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  • Gotcha! – Bill Conti - Soundtrack Review

    The only good aspect about these crazy CVSID - Corona Virus Self Isolation Days - is that I have time to update my blog. So, let’s talk about another Bill Conti score: “Gotcha!”. At first, I wanted to talk about Stephen Warbeck’s “Hamsted”, a movie I saw on a family trip to Brazil. The movie is fun to watch, and music has a nice theme, but because Intrada released Bill Conti’s “Gotcha”, I wanted to talk about this one this week as another CD with some of the finest action pieces written by Conti. The movie “Gotcha!” is a 1985 American action comedy film, starring Anthony Edwards and Linda Fiorentino and directed by Jeff Kanew, who also directed Edwards in “Revenge of the Nerds” in 1984. Some people might remember Kanew as director of “Touch Guys”, an action comedy with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas as freshly relieved out-of-prison-gangsters in their final film together. Kanew later directed “V.I. Warshawski”, an action-comedy with Kathleen Turner. Anthony Edwards is very well-known for his role as Dr. Mark Greene in “ER”, for which he received a Golden Globe award, and he also played Tom Cruise’s buddy Goose in “Top Gun” (1986). Here a trailer I found: Nowadays, when more and more people, especially the younger generation, glorify Socialism, movies like “Gotcha!” should be watched again because you get an insight what life in the Cold War and Socialism had been. German actor Klaus Loewitsch plays Russian KGB Agent Vlad, the antagonist in this movie, who gives Edwards a hard time. The plot is easily told, but I will not tell too much, so people who did not watch the movie so far, can still enjoy it: Edwards is playing a game called "Gotcha" (popular on 1980s college campuses as "Assassin"), wherein the players are all assigned a mock "hit" on another player by the use of a paintball gun. The plot really starts when Edwards and his Latino roommate Manolo (Nick Corri) go on a vacation to Paris. After touring and dealing with speaking French – there are two hilarious scenes in the movie -, Edwards meets Sasha Banicek (Linda Fiorentino), a Czechoslovakian girl, in a café. Edwards who had a long and unsuccessful career for getting laid at university is so happy that the little dominant Sasha is falling for him, and, finally, he is losing his virginity. Here is one of the French speaking scenes: They continue to spend time with each other, going to West Berlin and even to East Berlin because Sasha told Edwards that she has to pick up a package, as she works as a courier. Normally, each Western Guy would be highly suspicious to go a communistic country, but hey, we are in a movie, and this guy is blind of love or sex, you can choose. We also see that Sasha is observed by a KGB agent (Loewitsch). During a walk, Sasha tells Edwards that if she gives him a certain message, it means that he must immediately leave East Berlin. And, of course, this situation happens, and we have one of the most suspenseful scenes in this movie. Before that, Sasha slipped an object into Edwards’ backpack, and that is the reason that he is being chased now by Soviet agents and the East German police. I will stop here, so you can enjoy the following scenes and the nice showdown. The music In the CD liner notes, Kanew explained that he used James Horner’s “Gorky Park” (1983) as temp tracks. Conti compared “Gotcha” with “For Your Eyes Only” (1981), the James Bond movie he scored and which I also discussed on my blog and in my book: The difference between these two movies is that James Bond is a professional spy and Edwards a fish out of water: “Changing emotion and chasing the ride that Gotcha! was going on made this an exciting project.” When I saw this movie as a teenager, there was a soundtrack LP, but it offered mostly the songs which I was not interested in and only two tracks by Conti. The CD now gives us 32 tracks and 50 minutes. From track 18 on, alternative tracks and source tracks are presented. The tracks can be separated in the quieter ones and the action tracks. Conti explained: “There’s a whole history of what “Russian Music” sounds like. Just the sound of an instrument like the balalaika will give you that feeling, and, of course, Russia also has this traditional great dark orchestral music. So, if you’re being chased by Russians, and want musically point to them, I’m saying “this is what I think they sound like.”” Conti uses a lot of percussions for the action music, and for the quieter parts the already mentioned Russian music, emphasized by strings in “Sascha’s Secret” (track 4), one of the best tracks. The following one “Love in the D.D.R.”, uses the French Horn at the beginning which reminds us about the lyrical tracks in the “Rocky” scores, especially the track “Mickey” in “Rocky 3”. The next track “Sascha, Meet Vlad” is another great track with the “Russian music” and the strings and the piano alternating to create wonderful suspense music. Well done! With “Check Point”, we have the start of the action music even though track 2 “Jon Gets His Guy” is the first action track (I cannot remember the scene for this one). “Check Point” underscores the scene when Sasha is telling Edwards to leave the DDR. For all who bought the LP like me, they remember the track “On the Edge”, this music is now called to “Jon, Meet Vlad”. On the CD, you can find this LP track also, the music is a little different (from 1’48’’), especially in the end, and you can decide which track you like more. Here are the two LP tracks: Conti said about this chase music: “It’s wonderful when I get to do big chases that are dramatic and fun. The French horn where the notes are way in the stratosphere is typical of that period for me, along with the high string lines, punching brass and melodies that I like. When you’re using electronics and drum machines with the classical idea, then you’ve got the whole gamut.” The next track is nice because of the quieter parts in the second half, track 15 “Hither and Yon” is a funky Jazz track. With “On the Edge”, we have now finally the music for the big show down, a fabulous action track, pushing constantly forward in the way only Conti could write it, this time with swirling strings, electronics, Russian music, and a lot of percussion. I am a big fan of the string part at 1’35’’ before the action music comes in again. The main theme for this score is such a good one, and I really like the way how Conti uses it sometimes dominant in the foreground, but also in the background, here with the brass section. The last 28 seconds sounds musically a little strange, but this is because we have a slow-motion scene here. Track 26 gives an alternative cue without this last part. Another alternative cue is the track called “Check Point” which seems just to be composed for the LP and is not a track from the music in the movie. I did not even like this track on the LP, so I skip it. Overall, “Gotcha!” is still a funny movie to watch, a typical 80s action comedy, with a very erotic Linda Fiorentino. Conti’s action tracks are one of his nicest and a very good reason to buy this CD! Enjoy the music! Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2020, 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.

  • Psycho 2 - Jerry Goldsmith - Soundtrack Review

    The idea to talk about this score was a result of a harsh argument with a fan of the score on Facebook. Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” is one of my all-time favourites, “Psycho 2”, however, I did not like from the beginning: The movie had some great ideas, but in the end, it is just too violent, especially in the showdown and the last scene, and overall just half of a good movie. The movie “Psycho II” (1983), directed by Richard Franklin and written by Tom Holland, brought back Anthony Perkins in his most famous role, Vera Miles as Lila Loomis, Robert Loggia as Norman’s Psychologist, and Meg Tilly as the love-interest and Vera Miles’ daughter. Set 22 years after the first film, it follows Norman Bates after he is released from the mental institution and his returns to the house and the Motel to continue a normal life. However, his troubled past continues to haunt him. Here is the trailer: English writer Robert Bloch wrote a sequel to “Psycho” in 1982. As a great fan of the author, I read the book as a teenager, but I think he is better in short stories than in novels. Bloch’s “Psycho 2” satirized Hollywood slasher films, and – SPOILER – because Bates died in the novel -, Hollywood could not use the plot. The novel has a nice twist because Bates’ death is just told in the end after the identity of the murder is revealed. Until this scene, the reader believes that Bates is responsible for the murders. Universal decided to make their own version that differed from Bloch's plot. Australian Richard Franklin, who was Hitchcock's student and visited him on the set of “Topaz” (1969), was hired to direct. In a nice documentary on YouTube called “Sympathy for the Devil”, screen author Tom Holland explained that his approach was that the audience should feel sorry for Norman, so exactly like in the original one. Here you can find the link: This approach was exactly right, and if director and writer would have left the annoying shock effects behind, “Psycho 2” would be a brilliant horror movie. However, I have to admit that the ending, even though it is horrifying, makes sense and ends the circle: Norman has his motel and his mother back. Franklin and Holland wanted the film to be a tribute to the original film, and to accomplish this, they added various in-jokes such as the scene when Mary and Norman first go into Norman's mother's room. Before they turn the lights on, Alfred Hitchcock's silhouette is visible on the wall to the far right. Look closely! Franklin also repeated various shots from the original film such as when Norman walks into the kitchen and sets his jacket down on the chair. Reflecting on his experience, Franklin recalled Perkins as being very generous and praised Miles as a "powerhouse" and "one of the most forceful" actress he had worked with. Meg Tilly, as rumours said, had a hard time on the set because she could not accept that Perkins was the star. Robert Loggia finds his death in one of the most shocking scenes which burnt deep into my memory. The music Wikipedia mentioned that John Williams was considered to do the score, but it was decided to go with Jerry Goldsmith. In my opinion, Goldsmith was the only choice. He was a long-time friend of Bernard Hermann and worked with him on the famous series “Twilight Zone”. On some film assignments, as you can read on filmtracks, Goldsmith would discover that the director had used some of Herrmann's music as temp tracks. Goldsmith would often joke about this: "Not Benny again!". Goldsmith showed his sense of humour when he conducted a recording of "The Murder" for the opening of “Psycho 2” and mentioned that Herrmann "must be rolling over in his grave." I still have just the MCA records release with 30 minutes of the score (9 tracks, 8 Goldsmith originals). In 2014, Intrada released the complete score, but I am not able to get this one. To start with a personal note: I am not a big fan of the music Goldsmith wrote for “Psycho 2”. I think it is one of his weakest scores up to date. But, let’s be fair: After Herrmann’s score, every composer would fail to write a sequel. However, Jerry Goldsmith’s approach was right. There is no way in competing with Herrmann’s brilliance in his string-only score. Therefore, Goldsmith composed a very lyrical theme to emphasize on Norman’s innocence and his psychological weakness. The main theme is a melody of pure innocence, very lyrical and very simple and not haunting at all. It is very peaceful music and, in its simplicity, pure beauty! Here is the Main title: In one scene, Norman plays one of the most beautiful pieces Ludwig van Beethoven ever composed, the Sonata #14 “Mondscheinsonate” for piano. Was this perhaps the reason that the piano is the main instrument in the “Psycho 2” score? The score has a lot of typical suspense music. The piano is used for the lyrical theme but also used to create suspense. Goldsmith also added synthesizers, but the usage is a little odd and unnecessary. Track 3 “Don’t take me” is a perfect example of the haunting music. The next track “Mother’s Room” is a typical suspense track, and some music reminds me of “The Secret Of NIMH” (1982). The tracks on the album are not in the order as they are heard in the movie. I do not understand this approach because you have the music for the big showdown in the middle, and the weak track “Blood Bath” before the “End Titles”. “New Furniture”, the track after the showdown music, is one of the more lyrical tracks. It is a heart-warming piece when you see it combined with the scene in the movie. “The Cellar” is the music for a shocking murder scene. If you compare this track with Herrmann’s “The Murder”, you know that I mean when I consider “Psycho 2” as a weak score. The “End Title” brings the movie and the score to an end. I especially like the first part of the track. When you see Norman Bates standing close to his house again with his mother in the window and hear then Jerry Goldsmith’s music, you have the feeling you saw a much better movie than you really have seen. The best track of the score is “It’s Not Your Mother”: This 5-minutes-track is also the longest track of the score and a reason to buy the score. Goldsmith created a very nice example of haunting music in the first minutes. When the violence starts, he tries his best to underscore this bloody showdown. This scene shows what a great actor Anthony Perkins is! How he brings Norman’s personality on the screen and let the audience nearly burst into tears because you know he is close to getting finally insane and back to asylum again, is pure cinema magic! Goldsmith’s music is best when he builds up tension. The underscoring of the violent scenes is the weakest part of the score, the synthesizers are not necessary, but how finally Goldsmith underscores the last 60 seconds of this showdown, is still admirable. Enough critic! Compare to the crappy horror movies these days, “Psycho 2” has also its good sites even though the gore effects are mostly so over the top that they are nearly ridiculous. In the documentary, Tom Holland said that the effect when Norman tries to grab the knife from Mary Loomis and the knife runs through his hands was a necessary effect and “felt right”, but this is not convincing. Nobody would grab a knife like that! I do not understand why critics praise “Psycho 3” so much because the music is weak and some scenes are just nonsense, especially the nude scenes and the killing on the toilet. And just the reference to “Vertigo” in the beginning, is not enough to praise “Psycho 3” as a good movie. It is a typical slasher movie, even though it has the benefits that the movie does not take itself too seriously. “Psycho 4” however, again with a screenplay by Joseph Stefano, is more fun. The idea is so simple and so great: A once-again rehabilitated Norman Bates is now married to a psychiatrist named Connie and is expecting a child. Norman secretly fears that the child will inherit his mental illness, so he must seek closure once and for all. The movie is mostly Norman talking to a psychologist with flashbacks to tell his story when he was a child, but what really will catch you are the last seconds! This last scene is pure gold, and I should watch it again! Here is the trailer: Jerry Goldsmith and Richard Franklin continued to work together. Her next movie is called “Link” (1986), and Goldsmith’s music to this movie is more fun! copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2020, 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.

  • Airport 1975 – John Cacavas – Soundtrack Review

    This week, I want to talk about a nearly forgotten composer: John Cacavas. He composed the music for two of the famous “Airport”-movies, also for the last Hammer-Dracula called “The Satanic Rites of Dracula” (1973) and for the Horror-Kult “Horror Express” (1972). Cacavas’ music is typical 70s, but with his sense for wonderful themes and instrumentation worth to discover again. The composer John Cacavas (1930-2014) was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota. His father was an immigrant from Greece and his mother was born in North Dakota. While in school, John displayed an early talent for music, forming a local band at age 14, and later studied musical composition at Northwestern University. During military service, Cacavas was assigned to Washington, DC where he was an arranger for the United States Army Band. There he met Charles Osgood, with whom he collaborated on musical compositions and recordings. While working in London in the 1970s, Cacavas met Telly Savalas, who later helped him moving into scoring the music for movies. Cacavas music for “Horror Express” starring Savalas, and the Hammer stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee is still quite famous. Cacavas then moved to Hollywood and composed music for various TV shows. For the 5th and final season of “Kojak” with Telly Savalas, Cacavas composed the new main theme. Listen to it here: Cacavas has an amazing amount of television credits, including “Hawaii Five-O”, “The Bionic Woman”, “Mrs. Columbo” and TV Movies such as “The Elevator” (1974), “Murder at the World Series” (1977), “The Time Machine” (1978)” and “Hellinger's Law” (1981), a pilot for a new series with Telly Savalas which in the end was not made. Cacavas continued to work with Savalas on “The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission” (1987) and the sequel. His later television credits included miniseries such as “Jenny's War” (1985), “Confessional” (1989) and “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” (2000). His feature movie scores include “Airport 1975” and “Airport '77”, “Hangar 18” (1980), “Gangster Wars” (1981), “Mortuary” (1983), and “They're Playing with Fire” (1984). Cacavas is also notable for his "Flute Poem", known by Canadian viewers as the opening to “Hinterland Who's Who”, a series of public service announcements, and he wrote the theme song for the 2005 video game “Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories”. The song, "March Popakov Remix", was sampled by DJ Danger Mouse and is used frequently in the game. I found the music for “Grand Theft Auto” here. It has still the typical John Cacavas sound, and I really love it: The movie “Airport 1975” is the first sequel to the successful “Airport” (1970) based on Arthur Hailey’s book. Directed by Jack Smight and starring Charlton Heston, Karen Black and George Kennedy as Joe Patroni as well as Gloria Swanson in her final screen appearance. Interesting to know is that in 1978 a similar accident happened when a small airplane crashed with Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182. All 135 people on the aircraft and seven people on the ground were killed, a failure of the PSA flight resulted in the crash. 1986, another similar crash happened: Aeroméxico-Flight 498 crashed with a small piper. In this case, it was a mistake of the piper. All 67 people on both aircraft and 15 people on the ground were killed. Compared with the later „Airport 77”, the movie is not so spectacular, but it was a huge commercial success and the seventh highest-grossing film of 1974. Heston plays his role with routine and says one of the most unromantic “I love you” in movie history, but the star of the movie is Karen Black who is giving a tremendous performance. Before writing this review, I checked out her career, and she is a very interesting person with her political views and her work in independent films. Some people say the Boeing 747 is the real star because it is such an elegant airplane. Here is the trailer for the movie: “Airport 1975” is also famous because of the Zucker parody “Airplane! (1980). In “Airport 1975”, a nun and also a child in need of an organ transplant are part of the story, and “Airplane” parodies both characters in a great way. The music Both Cacavas “Airport” scores have very majestic scores. I just like the main theme for “Airport 1975” better because of the brass section and the electronical spinet. While the music plays, you see Karen Black from behind with a nice green scarf walking her way through the airport until she finally meets and kisses Charlton Heston. The music has a very elegant style with a sad tone that immediately touched me when I first heard it as a teenager. Here is the Main Title: The album has 12 tracks, but most of them I skip. With track 2 “Destination Elko”, you have the typical suspense tracks for this kind of movie. Track 3 “How Insensitive” is a typical source track in the 70s style. Track 4 “Interludium” plays the main theme again with a bigger dominance of the string section, a very nice one. Track 5 “Airborne: Three Moods” is a mixture of suspense and source music. Track 6 “Inflight Collision” underscores the accident, a good suspense track. Track 7 “Theme Airport 1975” is purely enjoyable, with a typical 70s disco touch, track 8 “Montage”: just another suspense track, and track 9 “Alexander’s Death” underscores the tragic death of the first guy who wants to enter the plane through the hole in the cockpit. The scene does not give Cacavas a lot to do instead of typical suspense music, so also a track to skip. Track 10 “Murdock Makes It” does not need any explanation when you know that Heston’s character is named Murdock. Track 11 “Suspense, Approach and Landing” is the music for the big showdown, with 5 minutes the longest one, and “Finale, End Titles” brings the album to an end. To be honest, this album is not a must-have, but for me who grew up with the “Airport”-movies, it is more than a good memory. I really like Cacavas main theme, and for fans it is worth to by. Here is the End Title for the “Airport ‘77” To give you a better picture of this composer, let me add here the main theme to “The Satanic Rites of Dracula” And my favourite Cacavas Track, the end title to “Horror Express”: copyright ©Stefan Riedlinger, 2020, 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.

  • Hampstead - Stephen Warbeck - Soundtrack Review

    The idea to talk about “Hampstead” was developed last year. I was looking for a nice score for my December review. I had no time to watch “The Grinch” with James Horner’s score and then chose “Hampstead”, as a nice and unspectacular score because I just like the main theme so much. The movie “Hampstead” is a 2017 British drama film directed by Joel Hopkins and written by Robert Festinger. It is based on the life of Harry Hallowes who successfully claimed ownership of a half-acre plot of Hampstead Heath. The film stars Diane Keaton and Brendan Gleeson in the main roles. The film was released on 23 June 2017, by Entertainment One Films. Here is the trailer: The movie is a typical Diane Keaton movie, and she plays her typical character, nothing special, but enjoyable. “Hampstead” is not the kind of movie I would go to the cinema to, but I saw the movie on a family trip to Brazil on a long flight. I was tired of the usual action movies, so I decided to go with “Hampstead”. When I heard the main theme, I immediately loved it. What a wonderful theme, and therefore, I wanted to talk about “Hampstead” on my blog. If you check the reviews on amazon, you found some very harsh and unfair comments. This movie does not want to invent a new way of storytelling and, of course, uses a lot of stereotypes in the story, but to be frank, it is a heart-warming movie with a nice story about two people falling in love. Isn’t this enough sometimes? The music Stephen Warbeck, born 1953 in Southampton (yes, the city where the Titanic left for her big journey) is an English composer. He first became known for the music for “Prime Suspect”, a television drama series with Helen Mirren, and won an Academy Award for his music for “Shakespeare in Love” (1998). That music has also a very nice main theme, and I bought the soundtrack just because of the theme. I have to admit that since then, I just listened to the soundtrack once or twice and never to the whole score. I just liked the main theme with its lovely melody and therefore, mostly just listened to the first track on the album. I am still wondering why this music got an Academy Award? Remember, Jerry Goldsmith was also nominated in the same category with his fantastic score for “Mulan”. Normally, composing the music for a Disney movie is a great chance to win an Oscar. Alan Menken got a lot of Oscars for his scores for Disney movies, and Hans Zimmer won his only Oscar so far for “Lion King”. So, I thought, Jerry might finally win his second Oscar with “Mulan”, and then he lost against “Shakespeare in Love” Really? Another time, the Academy showed that their sense of music is really nothing to be proud of. Back to “Hampstead”: It took me a while to get a CD with the music, the score was first released as downloads. The album consists of 17 tracks. The first track “Hampstead” brings us the beautiful main theme, and i is also the best track of the whole score. Just listen to it and enjoy! I like especially how the piano and the mandolin work together. This main theme gives this score a unique touch. Warbeck uses the mandolin a lot, and these tracks are the best of the score, for example, “The Petition”, “The Cemetery”, “The Campaign”, “To The Museum”, and “Fishing for Dinner”. Some of these tracks are energetic, some are more lyrical and nearly sad such as “The Photographs”, “Judgment”, “Leaving The Hut”, ”Leaving Hamstead”, and “Fishing Trip”. The second last track “New Beginning” brings the score to an end. A very nice track that does not use the main theme, quite unusual for this album, one of my favourite tracks of this score. With the last track, you have again the main theme that brings the album to an end. Overall the music is a little repetitive because Warbeck just has one theme which he constantly uses. There is not so much variation in the music, and this is a little boring when you want to listen to the whole album. Nevertheless, the main theme is so beautiful that you should not miss listening to it. Enjoy the music on some quieter days while looking forward to your next walk in nature! I found a nice video on YouTube about the Hampstead district in London:

  • Jurassic Park - John Williams - Soundtrack Review

    The idea to discuss this week John Williams’ “Jurassic Park” might a little surprising because there is not a new movie in this franchise announced, but I was attending a live performance in the Royal Albert Hall in London, so I thought this soundtrack is a good choice for this week. The Royal Albert Hall has a series of movies to been seen, but the special part is that the soundtrack is played live during the screening of the movie. I attended “ID4” with David Arnold, watched “Jurassic Park” and last week, I saw “Aliens”, and the most surprising fact was that James Cameron, Anne Gale Hurd and Sigourney Weaver were coming to the stage after the performance. They all showed their respect to James Horner who died last year in his plane crash. The movie “Jurassic Park” was always one of my favourite Steven Spielberg movies, and even after 13 years, it is still such a great one. I personally do not care that “Jurassic World” has the better Special Effects, it is just the way how Spielberg directed it and build up suspense. Remember the scene in the car..., and the camera is just focussing on the two cups of water, and then you hear the noise of the approaching footsteps of the T-Rex… Here is a trailer: Michael Crichton wrote a fantastic novel, for me his best, and that the movie is so good, it is for sure also because of his screenplay that he wrote with David Koepp together. I heard that Crichton was a very difficult character to deal with and that he was mostly unhappy with the films based on his novels. Some directors were complaining about his way of dealing with people, but anyway, here is not the way and time to discuss this. For 1993, the Special Effects were astonishing. With an excellent cast – Richard Attenborough, Jeff Goldblum in a great performance, Laura Dern and Sam Neill with some great lines, a rough sense of humour and especially a great amount of shocking moments, this movie became the highest grossing until “Titanic”. “Jurassic Park” is a little bit like a modern version of Spielberg’s “Jaws”, and you can see how good he is a director of horror scenes. If you think of that Spielberg finished “Jurassic Park” while shooting “Schindler’s List”, also with John Williams composing the music, you can really imagine what these two people achieved with these two movies. The music John Williams created one of his best main themes for the movie, a theme that is majestic like the typical Williams’s theme. Since the movie starts with a shocking scene, there is no real main title, we just have an opening “bang” of the drums in “Opening Titles” that last just 30 seconds. With “Theme From Jurassic Park”, we finally have the main theme, played on the horns, with later the strings coming in... just a beautiful piece of music. Here is a video with the composer conducting his own music: This score combines the typical majestic themes, but also Williams' ability to compose very rude and sometimes brutal orchestral action music. During all this action, there are still some moments of piece in the score. Williams said in an interview that similar to “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind”, he felt the need to write "pieces that would convey a sense of 'awe' and fascination" given it dealt with the "overwhelming happiness and excitement" that would emerge from seeing live dinosaurs. Williams described the score as "a rugged, noisy effort - a massive job of symphonic cartooning", saying that while trying to "have to match the rhythmic gyrations of the dinosaurs" he created "these kind of funny ballets". I do not want to go through all the tracks of the soundtrack album. The original album had 16 tracks, and the 20th Anniversary soundtrack added four more. An absolute highlight is track 4 “Journey to the Island” when the cast arrives at the island, seeing this track performed live was just amazing. With track 3 “The Raptor Attack”, we have the first great action piece that introduces another third theme of the score, some people call it the panic theme, and with is growling brass, it is a scary piece that reminds you of the darker moments of “Jaws”. I still have some trouble with this kind of fiercing music Williams like to compose, they have a great result in the picture but listening to them on the score is not always fun. The next highlight is for me the track “Welcome To Jurassic Park” when the team starts the tour. It also features some of the quieter musical moments of the score with a lovely theme. We have a lot of quieter moments such as track 8 “My Friend, The Brachiosaurus”, but I have to say, for me, the highlight is the next track “Dennis Steals the Embryo” because I really like how Williams uses the percussion here, in a way that is very usual for his composing style. This track was not just the perfect cue for the scene in the movie, I really like to listen to this track because it is just impressive how Williams builds up the suspense here. Here is a piano performance of the main theme: We have a lot of shorter tracks before we come to the showdown with “T-Rex Rescue & Finale”, a track typically for Williams’ action tracks, very brutal in some ways of the composing, a lot of percussion and loud brass, for the best action scene in the movie. With the lovely “End Credits” the original album comes to an end. I personally do not understand why for the 20th Anniversary release, the four additional cues were just put in the end. They should be integrated in the album. Anyway, “Jurassic Park” is one of the best scores of John Williams, astonishing in his composing style and the mixture of majestic themes and the great rude action tracks. This score has one of Williams’ finest themes for one of Spielberg’s best action films. Especially when you compare this soundtrack to latest action scores, you will understand how much force of action a real orchestra can produce, with a composer of Williams’ talent who is able to give you a hell of a listening experience – amazing movie music at his best. 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 Adventures Of Robin Hood - Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Soundtrack Review

    This week let’s talk about one of the great scores ever, a real classic and even though composed 1938, it is still one of the best soundtracks. The composer Along with Max Steiner and Alfred Newman, Erich Wolfgang Korngold is considered as one of the founders of film music. The 1938 Academy Award for his score to “The Adventures of Robin Hood” marked the first time an Oscar was awarded to the composer rather than the head of the studio music department as had occurred, for example, with Korngold's award-winning score to “Anthony Adverse” in 1936. Korngold (1897-1957) was born in Moravia, Austria-Hungary at that time, now Czech Republic, and was because of his talent considered as a “wonder boy”. Austrian composer Gustav Mahler called Korngold a “musical Genius”. At 11, Korngold composed a ballet called “Der Schneemann” (The Snowman), wrote his first orchestral score at 14 and his first opera “Die tote Stadt” (The dead city) at the age of 23. Even Richard Strauss and Giacomo Puccini praised him. The legendary theatre director Max Reinhard brought Korngold to the US, and 1938 Korngold was asked by Warner Brothers to compose the score for “The Adventures of Robin Hood”, staring Errol Flynn. Korngold was Jewish, so he was forced to leave Europe because of the Nazi terror. The movie “The Adventures of Robin Hood”, directed by legendary Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, is not only of Errol Flynn’s best movie, for me it is still the best Robin Hood adaption ever. Even after nearly 80 years, the movie is still fun and has such a great sense of humor. The cast is one of the best ever, with Olivia de Havilland as Lady Marian, Basil Rathbone as the bad guy, and Claude Rains as Prince John. With a budget of $2 Mio., this movie was the most expensive film Warner Bros. had ever made, and it was unusually extravagant for the studio which had made a name for itself in producing low-budget gangster movies. A funny story is that stunt men, padded with balsa wood on metal plates, were paid $150 per arrow for being shot by professional archer Howard Hill. Hill was cast later as the guy who got defeated by Robin at the archery tournament. To win, Robin splits the arrow of Philip of Arras, a captain of the guard under Gisbourne, who had struck the bulls eye. Buster Wiles – a stuntman and close friend of Errol Flynn – maintains that the arrow splitting stunt was carried out using an extra large arrow (for the target) and that the second arrow had a wide, flat arrowhead and was fired along a wire. Here is a trailer: The music Max Reinhardt, the Austrian-born American director and theatrical producer, was very famous for his innovative stage productions and is regarded as one of the most prominent directors of German-language theatre in the early 20th century. Reinhardt, with whom Korngold had collaborated on the operettas “Die Fledermaus” asked the composer to come to Hollywood in 1934 and adapt Felix Mendelssohn's “A Midsummer Night's Dream” for his film version of the play. In 1938, Korngold was conducting opera in Austria when he was asked by Warner Brothers to return to Hollywood and compose a score for “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938), starring Errol Flynn. He agreed and returned by ship. When, shortly after he arrived in California, the “Anschluss” of Austria took place by the Nazis, the condition of Jews in Austria became very perilous, and Korngold stayed in America. Korngold later: "We thought of ourselves as Viennese; Hitler made us Jewish." Korngold treated each film as an “opera without singing” - each character has his or her own leitmotif such as Richard Wagner composed the music for his opera -, Korngold created an intensely romantic, richly melodic and contrapuntally intricate score. If you listen to John Williams, you know how much he deserved Korngold’s music. Korngold intended that, when divorced from the moving image, these scores could stand alone in the concert hall. t is astonishing how fresh the music still sounds. Here is a suite, not in the best quality, but conducted by the composer himself: Here a suite with better quality: Here is the music for the fight scene at Gisbourne's castle: And here another clip with the last fight scene. Rathbone was a world-class fighter, and the chirography is still amazingly good! And here you see what great sense of musical comedy Korngold had. This is the scene when Robin meets Friar Tuck: Korngold later would say the film score of “The Adventures of Robin Hood” saved his life. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, and he was later nominated for “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex” (1939) and “The Sea Hawk” (1940). Korngold's fame Despite his achievements, Korngold for years attracted almost no positive critical attention, but considerable critical disdain. Then, in 1972, RCA Victor released an LP titled The Sea Hawk, featuring excerpts from Korngold's film scores performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Charles Gerhardt and supervised by the composer's son, George. This was followed by recordings of Korngold's operas and concert works, which led to performances of his symphony and concertos, as well as other compositions. In 1943, Korngold became a naturalized citizen of the United States. The year 1945 became an important turning point in his life. His father, who had never been entirely comfortable in Los Angeles, and who had never approved of Erich's decision to focus exclusively on film composition, died after a lengthy illness. Around the same time, the war in Europe drew to an end. Korngold himself had grown increasingly disillusioned with Hollywood and with the kinds of pictures he was being given, and he was eager to return to writing music for the concert hall and the stage. Korngold stopped writing original film scores after 1946. His final score at Warner Bros. was for “Deception“ starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains. However, he was asked by Republic Pictures to adapt the music of Richard Wagner for “Magic Fire“ (1955), a film biography of the composer; the film was released in Trucolor and directed by William Dieterle from a script by Ewald André Dupont. Korngold wrote some original music for the film and had an unbilled cameo as the conductor Hans Richter. While his late Romantic compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest, and in my opinion, the score for “The Adventures Of Robin Hood” is film music at his best and truly amazing movie music! Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2016, 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 - Explorers - Soundtrack Review

    This week finally my favorite Jerry Goldsmith score, the first soundtrack CD I ever bought, the second Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack I ever bought and the score because of Jerry Goldsmith became my favorite composer. Pretty important score for me… The movie “Explorers” (1985) is a science fiction family film written by Eric Luke and directed by Joe Dante. The film stars Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix in their film debuts - Jason Presson plays the third teenage schoolboy - who build a spacecraft to explore outer space. The production runs into a lot of trouble, therefore, Dante did not have enough time to finish the movie: “The studio changed hands in the middle of production, and they decided they needed the movie much quicker than we thought," said the director in an interview. Dante submitted a rough cut, but Paramount wanted to take advantage of the busy summer market: “They said "just stop editing the picture, we're gonna put it out, and we got a perfect date for it and we know it'll make a lot of money…", but the movie became a disaster. I found a clip on YouTube with Joe Dante talking about the movie. Here is part one of it: When I saw the movie, and I just watched it because Joe Dante was the director of “Gremlins” and Goldsmith composed the music for it, I thought: “What kind of crap is that!” I think “Explorers” is one of the worst movies I ever saw! Dante is also not very happy with it and pointed out that it is not the movie he wanted to do. It still gained a kind of cult, perhaps because it is so bad in the space scenes, and especially because of Jerry Goldsmith and his successful collaboration with the director. The music “Explorers” was one of the movies I recorded on tape and filtered the music out, a bunch of work! Therefore, I was one of the happiest people on earth when I discovered there is a soundtrack album to buy. “Explorers” really needs another soundtrack release; I will concentrate on the Varese album that just had nine score tracks. Intrada released a CD with the whole album, but both releases are not available anymore. The Varese album starts with “The Construction”, a highly energetic and fun piece that is a great example of Goldsmith’s ability to combine electronics and the traditional sound of the orchestra. Imagine this track is now over 30 years old, and it sounds still so fresh and enjoyable! Goldsmith brings this piece to a beautiful end with a slow pause before the piece finally concludes. This is still one of my most favorite tracks, I love it so much, especially the bouncing piano at the beginning! Here is the music to “The Construction”, sorry for the bad quality: The score is Goldsmith at his best, very entertaining and full of great themes, or funny funky arrangements such an in “She Likes Me” for the alien child. Joe Dante asked Jerry to compose the music in the Americano style; you can find this composing style in Goldsmith’s “Poltergeist” (the first track) but also in the neighborhood theme for “The Burbs” as a musical narration of the typical American neighborhood-life. With track 3 “No Air” we have the space motif, more synthesizers, composed in a typical style for Goldsmith in the 80s, with a high focus on the brass section that was also typical for Goldsmith’s music that time. Track 5 “First Flight” is another masterpiece of this score. It is interesting to compare the different “First Flight” tracks Goldsmith composed in his career. Think about the masterpiece “First Flight” in his score to “Night Crossing”, a picture nobody remembers today but that has one of Goldsmith’s best scores or the “First Flight” track in “The Blue Max”. Track 6 “Free Ride” reminds me sometimes of Goldsmith’s score to “Secret Of Nimh”, also some Micky Mousing here. Track 7 “Fast Getaway” is an action-track, similar to the action tracks for Joe Dante’s “Innerspace” from 1987. Track 9 “Have A Nice Trip” is the last track of the score, an eight minute masterpiece that brings the soundtrack to an amazing end. Goldsmith uses the full force of the orchestra and combines it with the electronics in a perfect way. We hear again the beautiful main theme before we go over to the electronics, and finally, in the last two minutes, the orchestra takes again over with the main theme. “Explorers” is film music at his best: a wonderful score with a great main theme, enjoyable even without seeing the movie, still fresh in its composing style, and a great example of a musical genius. Truly amazing movie music! We want this score again in a great release, please! Here is a suite to the score that begins again with “The Construction”: I found on YouTube a piano version of the main theme played by Mike Farrell, interesting to listen to, too Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2016, 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.

  • James Horner - The Rocketeer - Soundtrack review

    My plan to talk about Jerry Goldsmith “Explorers” changed when I heard about the new CD release of James Horner’s “The Rocketeer”, one of my favorite Horner scores, with one of his best love themes. Again, we have to say Thank you, Intrada because Douglass Fake was able to give us the complete soundtrack on a 2-CD set with more than 20 minutes of previously unreleased material. Even though I had no chance to saw the movie so far, I wanted to discuss the soundtrack this week. The movie “The Rocketeer”, directed by Joe Johnston, is a 1991 American period superhero film from Walt Disney Pictures, starring Billy Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin and Timothy Dalton as the bad guy Neville Sinclair, a character inspired by movie star Errol Flynn. The film is based on the character of the same name created by comic book artist and writer Dave Stevens. Set in 1938 Los Angeles, California, The Rocketeer tells the story of a stunt pilot who discovers a rocket powered jet pack that enables him to fly without an aircraft. His heroic deeds soon attract the attention of Howard Hughes and the FBI, who are hunting for the missing jet pack, as well as sadistic Nazi operatives. Here is a trainer to the movie: The music As always, you immediately recognize Horner’s way of composing elegant melodies,, and you find soon similarities to other later scores of this composer. The “Main Title” is the first highlight of the score and introduces the wonderful main theme, played on the piano. For me, this theme is one of Horner’s best. Here is an interview with the composer about scoring the music: “The Gizmo” introduces some jazzy elements, and then we have seven shorter tracks that create atmosphere and also sometimes funny moments when Horner used, for example, Mickey Mousing techniques in “Testing The Rocket”. From these shorter cues, “The Laughing Bandit” is my favorite one; it is a short track with so much energy in it! Track 10 “The Flying Circus” is the next highlight of the score, a six-minute track that is just beautiful. If you remember that Horner loved to fly, a passion that kills him in the end, you can imagine how much fun he had to write a score about flying. This track is one of the best Horner ever composed, full of energy such as in “Star Trek – The Wrath of Khan”, a beautiful melody such as in “An American Trail” and a wonderful dramatic structure. If you like the love theme, you can go directly to track Nr 14 “Love Theme”. With “South Seas Send Up”, we are back into action again. I found the scene on YouTube: With “Neville Sinclair’s House” and “Rendezvous At Observatory”, we have the two longest tracks of the score, and the music for the showdown is track 1 from the second CD named “The Zeppelin”, another nearly eight minute piece. The wonderful “End Credits” closes the album. CD 2 contains also the original soundtrack release. I found a soundtrack suite that is quite nice: “The Rocketeer” is without doubt one of James Horner’s best scores, truly amazing movie music. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2016, 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.

  • Driving Miss Daisy - Hans Zimmer - Soundtrack Review

    I have a very special relationship with Hans Zimmer’s score for „Driving Miss Daisy“. If I remember right, this was the first soundtrack of Hans Zimmer I bought, and it is still one of my favorite ones. The movie “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989) is an American comedy-drama adapted from the Alfred Uhry play of the same name. The film was directed by Bruce Beresford, with Morgan Freeman reprising his role as Hoke Colburn (whom he also portrayed in the play) and Jessica Tandy playing Miss Daisy. The story defines Daisy and her point of view through a network of relationships and emotions by focusing on her home life, synagogue, friends, family, fears, and concerns over a 25-year period. At the 62nd Academy Awards in 1990, “Driving Miss Daisy” received nine nominations, including Best Actor (Morgan Freeman), and won four awards: Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessica Tandy), Best Makeup, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Here is a trailer: It is really astonishing how good the storytelling in this movie is. The characters are still light-hearted in her interactions even though the author is showing us the prejudices against blacks and Jews in Georgia prior to the civil rights movement. I watched the movie in a German movie theatre, and really enjoyed it. Freeman is great in this role, Tandy plays the old lady in a marvelous way, and Zimmer’s main theme for the driving scenes gave the picture quite a good drive and feeling. I also used the score for my next drive in a car a few days later and played the track “Driving” the whole time. The score In my opinion, Hans Zimmer is in composing this kind of music much better than with his rude action scores such as “Gladiator”, “Inception” or “Dark Knight”. That this music has still a special place in the composer’s heart shows us that he is using the score for opening up his concerts on the European Concert tour he is doing right now. I attended the concert in Mannheim and it was quite fun to see the orchestra coming slowly on stage during the title “Driving”. First, the theme started with the woodwinds, and the audience immediately recognized the score, and when Hans himself came to the stage, the audience got crazy and applauded him while the composer sat on the synthesizer and played the famous theme. Here is the track “Driving”: Some critics were not happy about the fact that this score is totally electronic, not any live instrument in it, and that it really did not focus much on the musical era at that time, except a slightly jazzy tone when Zimmer used the sax and the clarinet. Personally, I do not understand the idea that for a movie that plays e.g. in the 40s, you just have to compose music of that time. Some critics also did not like that Jerry Goldsmith was using synthesizers in his music for the Western “Bad Girls”, but come on: The movie is shot with modern equipment, so why not using modern instruments? Zimmer’s heartwarming melody gives the movie exact the right balance and the humor this story needed sometimes. From all four tracks, the second one called “Home” is the weakest one. It started with some suspense, then switch to the lyrical part, this time with strings, and closes with the main theme again, more piano in this track. In the eight-minute-track “Georgia”, you can hear the best performance of the main theme with the usage of more instruments even though they were all sampled, and after one minute, you have a great jazzy arrangement with the sax before the synthesizers take over again. What a great moment of the score! Later in the track, you have some dissonant parts when Miss. Daisy is a few moments alone in the car and gets worried. These dissonant tones, you can hear also in Zimmer’s score to “Pacific Heights”. I normally skip this part. The instrumental parts are just four tracks, roughly 25 min, and with the last track called “End Title”, you have a lovely reprise of the main theme, again with some nice jazzy arrangements. For this score, Zimmer was able to compose a really nice end credits music that summarized the greatest moments of the score. Here is a soundtrack suite: “Driving Miss Daisy” is like really amazing movie music should be: very well composed, a great main theme and a score that works even without seeing the movie. This little score is one of the best scores, Zimmer composed, and he should go back to these more lyrical and quieter moments of his musical life. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2016, 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.

  • Star Trek Beyond - Michael Giacchino - Soundtrack Review

    This is the second review of a score by Michael Giacchino on my website, and I have to say I really begin to like this composer and his way of composing. I watched “Star Trek Beyond” in Berlin while I was there for a weekend trip taking the Ielts English test, and after that, I need a break and went to a movie theatre at Berlin Alexanderplatz, the former East Part of the city. The movie I am still not a big fan of the 3D movies. In my opinion, it is just another way of money making, and most movies you can watch in 2D and also have fun. I remember seeing Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo Cabret”, and it was amazing, but because of the fact that Scorsese knew how to use 3D. Most movies these days are not worth the extra money for 3D. Seeing the new Star Trek, I was more astonished what computer effects can now create, holy shit! This scene when the Enterprise approaches the Yorktown and the effects there, that was really amazing! Here one trailer: “Star Trek Beyond” is the thirteenth film in the Star Trek franchise and the third movie in the reboot series. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto repeat their roles, and also Anton Yelchins repeated his role for Chekov. Unfortunately, he died shortly after finishing the movie, and I heard that for the next movie, no new actor will step into his role. Simon Pegg repeats his role as Scotty and was also co-author of the script. For me, it was very interesting that two of the long awaited blockbuster of this season use the idea of a swarm, the sequel to “ID4”, and now the new Star Trek, but why not? Even though, I still prefer the original Star Trek series because of the cast, the old charm and the sometimes great story-telling, the new “Star Trek” movies are really good ones, and especially this one is in my opinion better than the last one because I was so disappointed by the performance of the Khan actor. The music This soundtrack was also one of the most awaited this year, and I have to say it is a great one. Giacchino is just great in developing his melodies and using the full force of the orchestra. The first track “Logo and Prosper” is one of the highlights. I really like the dark tone and the percussion here before we hear then the theme for the reboot series. The next highlight is the second track “Thank Your Lucky Star Date”; the usage of the piano reminds me of Jerry Goldsmith’s last soundtrack to the franchise. I found a nice video for the soundtrack: And the third highlight is just the next track, “Night on the Yorktown”, this second longest piece is for me the best track, and I keep listening to this over and over again. This is such an epic track, and I really like how Giacchino developed the dramaturgical structure of this piece, the choir might be a little bit too much, but for me, this is the best track on the CD. With the next tracks, we are coming closer to the action part. I still have some trouble with the way how Giacchino writes his action pieces such as “A Swarm Reception”. I am always missing that he is composing a straight forward action track; sometimes I think his way of composing is a little bit too complex. Track 6 “Hitting the Saucer a Little Hard” is the longest track. Again an action track, and again, Giacchino uses the full force of the orchestra. After the Enterprise is attacked, the track slowly down with a more lyrical part. I have some trouble to recommend one track from the following ones. There is not really a musical highlight I can recommend, track 7 “Jaylah Damage”, for example, is interesting because of the percussion, track 10 “A Lesson in Vulcan Mineralogy” is nice because of the usage of the flute in the last minute of the track, and track 11 “Motor Cycles Of Relief” is another action track in the typical busy Giacchino style, perhaps the best action track of the score. The following three tracks are good action pieces, but I have to say they are sometimes too noisy for me. I miss a great second theme that Giacchino could use to make his action tracks in this score more enjoyable. So, mostly I skip the action tracks when I am listening to this score. I really like track 17 “Par-tay for the Course” because of the piano part at the beginning, and then we have the last track with the main theme. Overall, this score is a nice one. I recommend buying it because of the first three tracks; the other ones are just a matter of taste. When I am listening to Giacchino’s action tracks, I feel that he is highly skilled as a composer, but perhaps he should learn how to compose straight forward and highly dynamic action tracks such as the one’s of Jerry Goldsmith. Think of Goldsmith’s Rambo scores: great themes, very lyrical, too, and great, straight forward action tracks. I still miss this kind of music when I am listening to Giacchino’s action music, but that is just my opinion. And now, I will go back to “Night on the Yorktown”…. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2016, 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.

  • Independence Day - David Arnold - Soundtrack review

    The first time in his life, German-born director Roland Emmerich directed a sequel of his own movies, and now the audience and the critics are thinking whether this was a good idea. So? The movie I have to say I like the new “Independence Day – Resurgence”. This movie is just a very good popcorn movie, nothing more, but also nothing less. I still like the first one from 1996 better because, at that time, it was a great new experience: A German director went to Hollywood and created one of the best disaster movies ever. This movie has great entertaining scenes, amazing special effects, especially when the White House is blown up, and made Will Smith into a star. The scene when Will punches the Alien in the face and says “Welcome to Earth” is still one of my all-time favorite scenes. Fox pushed trailers showing the fiery destruction of the White House in the presidential election year and created the effect that the audience really wants to see the movie. Here is the trailer: The trouble with the sequel is that we are just spoiled with great effects these days, but also that there is not really a cool young actor in it. No idea if this is a problem of the younger generation, but it seems that the young generation cannot act anymore. Same with the new “Star Wars”, where are the Harrison Fords of the new generation? The music Composer David Arnold, born 1962, is a British composer that worked together with Emmerich on “Stargate” and created a lovely score for that SF-movie classic. Emmerich hired him again to compose the music for “ID4” and “Godzilla”, but Arnold seems to be more known for his scores for five James Bond movies. In my opinion, his scores are far better than some of the later John Barry scores, and I personally do not like Thomas Newman’s scores to the last two James Bond movies. For Bond, Arnold, a huge John Barry fan, created exactly the right mixture of orchestra and modern instruments, and his scores are highly enjoyable. Barry was pleased by Arnold's interpretation of his work and recommended him as new James Bond composer. If you compare the “ID4” music with the new soundtrack for the ID4-sequel, you really see how good the original score is. Arnold composed a majestic theme that was used in the end credits of the new one, and the score won a Grammy those times. Arnold recorded the score with an orchestra of 90 musicians, a choir of 46 people, and "and every last ounce of stereotypical Americana”, producer Dean Devlin commented: "you can leave it up to a Brit to write some of the most rousing and patriotic music in the history of American cinema." I found two live performances: the first one is conducted by George Korynta, the Prague Film Orchestra is playing: but I like the second one better, conducted by David Newman, performed by the Vienna's Radio Symphony Orchestra even though this version is three minutes shorter than the original end credits: The soundtrack has received two official CD releases. RCA released a 50-minute album at the time of the film's release, then in 2010, La-La Land Records released a limited edition 2-CD set with the complete score plus 12 alternate cues. Because there are these two CDs, I will just mention a few tracks. My favorite one is the last track, “End Credits”, a wonderful 9-minute track that uses all the themes of the score, especially the famous fanfare. This track you can play in a concert hall without any change, and I was so lucky to hear this during the live performance of “ID 4” in the Royal Albert Hall in London on September 22th, 2016. Except for this fanfare, there are two more themes, one for the quieter moments of the score, and then the third theme for the aliens. The second theme, you can hear, for example, in “Aftermath”, and especially in the patriotic “The President's Speech” (starting at 1’22). Will Smith has a special theme that you can hear in “The Wedding” and “Cancelled Leave”. Here is the music to the “End Title”: Other highlights of the score are: “First Sighting/AWAC Attack”, “The Darkest Day” - the Aliens are there!, “Base Attack” – a great action piece, and, of course, the music for the showdown: “The Launch Tunnel/Mutha Ship/Virus Uploaded”, and finally “Victory” as a more patriotic one again. “ID4” is not only a highlight of film music in the 1990’s; it is one of the last really great orchestra scores in the tradition of John Williams’ orchestral force. Arnold worked together with Emmerich on “Godzilla”, also a nice score, but for me, overall, “ID4” is Arnold’s best score. It seems that except “ID4” and the James Bond movies, Arnold’s career was not very popular. This is sad because he showed that he can create highly enjoyable music, but perhaps he needs again a good picture to proof it? Give it to this man, please! Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2016, 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 Last Legion - Patrick Doyle - Soundtrack Review

    „The Last Legion“ was one of the soundtracks I bought before I even saw the movie. After Jerry Goldsmith’s death, I was looking for one composer who might fill this huge gap, who is composing in an orchestral style I like and who is scoring movies in a regular way. I was becoming a fan of Patrick Doyle with his soundtrack for “Dead Again” and especially with “Needful Things” and “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”. Therefore, I bought “The Last Legion” without seeing the film. Here is the trailer: The movie I just saw the movie a few weeks ago, and I have to say I like it. “The Last Legion” (2007) is an action adventure film directed by Doug Lefler, produced by Dino De Laurentiis and based on a 2002 Italian novel written by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. It stars Colin Firth, Sir Ben Kingsley and the Indian star Aishwarya Rai. I heard that this movie was made to establish Rai in the European market, and she is playing her role as a tough female fighter in a very brave way. The film is loosely inspired by the events of 5th-century European history, notably the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the attacking of the Goths. This is coupled with other facts and legends from the history of Britain and fantastic elements from the legend of King Arthur to provide a basis for the Arthurian legend. Critics did not like the movie and say it was crap. The story-line was heavily criticized, the action scenes were not as excited as expected and the cast was said to just give an average performance. Here is a “Behind the scenes” clip: I watched the movie while taking a seven hours train from Munich to Berlin and just watched it because I wanted to discuss this soundtrack on my blog. I did not expect a lot of the movie, I did not even read about it and just started watching, but I have to say I really liked it. The action scenes are good, there is some wacky humor in it, and Doyle’s bombastic music is really the best part of it. The music I bought this soundtrack nearly 8 years ago, and it is funny that I was never in the mood to watch the movie. I just enjoyed this soundtrack by itself, and especially the track Nr 6 “Escape From Capri” is one of my all-time favorites. Doyle is composing an action track that is quite funny and underscores ones of the best scenes in the movie. The scores gives us a very nice and bombastic main theme in the opening cue “Sacred Pentangle”, a theme that is typical for Doyle’s way of composing in a heroic way. The score is not very sophisticated, it is bombastic, majestic, sometimes very noisy and a little bit repetitive. If you want to have a nice majestic score in the tradition of “Gladiator” but without Lisa Gerrald, then buy this one. “Coronation” is even more majestic. The London Symphony Orchestra and Choir gives a nice performance, and you get really into the idea what coronation music should be. With track 3 “Goth Seize Rome”, the second main theme is introduced. If you continue listening, you get the feeling what I mean with repetition. The following tracks give us majestic music contrasted with some more lyrical tracks such as “Wrong Answer” and “Secret Sword”. Then we have my highlight of the score, “Escape From Capri”, and with “Nestor’s Betrayal”, we have another action track that will remind you of “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”. “Journey To Britannia” is another more lyrical one, again with the nice main theme, this time played mostly by strings. “Hadrian’s Wall” is a track that underscores the preparation for the big final battle. I especially like the more lyrical moments of this score. “Excalibur” is another more lyrical track for the famous sword, and “Sword Play Romance” is a more traditional one because of the usage of the strings in the beginning, one of the few romantic moments in the movie. “Who killed them?” is underscoring the moment when the king is told who murdered this parents, another quieter moment of the score. With “The Battle of Hadrian’s Wall”, we have the longest track of the score, the music for the big action scene in the end. It starts lyrical and quiet with the beautiful main theme, and then the action starts. This music will remind you again in a lot of ways of the “Frankenstein”-soundtrack by Doyle, especially the way he is using the brass and the percussion sections. There is a tragic undertone in this track because the few Romans are nearly not able to fight against the rude and brutal Goths. The battle continues with “Death Of Vortgyn”, and with “No More War” we have the final speech of the King and the track that brings this soundtrack to an epic end, for me another highlight of the score. As said before, “The Last Legion” is not Doyle’s best score, but I still recommend to buy it because of “Escape From Capri”. Also if you are tired of the typical Hans Zimmer soundtracks for epic action music, Doyle’s music is a good way to relax and be prepared for your own battle, e.g. going to an interview, talking to your noisy neighbors or going to your next workout. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2016, 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.

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