Wild, and interviews with
many of Jerry's professional associates. Both sections are shot with a
single camera that stays focused on the subject and are marred by an
intrusive time code window burned on the screen. This isn't a big deal
with the "talking head" interviews but they do partially obscure the
visuals during the recording session.
The first interview, a 25-minute chat with recording engineer Bruce
Botnick (who also worked with The Doors and John Williams), is the best
of the bunch. I hung on every word. Even though I don't have a
background in engineering, I was able to follow and the technical
discussions. One interesting dialogue detailed the problems recording
stereo tracks using the Dolby Matrix (aka Dolby Stereo/Surround)
system. And, you don't have to be a musicologist to understand why the
rhythmically adventurous Goldsmith preferred Hungarian orchestras
(conversant with Bela Bartok) over German orchestras (conversant with
Johann "The Waltz King" Strauss)!
Also interviewed are Jerry's orchestrators Arthur Morton and Alexander
Courage, who recounts an amusing story about the recording of Basic Instinct. Tellingly, it is
orchestra contractor Sandy DeCrescent who provides the most insight
into his personality. When she tells the story of how the studio
orchestra rose and applauded after recording Rudy, one cannot help but be moved.
The best part of the additional recording footage comes at the very
beginning. Jerry is forced to record four different takes of a single
cue in order to get it to match what director Hanson envisions for the
scene. We see them discuss the problem and watch their repeated
viewings of the playback. Unfortunately, we can not see, and only hear
the scene in question. But we still get a feel for the difficult,
demanding process involved.
Future Goldsmith biographers and film music historians should find
these supplemental materials to be an invaluable resource. If you
aspire to have a career in the film music profession, this DVD is a
must have.
Though the DVD has its issues, the late Fred Karlin has permitted us to
go to a place where only professionals usually get to go. And he has
given us a unique look at one of the 20th century's greatest musical
talents. For this, we should all be grateful. But after
sitting through the this DVD twice, (no, I didn't watch the extras
twice!) I can confidently say I'll never put it on again.
The author can be reached at combrm@yahoo.com.
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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Today in Film Score History:
April 19 |
|
| Alan Price born (1942) |
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| Alfred Newman begins recording his score for David and Bathsheba (1951) |
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| Dag Wiren died (1986) |
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| David Fanshawe born (1942) |
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| Dudley Moore born (1935) |
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| Harry Sukman begins recording his score for A Thunder of Drums (1961) |
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| Henry Mancini begins recording his score for The Great Race (1965) |
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| Joe Greene born (1915) |
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| John Addison begins recording his score for Swashbuckler (1976) |
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| John Williams begins recording his score for Fitzwilly (1967) |
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| Jonathan Tunick born (1938) |
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| Lord Berners died (1950) |
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| Michael Small begins recording his score to Klute (1971) |
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| Paul Baillargeon records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “When It Rains…” (1999) |
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| Ragnar Bjerkreim born (1958) |
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| Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "We'll Always Have Paris" (1988) |
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| Sol Kaplan born (1919) |
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| Thomas Wander born (1973) |
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| William Axt born (1888) |
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