Thread: 'The tail wagging the dog': Film scores > the Film- Examples

I'll try to avoid repeating the similar thread. (However, Mario Nascimbene's One Million Years BC fits the bill perfectly. His score MAKES the atmosphere of that movie).

Back in the 1960's a corny TV show, The Time Tunnel, had the opening theme music composed by somebody named Johnny Williams. It's 2 minutes of complex syncopated rhythmic bliss.

The movie Brainstorm is entertaining, but I thought it could have done SO much more with the concept of recording experiences directly from the brain than it does. James Horner's score is phenomenal though, especially the heart attack sequence. It almost gave me one.

Almost any Ennio Morricone score is better than the movie, and he wrote -- how many? Something like a hundred? The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is especially chilling music, though I found the movie a little pedestrian.

One interesting score that stands out in my mind is Maurice Jarre's The Witness (1985, starring Harrison Ford). The movie is top notch, but I don't remember it much. The music was one of the earliest movie "orchestral" scores realized on electronics and samplers -- at least on the soundtrack record. I never knew if Jarre planned this or if they just ran out of budget for an orchestra, but it was amazing to think of someone of Jarre's stature embracing electronics like that. Oh - and it's a good score too.

Two pretty terrific scores that DEFINITELY turned out better than the movies they were written for:

George Anthiel: THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION (if you close your eyes and just listen, it's like Manuel deFalla on Steroids. Terrific score.)
Franz Waxman: TARAS BULBA (exciting, colorful and right 'in-your-face'. Now if the movie had been the same---sigh----)

Tom

I give a lot of listening time to great scores for movies of questionable quality. But I don't think of them as guilty pleasures... more like little flowers that somehow managed to bloom despite being cultivated in dung.


Goldenthal's score for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a remarkable piece of work for a movie a lot of us would like to forget. Similar feelings towards Goldsmith's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which I think is his masterpiece (and I don't think the movie is as bad as people say it is, but oh well).

Yared's (unused) Troy is a revelation if you ever get a chance to hear it.

I prefer Williams' Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World to the original, but certainly not the film. And, heck, I'll take Home Alone 2 over it's predecessor as well.

Strongly agree with these two Rondo:

Originally Posted by Rondo

3) Black Beauty (Danny Elfman) Great music, I would venture to say one of Elfman's 5 best scores. However, I couldn't sit though the movie for more than half an hour.
5) Far and Away (John Williams), not as bad as the other 4 films, but, as previously, the score has it.

Originally Posted by Falstaft

Similar feelings towards Goldsmith's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which I think is his masterpiece (and I don't think the movie is as bad as people say it is, but oh well).

I agree on the Star Trek movie. The score is great and I especially love the sound effect / music created to represent the V-ger thingy. I once saw a TV magazine which featured the fellow who created the "Cosmic Beam," a long girder strung with piano wire and electric guitar pickups which he would strike with various objects and bend the strings to get the twangy bass effects heard when V-ger is present. I don't think he was on the album unless that was James Horner himself, but that was back in vinyl days so it's been a very long time since I heard it.

People complained of the movie being too slow. I thought it was beautiful - the camera making love to the universe it was creating.

Jerry Goldsmith seemed to have a habit of writing great scores for mediocre movies. (except Alien, which is a classic in every respect).

The most notable example would have to be Ridley Scott's Legend, which was about as tedious and difficult to watch as a campy high fantasy movie can possibly get.

The score to Papillon is quite possibly Goldsmith's finest work, but I thought the actual film suffered from its sentimental, over-earnest presentation of a true story, disjointed narrative and episodic structure which killed any sense of plot or pace.

Some films scored by Philip Glass seem to fit the bill of this thread. The Hours and the Qatsi trilogy are decent films but the main reason I watched them was for the music.

Originally Posted by Weston

One interesting score that stands out in my mind is Maurice Jarre's The Witness (1985, starring Harrison Ford). The music is top notch, but I don't remember it much. The music was one of the earliest movie "orchestral" scores realized on electronics and samplers -- at least on the soundtrack record. I never knew if Jarre planned this or if they just ran out of budget for an orchestra, but it was amazing to think of someone of Jarre's stature embracing electronics like that. Oh - and it's a good score too.

Edited to reflect my opinion. The music works great in the movie but doesn't work on it's own for me. I find the film very memorable even though it's quite a simple plot.

Almost anything by Jerry Goldsmith. One of the greatest composer of the 20th century, unfortunately most of his work was done for bad movies.

Thomas Newman - Scent of a Woman, The Shawshank Redemption, Meet Joe Black, American Beauty, Cinderella Man, The Good German, Revolutionary Road, The Iron Lady.

Ten Academy Award nominations, and zero wins. That could end with The Iron Lady.

Originally Posted by Rondo

Great composer. However, I'd say most of those "dogs" have full control of their "tail."

Sometimes it's a combo slobber, shake, and wag.