Another Patrick Doyle score this week. I think it is quite strange that Doyle’s music to “A United Kingdom” will be released on CD not until February. The UK released date of the movie was in September, in the US, the movie will be released in February, and perhaps the producers want to release the score at the same time. Therefore, I want to discuss Doyle’s score for “Nanny McPhee” this week. The movie. “Nanny McPhee” is a family comedy fantasy film from 2005 based on the book “Nurse Matilda” by Christiana Brand. In the same year Doyle was hired to compose the music for the forth Harry Potter movie “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” and took over after John Williams composed the music for the last three. I will discuss Doyle’s HP music in a few weeks. Emma Thompson who also plays Nanny McPhee wrote the screenplay for “Nanny McPhee”. Author Christiana Brand wrote three books about the hideously ugly witch nursemaid known as Nurse Matilda who has been highly recommended to Mr. and Mrs. Brown by several agencies. Nurse Matilda arrives at the household and becomes a nanny to the Brown children. The children are "exceedingly naughty" and frighten off many governesses in a wonderfully mischievous way, until Nurse Matilda comes. She teaches the children to behave, and deals with the fearsome and Great Aunt Adelaide Stitch (played by the fabulous Angela Lansbury). In the end the children become good and decent, and Nurse Matilda leaves to attend another family of naughty children. Here is the trailer: In the movie, Colin Firth is playing a newly widowed father who is clumsy, loves his children, but have no time for them and also has financial trouble. The children are giving him a hard time until hook-nosed McPhee arrives and teaches the kids to behave. The movie has some great funny moments, a good portion of romance and perhaps a little too much slapstick sometimes. In the end, Mr Brown founds his love, the kids are happy, McPhee lives, and the fairy tale is over. Some critics loved the movie so much that they considered “Nanny McPhee” as the new Mary Poppins, but the quality of both movies are not comparable. 2010, a sequel was released, but has nothing to do with the original one, and also Doyle did not compose the music. The music This kind of movie is perfect for Doyle and gives him a lot of chances to create funny music with musical slapstick, wonderful themes and melodies, and also a good amount of romantic music. I bought the soundtrack two years ago before even seeing the movie. A few weeks ago, I finally was able to see it decided to talk about the music this week. The first track “They’ve eaten the Baby” starts with a very nice melody played mostly on the spinet, and after one minute the full orchestra burst in. This reminds you a little bit of Danny Elfman’s music for “Beetlejuice”, but Doyle is a far better composer. I like especially when Doyle uses after 1’50 a typical Dance Macabre motif for a few seconds before going back to a lovely tune. The first track is like a first track of a score should be: a reason to buy it and listen to the whole music. I found the scene when Mr Brown meets Nanny McPhee: With 21 tracks on the CD, I cannot discuss all of them. Let’s just say that track 2 “No More Nannies”, track 3 “Secret Toast and Jam”, and track 4 “A Clockwork Mouse” continues with the comical approach of the story. Doyle does a lot of musical mickey mousing here (listen to the Tuba in track 4), and with the short fifth track “The Pink Chair”, we have a wonderful quiet piece. One listener on YouTube said “this almost made me cry”, and true, this is a great musical approach to put the feeling of loneliness into notes. Track 6 “I Did Knock” is for me the next highlight. Doyle uses all the various effects of an orchestra and especially some solo percussion instruments to create a truly magical atmosphere for one very important scene of the movie. After Track 7 “Goodnight, Children” (great balance of strings and woodwinds here), track 8 “Measle Medicine” (a funny movie scene, but a track that I normally skip), track 9 “Soup Du Jour” (comical again), track 10 “I Smell Damp” (lovely melody before the brass section starts, a little choir also is used here), track 11 “Barnyard Fashion” (short and funny), track 12 “Lord of the Donkeys” (Irish folk), we have with track 13 “The Girl in the Carriage” a very emotional and romantic piece for another important scene of the movie. Tracks like these are the reasons I consider Doyle as one of the best film music composer these days. After Track 14 “Kites in the Sky”, track 15 “The Room at the Top of the Stairs” (some magical moments again), track 16 “Toad in the Teapot” (lovely usage of the spinet again), track 17 “Our Last Chance” (romance again), track 18 “Mrs. Brown's Lullaby” (a song, I skip), track 19 “The Lady in Blue” (another lovely romantic piece), we have with track 20 “Bees and Cakes” the action track for the showdown, and with the last one “Snow in August” the longest track of the score that brings this album to a wonderful end. Doyle uses all his melodies in this great orchestrated piece. Some critics see in the usage of the choir similarity to Danny Elfman’s theme of “Edward Scissorhands, that might be true, but Doyle is not copying Elfman’s theme here. Here is the music for "Snow in August": You cannot find so many reviews of this score. That is really sad because comparing to other soundtracks out there which are more discussed, you have with “Nanny McPhee” an example of a real musical craftsman. The score is full of funny musical ideas, lovely melodies, great orchestration, the usage of different instruments that you do not hear so often in scores these days such as the tuba and the spinet, and an overall heart-warming approach to translate various emotions into music. Well done, Patrick! I love this score! Patrick Doyle is a great composer, and producers should give him really more intelligent movies like this to show his ability. I have one wish: Let Patrick Doyle compose the music for one “Star Wars” movie, please! 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 „Under Fire“ has a very special place in my heart. I was very lucky to see this movie in a movie theatre in my small hometown and it was the first movie with a Jerry score I ever saw in the theatre. “Gremlins 2” was the second one, and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” was the last one. The movie “Under Fire” (1983) is an American political thriller film set during the last days of the Nicaraguan Revolution that ended the Somoza regime in 1979. It stars Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman and Joanna Cassidy. Jerry's score featured well-known US jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and was nominated for an Academy Award. The film editing by Mark Conte and John Bloom was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Editing, and the film was shot in the Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca. Here is the trailer Nolte gives one of his best performances in his career, and for me, this is also Roger Spottiswoode’s best movie. The director who worked also as cutter for legendary director Sam Peckinpah became more famous for his Bond-movie “Tomorrow never dies” or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “The Sixth Day”, but “Under Fire” is the best in his career and his most critical one. Even though the film is fictional, it was inspired by the murder of ABC reporter Bill Stewart and his translator Juan Espinoza by National Guard forces on June 20, 1979. ABC cameraman Jack Clark was shooting "incidental" footage and caught the entire episode on tape. The footage was shown on national television in the United States and became a major international incident, undermining what remained of Dictator Anastasio Somoza's support. The incident was the final straw for the Carter Administration's relationship with Somoza whose regime fell on July 19th (this explains one track title of the score). Nolte’s character is based on Matthew Naythons who was a photo journalist in Nicaragua and consultant during the shooting of “Under Fire.” The music I read that director Roger Spottiswoode was a fan of Goldsmith's “Patton” because the score captured the human emotions of war. Goldsmith combined for this score electronic and orchestral sound and used a lot of solo instruments such as pan flutes for the Central American setting and the guitar played by Metheny. The composer pointed out to the studio that the pan flute temp track that was used in the film was not appropriate to the region, but he had to use the instruments for the score. When I was attending one of Goldsmith’s concerts in the Barbican Centre in London, Jerry was talking about this episode and that after one guy came to him and said: “You know they do not use pan flutes in Nicaragua!”, and Goldsmith made a sarcastic comment about this. In his musical approach, “Under Fire” is one of Goldsmith’s best scores. Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny fell ill during the schedule for recording and had to record his solo parts a few days later. Metheny’s way of playing fits perfect into the score. Goldsmith uses four themes in this score. The most lyrical one is "Rafael's Theme", used also as love theme in the track “A New Love". The composer also added the synthesizers in a fabulous way to the score, for example in the track “Rafael”. We have then a march and a victorious rebel theme that can be heard in “19 de Julio”, a track with a heavy usage of synthesizers. Another theme can be called “Alex’s Theme” (track 9). The first track called “Bajo Fuego” is also the best track of the whole score. Goldsmith combines in a perfect way the solo guitar played by Metheny with the orchestra. I remember a very nice situation when I was listening to the album at home. My mom was coming into my room and loved the second track “Sniper”. She loved the way how Goldsmith created a lovely atmosphere in the first seconds of the track before the shocking outburst of the music when the murder happens. How Goldsmith was then able to go back to the lovely atmosphere with the orchestra, pan pies, the guitar, and further percussion is truly a sign of how gifted this composer was. I remember a very nice situation when I was listening to the album at home. My mom was coming into my room and loved the second track “Sniper”. She loved the way how Goldsmith created a lovely atmosphere in the first seconds of the track before the shocking outburst of the music. How Goldsmith was then able to go back to the lovely atmosphere with the orchestra, pan pies, the guitar, and further percussion is truly a sign how gifted the composer was. I found a video with Goldsmith talking about the score: The score is highly enjoyable in the different way Goldsmith uses his themes. After the dramatic “Sniper” track, we have with “House of Mammocks” a very lyrical one, and with track 4 “Betrayal” a more dramatic one and one of the best tracks of the score. Track 6 “Rafael” is truly a masterpiece in the way Goldsmith composed this track for one of the most important scenes of the movie. You can see what a photo is able to do! This track combines again the orchestra and the pan flutes, and this time the military march becomes more dominant. This track is another highlight of the score and even without seeing the movie, you can imagine what is going on. This is musical storytelling at its best! After the more lyrical “A New Love”, the pan flutes dominate the next track “Sandino” before we have another lyrical track called “Alex’s Theme” (that I normally skip), and then we have the lovely “Fall Of Managua”. “Rafael’s Theme” is the track with the most usage of local folk music of the whole score. Guitar, pan flutes and the orchestra are working perfectly together. I love especially the last minute of this track. The last one “Nicaragua” is like a summary of all the different aspects of the score and the last highlight. This wonderfully composed and orchestrated track is one of my all-time favorites. This track is again fabulous musical story-telling. You have first the folk elements, then the dominance of the march and the military elements like if the music wants to tell you that the innocent local people got overrun by the military to finally find back to their peaceful life again. I found a very nice piano transcription of the main theme: “Under Fire” is still a movie worth watching, but you also should say that perhaps without Jerry Goldsmith’s music this movie would be not so popular. This score is not only an example for amazing movie music, it is like film music should be: supporting the movie in the best way possible and stand alone as a true masterpiece, 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.

“Romancing the Stone” is a teenager memory for me, and in my opinion, the score to this movie is still one of Alan Silvestri’s best works. I love the End Titles music and especially the music for the action scene when Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner are escaping in a jeep. The movie “Romancing the Stone” was Robert Zemeckis third movie and it started the frequent collaboration between the director and composer Silvestri. It is interesting to observe how many directors like to work with a special composer on their films. Here is a trailer to the movie: The production history of this movie is very interesting. I read that 20th Century Fox expected the movie to be a flop after viewing a rough cut of it. Therefore, the producers fired Zemeckis as director of “Cocoon”. But the film became a hit surprise, earned over $86 Mio., launched Kathleen Turner’s stardom and made Michael Douglas a star finally on the big screen. Danny DeVito had some great scenes in the movie and established himself as one of the leading comedians in Hollywood. The success of this movie allowed Zemeckis to create “Back to the Future”, a movie that was even more successful. Kathleen Turner and Zemeckis had a hard time working together, but the cast came back to a sequel that is unfortunately really bad. A comparison between this movie and Steven Spielberg’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was obvious, but I think comparing these two movies is not fair. Even though “Raiders” is a far better movie and “Romancing the Stone” has sometimes the quality of a B-Movie, this film is still highly enjoyable and has some great funny scenes. Here is one of my favorite ones: What I also want to mention is the story of the screenwriter: Diane Thomas was a waitress in Malibu who wrote the screenplay five years ago. She died in a car crash shortly after the film’s release, so it was her only screenplay. The novel based on the book was published under her name but written by Catherine Lanigan. I also read the book, and I have to say it is really crap. I remember the awful written sex scene in the first pages, and I was nearly in the mood to throw this book into the corner of my room. Last interesting fact to mention is that originally Sylvester Stallone was considered to play the male leading role. The music I read that to combat the competition, the score should be more contemporary and reduce the orchestral action to a minimum. Silvestri impressed Zemeckis with his easy-going, jazzy and light rock ideas. In this way, the music is clearly a product of the 80s, but this is not a bad sign except the usage of the synthetic percussion that I still do not like very much. Some critics on film music sites do not like the score because of its composing style, and I also have to admit that the score just have a few highlights, but these are highly enjoyable. Varese produced a Club CD with 21 tracks. Let’s go through this. The “Main Title” provides you with the theme and a nice sax arrangement. The next track “Elaine” shows the kidnapping of Joan’s sister, one of the typical 80s track on the score which I normally skip. I also skip the next track “Ransacked Apartment” and “I’m In Trouble”, I just like the percussion here. With “Joan & Jack”, we hear the love theme in a nice but shorter arrangement. “The Gorge” is the first longer action track for one of the best scenes of the music. You can hear the typical way how Silvestri build up suspense, with drums and the brass section, and with a sudden erupt of the full orchestra. This track shows you perhaps the best difference between Silvestri and Williams in writing action pieces. The best action track of the soundtrack is the next track “Escape in the Little Mule”, for a highly entertaining action scene, combined with some sightseeing in a very special way. The only problem with this track is that is too short but this is the result of the length of the scene in the movie. “The Town” is some kind of source music for the carnival scene, I skip this track. “The Dance and They Kiss” is a funky arrangement of the main scene before it gets romantic. “Hotel Escape” is another action track, but not as much entertaining than the “Mule” track, so I skip this, too. “The Stone Revealed” is another track that I normally skip. “Mounties”, another action track, is similar to “Mule”, but nothing new, I still like it very much. “The Sqaure” is source music again, skip it. “Tregula”, skip it, too. We have now the big action piece for the showdown. As a teenager, I was pretty shocked about this violent scene that it is totally unnecessary in my opinion. The track is pretty interesting in its composing style, so I highly recommend listening to it. “So Long Jack” is a romantic track, but I also normally skip it. “The Sailboat” underscores the last scene of the movie with a very funny ending. My favorite track of the score is the already mentioned “End Titles” which combines the best parts of the score, and it is highly enjoyable because of the saxophone and the funky piano arrangement in the first minutes. This is a dancing piece, and you can have great fun when you suddenly start playing this piece of music on a party. Some people remember the movie, and a lively discussion starts, and the younger generation mostly immediately switches into dance move. My plan is still to play this piece on my own wedding… Here is the music to it: You have to decide if you want to buy the score for just four or five really good tracks, but in my opinion the soundtrack is worth it. Silvestri is great in composing this 80s style, and I like this score much more than “Back to the Future” because that score just has a good main theme. 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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“ 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.

This week another Goldsmith score and another favorite one: Jerry Goldsmith „The Mummy“. The movie Stephen Sommers directed this action-adventure horror movie based on his own screenplay and established a very successful franchise. The sequel, again written and directed by Sommers, and again with Brendan Fraser has a fabulous score of Alan Silvestri, and the second sequel called “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”, directed by Rob Cohen, and with Fraser in this third appearance is unfortunately not as fun anymore as the first one. “The Mummy” is a loose remake of the 1932 film “The Mummy” with Boris Karloff. Despite Dracula, Frankenstein’s creature, the Werewolf is the Mummy the fourth classical horror movie character of Universal’s classic horror movies. There is also a very nice “Mummy” version with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, directed by Terence Fisher, from the British Hammer studios of 1959. With its mixture of action scenes, horror and a good sense of comedy, “The Mummy” was highly successful at the box-office and made $415 million. The action is sometimes over the top, so “The Mummy” works also a kind of a parody of itself. Some people were disappointed when watching “The Mummy” for the first time because the movie was announced as an adventure in the tradition of “Raiders Of The Lost Dark”, but Brendan Fraser is no Harrison Ford, and Stephen Sommers not a director such as Steven Spielberg. So, I think comparing these two movies is rather unfair. The score Sommers and Goldsmith worked first together at “Deep Rising”, also one of my favorite scores, and a great fun to watch because it is a highly entertaining B-movie that does not take itself too seriously. I attended Jerry’s concert tours in London, and at that time “The Mummy” was greatly received score among Jerry’s fan. Jerry was interviewed about the score, and I could remember that he said he had trouble to get into the movie and the characters. Keeping this in mind, it is really astonishing how good the score is, pure Jerry and pure film music magic! Imagine, he was nearly 70 years old at that time! I found a live performance of the score, again conducted by Diego Navvaro: Goldsmiths created a very bombastic and romantic score with great action tracks. He focused highly on the dark aspects of the score, gave a lot of Middle-Eastern touch, presented rude action tracks in a Bela Bartok style and gives us one of his finest love themes. The different usage of various percussion instruments is really enjoyable. As a good example, you can listen to track 9 “Mumia Attack”. I do not have to mention that Jerry’s score was again not nominated for an Academy Award in that year, again a shame. “The Mummy” is a busy score, like “Total Recall”, but I enjoy this score more, it is more fun to listen, has fewer electronics, and the action tracks are ruder. Despite “Total Recall”, it also has a love theme. You can easily jump in Middle-East feelings with the first track “Imhotep” that introduces the main theme and also the choir that will play a very enjoyable part in the score. As I can remember, “The Sarcophagus” also underscores the first minutes of the movie with the background story. Track 3 “Tauger Attack” is one of the best tracks of the score, I love the percussion here. Track 4 “Giza Port” is more lyrical while track 5 “Night Boarders” gives us a good mixture of love and action. I like especially the part at 2’30, such dynamic music was really seldom in the last works of Goldsmith. You have to listen to this music with your speakers turned up. Track 6 “The Caravan” is another highlight of the sore because of the usage of the choir, highly majestic here. The following track “Camel Race”, a funny one, closes with a wonderful reprise of the love theme. I found a soundtrack suite on YouTube that started with "The Caravan": This score has also some tracks that are more underlying the violent elements of the movie, and I always skip them, one of them is Track 8 “The Crypt”, another one track 12 “Discoveries”. Track 9 “Mumia Attack”, I already mentioned, Track 11 “My Favorite Plague”, I also skip, even though I like the action part of this track, track 12 “Crowd Control” is very interesting because of the haunting choir, and with track 13 “Rebirth”, we have the longest track with eight minutes: a great mixture of haunting choir parts and action music. The following track “The Mummy” is underlying the final action scenes. These scenes do not really require sophisticated scoring, and therefore, the track is very rude, violent and musical brutal. These action tracks remind us of one of Goldsmith’s finest scores for Sean Connery’s “The Wind and The Lion”. Here is a suite that starts with "Crowd Control": The last track, “The Sand Volcano” is also one of the finest tracks on the score. Even though the music for this track is not underscoring the last scenes of the movie, Goldsmith, as far as I remember, put some of the end credits music into this track to bring this album to a great ending. Some critics say that compare to “The 13th Warrior”, “The Mummy” is very similar and Goldsmith used a lot of the composing style also in this score. That might be true. I have both scores, but I have to say that I always have trouble listening to “The 13 Warrior” because the music is not so enjoyable like “The Mummy”. I also like the movie more, so perhaps this might be a reason, too. In my opinion, “The Mummy” is still one of Goldsmith’s finest works, highly enjoyable and freshly in his musical approach. Because of the romantic elements and especially the various usages of different percussion elements, this score is one of my favorite ones and really amazing movie music. I found on YouTube the music to the Finale and the Credits, you can hear that Goldsmith put this music in "The Sand Volcano": 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.