A few weeks ago while writing my latest post about the soundtracks of Michael J. Lewis; I decided to write him an email. I heard from some film music friends that Michael is very keen to keep contact with his fans, so perhaps he might also answer some questions from a film music fan sitting in Germany? And, I was lucky! I really have to say: Thank you Michael J. Lewis for the effort you put in answering my questions. So, please have a look at the following interview: Stefan: Thank you so much for your kind words and your willingness to answer some questions of a fan. MJL: Thank you Stefan, for your intelligent and stimulating questions. It is my pleasure to provide answers to the best of my ability. S: It was highly enjoyable to read your interview with Rudy Koppl (http://www.runmovies.eu/?p=6994), so I do not want to repeat questions he already asked. I hope you do not mind that I will ask again about “The Medusa Touch” even though I know you do not like this movie and the score very much. You said in the interview the greatest gift that a composer can have is the gift of melody. Is there a special way you approach a melody? I discovered that most of your themes are very lyrical and have a sense of solitude. MJL: The only approach I know to composition is making a daily attempt to overcome the fear that I may not write today as well as I did yesterday. The desire to better myself keeps my feet very firmly on the ground. One of the greatest melodists of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, said “Melody is the essence of music. I compare a good melodist to a fine racer, and counterpointists to hack post-horses; therefore be advised, let well alone and remember the old Italian proverb: Chi sa più, meno sa—Who knows most, knows least.” Many people have commented on the ‘solitude’ of my melodies. Some observers refer to the ‘longing’ feeling of my tunes. Others refer to the ‘elegance’ of my melodic lines. I have no problem with any of these comments. All I care is that people hear my tunes, whistle them, hum them, remember them and enrich their lives with them. For me, the art of composition is without doubt a solitary occupation. I do not want anyone near me when I write. It is essential that I am alone. No distractions. If that is reflected in my melodies, then that is the truth manifesting itself. S: One of my favorite scores is “The Island of Adventure” and “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.” Can you tell me a little bit more about these two movies and your approach for the musical score? The second one is an animated movie, and I heard that composing music for animations might be more difficult than for feature movies. What is your idea about this? (Here is the “Opening Titles” of “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”: MJL: “Island of Adventure” was an attempt by a producer friend of mine to establish a film franchise based on the very popular British novels “The Five.” Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, the result was not very fruitful, unlike the Emmy winning “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” which gained great popularity all around the world and still generates a considerable volume of appreciative fan mail that I enjoy. Now parents, who as children, grew up on the score for ‘TLTWTW’ and thereby discovered orchestral music are introducing their own off-springs to my work. Very rewarding to know that my music makes a considerable contribution to peoples’ lives far and wide. For me, scoring an animated film is no different to scoring a live action movie. Both genres have stories to tell, emotions to explore and sync points to catch. S: Is there any musical influence from perhaps a classical composer? I assume you are not a big fan of the modern and atonal style and prefer more the classical or romantic areas such as Beethoven, Schubert or Bruckner? MJL: Sorry to tell you Stefan, but your assumption is not entirely correct! First of all, what is modern music? Is Stravinsky or Bernstein or Britten or Menotti modern? If so, I am very much a modernist. If Webern or Berg or Schönberg are your idea of modernists then I am not such a fan. We all learn from each successive musical period. Baroque led to Classical, which in turn became Romantic, leading to Neo-Classical. The late Romantic European music tradition of Mahler and Wagner certainly was a major influence on the early Hollywood film composers such as Tiomkin, Korngold and Steiner. Their influence is still very much alive in contemporary film scoring, no matter how disguised and diluted it may be. Wagner would have been an awesome film composer but I am not sure how much work he would have got. Like many other great, true talents, the ‘Hollywood experience’ would have not have had much appeal to the independent, Bavarian master. If modern music is The Stones - great. But, they are not film composers! S: Because I am a big fan of “The Medusa Touch” can you tell me something more about your musical approach for this movie? It is one of the few scores that do not have a melody as a theme. In the track “Vibrations”, did you use some electronically instruments to achieve this haunting effect? And perhaps you can tell me also more about composing the track “Destruction Of Cathedral”. I know you did not like the movie and the score very much, but I very much like the action music here. MJL: If I said I do not like “The Medusa Touch” then I apologize for misleading you. What I meant to say is that it is not my favorite film, but I did have great fun writing the score. I felt that my principle task in scoring ‘Medusa’ was to give the film much needed energy, spirit, vigor. The driving bass line of low strings, timpani, bass drum and pipe organ pedals went a long way to achieving that. Six of the finest London French Horns were an enormous help. Wagner and Berlioz used eight but in the studio six work very well. However, some years ago I did a Lowenbrau commercial that allowed me eight Wagner Tubas (plus over a hundred other fine orchestral players). I did use a synth in the “Medusa” score but I am not a fan of electronics. “I very much like the action music here.” Thank you Stefan. Please note. Not a drum kit to be heard on an action movie soundtrack - :-) S: Of course, I have to ask about “Theatre of Blood”. The main theme is very lyrical, and I was surprised that you compose such a great theme for this kind of horror black comedy. Again, I think it is a musical expression of solitude? How did you approach this score? MJL: I am so glad that “I was surprised that you compose such a great theme for this kind of horror black comedy.” All composers and writers seek to surprise the audience. The obvious can be so boring. If you regard the melody of ‘T of B’ as ‘a musical expression of solitude,’ I am very pleased, because Lionheart, as an actor, would certainly have known solitude and loneliness. All creators do. I heartily recommend Randall Larson’s notes to the recent CD re-release of ‘T of B’. Randall knows more about my music than I do! Your readers may like to know that a book devoted entirely to ‘T of B’ is being published in London in September. I participated in a Q and A for the postlude. S: What is your opinion about the generation of film music composers that are working today? In my opinion, Hans Zimmer changed the way of composing music and now we have these heavy electronic scores that sound for me like a musical wallpaper. You really cannot separate the scores anymore because they all sound so similar. I attended a concert of Hans Zimmer in Mannheim, Germany, a few weeks ago; it was fun, but he is more a rock music guy and not a classical composer, but I also remember that you said you love his score for “The Lion King.” Patrick Doyle is perhaps the only guy left who is composing in a more classical way with melodies and themes and not relying on heavy electronics. MJL: I do not wish to comment on the work of others. However, I will express my opinion about the era of “heavy electronic scores” and scores that are generated by direct use of electronics i.e. composition by keyboard rather than composition by traditional pencil and paper. I have done many recordings of my works by direct input via keyboards. The results can be amazing, but they frighten me because I truly believe something very essential is lost by by-passing the magic of deliberate thought that is then communicated by manuscript rather than a spontaneous, mental, almost improvisational method that is recorded instantly via the keyboard. I have a suspicion that the end result can be very clever but lacking in emotional essentials. This question is also at the heart of the digital/analogue debate. Purists believe that good old fashioned magnetic tape has much more depth than the brilliance of digital. We all need to remember - the past is the key to the future. S: And finally, I remember that Jerry Goldsmith said that he always wanted to compose the music for a Robin Hood movie, but never had the chance to do it. Is there any movie that you would love to compose the music for but did not have the chance to do it? MJL: I have been very blessed in scoring a wide variety of movies. But I do have a short wish list for the future and at the head of that list is my desire to score a superbly well-made, highly inspirational, very human film with a director and producer who fully understand the role and power of melody in film. Thinking of “Gone with the Wind” without its great melody is inconceivable, or “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” without “Moon River”, “Exodus” without its soaring melody or “Zhivago” without “Lara’s Theme.” One could almost be forgiven for crying out “Bring back music.” As I said earlier - the past is the key to the future. S: I am also happy to know what your plans are for the next weeks or months. I read about “The Romantic Splendour of Wales”, but had not chance to buy the CD so far, but I assume you moved away from film music scoring and do now something like writing the music you want to listen for? In earlier interviews you have referred to composing for film as catering to your ‘mistress’. I still think you need a “mistress.” MJL: Thank you for your generous suggestion, Stefan. Very interesting indeed. However, a composer needs to choose carefully, avoiding associating with one too big to have any energy , too thin to have any substance or insufficient intelligence to excite. Sometimes one just has to be patient and wait for the perfect opportunity to emerge and thrill. Actually, I have never moved away from film scoring; it’s just that I have not received the right offer, creatively or financially for some time. I am a composer. Film is just a part of my creative repertoire. Each and every day I compose, and recently write as well. I find both activities madly addictive and all consuming. My plans for the future have never really changed. Very simply: every day I sit at my Bechstein Grand and search for the perfect melody that will be remembered for a thousand years. Additionally, I have been working for some considerable time on an original animated film musical with story, music and lyrics by myself. The initial anthropomorphic concept has now grown into a novel as well as a film. When my brain gets weary I go into my woods to be enchanted, invigorated and restored by the beautiful songs of my feathered friends in deepest Mississippi as I labor to reclaim open, peaceful, lush parkland from wild, dense jungle and reflect that – the past is the key to the future. S: I hope these are not too many questions, and I discovered that writing and even asking questions about music is more difficult than I expected. MJL: My pleasure. Thanks for asking. S: Thank you so much for your time, and, please, be well and safe! MJL: Appreciated. I will try. 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, I want to talk about a composer that is highly under-rated, the great Michael J. Lewis. Michael J. Lewis, born January 11, 1939, in Wales, is still alive. I sent him an email a few days ago and asked him for an interview, and he agreed to answer my questions. That is a way to make fans happy! I will post this interview as soon as he replied. I cannot remember what was the first movie soundtrack composed by him that Isaw, but I am sure Roger Moore’s “Fflokes” was one of them. This British action movie from 1979 starring Anthony Perkins as the head of a terrorist group is still an enjoyable one. Moore’s character is a kind of parody of his James Bond-image, and Moore gives a great performance when he says that he prefers cats to women. Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, a director known for western and adventure movies, “Ffolkes” is a typical 70s movie, and Lewis used also the typical synthesizers, but the main theme and the “End Titles” are still great tracks. In an interview, Lewis said that for this movie he used a synthesizer for the first time - for the wind effect -, and in my opinion he was totally right about skipping this instrument for his next scores. Here is the trailer: Another movie scored by Lewis is “The Medusa Touch”. This movie from 1978 is a British supernatural thriller film directed by Jack Gold, starring Richard Burton as a psychic with powerful psychokinetic abilities, the wonderful Lino Ventura as a policeman, and beautiful Lee Remick as a pychiatrist. Roger Ebert named the movie as the worst from 1978, and this rating is another reason I really think that Ebert is a totally overrated movie critic. The movie is great; of course, you cannot compare it with the supernatural movies today, but in my opinion, it is still highly enjoyable. I love especially the last scene because we do not get the deserved happy end. Lewis’ music, not very sophisticated this time, is just good thriller music, haunting, thrilling, and especially for the showdown - “The Destruction of The Cathedral” -, it is just fun. When you will hear the flute in the very last scene of the movie, the scene when Morlar--- no, I do not want to tell you more … I found a suite of the music; I think at 2’08, you can find the music for the destruction scene, and at 7’29, you will listen to the End Credits. When this movie was shown on German Television, I called the broadcasting company to please run the music with the end credits when repeating the movie the next day. This broadcasting company normally did not show the end credits, they placed commercials as soon as a movie was over. The next day, I was sitting at the TV set with my tape recorder waiting for the end credits music, and the company played the music for the end credits! I am not sure if this really was because of my call, but I still love the idea to think of it like this. Lewis wrote a bunch of soundtracks for movies, e.g. “Julius Caesar”, “Theatre Of Blood” (one of Vincent Price greatest performances), “The Madwoman of Chaillot” (Lewis favorite score), “The Hound of The Baskerville” with Martin Shaw (famous for agent Doyle in “The Professionals” and Ian Richardson as Holmes, “The Man Who Haunted Himself”, “The Naked Face” (both Roger Moore movies), and, just to mention two more: “The Island Of Adventure” (1982) and “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” (an animation one, and for me, one of Lewis most enjoyable scores). Lewis is still a great composer to discover. Interesting is also that he composed the music for a movie directed by Franklin J. Schaffner who normally worked with Jerry Goldsmith. For this movie called “Sphinx”, Lewis used two orchestras, the standard one, and the ten piece Egyptian orchestra. Lewis said: “That was one of the greatest fun jobs of all time. There was so much orchestral color by using a western symphony orchestra and an Egyptian orchestra which was Mid-Eastern.” Here is the link to a nice interview ((http://www.runmovies.eu/?p=6994) with the composer and you can get very good examples of Lewis’ sense of humor: “First of all, you read the script. You get some idea of what it’s all about. Then the director will give you some sort of briefing – very rarely will they let you go and see their movie “cold”. You go in and have a screening on your own or with the director, producer, or everybody. You’re expected to give real smart answers and tell him how wonderful the movie is. The next stage is you and the director sit down and you spot the picture reel by reel. It used to be that the director would really look to the composer for real input. He would rely on the composer, but these days it’s totally different. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry wants to put his fingers in the pie.” I personally do not like the music to “Sphinx” so much, I prefer other scores, but check out the track “Luxor Chase”. I just want to mention a few tracks to listen to. For one of my most favorite scores by Michael J. Lewis, “The Island Of Adventure”, I could not find any tracks on YouTube. I really loved this score! When I was living in Shanghai, I listened to this score every day when walking to the metro. I loved especially the tracks “Across the Water”, “Surprise” and “Hold Tight”, this is the style of action music I call Michael J. Lewis one of my favorite composers. “Theatre of Blood”, a lovely melody and typical for the musical approach of Lewis: “The Naked Face”, Roger Moore in a thriller based on a book by famous Sidney Sheldon; a video from the German movie with a spoiler, so do not watch if you did not see the movie so far: And one of Lewis most favourite scores: “The Madwoman Of Chaillot”. Here is the trailer: And here is a nice compilation with some more music by him: 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.

John Williams‘soundtrack to Steven Spielberg’s „E.T.“ is a great one, a classic and overall just a masterpiece. Williams received with this soundtrack his fourth Oscar, and he highly deserved it for this fabulous soundtrack. The movie “E.T.” was also one of the first movies I saw as a child in the movie theatre and it is still one of my best childhood memories. The film holds a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and in addition to the many impressed critics, President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan were moved by it after a screening at the White House on June 27, 1982. Princess Diana was even in tears after watching it. On September 17, 1982, it was screened at the United Nations, and Spielberg received the U.N. Peace Medal. Melissa Mathison who was married to Harrison Ford for 21 years wrote the script, and the line "E.T. phone home" is ranked 15th among the top 100 quotations of U.S. cinema by the American Film Institute. I do not want to talk too much about this movie. So many critics said good things and really very stupid things about it, and I do not care very much about the psychological aspects of the story. For me, E.T. is a story of friendship and making earth a better and peaceful place, and that is enough for me to still enjoy this movie. Spielberg decided to change the movie slightly for the 20th anniversary, and in my opinion these changes are just crap. The director included new scenes that were not possible at that time, e.g. E.T. taking a bath, he also included special effects to give the creature a better face expression, most important, he changed the guns the police were carrying and replaced them with walkie-talkies. “Rolling Stones” complained about this stupid sign of political correctness. With the change of E.T.’s appearance, Spielberg ruined a lot of the original charming attitude of the movie, and in my opinion he should never touched it for changes. The score John Williams’ score has been issued numerous times. The original release was a recording of concert arrangements based on the film music, later issues contained the actual soundtrack cues as heard in the movie. It was recorded again by the London Symphony Orchestra, and on the track "The Magic of Halloween," when E.T. sees a child wearing a Yoda costume, Williams included a portion of Yoda's theme, which he had composed for “The Empire Strikes Back“ in 1980. Williams told in an interview that the challenge was creating music for an ugly creature that makes this odd-looking creature loveable. Spielberg loved the music for the final chase so much that he edited the sequence to suit it. For the score, Williams combined polytonality and the Lydian mode to express a mystic, dreamlike and heroic quality. His theme—emphasizing coloristic instruments such as the harp, piano, celesta, and other keyboards, as well as percussion—suggests E.T.'s childlike nature . For my review, I will now focus on the original CD recording and not on the 20th anniversary CD that includes 21 tracks. The score starts with the first shorter track “Three Million Light Years From Home” that introduces the main theme on a flute. With the second track, “Abandoned And Pursued”, we have the first action track in the typical Williams style. The brass section reminds us of the “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars” scores. Williams creates again very good an atmosphere of fear and desperation in the end when E.T. sees his space ship taking off and leaving him alone on Earth. Track 3 “E.T. And Me” is a more lyrical track with the lovely theme again, played on a harp, before at minute 2’04, the full orchestra with strings takes over. This is one of the best tracks, Williams ever composed. Track 4 “E.T.’s Halloween” is the already mentioned scene with the Yoda Theme. The music has a more comical approach and sounds a little bit like the typical Micky Mousing music style. The beautiful part starts with the piano at 1’55, highly emotional and wonderfully orchestrated and played. The last two minutes focus again on the famous flying-theme. Williams at his best! Track 5 “Flying” is the highlight of the score, a beautifully composed track. Williams shows us here how gifted as a composer he is. This track mostly relies on the main theme played by strings and supported by brass. I personally do not like how Williams tries to bring this track on an end at 2’30, but this is just my opinion. That is the scene: Track 6 “E.T. Phone Home” is a more lyrical one, a little sad sometimes, and after “Flying” a track that is needed to build up tension and suspense for the showdown. “Over The Moon” is a piano track, wonderfully played, for me the second highlight on the score. And now, we come to the last track, 15 minutes long that underscores the chase and the goodbye. This is such a powerful track, great orchestrated and played. I prefer to have such a long track than to have the track separated in different ones. You can hear that this is a piece for an orchestra suite, the dramaturgical structure is just great, and Williams demonstrates with this one what a great composer he is. Therefore, “E.T.” is for me one of the best movies ever even though it is sometimes not perfect and this music is one of the best soundtracks ever. When someone ask you what is really amazing movie music, then just let him listen to this track! Here is a video called “John Williams World premiere of ET 20th anniversary”: 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 went to San Francisco and New York for job interviews and also attend the Hans Zimmer concert in Mannheim, Germany, so it took me more time than usual to post another review. It was the first concert in Germany ever for Hans Zimmer, and he was giving a great performance with his friends and a small orchestra. The concert gave a good overview of his work with tracks from early scores and also the heavy action tracks in the most recent ones. Hans spoke to the audience in a very personal way, and I was really touched when he said that he lost his father when he was six years old, and therefore, the “Lion King” was a very personal score. The movie “The House of the Spirits” is a 1993 German-Danish-Portuguese period drama directed by Bille August and starring Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas and Vanessa Redgrave. The supporting cast includes María Conchita Alonso, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Jan Niklas. Here you can see the original trailer: The German producer Bernd Eichinger (1949-2011) was the best producer we had in Germany. His idea was to create big event movies that are timeless and will live forever. His first great success was “The Name Of The Rose”, based on Umberto Eco’s book, starring Sean Connery, and with a score by James Horner. “The House Of The Spirits”, based on the 1982 novel “La Casa de los Espíritus” by Isabel Allende, is about the life of a young lady named Clara during the military dictatorship in Chile, and her recollection of her family history, mainly the rise of her husband, Esteban Trueba. The novel was the debut novel by Isabel Allende, and the book was rejected by several Spanish-language publishers before being published in Buenos Aires in 1982. It became an instant best seller, was critically acclaimed, and catapulted Allende to literary stardom. I found a YouTube critic about the book here: The music Critics say that Hans Zimmer was in a transitional period of his career at the time when he was composing this music. He composed the music to a bunch of very successful movies before, but was not considered to be amongst the film music A-list composers. In my opinion, this early score is still one of the best scores, and it shows that Hans is really able to compose lovely and touching music without putting too many electronics in it. I still prefer this kind of music instead of his heavy action tracks, and still have some trouble to enjoy scores such as “Man of Steel”. The music was arranged by Hans and Nick Glennie-Smith, who did also the orchestrations, together with Fiachra Trench. Irish composer and orchestrator Trench undertook also the orchestrations of Hans Zimmer’s “Fools Of Fortune”, also one of his early scores and a score that is worth discovering again, a great one! The score is arranged into five suites, and for me, the opening suite is the best of the score. It introduces a lovely melody for woodwinds before the whole orchestra opens up. Most of the suite focus on the main melody for the movie. I really love this romantic music, and especially when you just know Hans from his action music, it is very inspiring to discover this site of the composer. Listen to it here: The next track “Clara” is even more romantic, and it ends with the lovely main theme played on the piano, one of the most beautiful tracks Hans ever composed, and after listening to this track, I was deeply in love with Hans Zimmer’s music and started to buy his soundtracks. “Coup” starts romantic, but with the beginning of the middle part, the more dramatic music starts with percussions and brass. I heard that Hans was not so satisfied with the performance of the German orchestra in general, and in this track, I have the feeling, you can understand why. “Pedro and Blanca”, track 4, starts with a nice solo part on the clarinet, and this track is another highlight of the score. This music gives you a great musical expression of loneliness and sadness, wonderfully composed. We have also a nice solo guitar here, but the reason I really love this track is the usage of the percussions that starts after two minutes. The last suite “Clara’s Ghost / La Paloma / Closing Titles” is a strange one because after a few minutes, we listen to a folk song that interrupts the music flow and because of the recording of this song, it gives us the feeling that this is a source song. I still cannot understand why they did not put this song as an extra track at the end because each time, I am listening to this last track, I feel that the song is too long and quite annoying. The closing music for this score repeats the main theme in a very nice arrangement and brings the album to an end. “The House Of The Spirits” is one of the not so well-known scores of Hans, one reason might be that the movie did not so well as expected. It is still enjoyable to see, especially because of the great cast. I love this soundtrack, and I wish Hans to have now more time to compose more music like this and leave the heavy action tracks behind. 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.

Happy Easter!!! Bill Conti again this week, one of my favorite scores even though I just like half of it. The movie “Escape to Victory”, aka “Victory” is a sport movie directed by John Huston starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Max von Sydow and a bunch of famous soccer players, e.g. Brazilian legend Pele. The movie is a strange one, it is half of a good movie, and I really cannot understand why John Huston agreed to direct this one. I love John Huston and read his highly enjoyable autobiography called “An Open Book” a few months ago. The movie is a remake of the 1962 Hungarian film drama Két félidő a pokolban ("Two half-times in Hell"), which was directed by Zoltán Fábri and won the critics' award at the 1962 Boston Cinema Festival. The film is based on a 1942 football match between German Nazi soldiers and their Ukrainian prisoners of war during World War II, known as the Death Match. The game took place on 9 August 1942 at the Kiev city stadium against the German team Flakelf, made up of air defense artillery football players. The real ending of the game was different, and for the players it had not such a happy ending like in the movie. Here is the trailer for the John Huston movie: For the American remake, the team now consists of a group of international prisoners. The movie received great attention, mostly because of the number of professional soccer stars playing in the movie. English World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks worked with Stallone on the goalkeeping scenes, and the game is marvelously photographed by Gery Fisher and second unit director Robert Riger. No German player was hired for the teams or for the training, an interesting fact to mention, too. It is remarkable that in 1981, Stallone directed the second “Rocky”-sequel called “Eye Of The Tiger”, for me because of the great storytelling the best part of the franchise. I read that Stallone accepted the role in “Victory” just because of director Huston, he wanted to work with the legendary director. Stallone wanted to play all the soccer scenes without a double, and so he got injured a lot. The shooting place was Hungary, at that time a communist country, and because of this political situation, Stallone really valued the freedom he had in the US when he was coming back. The movie was not a success, and this is not only the result of Huston’s way of directing, it is mostly the result of the boring screenplay and bad storytelling. The movie is also sort of weird because the people in the audience watching the soccer game are wearing typical clothes of the 70s, while this movie should have taken place during the 40s. There is a great comment on YouTube about this fact: “I love this movie, especially considering all those fans with '70s hair and clothes during World War II! The Paris fashion scene was so ahead of its time!” – haha. The music The music is the best part of the movie. In wikipedia Conti is heavily criticized for using two classical symphonies by Dimitri Shostakovich, the “Leningrad Symphony” and “Symphony No. 5”. Conti’s music is similar to the march in the first movement of “Leningrad Symphony”. And the music during the soccer game, especially in the end, is very similar to the last movement of “Symphony No. 5”, as you can hear especially at minute 45:50, listen to the usage of the percussion and the brass section. Shostakovich originally planned to call this last movement “Victory”. The “Leningrad Symphony” is still regarded as the major musical testament of the estimated 25 million Soviet citizens who lost their lives in World War II and is furthermore interesting because of the usage of the percussion at 07:00, and you have to think of James Horner’s “Aliens” and the track “Ripley’s Rescue”: The “Victory” score is typical for Conti’s freshly composing, very dynamic in the action scenes, and with a majestic main theme. I especially like how he uses the horn in the first track “Main Title”. This is great music, fun to listen, and very elegant in the composing style. The music is very powerful and shows Conti’s ability to create emotions. The music will remind you of Conti’s music to “North And South”. Track 2 “The Team Uniforms” is a more fun track; I especially like the use of the tuba. Like Elmer Bernstein’s “The Great Escape”, a score that I will discuss in a few weeks, we have some special humor in the music, and this musical humor is one of the reasons that this movie is fun to watch. The march gets introduced here, and it bas been one of Conti’s best themes ever. I normally skip the following tracks: “Match’s Getaway”, “The Paris Getaway”, “Team Outing”, “Krauts On a Roll” (a very emotional one), “Don’t Leave”. Track 5 “Team Outing” is the best of these tracks that are mostly underscoring Hatch’s escape, the preparation of the game and the plans for the escape. I normally just listen to the following tracks that are played during the match scenes. Because the team is not winning against the Germans, the music is sad, more desperate and still pushing forward the team. The second half starts with “Let’s Go Guys” (track 8), again with the march. With “Start Kick”, we have the famous goal of Pele, and the scene that shows us that the Nazi Max von Sydow is still able to appreciate a great kick. He stands up and give an applause. The next track “Match Revenge” is the highlight of the score. The Nazis now have trouble to control Stallone and his team. We can see some great soccer scenes, perhaps a little bit too many slow motion scenes, and Conti gives us with this track another example why he is in my opinion one of the best movie music composers. The “End Credits” put all the themes together and give the score a very nice finale. Here is the movie clip with the second half and the end: To make it short: the movie is crap, the score is great. No, let’s be fair. The movie is still worth to see because it shows you Stallone’s approach to succeed in other roles that Rocky, Rambo and typical action movies, but I assume without Conti’s music, this movie would be long forgotten. So, get the CD and enjoy the score! And remember, the war is over since 70 years, so no reason to become rude when discussing the movie! 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.

Another amazing movie music soundtrack by James Horner on my website. In my opinion “The Mask Of Zorro” is one of his best scores. When I saw the movie for the first time, I was surprised how entertaining it was. Martin Campbell, who also directed two James Bond-movies and brought with “Goldeneye” starring Pierce Brosnan and later with “Casino Royale” starring Daniel Craig the franchise two times back to life, was the right director for this great mixture of action, old-fashioned style and comedy. The movie Steven Spielberg started to develop this movie, first with director Mikael Salomon and Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez brought Banderas in, Salomon cast Sean Connery as Don Diego, and this would have been a great cast. Connery and Salomon dropped out; I could not find any reason why this happened, and Rodriguez had some trouble later with TriStar concerning the budget, so he was also not a part of the project anymore. Martin Campbell stepped in, and in my opinion, he was a better choice than Rodriguez. By accepting this movie, Campbell turned down the chance to direct the James Bond movie “Tomorrow never dies”, so Roger Spottiswoode directed this movie. For Connery, Anthony Hopkins stepped in, and Catherine Zeta-Jones played the female character. She is really great in this role! “Zorro” is a movie legend, and there are dozens of movies about this secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega that was created by pulp writer Johnston McCulley in 1919. There is also a parody starring George Hamilton, who plays Don Diego and also his gay brother in “Zorro, The Gay Blade”. “The Mask of Zorro” incorporates certain historical events and people. Banderas' character is a fictional brother of Joaquin Murrieta, a real Mexican outlaw who was killed by the California State Rangers led by Harry Love (portrayed as Captain Harrison Love) in 1853. The confrontation in the movie takes place more than a decade earlier, in 1841. As in the movie, Harry Love also preserved both Murrieta's head in alcohol-filled glass jars. The opening sequence is set during the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence. The movie was quite successful, so Martin Campbell signed up to direct the sequel, again with Banderas, Zeta-Jones, and Horner was hired again to compose the music. The music The music was influenced by Miklós Rózsa's score from “El CID”, and Horner used again his favorite instrument, the Japanse shakuhachi flute. He also composed a song for Marc Anthony and Australian singer Tina Arena called “I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You". The song went #3 on the French singles and #4 on the Dutch singles charts. Personally, I do not like this song, so let’s concentrate on the instrumental parts. The score was Horner’s first score good score after “Titanic” – “Deep Impact” is rather disappointing -, and even though you can hear the typical Horner mannerisms in it, I think “The Mask Of Zorro” is a quite better score than “Titanic”. The main theme is more beautiful, the action music is more energetic, and the score is more ambitious. Horner used a lot of Latin flavor, with hand clapping, flamenco guitars, and castanets. The first track “The Plaza Of Execution”, also one of longest tracks, is the first highlight of the score. The wonderful majestic main theme, you can hear in a very elegant version in Track 8 “Zorro’s Theme”. Track 2 “Elena And Esperanza” is a quieter one after the action track. Track 3 “The Ride”, a shorter one, presents us again more Latin flavor with castanets. I skip “Elena’s Truth” (Track 4) and “The Confession” (Track 7), and with “The Fencing Lesson” (track 5), we have one of the most enjoyable tracks for one of the most enjoyable scenes in the movies. I like especially how Horner used the hand clapping, balanced with trumpet and guitar. This is a marvelous piece of music, and here is the video of the scene: Track 6 “Tornado In The Barracks” is another highlight, highly enjoyable, energetic and with a good sense of humor. Horner at his best! You can skip track 9 “The Mine”, before with track 10 “Stealing The Map”, we have an interesting piece because Horner used the percussion in the “Titanic” way. The 13 minute track “Leave No Witnesses…” is the music underscoring the big action scene for the showdown, and with the wonderfully composed track 12 “Diego’s Goodbye”, we have the last track on the score before the song. “The Mask Of Zorro” is without any doubt one of Horner’s best scores, perhaps the sequel “The Legend Of Zorro” is more advanced in the composing style. You can decide by yourself. These scores are great examples of soundtracks that just Horner could compose: elegant music, wonderful themes, powerful action music. James Horner, you are really missed! I found an interview with Horner and director Campbell: 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 Rock“ (1996) is in my opinion Michael Bay’s best movie. I really love this action movie, and it is on my list of my all time favorite movies. I lived two years in San Francisco during my study and work at Google and had a lot of chances to go to Alcatraz. I also took the night tour because you are just then able to visit the hospital where the famous Birdman of Alcatraz stayed. The movie “The Rock” has also a great cast with Ed Harris, Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. I read in an article that the executives of Walt Disney gave Bay some trouble, and when he had to go to a meeting Connery asked him to join, and then Connery stood up for Bay and said that the director is doing a great job. I also read that Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered for Cage’s role, but he turned down the script because he did not like it. Or was it Arnold’s ego that did not want to work with a director with such a big ego like him? The film was a great hit and is still very enjoyable. The music Three composers are written on the CD as composers: Nick Glennie-Smith, Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams. Hans Zimmer is just the second name on the CD, I think the first and the last time in his career on a CD. In my opinion, the Zimmer soundtracks with Harry Gregson-Williams are the most enjoyable ones. Nick-Glennie-Smith and Harry Gregson-Williams, both British, started later a solo career, the first one composed the score for Leonardo DiCaprios “The Man In The Iron Mask”, the second one composed the music for “Shrek”. “The Rock” is Zimmer at his best, and I cannot understand that the score gets such a bad review on soundtrack websites such as allmusic: “The Rock typifies the bigger-is-better film scoring sensibilities that defined Hollywood in the mid-'90s -- with its bombastic electronics, relentless bass, and blast-furnace eruptions of dissonance, the music is an overwhelming sensory experience, and virtually impossible to absorb over the course of a single sitting. Too many cooks spoil the broth here -- with so many contrasting compositional approaches in the mix, the music is a disjointed mess, and thematic unity is nothing more than an afterthought. You thought breaking out of Alcatraz was difficult? Try listening to this tripe.” This review is just unfair. Try to listen to “The Rock” when you are doing your workout, and you will have a lot of fun. Gregson-Williams said he just came to the project to help, “The Chase” was one of his responsibilities, and I think this is one of the weakest tracks of the score. Zimmer pointed out: “The main theme is mine, as are a few other bits. I do have a huge influence in there. But I never really wanted to write any of it. It was always supposed to be Nick Glennie-Smith’s score.” The main theme you can hear in the first track “Hummel Gets The Rockets”, a majestic theme for the opening scene of the movie. When you listen to “Man In The Iron Mask”, you can see the similarity between the scores. The solo trumpet reminds of Zimmer’s “Crimson Tide”, another great score, that I will review in a few weeks. Here is the opening scene with the music: The second track “Rock House Jail” is pure action and the best track of the score. This 10 minute track is pure fun, and the reason I became a huge Zimmer fan at that time. Instead of his later scores, this is a very good composed track. The rhythm is nice, the percussion is not so overwhelming like in later scores, and it has also its quieter moments. Track 3 “Jade” presents us a lovely melody played on the flute. Track 4 “In The Tunnels” is underscoring the music when the Seals enter the Rock and are welcomed by Hummel and his men. We then have the massacre in the movie, with Connery and Cage are hunted down by Hummel’s men. Slowly build action, with the main theme, but after listening to track 2 no surprise. Track 5 “Mason’s Walk – First Launch”, another nearly 10 minute track, starts slowly, some action music, but I think you can skip it because it offers nothing new. Track 6 “Rocket Away”, 14 minutes long, and not always a joy to listen to. The score as you can see here is very repetitive, so for me this is another track you can skip. The last minute is very nice with the “Jade” theme again. Track 7 “Fort Walton – Kansas” is the shortest track that underscores the last scene of the movie, so why did they put it as the second last one on the album? A little Midwest feeling, we can find here, and this would be a good last track. Track 8 “The Chase” is the music for the famous car scene when Cage chases Connery through the city, destroying a cable car, one of the greatest action sequence ever and pure fun to watch. The music is not so much fun, especially the abrupt ending. After 2 minutes, you have a new theme played on strings, but then we are back into the usual action again. So, in the end, what do we have here? It is pure Hans Zimmer and one of the soundtracks that creates his reputation as a master of action scores. It is also very typical for the Zimmer’s scores in general: a great theme, some nice action music, but overall it is very repetitive. Track 2 is for me still one of the best action tracks of the Zimmer factory and still worth buying the soundtrack. I found a nice video on YouTube with the main themes: There are a lot of pure orchestra versions on YouTube, but you can see that Zimmer’s music needs the electronics. If you just play them with an orchestra, the bombastic sound is missing, so I did not add these tracks here. What I found instead was a just piano piece that is interesting to listen to: 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 a soundtrack for a lousy movie, and even though this soundtrack is none of Jerry Goldsmith’s best ones, I like it very much because of its lovely main theme. The movie Rent-a-Cop is a 1988 action comedy starring Burt Reynolds and Liza Minnelli. Reynolds plays a disgraced police officer, now working as a security guard, who falls in love with Minnelli, who plays a prostitute. The film helped both lead actors to be nominated for the 1988 Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Actor and Worst Actress, and Minnelli ended up "winning" this prize. Directed by Jerry London who also directed the TV-miniseries “Shogun” with Richard Chamberlain from 1980, “Rent-A-Cop” is a police thriller that is typical of the 80s. The bad guy is played by James Remar called Dancer because, obviously, he likes to dance, and there is a scene in the movie showing Remar dancing half naked in front of some mirrors. I still do not get the idea of this scene because it is just funny-strange, but let’s leave this biggest secret of the movie industry unsolved. On Amazon, the movie still receives good reviews, and it is fun to watch, especially the last scene and the comment after the bad guy got killed. Reynolds said in an interview that this movie was one of the movies in the 80s that just put money on his bank account. The music Jerry Goldsmith created a lovely main theme, played on the solo trumpet, balanced by strings and the piano, that you can hear in the first track and in an extended version in the last track called “Jump”. Here is the trailer: Track 4 called “Lonely Cop” presents this theme again in a shorter version. On the original album, Jerry wanted to create a balance between the quieter tracks and the action music, so the track “Freeze, Flash Bomb” was dropped off. This is the piece that underscores the scene when the bad guy got killed, a very rude scene with a very special sense of humor as mentioned above. The love theme, you can hear in track 4 “Lonely Cop”, track 8 “The Station”, track 11 “They Need Me”, and the end credits called “Jump”. The other tracks are action tracks, and I recommend, especially “The Bust”, track 7 “Russian Roulette” that shows us how crazy Dancer is, track 9 “This Is The Guy”, a great suspense track, track 10 “Get Dancer”, track 13 “Lake Forest” (one of the highlights), track 15 “Worth A Lot”, track 16 “Lights Out” and the already mentioned track 17 “Flash Bomb”. What I really like in this score, is the use of the electronics that you can especially enjoy when you listen to the six minute action track “The Bust” with your headphones on. Jerry used the electronics like a whooshing-sound, and you can hear it from your right ear to the left ear, a funny effect. “The Bust” is a nice action piece, typically for Jerrys’s 80s music, with a high emphasis on the percussion, and it is still nice to hear how Jerry builds up suspense. This whooshing sound is considered as the element of danger, so the audience can imagine that Dancer could kill every time immediately when you hear this effect. I read an interesting comment in one of the soundtrack reviews that Goldsmith wrote with this soundtrack his only Bill Conti theme because Conti was more popular with this pop rock electronic rhythm. That is a quite interesting idea to look at the soundtrack. The music was performed by the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, an orchestra that Goldsmith used a lot in the 80s, I suppose because of budget reasons. The music is not so difficult to play, so the orchestra did a nice job. So, this week a short review for a nice album with a lovely main theme that is worth buying it. I found here a nice soundtrack suite: 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, let’s discuss another epic score for an epic movie of Hollywood’s Great Times. Normally, these movies will be shown around Christmas holidays, but I was in the mood to discuss this score this week, and I did not talk so much about one of my favourite composer - Elmer Bernstein - on my blog so far. Therefore, it is time for another score by him, this week “The Ten Commandments”. The movie I watched the movie when I was a teenager and still like it. Cecil B. DeMille did a remake of his own movie, and Charlton Heston played the first time a role of these ancient times before he played the leading role in the famous “Ben Hur”. At the time of the release, “The Ten Commandments” was the most expensive movie. Here is the trailer: In 1957, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including “Best Picture”, and winning the Academy Award for “Best Visual Effects” by John P. Fulton. Yul Brynner won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for his role as Rameses, and the movie is also one of the most financially successful films ever made, grossing approximately $122.7 million at the box office during its initial release. According to Guinness World Records, in terms of theatrical exhibition it is the seventh most successful film of all-time when the box office gross is adjusted for inflation. The parting of the Red Sea was considered the most difficult special effect ever performed up to that time. This scene took about six months of filming and combined scenes shot at the Red Sea in Egypt with scenes filmed at Paramount Studios of a huge water tank split by a U-shaped trough, as well as the filming of a giant waterfall, also built in the studios to create the effect of the walls of the parted sea. Find the scene and Bernstein’s music here: The music Victor Young was the favorite composer of Cecil B. DeMille, but Young was already too ill at that time and felt he had not enough energy to do the score. Elmer Bernstein said in an interview that Young recommended him, and therefore, Bernstein did exactly what he thought DeMille would expect. The result is one of the best soundtracks ever and really amazing movie music. An interesting fact is that Bernstein was at that time more know for his Jazz scene, so there is the story going around that DeMille came to Bernstein and said that he liked his Jazz scores, but he should not do this for this movie! After some auditioning and interviews, DeMille asked Bernstein, "Do you think you could do for film music what Puccini did for opera?" After considering the question, the composer's reply was, "I can't be sure -- but I would love to try.” I love this honesty of Bernstein, really a great guy. Bernstein pointed out at the time: "I hope to continue to grow as a musician, but at this moment I cannot even dream of ever again obtaining as important and challenging an assignment as composing the music for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS . . . It was a very complex problem since the composition had to express scripture, history and drama in music. The score is composed of symphonic themes, identifying momentous events and significant personages as well as the great mass of people through whose trials and triumphs history moves. The music attempts to enhance the experience of actuality and to add to the atmosphere of authenticity. I hope that it also helps to suggest the lasting truth of the film's inspired message . . . Of all the arts, I strongly feel that music is closest to religion. It is hard to explain what happens in the magical moment when suddenly there is music in my heart and mind and I can go to the piano and express it in sound. That is why I feel that music above all other arts can come closest to expressing religious experience and conveying it to others” (You can find a great resource for this work on http://www.mfiles.co.uk/composers/Elmer-Bernstein-an-overview-by-Jeffrey-Dane.htm). As Richard Wagner in his opera’s, Bernstein used the leitmotiv technique and created for the most important characters individual motifs. In addition, Bernstein also used some unusual instruments, mainly in the interests of authenticity. A good example is the Exodus sequence: Here you can hear a shofar (ram's horn), symbolizing the slaves' freedom after 400 years in bondage. According to Hebraic tradition, this was the instrument that heralded the Exodus from Egypt thirty-three centuries ago, and it is still used today. The score is very majestic such as Miklos Rosza’s score for “Ben Hur”, but I like Bernstein’s score more. The “Prelude” introduces the majestic main theme. This score is unusual for Bernstein’s later scores. I think he never wrote such kind of majestic score with such heavy emphasis on the brass section, but for this movie and its deep emotions and theatrical approach it is quite right and works perfectly. With “Love and Ambition”, you have a wonderful love theme, played mostly on strings. “I Am What I Am” is underscoring when God talks to Moses, one of the best tracks of the score. You can find out a little similarity to Puccini’s or Verdi’s way of creating heavy emotions, but what I really like in this track is the usage of the strings to create a kind of … yes, let’s name it: atmosphere of spirit, heaven, and presence of God… Call it what you want, but after listening to this track, I always have this piece of music in my mind when entering a church for the first time. “Overture” is introducing the second part of the movie after the break, a lovely piece. “The Exodus” is another highlight. Listen to the fanfares at the beginning that shows that the journey will finally start. “The Pillar of Fire” underscores the scene when Ramses starts to follow the former slaves, and when a wall of fire stops the Egyptians. “The Red Sea” is another highlight that underscores the scenes when the Hebrews start to enter the Red Sea. We have now the last two tracks “The Ten Commandments” – Moses receives God’s rules – and the last track “Go, Proclaim Liberty”. This is another majestic piece of music and highly enjoyable with the percussion in the end. If you consider that this soundtrack is now 60 years old, it is really astonishing how timeless this music is. For me, Bernstein created not only amazing movie music with this score, he created a sound that you will have in mind when you go to church or read episodes of the Bible. This is, sorry for my passion, holy sound, and one of the best soundtracks ever. I found a very nice soundtrack suite here, enjoy it: And here is a piano version: 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.

When you ask people who are not film music enthusiasts: “Who is Ron Goodwin?”, you normally get a reply such as “I have no idea”, but you tell them he is the composer of the music for the Miss Marple films with Margaret Rutherford, they immediately remember the song and the famous theme. Ron Goodwin’s music to these movies is a big part of my childhood. We had to wait until 2012 to finally get a good CD with the famous music, and I was happy like a little child when I finally hold this CD in my hands. Let’s start with some basic comments about the author, the movies and the music. Author Agatha Christie Agatha Christie (1890 –1976) is famous for her 66 detective novels and especially for creating the two very popular detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She also wrote “The Mousetrap”, the world's longest-running play, a murder mystery that is still played in London, and I watched it years ago. At the end of the play, the actors ask the audience to keep the secret of the murder, so other people can enjoy the play. The Guinness Book of World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published books, behind Shakespeare's works and the Bible. Christie remains the most-translated individual author, having been translated into at least 103 languages, and “Then There Were None” is Christie's best-selling novel, with 100 million sales to date, making it the world's best-selling mystery ever. Most than thirty feature films have been based on her work. For all fans of Agatha Christie’s movies, here is another very popular theme, again by Ron Goodwin for “The Alphabet Murders” (1965). The movie starring Tony Randall as Poirot and is more a parody than a real crime movie. Goodwin’s main theme is the best part of it. The Miss Marple movies with Margaret Rutherford Although Miss Marple was portrayed by other actresses (e.g. Angela Lansbury and Helen Hayes), Margaret Rutherford’s performance became the most popular one. The character of Jane Marple in the first Miss Marple book “The Murder at the Vicarage” is different from how she appears later. This early version is a gleeful gossip and not an especially nice woman. Miss Marple was never married and has no close living relatives except of a nephew. Miss Marple may later be considered as a female version of that staple of British detective fiction, the gentleman detective. Although popular from her first appearance in 1930, Jane Marple had to wait thirty-two years for her first big-screen appearance, starring Margaret Rutherford. These were very popular light comedies, but were disappointing to Christie herself. Nevertheless, Agatha Christie dedicated the novel “The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side” to Rutherford. Rutherford presented the character as a bold and eccentric old lady, and also insisted that her husband, Stringer Davis, played a role in the movies, so he was becoming Miss Marples Dr. Watson. “Murder, She Said” (1961) was the first of four British MGM productions starring Rutherford and always directed by George Pollock. This first film was based on the novel “4:50 from Paddington” (U.S. title “What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!”, 1957), and the changes made in the plot were typical of the series. In the film, Mrs. McGillicuddy is cut from the plot. Miss Marple herself sees an apparent murder committed on a train running alongside hers. The other films were “Murder at the Gallop” (1963), based on the Hercule Poirot novel “After the Funeral”, “Murder Most Foul” (1964), based on the Poirot novel “Mrs McGinty's Dead”; and “Murder Ahoy!” (1964). The last film is not based on any Christie work, but displays a few plot elements from “They Do It With Mirrors”. The music by Ron Goodwin Ron Goodwin (1925 – 2003) was an English composer, known for his film music for over 70 films, in a career lasting over fifty years. His most famous works included “Where Eagles Dare”, “Battle of Britain”, “633 Squadron” and “Operation Crossbow”. He even worked with Hitchcock on “Frenzy” (1972) and replaced a score by Henri Mancini. The Miss Marple theme became one of his most popular ones, and it took soundtrack companies until the year 1992 to finally release an album with the score. Goodwin composed the music to all four Miss Marple films with Margaret Rutherford, and he used the famous theme for all four films with slight variations. This main theme in a Rococo-style has a distinct 1960s feel to it and is known to be a highly complex piece of music due to the quick playing of the violin and the cembalo. Goodwin was approached by Pollock after he had heard about him from Stanley Black. Black had worked with Pollock on "Stranger in Town" (1957) and had used Goodwin as his orchestrator years ago. When I was a teenager and watched the movies, I connected my tape recorder to the TV set and recorded the title theme, that was one of my first experiences with amazing movie music. For the suite on the CD, Goodwin has to recreate the music because the original sketches were destroyed as a lot of other sketches from that time. The new recording is very nice and very close to the original ones. The percussion is more dominant for that recording. Goodwin uses mostly material from “Murder Ahoi” and “Murder at The Galop” (the hunting theme with the horn). The other suites on the CD, I normally skip, features music for “Lancelot and Gulnevere” and “Force Ten From Navarone”, the sequel to the very popular “Guns from Navarone”. Ron Goodwin’s music for these four Miss Marple movies is a great example of timeless movie music. Even though the tone is mostly light such as in comedy music, Goodwin was able to create haunting and suspense music for the series and underscores the dramatic scenes quite well. The main theme though is the most popular music and this theme became one of the most popular scores in film music history. I highly recommend to buy the CD and listen to the 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.

Hope, you all had a nice New Year’s Eve! I wish you all a Happy New Year 2016! The first soundtrack review of the new year is the John Williams’ new soundtrack to the new “Star Wars – The Force Awakens”. I did not discuss any of the Star Wars scores on my website so far, so let’s take this one even though I do not think it is the best soundtrack of the series. The music for the trailer raised the expectations so high that some people like me gets disappointed when they had the chance to listen to the music in a quiet moment: The movie I watched the movie last week and have to say it was better than I expected. I am a big fan of the first Star Wars trilogy – episodes 4 to 6 -, and really do not like the new ones, the prequels. In my opinion, not only the actors were bad, the story was sometimes totally confused, and George Lucas concentrated too much on special effects and was not able to create such cool characters like Han Solo. Also, I think “Revenge Of The Sith” is too brutal for children, but I have to say that the creation of Darth Vader, especially when the mask is coming down, is one of the greatest moments in cinema. My favorite movie is still “A New Hope”, it is a great one because it is just pure entertainment, has exactly the right amount of special effects and good action scenes and overall lovely characters. The new movie is exactly good in the parts when it tries to copy the first one. The action scenes are not so full of computer effects, I personally like the action scenes with the Millennium Falcon best, and for me, the movie really started when Harrison Ford was entering the stage. Lawrence Kasdan is such a great screenplay author, and Ford got some great oneliners. It is also really astonishing that an actor who is over 70 years old is still playing better than the whole actors from the younger generation. I was highly disappointed with the bag guy, played by Adam Driver (why was he casted, because he has so much black hair?), and we do not have to talk about the special scene with Han Solo – I do not want to discuss it further, perhaps some people still did not watch the movie -, but I think you all know which scene I mean. This scene is just crap, and I do not care about the dramatic aspects of this scene and if this scene was necessary to make his character deeper. J. J. Abrams said: This scene is a “massive tradeoff. How can we possibly do that!? But… if we hadn’t done that, the movie wouldn’t have any guts at all. It felt very dangerous.” So overall, I think the movie was not bad, it is best when it is a 1:1 remake of episode 4, and perhaps by getting older you idealize your childhood memories, but the original ones are just far better movies. In my opinion, “Star Wars” is best when it does not take itself too seriously, episode 4 was a very entertaining fairy tale, and the prequels are too much drama, and therefore, episode 4 is still the best one in the series, but I also have to say that J. J. Abrams is on the right way with the new movie. The music John Williams is, of course, back to his typical Star Wars sound. While watching the movie, I was surprised how fresh the music and the themes still sound. I did not recognize a lot of new material, the score is mostly a rewrite of the old themes. In my opinion, John Williams’score to the last of the prequels “Revenge Of The Sixth” is far better, but let’s get into details. I found an interview with John Williams about the new movie: The album has 23 tracks, a lot of action cues – I personally like very much track 3 “I Can Fly Anything” for one of the best action scenes in the movie. The track before “The Scavenger” is a more lyrical one. There is not really a new main theme, except the weak theme for Rey (track 6 “Rey’s Theme” – one of the lyrical highlights), the new female character. In “Follow Me”, you can listen to the old Star Wars theme, a great moment of the score! Track 7 “The Falcon” is a great action track in the typical John Williams hectic action writing with heavy emphasis on the brass section. I like the xylophone part here. This track is a good mixture of reusing the old themes and putting them in a new setting. You can skip “That Girl With The Staff”, “The Rathars!”, “Finn’s Confession”, “Maz’s Counsil”, “On The Inside”. Track 12 “Starkiller” is again a more lyrical one for another sad moment of the movie, before with “Kylo Renn Arrives At The Battle”, we are back to action. Track 14 “The Abduction” is a very emotional one and for me one of the highlights. Track 15 “Han and Leia” is a more lyrical one with the already known theme for this couple. There is not much time for love between Leia and Han in this movie. Track 16 “March Of The Resistance” introduces a new march that first reminds of “Flag Parade” from “The Phantom Menace”, another highlight of the score, and John Williams at his best. This piece of music reminds you also of the old “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” scores. I do not like track 17 “Snoke” even though this is the only track with a choir (a 24-voice men’s chorus). Its usage reminds me a lot of Philip Glass music for “ Koyaanisqatsi” (1983), so nothing new here. Track 19 “Torn Apart” is sad music, I think people who saw the movie can remember for which scene this track was. For me, another highlight of the score because it deals very effectively with the emotions of the audience. Track 20 “The Ways Of The Force” is nice because of the use of the famous Star Wars theme, overall it is a more average piece. Far better is the next one “Scherzo for X-Wings”, a typical action track, and we would like to have this kind of music more in this soundtrack, but that is all we get, and this piece is really too short. “Farewell and The Trip” and “The Jedi Steps and Finale”, especially this last one, are another highlights of the score, and the finale is the best track of the whole score. I found one nice clip with John Williams on the scoring stage: So, what is the problem with this score? Perhaps the expectations are too high, but overall this new John Williams score is just average for him – which is still a lot compared to other soundtracks these days -, but it has a lack of new themes, really amazing music moments, and it’s just nice because of the usage of the old themes. If you are looking for astonishing new music such as the choral theme in “Duel Of The Fates” of “Phantom Menace” or “Battle Of The Heroes” in “Revenge Of The Sith”, you will not find these moments, and therefore, this album is my first disappointment of 2016. I found a great live performance of a German orchestra with the great conductor Ulf Schirmer, here you can listen to a track with music we expected from the new Star Wars soundtrack: But still: Happy New Year, folks!

For the last week of 2015, another of my favorite scores, Jerry Goldsmith’s “Link”. The movie "Link" is a 1986 British horror film starring Elisabeth Shue and Terence Stamp along with a trio of simian stars which consist of Locke as Link, Jed as Imp, and Carried as Voodoo. The title character, "Link", is a super-intelligent yet malicious chimpanzee (played by an orangutan) who lashes out against his masters when they try to have him euthanised. Jerry Goldsmith worked with Australian director Richard Franklin the second time together. The first collaboration was “Psycho 2”, the sequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s horror classic “Psycho” based on the book by Richard Bloch. I will discuss Bernard Herrmann’s classic score on my blog in a few weeks, but I am still not sure if I also should discuss the Jerry Goldsmith’s score, it is a good one, but really not amazing movie music. So, now “Link”: I watched this movie, just one time, when I was a teenager, long time ago, and I just watched it because Jerry composed the music. The movie is half a good movie, there are some great scenes in it, some very good shocking effects, but overall it is just an average one. Elizabeth Sue is giving one of her earliest performances as a young student who supports Terence Stamp as an animal scientist. He trained one Oran-Utan called Link as his butler, and these scenes are quite amazing and funny. Link wears a suite and smokes cigars. The horror starts when Link should get put to sleep. Link now kills the professor and attacks the young student. In parallel, three of Sue’s friends are arriving and see the destroyed house. Link kills two of them, and then finally dies when Sue sets the house on fire. The final scene has a nice twist. The score Goldsmith’s score was composed with a heavy weight on the percussion set. He created a nice main theme that uses the rhythm of some circus themes and let this music played by The National Symphonic Orchestra. As John Williams likes to use the London Symphonic Orchestra, Jerry likes to use the other one. The score is not such sophisticated that it really needs this famous orchestra. The score has 11 tracks and each track ends with the word “Link”, a funny idea, so we start with “Main Link” and close with “End Link”. Between that, we have different tracks that give us because of the different titles an idea about the plot and the change of Link’s personality. With Link’s craziness and violence, the music also becomes more violent. “Main Link” introduces the main theme with some funny electronic effects that remind you of the Jungle, I like this main theme very much. This is a style of music that just Goldsmith can compose. With “Welcome Link”, we have a lovely track that reminds you of familiar music for similar scenes such as in “Poltergeist” of “The Burbs”, some electronic effects mimic the sounds of birds. I found a trailer of the movie on YouTube, and you can hear the “Welcome Link” here: And another one with more scenes: “Helpful Link” is a nice track because of the various uses of the percussion here, you can feel that something will go wrong very soon. I like “Bravo Link” because of the string part at 1’02, this is such a nice way of playing the main theme. “Swinging Link” I remember is a scene that shows us Link on a swing, this track is also important for the later tracks because it features the music at 3’45, that will be played in the highlight of the score “Angry Link”, Link’s craziness become obvious in this track. “Missing Link” starts with the percussion and builds up suspense, and then you have later some action when Sue, I think, discovered the first murder. “Peeping Link” shows some nude scenes in the movie, and Link plays the Peeing Tom. “Mighty Link” starts with heavy electronics, and then we have some action music. The last three tracks are my favorite ones, I think “Angry Link” is one of the best action track, Goldsmith ever composed. It is fast, very rhythmic and highly enjoyable, this track alone is worth buying the album. “Flaming Link” is very interesting because it underscores the death of Link, and in the most suspenseful scene, Goldsmith steps back with the orchestra and just plays some tones played on a Xylophone, a great idea, and with “End Link”, we come to an end with the score. Some soundtrack fans do not like the score because they think it is just a mixture of “Gremlins” and “Hoosiers”, but I have to say the music is again the best part of a lousy movie. I really like this score, and especially the “Angry Link” track is one of my most favorite ones. So, I hope you are able to get one of the out-of-print CDs with the music and enjoy this funny Goldsmith score. I found two suites, here a very good one (with “Angry Link” and “Flamming Link”): And here one with additional music: I have to say Thank you to all my readers in this year! I appreciate your suggestions and will be back with new reviews next year. Happy New Year's Eve everyone and all the best for 2016! Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, 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.