There was a great James Horner memorial concert taking place at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Tuesday, 24th 2017. My plan to talk about James Horner’s lovely score for Don Bluth’s “An American Trail” was developed before, but this concert showed the enthusiastic audience again how much Horner and his music is missed! The movie “An American Tail” is an American animated musical adventure family film from 1986 directed by Don Bluth. After Goldsmith’s “The Secret of NimH” this is the second animation movie review by Don Bluth on my blog. I like “The Secret of NimH” better because of the better plot, the more convincing storytelling and character development and the haunting atmosphere. “An American Trail” tells a story for kids while “The Secret of NimH” has some scenes that might be a little bit too scary for children. Fievel Mousekewitz and his Jewish family want to immigrate from Russian Empire-controlled territory of Ukraine to the United States for freedom and a better life. There is a funny scene that explains the reason in a song called “There Are No Cats in America” (track 3), but also facing antisemitism is a reason. Critics mentioned that this was not mentioned too much in the story. During the journey, Feivel (named after Spielberg’s grandfather Fievel) gets lost and must find a way to reunite with them. Here is the trailer: “An American Trail” was a box office hit, making it the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film at the time. I read that this success and the very successful “The Land Before Time” (1988, also with a score by James Horner), and finally Disney's “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988 with a fabulous score by Alan Silvestri), as well as Bluth's departure from their partnership, prompted Spielberg to establish his own animation studio, Amblimation. The original concept featured an all animal world, but Bluth wanted something different. He developed the idea that this movie should be more like the classical Disney movies “The Rescuers” (1977, perhaps better known as the first Bernard and Bianca movie) or “101 Dalmatians” (1961) with an animal world as society hidden from the humans. Bluth also wanted to go back to the old look from Disney’s “Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs” (1937) where the characters were round, soft and have a cuddly feel" (I found a lot of information on this website: background information from John Cawley “The Animated Films by Don Bluth”, http://www.cataroo.com/DBtail.html). The music In my opinion, James Horner composed his best soundtracks in the 80s. His style sounded so fresh that times, his melodies were so lovely and lyrical and his way of using the orchestra was so enjoyable. Spielberg wanted “An American Trail” to be a musical, and Horner was highly excited about doing a score like this. Imagine, he just did “Aliens”! The score was recorded in London by The London Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of King’s College. I am personally not a big fan of the songs of “An American Trail”, but Horner was compared to other soundtrack composers so capable to compose songs that the pop version of “Somewhere Out There", co-composed with Barry Mann, lyrics by Cynthia Weil, and sang by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram during the end credits, won a Grammy Award, and became one of the most popular songs from an animated feature since the 1950s. How lovely this song still is I could see at the James Horner concert last Tuesday. My favourite song of “An American Trail” is “Never Say Never again”, a lovely melody and sung by legendary Canadian actor Christopher Plummer with a heavy accent in this role. What a great piece of music and exactly in the way a song for animation movie should be composed. Find it here: Feivel’s own interpretation of “Somewhere Out There", sung by American child actor Phillip Glasser in a duo with Betsy Cathcart, is just sweet to listen to because none of the two kids can exactly carry the tune the whole time, but that is exactly the reason I love this song much better than the sterile pop version. Track 11 “A Duo” is more of a musical joke because of the way it is sung. The musical score is Horner at his best. This movie gave Horner so many scenes to develop beautiful music for that you cannot praise this score enough. Track 1 “Main Title” starts slowly and develops immediately a lovely atmosphere you immediately get into it. You can hear some influence of classical Russian composers such as Peter Tchaikovsky, especially by using the violin in folk-kind music. I am a big fan of the solo violin part at 3’08. Track 2 “The Cossack Cats” gives us the first action track. Horner’s music is just fabulous. Track 4 “The Storm” is a four-minute action track that is perfectly developed in its dramaturgical structure and underscores the scene when Feivel gets thrown overboard and separated from his family. Horner created in this track a haunting atmosphere similar to Goldsmith’s “Secret of NimH”. Track 7 “The Market Place” is lovely because of the use of the main theme in the last 50 seconds of the track. It is interesting that there is not really a stand-alone track with the whole main theme, it is spread all over the score. The orchestration of track 10 “Releasing the Secret Weapon” reminds you of one of my favourite James Horner scores “The Rocketeer” but does not have the elegance of that later score. In the last minute, you can hear again the “There are no cats in America” song, but you have to watch the scene to totally understand it. The next three tracks called “The Great Fire”, “Reunited” and “Flying Away and End Credits” are the best tracks of the soundtrack, underscoring the great finale and with “Flying Away” one of my all-time favourite Horner tracks. You should listen to all these tracks together because they are the highlights of the score. “Reunited” is a good example of the lyrical melodies Horner was able to compose. These melodies immediately landscapes the atmosphere of a movie and catch you from the beginning. Like the main theme to the Ghost-movie “Casper” (1995( with Christina Ricci, this is again more kind of a lullaby. The six-minute track “Flying Away” is the longest and best track. It brings the soundtrack to a wonderful ending and is perfectly orchestrated with its lovely themes, its musical structure and the balance of big orchestra and choir. This is just an amazing piece of musical storytelling! Imagine that this was Horner’s first animation movie and how young he was at that time. With its six themes, “An American Trail” is for sure one of Horner’s most structured and most enjoyable scores. If I compare all Horner’s scores for animation movies, I still prefer his music for “Balto” (1995), but this has personal reasons. “An American Trail” became a franchise with four movies and video games. James Horner composed the music for the sequel “Feivel Goes West”, an animation Western which I never watched even though I bought the music. Some critics think that the thematic material for the sequel is better developed than the original one. Because I will not talk about this here, I give you now time to find out by yourself. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

This week finally Patrick Doyle’s score for “Great Expectations”. This movie is very popular because of a very romantic kissing in the rain scene and Doyle’s music for it, and, to be honest, this track is the track of the score I mostly listen to. The movie “Great Expectations” (1988) is a contemporary film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel, co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hank Azaria, Robert De Niro, Anne Bancroft and Chris Cooper. Dickens’ novel takes place in London during 1812 and 1827, but the screenwriter Mitch Glazer set the plot from London to New York into 1990s and changed the name of the male character from Pip to Finn. Additionally, the character Miss Havisham has been renamed to Nora Dinsmoor. The voice overs were not in the original screenplay, but producer Art Linson felt once the film was edited that these were needed. Previously working with screenwriter David Mamet on “The Edge“ (1997, with a great score by Jerry Goldsmith), Linson hired him to write the voice overs, but. Mamet was not credited in the final film. Here is the trailer: I am not a big fan of voice overs in general. I think mostly they are used because the writer or director is not able to create a scene that speaks for itself. David & Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams made great fun of the typical serious voice overs in classical crime film noir movies in the famous “Naked Police”-series and “Naked Gun”-Trilogy with Leslie Nielson. Charles Dickens was a great author, and we read “Oliver Twist” in school, but I think that his time is over. Therefore, I normally try to avoid reading Dickens novels and watching adaptations based on his books. Placing the plot of “Great Expectation” in the 1990s was a great idea, and Cuaron is such a talented director that I really enjoyed this movie and was immediately caught by it. Cuaron is also the director of the third “Harry Potter”-movie, in my opinion, the best of the franchise, and also directed the SF-movie “Gravity” (2013) with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. I do not want to talk too much about the plot and the movie, people should watch and enjoy its twists. The kissing in the rain scene is very popular, and it is a highly erotic and wonderfully directed scene. I remember a female friend of mine saying to me after talking about this scene: “That is a way every girl wants to get picked up!” The music Buying the soundtrack is a little confusing because there are two albums, one “soundtrack” with mostly songs written for the movie, and the “score” with Patrick Doyle’s music. It took me a big effort to finally get the score, and this CD is now sold out. The CD consists of 22 tracks and is perhaps the Doyle score that shows the most variety. Imagine that the composer was diagnosed with leukaemia shortly after finishing this work, perhaps that is the reason that the score consists mostly of sad and melancholic music. Doyle hired guitarist John Williams to play some tracks, and this works very well. Because people get confused about the name, let’s give some background information about John Williams: Born 1941 in Melbourne, Australia, to an English father, Len Williams, who later founded the London Guitar School, and Malaan (née Ah Ket), a daughter of Melbourne barrister William Ah Ket, the Williams family moved 1952 to England. Williams was initially taught guitar by his father who was an accomplished guitarist, and later attended the Royal College of Music in London, from 1956 to 1959, studying piano because the college did not have a guitar department at the time. If you look Williams’ discography up, you are surprised how often he contributed to soundtracks, but “Great Expectations” is still one of his most popular ones. The tracks of the score Williams played are track 4 “Estella's Theme” (the main theme), track 5 “Ain't Love Grand”, track 6 “A Walk in The Park”, track 13 “A Toast”, track 14 “Benefactor”, and track 17 “It Was Just My Memory Of It”. Here is the main theme: Doyle used also the Electronic Wind Instrument played by Phil Todd in some tracks and used the piano in track 9 “Joe Leaves”, a track just for the piano. One of the highlights of the score is the aria called “I Saw No Shadow of Another Parting”. This track gives you the impression that Doyle without any doubt could compose an opera. This is a quite impressive track, performed by famous New Zeeland opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa. Here is the track: American singer-songwriter Tori Amos composed the song “Siren”. She also contributed to the score album with the first track called “Finn” that sets with its whispering voice the tone of the movie, and with track 3 called “Paradiso Perduto”. One of the nicest performances of the main theme is track 11 “Pyramid of Pain”. Here the main theme is played by the orchestra without the guitar or any vocals, a pretty nice track. Track 15 “Lustig Dies” underscores the last scene for Robert De Niro, another sad piece that will touch you. This is one of the few times that the score erupts out of its mostly quiet style. Most famous is the track 8 “Kissing in the Rain” with vocals by Miriam Stockley. The South African born British singer and composer has contributed to several film soundtracks, including “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001), Mike Figgis drama “One Night Stand” with a wonderful performance by Action Star Wesley Snipes and German actor Klaus Kinski’s daughter Nastassja Kinski as love couple for one night and the British miniseries “The 10th Kingdom”. The dramaturgical structure of “Kissing in the rain” is admirable, and when the love couple gets out in the rain, the music erupts with Miriam Stockley’s voice. This is one of the best tracks Doyle ever composed, and I cannot get tired of listening to it. The song was sampled in the song "RoboCop" on Kanye West's 2008 album “808s & Heartbreak”. Here is the scene to this movie. Listen how the music stops when Finn enters the restaurant and then starts again when they dance. What a great scene, what a great music! “Great Expectations” is one of the few really good romantic movies. Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow are playing great together and even though the movie was not a box office hit, you can see what a good director can bring out of a novel that is over 100 years old. Gwyneth Paltrow gives one of her best performances in this movie. One of the reasons that this movie is still so popular is Patrick Doyle’s music, especially his kissing in the rain music and the scene. That is a scene that really shows what the magic of love is about… Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

The initial plan to talk about Patrick Doyle’s “Great Expectations” was skipped after I discovered there is a CD Set with two CDs about the music for the films of Louis de Funes. These movies were an essential part of my childhood, and me and my family had so much fun watching them and laughing about the great French comedian. The movies Louis de Funès (July, 31 1914 – January, 27 1983) was a very popular French actor and one of the giants of French comedy alongside André Bourvil and Fernandel. His acting style is mostly remembered for its high-energy performance and wide range of facial expressions. He worked a lot together with the French director Jean Girault and French actress Claude Gensac as his wife in the movies. I found one clip on YouTube with some famous scenes: The second one is with a famous scene from “Rabbi Jacob”, we will talk alter about that movie: After earning his money as a Jazz pianist for several years and making his audience laugh each time when he was made a grimace, he started his acting career in 1945 with a tiny role in “The Temptation of Barbizon” (French: La Tentation de Barbizon). De Funes went on to perform in 130 film roles over the next 20 years, playing minor roles in over 80 films before being offered his first leading roles. A break came in 1956, when he appeared as the black-market pork butcher Jambier (another small role) in Claude Autant-Lara's well-known World War II comedy “La Traversée de Paris”. Later, de Funes achieved stardom in 1963 with Jean Girault's “Pouic-Pouic”. This successful film guaranteed de Funès top billing in all of his subsequent films, and he became an international star with his role of the Gendarme of Saint-Tropez in “The Troops of St. Tropez (French: Le Gendarme de Saint-Trope) in 1964. The movie resulted in a franchise with lead to a series of six movies. The successful collaboration with director Gérard Oury started in 1964 when the director set de Funes and Bourvil together in the film “Le Corniaud”. This successful collaboration was repeated two years later in “La Grande Vadrouille”, one of the most successful films ever made in France with an audience of 17.27 million. This movie remains de Funes’ greatest success. Between 1964 and 1979, de Funes topped France's box-office of the year's most successful movies seven times. Except his role as the Gendarme of Saint-Tropez, de Funes co-starred with many of the major French actors of his time, including Jean Marais and Mylène Demongeot in the famous Fantomas trilogy, and also Jean Gabin, Fernandel, Coluche, Annie Girardot, and Yves Montand. De Funes continued his career in different toles and tried to expand his acting career in other roles such as in Claude Zidi’s “L'aile ou la cuisse” (1976) with famous French Comedian Coluche. In March 1975, de Funès was hospitalized for heart problems and forced to take a rest from acting. In 1980, de Funès realised his dream to make a film version of Molière's play “ L'Avare”, and made his final film “Le Gendarme et les gendarmettes” in 1982. De Funes was to be said to be a very shy person in real life and because of his rich and rapidly changing range of facial expressions, nicknamed as the "man with forty faces per minute." Mostly, he played the role of a humorously man with a hyperactive attitude, combined with uncontrolled fits of anger. Later in his life, de Funès achieved great prosperity and became a knight of France's Légion d'honneur in 1973. He resided in the Château de Clermont, a 17th-century castle located in the commune of Le Cellier, 27 km from Nantes. As a rose fan, de Funès planted a rose garden and a variety of rose has been named for him. Louis de Funès died of a massive stroke on 27 January 1983, a few months after making his final film. The composers A lot of very well-known French composers created the music for the films of Louis de Funes. In the 2CD set, you get a great overview. Raymond Lefèvre is the main composer, but you can also find music by Vladimir Cosma, Jean-Michel Defaye, Jean Marion, Gérard Calvi, Georges Garvarentz, Alain Goraguer and Jean Bizet. What makes this CD special are the two Chansons sung by de Funes from the musical "La grosse Valse" on the second CD. Raymond Lefèvre Because Lefèvre is the composer with the most tracks here, let’s talk more about him. He was accepted at the Paris Conservatory when he was seventeen years old. During the early 1950s, Lefèvre played the piano for the Franck Pourcel orchestra and started his musical career in 1956 on the Barclay label. Working for the French television programmes “Musicorama” (1950s) and “Palmarés des Chansons” (1965, 1966, 1967), Lefèvre accompanied famous artists such as Dalida, Claude François, Richard Anthony. His recording of "The Day the Rains Came" was a best seller in the USA in 1958. The song "Ame câline" (Soul Coaxing) became an international hit in 1968, "La (He Gives Me Love)" a minor hit in 1968 in Canada, and his recording of "La Reine de Saba" (Queen of Sheba) in 1969 became a big hit in Japan. Born 1929 and died 2008, Wikipedia described the composer as “French easy listening orchestra leader, arranger and composer”. Easy listening sounds a little like a negative word, but if you listen to the music on the CDs, they are really easy listening, but this does not mean it is bad music. Especially for the Gendarme movies, the music is very typical for that time: simple orchestration, lovely melodies and French characterization. The first track called “Générique”, the French expression of “Main Title”, is a song with French lyrics, lovely, but I normally skip it. The second one is another song, this time a march, with male voices for the Gendarmes. A funny track! The next tracks repeat this style of light-hearted music, I want especially mention the music to “Les Gendarme se Marie"”, track 17 called “Générique” is highlight of the whole CD. Here is the track: Track 19 “Valse De La Séduction” is a wonderful orchestrated Waltz for a very funny scene in the movie. Even though the movie is not the best in the series, the music is highly enjoyable. What I especially recommend is to listen to the music of “Jo”, a crime comedy based on a stage play by the Australian Alec Coppel who also wrote a first script version of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”. The music is not so light-hearted like the other one with a dark attitude and a high emphasize on the brass section. I really like the main theme played in the “Générique”. Here is the track: Except of these darker music, there is with the track “Inspecteur Ducros” is a lightly comedy track. Vladimir Cosma From the second CD, I just want to mention the music for “Les Aventures De Rabbi Jacob”, one of the best movies of the later de Funes. Vladimir Cosma created a lovely soundtrack for one of the best later Louis de Funes movies. Cosma composed the music for 300 feature films and TV series and is still active. In Germany, he is very well known for the music for the TV series “Michael Strogoff” (1976) based on Jules Verne’s novel with Raimund Harmstorf, but mostly he worked for French movies. Find here the main title for “Rabbi Jacob”: I even found a concert version of the score. You can see how much the orchestra and choir has: On the CD set, you can find three scores by Cosma, “Rabbi Jacob” and “L’aile ou la cuisse” (1976) and “La zizania” (1978), one of de Funes last movies and not one of his best. As last track, I want to recommend you to listen to CD 2 track 12 “Le Tatoué” (de Funes together with Jean Gabin in a so-so movie) by Georges Garvarentz, the brother in law of famous chanson singer Charles Aznavour, nothing special, just a lovely track. For all fans of the European cinema who grew with the films of Louis de Funes, this CD set is a nice childhood memory, nothing more, but nothing less. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

Jerry Goldsmith’s “Poltergeist” (1982) is another famous score of this composer, another score of my all-time favourites and another example what film music can achieve if you have a such gifted composer such as Jerry Goldsmith. I will not mention the remake and also not mention Marc Streitenfeld’s music in this review and also not on my website. “Poltergeist” is Jerry’s movie, and we should just think of “Poltergeist” as one of his best scores. The movie “Poltergeist” was directed by Tobe Hooper, the director of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974), one of the most influential horror movies. Because of the splatter context of this movie, it is hard to believe that “Poltergeist” is a Tobe Hooper movie. The producer was Steven Spielberg and because he had a clause in his contract preventing him from directing another movie while he made “E.T.” (1982), Hooper was selected. I do not want to mention the creative credit argument more here, this is not the place to talk about this. Here is the trailer: The movie was so successful that other movies in the “Poltergeist”-franchise were produced. For the second one, Jerry also wrote the music, but I will concentrate on the first one here. The film was a major critical and commercial success, achieving in being the eighth highest-grossing film of 1982. There is also this weird story about a Poltergeist curse because of the death of several people associated with the film, but I also think this is just a similar story such as “The Omen” curse. The music “Poltergeist” is for sure a great movie for every composer, but it was perfect for Jerry. The plot gave the composer a lot of chances for his composing style that “Poltergeist” shows you the whole variety of Goldsmith’s ability to write music. You have lovely tracks, but also the typical atonal and modern music Goldsmith is famous for. It is really astonishing how Goldsmith develops his material, guides the audience on this musical journey and scares the hell out of audience in the horror scene. A great example for this is the track “Rebirth” for one of the best scenes. This track is one of the best tracks Goldsmith ever composed and stunning in his dramaturgical structure. The main theme is a lullaby called “Carol Anne’s Theme”, a lovely main theme to represent the quiet and peaceful life in this suburban area. Carol Ann is also the name of the little girl who get the first connection with the ghost and get sucked into the ghost world later. This main theme was a part in the movie theme suite, Goldsmith conducted during his concert tours and it is one of the most beautiful love theme he composed. Despite of this lovely theme, Goldsmith created a lot of dissonant and atonal music for the horror scenes. It is astonishing how Goldsmith succeeds in this switch between the more lyrical parts of the movie and the terror parts which need a score that increases the horror parts. Because John Williams was tied in “E.T.”, Spielberg turned to Goldsmith, and we can be really glad that these two movies were prepared at the same time. Otherwise, Goldsmith might not be hired to compose the score for “Poltergeist”. The score undertakes the same journey as the audience in the movie. First, we start with the lyrical and quieter part of the music, then it transfers to richer orchestrated part of the score with a motif that some critics describe as the “religious theme” and which you can hear in the already mentioned “Rebirth”, and in the end we have the scary parts of the score for the horror scenes and which are not an easy-listening part of the score. There are some similarities between these parts and the mystic parts of the first “Indiana Jones”, especially the temple scenes. Perhaps Spielberg asked Goldsmith to compose the music in a similar style? “Escape from Suburbia" is a good example for these atonal and dissonant horror tracks. After the horror is over and the family is safe in a motel – the TV set will not stay in this room…, Goldsmith returns to the more lyrical times with a reprise of the Carol Ann’s theme, but he puts some children laughs in the end. This sounds weird and is unexpected. Is this a musical statement for the madness that still might be there? Goldsmith did not use any synthesizers or electronic effects in the score. Instead and like in “Planet Of The Apes”, he used traditional instruments but also a lot of other instruments such a musical saw, a rub rod, whistles and special drums to create the unknown in music. Even though this music is really not an easy listening music and people might skip these tracks, you have to admire Goldsmith’s ability to transform the scary scene into music that is still outstanding. These qualities make “Poltergeist” special and one of the best soundtracks ever: You have the lovely tracks, but also the musical horror tracks which scare you like hell with their unusual orchestration. Goldsmith shows that he is a master in this field of horror. After being unreleased for nearly fifteen years, “Poltergeist” received its first soundtrack album in 1997 by Rhino Movie Music. In 2010, a two-disc soundtrack album followed by Film Score Monthly featuring additional source and alternate material. It is really sad that Goldsmith and Spielberg did not work more together because the genius of Spielberg in visual storytelling matches perfect with Goldsmith’s genius of musical storytelling. “Poltergeist” is not only a great score, it also shows that film music can be really contemporary music that can be played in a concert hall without any chance. Here is another live performance of the main theme, but with the End Credits from "The Swarm", Irwin Allen Bees-Thriller before, really worth lisenting: Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

This week, I decided to talk about a composer who is not so well-known among film music fans, but I think we should also do not forget his contribution to the film music universe. I have two soundtracks of him, “The Final Countdown”, and “Lionheart”, Scott's score for a not so bad Jean-Claude van Dame movie. I decided to introduce John Scott with “The Final Countdown” (1980) and will talk about “Lionheart” later. Let’s start with some basic comments about John Scott The composer John Scott is an English film composer who has collaborated with directors such as Richard Donner, Norman Jewison, Irvin Kershner and many others and is well-know for his collaboration with the French explorer Jacques Cousteau on his documentaries. He also composed a score for “The Prayer for the Dying” (1987), the Mike Hodges drama about a former IRA member. Bill Conti composed the final score. Scott also composed the music for Roger Spottiswoode’s mountain Thriller “Shoot To Kill” (1988). At the age of 14, Scott enrolled in the British Army as a Boy Musician and continued his musical studies of the clarinet, harp and saxophone. Later he toured with some of the best-known British bands, was hired by EMI to arrange and conduct some of its most popular artists and worked with Beatles producer George Martin. Scott, credited as Johnny Scott, led a jazz combo during the 1960s. Two other interesting facts to mention are that Scott played for Henry Mancini and was the principal saxophonist in John Barry's soundtrack for “Goldfinger”. Scott has composed for more than 100 film and television productions. The movie “The Final Countdown” was the Top Gun of that area. Kirk Douglas Son Peter was the driving force behind the picture and was able to get the cooperation of the United States Navy. Therefore, the film was filmed on board of the USS Nimitz supercarrier. The basic idea of the script is very interesting: Because of a getting into a strange storm-like vortex, the Nimitz with Captain Kirk Douglas is brought back to the December 6th, 1941, one day before the attack on Pearl Harbour. Now, they are facing an interesting situation: Shall the modern aircraft strike against the incoming Japanese forces or shall they do nothing because they have no idea what will happen to the time continuum when they change history as a defense expert Martin Sheen explained? The finale of the movie lacks a really good idea to solve this issue, but even though the picture is still worth seeing. Here is the trailer: The music Except of the nice scenes with the aircraft, John Scott’s music is the best part of the movie. The composer created a powerful and majestic main theme and took the whole project very seriously in his musical approach. You can find great music for the flying scenes and a very nice love-theme with a quite interesting orchestrated approach. Because of the military aspect of the music, the score is dominated by the brass section and the percussion. The main theme is such a powerful piece of music with a majestic melody. In combination with the jets in the movie and the blue sky, this theme drives the emotion of the audience really upon the sky: The score has a wonderful love theme which you can find here. Listen especially to the effect starting from 0’56, this gives the whole piece a haunting atmosphere The soundtrack album has 23 tracks, but when listening to the score, I skip most of them. Some are too much dependent on the movie. For the scenes when the Vortex appears and also the time wrap scene the music is frightened to build up suspense. In the movie, the music would work great because it is kind of a musical expression of a time travel, but director Don Taylor decided to just use sound effects, on the CD I normally skip these tracks. Among these tracks in the middle of the album, you can find with track 14 “Lauren and Owen” the love theme again in a wonderful orchestrated version. Track 17 “General Quarters” is a powerful piece of music that perhaps reminds you of similar tracks from Ron Goodwin “When Eagles Dare”. Track 19 “The Storm Reappears” brings the suspense back to the music before the next four tracks bring the movie to an end. John Scott had also the chance to compose a music for the end credits which bring the movie and the album to a wonderful ending. Of course, this movie promotes the US army as you can see in the scene. Would it be nice to become a pilot seems the scenes to say… Overall, John Scott did a great job and the score is another fine example of amazing movie music, timeless in its approach, using the full force of the orchestra and adding some nice unusual musical effects. I was immediately pleased when I heard the main theme and like especially track for his musical ideas. I also think that because of Scott’s superb score, a lot of soundtrack fans choose to watch the movie these days. If you do not have this score in your soundtrack collection, I highly advise to buy it and enjoy this music which is far better than the pop song compilation of Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun” later. Here is a live performance with the composer as conductor: Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

This week finally „Psycho“ on my website. “Psycho” is a masterpiece in a lot of ways: It was the first slasher movie in history, it totally shocked the audience in a lot of ways, the shower murder scene holds the record as the movie music scene that is most discussed, and Bernard Herrmann’s score is considered as the ultimate score for a horror movie. There is so much to say about this movie and the music that it is really difficult to write just two pages. Here is the official trailer: The movie American writer Robert Bloch (1917 – 1994) is one of the best writers for crime and horror novels. He has a wicked sense of humour and his short stories are famous for the surprising twists in the end. He started to write for pulp magazines such as “Weird Tales” and was influenced by H. P. Lovecraft (1890 – 1937), the American horror story writer who became famous because of the creation of the “Cthulhu Mythos”. Bloch and Lovecraft developed a friendship via a letter correspondence. 1959 Boch wrote “Psycho”, a novel about a serial killer with a split personality, based on real serial killer Ed Gein, who also was an inspiration for “The Silence of the Lambs”. Bloch, however, commented that it was the situation itself - a mass murderer living undetected in a small town in middle America - rather than Gein himself who inspired his storyline. I read the book 20 years ago for the first time, and even Bloch is one of my favorite writers of crime novels, this novel is really not his best, and the way of storytelling is not very good in this novel. Just two aspects are responsible that “Psycho” works well: the totally surprising killing of Marion and the identity of Norman. Bloch was not aware who really bought the rights for the movie adaption, so Hitchcock could make a great deal. The sequel of Hitchcock’s movie “Psycho 2” is crap even it has some good scenes, I also think that Jerry Goldsmith’ score for that one is one of his weakest ever, and even Bloch’s own sequel “Psycho 2” is really a bad novel. And the stupidest idea has ever been Gus Van Sant's "shot-by-shot" remake. He added two scenes – a spider crawling out of Mrs Bates mouth, and Norman masturbating when seeing Marion -, both really stupid ideas like the whole remake a waste of money and time. Alfred Hitchcock created a masterpiece with “Psycho”. The critics at that time did not like the movie, but critics were never really fair to Hitchcock, but the movie was a huge box office success, also because of Hitch’s very clever marketing ideas: The "no late admission" policy for the film was unusual for the time. Here is a video about how Hitchcock manipulates the audience: The shower murder scene is the famous scene of the movie. A lot of myths exist about this scene, and, for example, graphic designer Saul Bass claimed that he directed the scene. Janet Leigh denied this in an interview and said that Hitchcock was directing this scene, and there was no body double used. The scene was shot in December 1959 with 77 different camera angles. It is very interesting that the whole scene is working mostly in the mind of the audience because there is no close up of the knife hitting Marion’s body. I am not a big fan of the psychological analysis of this scene and personally do not care if the knife is a symbol of a penis and if this murder scene is meant to be a rape. It is a gorgeous scene and one proof that Hitchcock is perhaps the best director of crime movies ever. Here is the famous scene: The music Bernard Herrmann was the composer for a lot of Hitchcock movies and with “Psycho” he created his masterpiece. You can see the importance of Herrmann's contribution to the movie in the opening credit sequence, as it is followed only by Hitchcock's directing credit. Herrmann refused to compose as jazz score and took the lowered music budget to compose a score just for strings and not for a full orchestra. The strings refer to the black-and-white filming of the movie and create a darker and very intense effect. The main title music is a very tense and hurtling piece. Like a very good main title sets the tone for the whole movie and in combination with the title sequence done by Saul Bass you can imagine what kind of violence is coming. Even though there is no murder or another shocking sequence for the first 20 minutes, the audience can feel the tension of the plot just because of this dramatic music. I found this version, conducted by Herrmann himself even though it sounds to me a little slow in tempi: Here is a version conducted by Joel McNeely, I like better because it is faster: The music for the shower scene is very famous. Herrmann used the strings and the special way they were played to transform the shocking violence of the scene into music. Try to watch the scene without the music and you can understand the genius of Herrmann’s approach. Music critics recognize a similarity between the sound of music and Norman Bates’ hobby for birds, but I think this idea does not make any sense. Herrmann just tried to use the best effect to scare the hell out of the audience. I found a very good performance of the score and watch at the smile of the conductor before he conducts the shower scene music: Interesting is also Hitchcock first did not want to have music in this scene, but was convinced when Herrmann played the cue. Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith wrote: When Herrmann played the shower scene cue, the director approved its use. Herrmann reminded Hitchcock of his instructions not to score this scene, to which Hitchcock replied, "Improper suggestion, my boy, improper suggestion." A survey conducted by PRS for Music, in 2009, showed that the British public considers the score from 'the shower scene' to be the scariest theme from any film. There is so much to say about the movie and the music, but let’s stop it here. You can also analyze a movie and a soundtrack to death. I found a great music clip and even though I did not like the middle part of this track, the idea with the knives is just great. Enjoy: Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

I have to apologize for the break between this review and the last one. I am working on my first book about film music scores, but will, of course, keep my blog here. This week another score from the 70s, for me the best time of John Williams in scoring film music. “The Fury” is truly a masterpiece, and if you did not have this score in your collection, get it! The movie Brian De Palma is a strange director. He has such a talent for visual storytelling, but he is often so obsessed with sex and violence that he also is the director of a lot of crappy movies. “The Fury” is a typical De Palma, it has great scenes that you will never forget, but overall the movie is not a masterpiece because it is just half of a good movie. “The Fury” is a typical 70s movie when a lot of para-psychological movies were produced. The idea of psychological war by using synthetically drugs to influence people was already discussed in the 50s. The internet is full of articles about the CIA Project MKUltra, a mind control program with experiments on humans. The intention was to develop drugs and procedures to be used in interrogations and torture, weaken the individual and finally force confessions through mind control. Originally started in the 50s and officially halted in 1973, MKUltra used numerous methodologies to manipulate people's mental states and alter brain functions, including using drugs such as LSD or hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation as well as other forms of psychological torture. Kirk Douglas gives another great performance later in his career, John Cassavates is really very good as a bad guy, and Amy Irving as Gillian is performing best as she can. Like always in a De Palma movie, some scenes are marvellous (e.g. Gillian’s Escape and the famous last scene), but others are just crap. It was one of the first De Palma movies I watched, and I was immediately caught by his way of visual story telling. Even though, I watched a lot of crappy movies of De Palma later, for me he is still one of the best directors of the New Hollywood. Today, “The Fury” is still worth watching, and even though some scenes are often trashy to watch, the best reason to put this movie again in your DVD player is the fantastic music of John Williams. The music De Palma always acknowledge the importance of a good music score. Unfortunately, Bernard Herrmann with whom the director worked on “Sisters” and “Obsession” died in 1976. Therefore, De Palma hired John Williams to compose a score in Herrmann’s style. In my opinion, “The Fury” is one of Williams’ best scores. I think that Williams composed his best scores in the 70s, and the scores for “Dracula” which I already discussed on my blog and “The Fury” are among his best scores. I bought the Varese edition with 10 tracks. La La Land produced an expanded version with 32 tracks. For this review, I will focus on the shorter CD. The “Main Title”, the first highlight, introduces the haunting main theme. This music gives you a perfect idea what kind of scary movie you will now watch. Like in “The Omen” you will see no scenes during the Main Title, just the credits. It is very sad that just a few directors these days use the power of a greatly composed main title to prepare the audience for what is coming. Because of the scary aspects, “The Fury” is a very dark score. There are some lighter moments, for example, the typical Williams scherzo style in “For Gillian” (track 2) or track 6, the lovely “The Search for Robin” but the best parts of the score are the darker moments. Starting with the main melody, played by a clarinet, the wood winds and later the brass come in, and the haunting atmosphere continues to build up with a waltz like a Dance Macabre. If you compare this powerful theme with Christopher Young’s “Hellraiser” that I already discussed, you can see how to power this theme was. The second highlight for me is track 3 “Vision on the Stairs”: This scene gives you an idea how talented De Palma is in telling a story without any dialogue and just by focusing on the visual aspects. Gillian, played by Amy Irving who got married to Steven Spielberg in 1985, touches the hand of Charles Durning, and by touching the scar on his hand, she has a vision of what happened to Kirk Douglas’s son. Williams astonishing music captures the shocking vision and is a great example of haunting musical imagination. Here is the track to it: The third highlight is track 5 “Gillian’s Escape”. To finally meet Ex-CIA Agent Peter Sandza, played by Douglas, Gillian escapes from the Paragon Institute. This scene is the highlight of the movie. De Palma likes to use slow motion for action scenes. Because the music drives these scenes forward, the audience does not feel bothered by the usage of the slow motion. In this six-minute track, perhaps one of the best tracks Williams ever composed, you will find all the emotions of this scene carried away in the music. Williams uses the lyrical theme when Gillian is finally running on the street, then the combination of strings and brass to build up the suspense and finally melodramatic music when the death occurs. Here is the music: For all people who did not see the scene before, I found a hilarious video on YouTube. This is so much fun: There are two versions of “Death On The Carusel” on the CD, the original version, and the eight minute version. I am not a big fan of the scene and the music, so I skip this track and come to the last scene. This is one of the most amazing death in movie history. Here is the link to this music, the track is called “Gillian’s Power”, and the person who uploaded this track made a mistake when he called it “Gillian’s Escape”. The track starts like “Psycho” again with just strings. I am not a big fan of the following typical 70s synthi music, but the last seconds of this track are the perfect music to end this shocking scene and the movie: The fourth and last highlight of the score is the last track called “Epilogue”. Williams uses again Bernhard Herrmann’s approach for “Psycho” and composed a track just for strings. This track was not used in the movie, but I assume it was meant to be an End Title. Because of the focus on strings, people will compare this track with “Psycho”, but this is not fair. Williams’ approach is totally different, this track is not meant to be scary, it is more like a musical coda that brings the album to an end. “The Fury” is not only one of the best scores for a horror thriller, it is also one of the most elegant ones. Compare to “Dracula”, it lacks a love theme, but with its dark and gothic horror music, it is highly advanced to later horror music in the style of John Carpenter’s synthesizer music for “Halloween”. If “The Fury” is really John Williams’ best score is not the most important question to answer, it is without any doubt amazing movie music and one of the best scores ever written. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

This week one of my favourite Jerry Goldsmith scores, a score that is also in my Top 10, and one of the few examples of having a great score for a very good movie. So, these good reasons to discuss this score this week. The movie Michael Crichton directed this movie based on his own novel and it was his third collaboration with Jerry Goldsmith. He came across of the story when he was lecturing at Cambridge University, read the transcripts of the court trial and started researching. The story of the novel and the movie is a fictionalised representation of the historical events. 1855, William Pierce stole the gold being shipped to the British Army during the Crimean War. Crichton did not only change the names of the characters slightly, for example, William Pierce is renamed to Edward Pierce, he also changed the plot. Unlike the real incident, the protagonists escape in the end from freedom after the trial. The film was nominated for Best Cinematography Award for the British Society of Cinematographers and for Best Motion Picture by the Edgar Allan Poe award by the Mystery Writers Association of America. Here is the trailer: Sean Connery played the role of the Gentleman gangster, Donald Sutherland plays the pickpocket, and the female character is played by Leslie-Anne Down who became very famous as Madeleine in the “North and South” television series with a score by Bill Conti. I already discussed Bill Conti’s score on my website. Unlike the two previous feature movies Crichton directed – “Westworld” and “Coma” (also with a score by Jerry) – “The Great Train Robbery” is more of a comedy than a dark thriller. While working on “Westworld”, producer Pau Lazarus suggested to Crichton that someone should make a movie about trains. Crichton was first not interested in this topic, but then he read about this train robbery and became interested. Sean Connery performed most of his own stunts in the film, including the extended sequence on top of the moving train. Connery was told that the train would travel at only 20 miles per hour. Unfortunately, the train crew used an inaccurate means of judging the train's speed. It was driving at 40 to 50 miles per hour. Connery wore soft rubber shoes and the roofs of the carriages were covered with a sandy, gritty surface. Therefore, Connery actually early fell off the train during one jump between two carriages, and had difficulty keeping his eyes free of smoke and cinders from the locomotive. When his wife Michelle saw the movie, she was upset about the dangerous stunts. The movie received good reviews and was praised for the heist of the gold scenes and the Victoria details. The movie is still enjoyable to watch and a good and early example that Sean Connery can play more than just James Bond. The music Before Intrada finally released an extended version of the music with 30 tracks, the score was just available in short version but it soon gained reputation as one of Jerry Goldsmith’s finest work. 1979 was a very good year for Jerry, he also composed the music for the first “Alien” and the first “Star Trek” movie. “The Great Train Robbery” is also one of Jerry’s most light-hearted scores, and the last track “End Title” is one of the fastest tracks Jerry ever composed. I do really love it! Goldsmith likes to use the rhythm of a waltz in his scores. For the genetic thriller “Boys From Brazil”, in my opinion a really bad movie, he created a very dark one, and now for “The Great Train Robbery”, he used the rhythm of a waltz to underscore the funny moments of the movie. The track “No Respectable Gentleman” is a great example for this. But there is also a moment when Goldsmith uses the main theme for a dark adaption of the waltz. That is the scene when Clean Willy is killed. The track is called “Dead Willy”. This track was previously unreleased and you can just find it on the extended version. Goldsmith starts with the strings and the piano to build up a haunting atmosphere, the brass come in very soon, and when Willy gets strangled the music erupts with a string movement that reminds a little of “Psycho” after a quieter part before. And when Willy is dead, there is a short note from the trombone. In an interview Goldsmith said that he generally likes to use music in a very economical way, and this score is a very good example of this theory. The main theme, mostly played by the trombones, is a brilliant piece of music, highly energetic, and composed like a scherzo, and this explains the vibrant attitude of the theme. In classical music, the scherzo refers to a movement that replaced the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work such as a symphony or a sonata. Goldsmith uses this musical base to transform the energy and power of a steam train into music, but also uses the brass section to create the music for the darker moments of the score. Crichton said that for today viewer’s this whole ancient world looks like an alien world, and some critics mentioned that the darker moments of the score are examples of this theory. I do not think so: Goldsmith just knows how to build suspense, and the brass section is very often used for this. John Williams, for example, is also using the brass section for underscoring the violent moments in “Jurassic Park”. How talented Goldsmith is in bringing suspense into a scene, you can watch in the thrilling “75 seconds” when Sutherlands takes wax imprints of the keys in the station. You can find the scene here, and the track on the album is called “Double Wax Job”. Goldsmith said in an interview that it was only natural for him to record the music in Britain: “It was terrific for me. I said to Crichton: “Can you imagine a bunch of Americans doing a piece of Victorian history? Mind they don’t throw us out there!” Comparing the number of themes in this score, “The Great Train Robbery” is based on just one, but the composer is able to develop this theme through the score, so you do not get bored listen to it. He even composed a Baroque-inspired variation of the main theme in the track “No Respectable Gentleman”, you can hear from 1'10 with the spinet. Additionally, we have a love theme in the music to underscore the seductive and romantic parts of the movie (“Breakfast in bed” or “We go to Paris”). On the expanded CD, you can hear different versions of the same cues and can learn how Goldsmith was playing with his material by trying to find the best fit. One of the best scenes is “When The Gold Arrives”. If you watch carefully, you can see clearly that Connery nearly dripped from the train. This track is a fabulous example how music can underscore victory: When Connery is throwing the gold out of the train, the cymbals are played, and we all understand that the stealing of the gold is successful and all the big effort was finally worth it. With the track “Torn Coat”, we hear that Connery’s victory was just a temporary one because he got caught. When he is later able to escape from court, we hear the finally eruption of the marvellous main theme in the “End Title”. I found a very nice piano version of the “End Title”: I was not able to find a single track with the End Title on YouTube. Therefore, I added a suite that demonstrates the elegance of the score, sometimes really like classical music, and with the “End Title” music later in it. “The Great Train Robbery” is one of Goldsmith’s most elegant scores, highly dynamic and exciting, and marvellous orchestrated. The main theme is one of the best themes Goldsmith ever composed, and the whole score so full of energy that you really have to admire Goldsmith’s composing talent! This kind of soundtracks are sadly not composed anymore. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger..

This week, I want to talk about „North by Northwest“ by Bernard Herrmann. Some people think that this score is the best movie soundtrack ever. Why is this so? Let’s try to give some answers. The movie Alfred Hitchcock created with “North by Northwest” his ultimate thriller movie about his main tale of mistaken identity. This movie is perfectly balanced between action, romantic and comedy. Interesting to mention is also that after this movie Hitchcock directed “Psycho”, a movie totally opposite in the storytelling and one of the first slasher movies. Without “Psycho”, John Carpenter’s “Halloween” would never be possible, but I will discuss “Psycho” in a few weeks. “North by Northwest” screenwriter Ernest Lehman who wrote also the screenplay to Hitchcock’s last movie “Family Plot” wanted to write the “Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures”, and if you compare “North by Northwest” with “Psycho”, I think he reached his goal. Here is the trailer: Some people think that the title “North by Northwest” refers to a compass direction that does not really exist, but the title is also symptomatic for the whole picture. In the scene when Leo G. Carroll explains Cary Grant what is the plot all about, Hitchcock put some airplane noise over the scene, so you have no clue why James Mason is hunting Cary Grant all the time. Later in the movie, it says “government secrets” without giving exact information. There are hundreds of articles written about “North by Northwest”, so it is nearly impossible to mention all the interesting facts about it. For me, this movie is timeless and has a few scenes that are just astonishing. I am not only referring to the showdown on Mount Rushmore, I love especially the crop duster sequence. Hitchcock’s intention was to create a new attack scene which is the totally opposite of the cliché so far. Therefore, Cary Grant is not attacked at night in a dark street, here is attacked on a sunny day in an open field. When I as a teenager saw this movie for the first time, I was too innocent to understand the last scene. Hitchcock always had trouble with censors. In “North by Northwest, one of Eva Marie Saint's line in the dining-car seduction scene has to be redubbed. She originally said "I never make love on an empty stomach", but it was changed in post-production to "I never discuss love on an empty stomach" because the censors considered the original version too risqué. So, what did Hitch do in the last scene? Grant and Saint are kissing, and you see a train entering with high speed a tunnel. This is just gorgeous! The music Bernard Herrmann collaborated with Hitchcock on four movies before. For me Bernard Herrmann’s best scores for Hitchcock are “North by Northwest”, “Vertigo” and “Psycho”, my favourite is “Vertigo” because this is most balanced one. For “North by Northwest” Herrmann composed three types of music: chase, suspense and love music. Especially the romantic music has its origin in the typical romantic music of the late nineteenth century. What Herrmann added, and this makes this score special, is the high amount of percussion instruments. Herrmann used as a base a Fandango, a Spanish couple dance that is usually in triple metre, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, or hand-clapping. This energetic track sets the tone for the whole music and the movie. Here is the main title, some people say it is also a musical expression of the chaotic life in New York: And I found an amazing live performance. Some people think it is too fast, but if you remember that Herrmann was constantly complaining that other people conducts his music too slow, I think this performance is quite right. You can especially see how difficult to play this track is because of its unusual tempi and its constant change of rhythm. The love theme is one of Herrmann’s best, and you hear this lyrical theme first in the train dining sequence. I have to say I am not a big fan of Eva Maria Saint. I think Grace Kelly was the perfect Hitchcock actress. Herrmann’s love theme consists of an interplay between the oboe and the clarinet, and this inter gets supported by strings. The rhythm transforms the movement of a train into musical. Great work, Mr Herrmann! For a long time, fans of the score were just able to get it in a version conducted by Laurie Johnson, but if you compare this recording with Herrmann’s original one, you realize how important it is to buy always a score conducted by Herrmann himself. Intrada finally released a CD with 69 music of the score (a lot you can skip), but with 69 minutes you finally have the whole score in an astonishing recording and with the right tempi. I just want to mention the last tracks for the showdown. Herrmann uses again the full power of the orchestra to build up suspense, especially in the scene when Martin Landau comes closer and steps on Grant’s hand. The percussion is perfectly used to increase the suspense in this scene, a highly effective way to get the audience emotionally involved. Overall, you can say that “North by Northwest” is a classic film music score and like a good score should be: astonishing in supporting the emotions of the movie, timeless in its musical approach and composing style, and with a main theme that you will never forget when you hear it. Really amazing movie music! It is so regrettable that both Hitchcock and Herrmann had such a big ego preventing their fruitful collaboration lasting for a longer period of time. I will discuss their fight on the music for “Torn Curtain” that results in the break-up another time on my website. Now, just enjoy “North by Northwest”. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

The original plan to discuss Danny Elfman's "Edward Scissorhands" in the last review was skipped because I was so excited about „La La Land", the movie and the score. So, now finally, another Danny Elfman score to discuss on my website. The movie "Edward Scissorhands" was one of the first Tim Burton movies I watched. As a big fan of American Horror Star Vincent Price, I was very curious about this movie and considered the plot as romantic, scary and haunting altogether. Tim Burton developed the idea before his successful "Batman"-movie, but was only able to finally release the movie after "Batman". I read that Tom Cruise was the preferred choice of the studio, but the meeting with Cruise and Burton was not successful. Even Tom Hanks turned the part down, so it finally went to Johnny Depp, Burton's first choice. I read that Depp "wept like a newborn" and immediately found personal and emotional connections with the story. Stan Winston created the scissor hands for Edward, and the role of the Inventor was specifically developed for Vincent Price, his last role before he died. Here is the trailer: It is also interesting to know that the genesis of "Edward" came from a drawing by Burton as a teenager which reflected his feelings of isolation and being unable to communicate to the people around him in Burbank, the city he grew up. Caroline Thompsons, a young novelist, put Burton's idea into a screenplay. I found a video with some funny and goofy facts: The movie is one of the greatest fairy tales Burton ever put on screen. Edward is found living alone in the attic of a Gothic castle, a setting that is also used for main characters in "Batman" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Like in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", a mob confronts the „evil creature“ and tries to kill him. Similar to "Beauty and the Beast", Edward is unable to express his love for Kim, played by first choice actress Winona Ryder, and last but not least, the movies shows in the setting and topics a lot of influence of German Expressionism and Gothic fiction archetypes. This is perhaps just a small observation but when you watch the beginning and the end scenes and see this little girl in her huge bed, you can imagine how great Tim Burton is to give his audience the vision how lonely a kid can sometimes feels in his or her bed... The music "Edward Scissorhands" is the fourth feature film collaboration between director Burton and composer Danny Elfman. The orchestra consisted of 79 musicians, and Elfman cites "Scissorhands" as his most personal and favorite work. In addition to Elfman's music, three Tom Jones songs were also added. The main theme became one of Elfman's well-known themes. When I attended a Jerry Goldsmith concert in London, I met a local Jazz composer and he was writing the music for a Christmas movie from Albania. The director asked to compose the music exactly in the style of "Edward Scissorhands". For me "Batman" and "Edward" are Elfman's best scores. Both were very orchestrated by Steve Bartek and conducted by Shirley Walker. Elfman uses his typical minimalistic style but also added a choir, and this increases the lyrical approach and furthermore emphasizes the fairy tale aspects of both movies. Here you can listen to the main theme, the beautiful waltz Elfman created. Elfman starts with some chimes, so the music sounds like a lullaby: I also found a piano version of the theme: The album from 1990 I bought has 16 score tracks and runs 49 minutes. Like all Elfman scores, the music becomes a little bit repetitive after a while, and you can skip some tracks and listen to the best ones. One of these is for one of the most beautiful scenes in the movie: "Ice Dance": During the Christmas holiday, Edward carves an angelic ice sculpture modelled after Kim (Ryder). The ice shavings being thrown into the air and falling down like snow, a rarity in this area. Kim dances in the snowfall. Jim, Kim's jealous boyfriend, arrives and calls out to Edward, which surprises him and he accidentally cuts Kim's hand. See here the scene: The album is musical storytelling at his best: "Introduction", the first track, introduces the lovely main theme, track 2 "Storytelling" gives us the background to the story. Elfman composed a lovely piece of music before with track 3 "Castle On The Hills", the haunting and darker aspects of the story and the score start. Track 4 "Beautiful New World/Home Sweet Home" has a wonderful opening with the sharp. Track 5 "Cookie Factory" I normally skip; this track is composed in the typical "Beetlejuice" style. I am not a big fan of this kind of music. Therefore, I also skip the next track "Ballet De Suburbia" (even though the use of the sax is very nice). These tracks are more musical Micky Mousing which Elfman is really good in. Remember, he also composed the music for "The Simpsons". We then have the "Ice Dance", and with "Edward Meets the World: Etiquette Lesson" we are back to the lyrical parts of the score. Track 9 "Edward the Barber" is more of a musical joke with a funny use of the Spanish Castanets and a nice fast woodwind performance in the middle of the track. Track 10 "Esmeralda" is a short one (I also normally skip), and with "Death", we have one of the saddest tracks of the score, a good musical expression of feeling lonely. "The Tide Turns" comprised three key scenes: the House Robbery, Kevin's Rescue, and Edward's outburst. I also normally skip this track. "With Final Confrontation", we have the dramatic music for the showdown. Elfman uses the choir in a very haunting way. The music is purely dramatic, and for sure one of the best tracks, Elfman ever composed. Even though the scene is very dramatic, Elfman balances the track very good between the lyrical parts and the dramatic moments. You should listen to the next tracks "Farewell", "The Grand Finale" and "The End" together without taking a break. This is like a wonderful suite, with "The Grand Finale" as one of the best tracks of the whole score. Listen to "Grand Finale" here: "Edward Scissorhands" is not just a wonderful score, it is for sure one of the best scores Elfman ever composed and just a heart-warming score that can bring you tears in your eyes... I found here a live performance, not the best one, but the solo violist at 6'30 is nice to watch: Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

The original idea to talk about Danny Elfman’s score for “Edward Scissorhands”, I skipped after seeing “La La Land”. What a great movie, and what a great score! Therefore, this score will be discussed this week. The movie I heard a lot about “La La Land” before finally seeing it. In general, I am not a big fan of watching a musical on screen. I prefer to see them on stage, but I was finally curious to watch it because so many people were talking about it. I did not read any reviews, I never watched a movie of the director or listened to any music of the composer and could not even remember if I ever watched a movie with Emma Stone. Of course, I saw a few movies with Ryan Gosling, e.g. “The Ides of March” (2011) with George Clooney and which I did not like very much, but I loved “The Notebook” (2004), not because of Gosling, more because of Rachel McAdams, and I am still a great fan of her. Therefore, it was just pure curiosity to see it. Here is a trailer: Normally it is always a little awkward when you see a movie, and then suddenly the actors start to sing because there is, in general, no reason for doing so. “La La Land” is also different in this aspect. This beginning with standing in the always annoying traffic in Los Angeles, getting tired and bored and then finally start to sing because of you are bored and want to entertain yourself, first slowly, then with more and more passion and finally more people (including a combo playing in a van) are joining you… this was such a great idea and a great beginning! With this scene, the entertaining music and the passion of the singers to perform this scene, I immediately began to like what I was seeing. I was also immediately caught the score: This is exactly the music I want to hear in a musical, slightly-jazzy, dynamic and fun to listen to, just pure entertainment. The title “La La Land” refers to the city of Los Angeles, but is also an idiom for being out of touch with reality. Director Damien Chazelle, born 1985, directs with this movie just his second one after “Whiplash” (2014, also about Jazz). He wrote the script 2010, but could not find a studio willing to finance the production. Following the success of “Whiplash”, Chazelle was finally able to do it. Justin Hurwitz, also the composer of “Whiplash”, met Chazelle at Harvard. They were playing in the same band and then became roomies. In an interview with Hollywoodreporter, Chazelle explained the idea of the movie: ““Now more than ever we need hope and romance on the screen, and I think there’s something about musicals that just get at something that only movies can do. That idea of movies as a dreamland, movies as the language of our dreams and movies as a way of expressing a world in which you break into song, that emotions can violate the rules of reality. There is something very poetic about Los Angeles I think, about a city that is built by people with these unrealistic dreams and people who kind of just put it all on the line for that. “ Chazelle admitted that it was a challenge to place a musical in today’s world, but he was able to fall back on the timelessness of classic musicals to find his way. “La La Land” should also be an homage to all the creative people who moved to Los Angeles to chase their dreams”, said the director, and because of that, the film also has numerous visual allusions to Hollywood classics such as “Broadway Melody of 1940”, “Singin' in the Rain”, and “The Band Wagon”. The music is not only the reason that “La La Land” is so successful, the screenplay is also very well written, and the cast just perfectly fits. The story has a good sense of humour, but also a good amount of sad moments. Emma Stone is just astonishing in her role. For me, the best part is the ending, especially the last minutes of the movie, the “Epilogue” scene. After seeing it, I watched it two weeks later again, and these last minutes touched me even more, really made me almost cry. Well done! This is just great storytelling! The music The score is composed and orchestrated by Justin Hurwitz. The soundtrack has 15 tracks and starts with “Another Day of Sun”, the energetic dance number from the opening scene and the only cast song. This first track sets the tone for the rest of the score, the lyrics emphasize the importance of dreaming. This feel-good song is a perfect start of the album and the movie. The next track “Someone in the crowd” is the second highlight. Music should tell a story, and this song is exactly doing it: “Somewhere there’s a place / Where I find who I’m gonna be / Somewhere that’s just waiting to be found”, perhaps summarize of life as a journey. Emma Stone and her roomies are giving a great and lively performance in the scene in the movie that is just astonishing. Here is the song with scenes of the movie: Track 3 “Mia & Sebastian's Theme" is a wonderful piano track. This theme is a great balanced piece of music with a melody that you will never forget after you heard it. Track 4 “A Lovely Night” is the next highlight. The music underscores the first real scene between Mia and Sebastian and captures perfectly the playfulness of the relationship, and when suddenly the music breaks out into a tap dancing number, we have one of the best scenes in the movie. There are two versions of “City of Stars” (track 6, Ryan Gosling alone), and track 9 with Ryan and Emma Stone. This song won the Academy Award for Best Song, and it is highly deserved. Track 12 “Audition (The Fools Who Dreams)” is the last song on the album and the best song of the whole score. When Emma Stone is asked during the audition to tell a story, it becomes the story of her own dreams and disillusions. This scene is the first step to her final success in the end, a magical scene in the movie! We have a lot of instrument tracks on this score. I already mentioned track 3, but my personal favourites are “Planetarium” (track 7) and especially track 13 “Epilogue” (with some vocals in the end). We have a lot of instrument tracks on this score. I already mentioned track 3, but my personal favourites are “Planetarium” (track 7) and especially track 13 “Epilogue” (with some vocals in the end). When I was watching this “Epilogue” scene, an idea came to my mind: German opera composer Richard Wagner created a so-called “Tristan Accord” for his opera “Tristan und Isolde”. An accord consists normally of three notes, and they all have to be played, but because Tristan and Isolde are constantly interrupted when they are together, Wagner did not let all three notes of this accord during the opera until the final scene. Just in the last scene, the death scene, Wagner let the orchestra play the full accord. The music expresses the idea that now the couple is finally together, together in the moment of death. When you now listen to the last scene and watch how Sebastian plays his melody, I got the impression that he did not play the last note. He did not finish the theme in this scene because he and Mia did not come together in the end…. Might this be true? Happy to get comments about this. For me, “La La Land” is not only a great feel-good movie, it also tells a wonderful story about two creative people who believed in their dreams. Like each good movie, “La La Land” has also its sad moments, and the last scene is one of the saddest moments I saw recently. Both smile at each other, but you can see they are thinking that they – excuse me – just fucked up their chance to become happy together… is Mia really happy after this scene? I doubt it, her smile is not a real smile. It is the smile you put on your face when you try to hide your tears. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

This week, because of Jerry Goldsmith’s 88th birthday at February, 10th , just some very personal notes. Without doubt, Jerry Goldsmith is the most gifted film music composer ever! Hans Zimmer might be more popular, John Williams composed for more popular movies, John Barry is famous because of “James Bond”, and James Horner very well-known for the James Cameron collaboration, but Jerry was the most-gifted and had the most variable composing style. What Jerry truly missed in his career, was a big hit score, but perhaps this was also because of this complex composing style. Jerry’s music is not so easy listening such as Zimmer’s scores. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I discovered Jerry Goldsmith’s music in 1989. I cannot remember which the first Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack was, but I am pretty sure, “Explorers” was one of the first. I watched this crappy movie because it was another movie of “Gremlins”-director Joe Dante, but when I watched “Explorers” because of “Gremlins”, then I knew that Jerry composed the music for Gremlins, see, it becomes tricky... But, for sure, I know that “Explorers” was the first Jerry CD I bought. The first LP of a Jerry score was “The Secret of NimH”, still one of my favourite scores. I also remember when I was a teenager and listened to the track “The Tractor”, my mom was a little astonished about the dramatic music I suddenly preferred except to the more melodic soundtracks I listened before. Since 1989, I became a huge fan of Jerry’s music, and for the whole year, I just listened to music of this composer, a whole year no other soundtracks! And the best thing was, I did not feel bored! I felt like a fish in the water with so many great scores and really enjoyed this truly gifted composer! In the following years, I watched a lot of movies just because of Jerry’s music, and it was a lot of crap among them, and I also throw one of his scores on the floor because it was so boring and the most unstimulating music I ever heard. This was the score for “Criminal Law”. Each year, I watched the Academy Award ceremony. Jerry was 18. (!) times nominated, one time I saw him in the audience, I think it was in the year of “Basic Instinct”, but even in this year he did not won. His only Oscar was for the “The Omen” (1976), long ago. Each year I became a bigger fan of Jerry. I felt like I was supporting an underdog. Jerry was the far better composer, but he never won, in 1987 his score for “Hoosiers” was nominated and he lost against “Round Midnight”, does anybody remember the score? 1980, Jerry’s score for “Star Trek” was nominated, and George Delerue won for “A Little Romance”. I love Delerue, but really, for this score an Oscar? 1993, Jerry was nominated for “Basic Instinct”, and who won? Alan Menken for “Aladdin”, he won the year before with “The Beauty And The Best”, now a second score for a nearly similar soundtrack? Oh, come on!!, and Jerry also made jokes about that “L.A. Confidential” lost against a sinking ship, Horner got the Oscar for “Titanic”. When I discovered that Jerry was giving annual concerts in London, I immediately bought the ticket, and when I was finally sitting in the Barbican in London and saw Jerry coming to the stage and listened to his music and his comments, I have to say this was the happiest moment of my life!! Since then, I attended every concert, and also the last concert (for his 75th Birthday) that was announced, but Jerry was too ill to come. Then Jerry died on July 21st, 2004, and since then film music is never the same. I watched “Lonely Tunes” because this was Jerry’s last score, and when I saw “Star Trek: Nemesis” and the name Jerry Goldsmith appeared on the screen, I got tears in my eyes... I want now present here six favourite tracks of Jerry’s music, each of them has a special place in my heart, and I will give no explanations, some of them I already discussed on my blog, others will follow: “The construction” – “Explorers” “End Titles” – “The Secret of NimH”: “Square One - End Credits” – “The Burbs” “Overture” – “The Great Train Robbery” “Bajo Fuego” – “Under Fire” “The Omen – Suite” Jerry, you are so missed!!! Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2017, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.