Uni

Scratch what I said about not having interviews. I just listened to a terrific episode that featured Laurence Rosenthal in studio discussing his career. This show really does do it all. . . .

I did a search on this, just to see if anyone's ever brought it up before. Nothing came up—which was a bit of a surprise, because I figured someone must've stumbled onto this at some point before now. Guess not (or else they've kept it to themselves). I was searching Google for some background on a score the other day, and it led me to a website I'd never seen before. It's for a radio program in Portland, Oregon called The Score. It's hosted by Edmund Stone, a classically-trained Shakespearean actor of stage and films. If you check out the link below, and look in the right column below the title banner, you'll find a complete (well, complete as far as I know, anyway) archive of all their episodes since 2010—a total of 263 shows. I've started listening to them from the start, and I have to say . . . this is an excellent program. For anyone who loves film music (I know that doesn't apply to many folks here. . . .), whether a veteran listener or just starting out on a collection, this is an immensely entertaining presentation of music from all eras of cinema scoring. It doesn't have anything like live interviews (though they've featured a few clips of composers talking about their works); it focuses strictly on the music, and does a terrific job of giving it center stage for most of the program. The host adds some historical and contextual notes, but mostly stays out of the way and lets the music speak for itself. And rather than simply playing a wide range of arbitrary pieces from random scores—something a lot of classical stations do on weekly programs centered on film music—one of the best features of this show is that each episode is specifically themed. For instance, one episode I listened to celebrated female film composers; another traced the musical legacy of the James Bond franchise; and the one I listened to this morning was all about composers who started out as either rock musicians (Mark Knopfler, Trevor Rabin, and, of course, Danny Elfman) or jazz and television composers (including our own JW) who eventually broke into film scoring. I have a long commute to work—an hour at the least, and that's when traffic's not too heavy—so this has been a fantastic find for me, something that fills the time beautifully (just when the playlist thing was getting a little old). For someone like me, it's a perfect mix of getting to hear pieces from scores I know and listening to music I haven't heard yet, but am now interested in pursuing further. And again, if you're just starting out with this kind of thing as a hobby, you could learn a ton from this kind of resource. Here's the link. I highly recommend you all check this out: http://www.thescore.org/

Congratulations, Jason, and all the best to you and your bride. Main Title, Father of the Bride. Cheers.

Agreed. He's really done a lot in that vein, when you think about it—yet it's probably the most ignored angle of his repertoire. This might be a good "blind spot" to educate people about.

So Spielberg's making the completely unprecedented conjecture that one day a current fad will fade away and be replaced by another fad? Man, this guy's another Nostradamus! How does he come up with this stuff?!

Gotcha. You weren't taking a shot at JNH, you were giving props to Kraemer. And he may well deserve it, as well as a chance to repeat his success with the first. I'm now thoroughly convinced I need to give JR a fair hearing. I'm logging in to order it now. . . .

Ditto all of this. No idea why it would be a problem for JNH to be scoring anything. I'm not familiar with either Kraemer or his score for JR, but it sounds like I need to look into it. On the main subject of the thread: I find I'm really excited about the idea of a sequel. Reacher's one of the best "action" characters to come along in years—and I put that in quotes because he was more distinctive for his intelligence than his fisticuffs or driving abilities. (I loved the moment when his car gets stuck going in reverse toward the bad guys' hideout. He didn't pull a Jason Stratham or an Arnold, where they would've acted like that was part of their plan all along. He was really stuck, in a dilemma, not knowing what to do next. It was a great, authentic moment.) In a lot of ways, Reacher's a better role for Cruise than Ethan Hunt, who I like but is much more intense and centered around straightforward action. Reacher's a thinker, a deliberator, and takes action only when it's necessary and he has a pretty good measure on what's involved. JR was a fantastic film, and I would love to see this character doing more . . . which is the best foundation for any sequel, really. Actually, though, I'm far more concerned with the switch at director than at composer. McQuarrie did such a phenomenal job establishing that particular atmosphere, I can't help but worry that Zwick won't be able to reproduce it. But he deserves the shot, I suppose, and I'll definitely be in line to see the results.

I would use the opening of JG for a quick laugh—"Who could forget this Williams classic?"—and as a way to demonstrate in a vivid fashion to most of the people there that there's a lot of JW music they've not only never heard, but would never have dreamed he wrote. Makes for a fun snapshot illustration, but I wouldn't go into anything deeper than that, either. (You're right that How to Steal a Million is a much better score for analysis. Bachelor Flat is pretty good too, for having a similar sound as well as representing one of his earliest studio works.)

Two words: John. Goldfarb. (Especially if you're going to be playing clips from the scores you're speaking on.) I'd love to hear your presentation—though I probably wouldn't understand a word of it. . . .

Correct. Another example of Rawlings using Jerry's music as a general "pool" to draw from. (Note how the effect at the end of the cue that worked so brilliantly in the scene it was written for—the bit with the gong swipe and wind machine as Kane's body spins into space—falls flat in this secondary usage. It doesn't make any sense at the end of the exchange between Dallas and Mother. It's a good example of how and why music written for a specific moment won't work as effectively when used elsewhere.)

Of course, along with Vanlint's cinematography and Rawlings's editing. But I doubt it'd be anywhere as near affecting without the sensual yet disturbing score. Agreed on both points. Alien is one of the finest visual masterpieces in cinematic history, no question. But a standard horror-genre score would've stood out in the worst way, even detracting from the visuals to some degree. Goldsmith's music becomes a seamless element in what you're seeing, so that the soundscape matches the landscape in ways that are just so eerily effective. Think of the sequence aboard the alien ship, from beginning to end. Try to imagine it with normal, "emotive" music, compared to the unsettling, minimalist approach Goldsmith takes. The results just wouldn't be the same. Oh, good Lord. . . .

Y'know, I'd have to say I agree with that assessment 100%. In fact, Tintin felt like it was trying to emulate movies like Castle Cagliostro—and that's not to say it did a bad job of it, just that it felt more imitative of this sort of thing.

Cagliostro is a movie that's great fun. Lupin's a solid, clever character. It honestly felt more like a "real" movie to me than a lot of Miyazaki's later works, probably because it involves less sorcery and magic and more straightforward action and invention. Interestingly, I can remember seeing a laserdisc arcade video game based on this film. Made in the style of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace (the Don Bluth laserdisc games), you essentially played through a story similar to the events of the movie as Lupin—but when you made a wrong move, animation was added that showed the consequences (crashing, drowning, dying, etc.). I only saw it once or twice when I was younger, but it was brought back to me some years later when I spotted Chunk playing it during a quick cut in the movie The Goonies.

This should be a required class for all members here.

Absolutely. One of my favorites as well. I've always found it a slightly unsettling moment cinematically anyway, the thought of having your body wrapped like that and then ejected into the eternal cosmos. Jerry's creativity takes it to an entirely new level, though, with his use of the gong swipe and the wind machine. Somehow he combines bitter sadness with a deeply chilling effect to create a moment that lingers with you (as much as any of the patently scary scenes do). It's a brilliant film, but I don't think there's any denying it wouldn't be nearly what it is without Jerry's genius providing the atmosphere—even in spite of the egregious meddling from Ridley and Rawlings.

I read the book as a kid. It was really a great story. When I saw the movie, I thought it was . . . "over-Bluthed," as some of his projects tend to be. It was all right, but I wasn't a big fan. The score was one of its best aspects. The first was by far the best!

Long overdue . . . though not much new material here. Still, it's an easy decision to order.

Y'know . . . it wasn't boring, but it did seem a little fanboyish of you to run off a list of recent JW listens, given the topic of conversation. . . .

Film music. Seriously. Any day of the week, pretty much any time of day. Which film music? Any of it. I don't subscribe to any notions of requisite moods or settings—although the right choice can sometimes enhance both of those elements, to be sure. But I can't imagine expending mental effort on making so specific a choice. I let the music take me where it's going, not the other way around. Of course, even that gets its stimulation from variety. I don't think there's any single score I could listen to every single day for years and not eventually tire of it. (That's really what did in the Star Wars main title for me. Too many hearings dulled it for me, so that it's become probably my most-avoided piece of JW music over the last 10 or 15 years.) There are some that have shown remarkable durability—Superman, for instance—but I need a break from even the best of themes and scores after a while. That's what made the advent of playlists and the shuffle option so magnificent. I used to have a set of 3x5 cards with lists of all my scores printed on them (this is back in the day when my collection was still solidly encamped in 2-figure totals). I knew most of the music so well that I could "play" it in my head at will. I would carry those cards and set of dice with me. I had a whole system set up to determine what results led to which scores. At odd moments, when I needed to occupy my mind with something, I would roll the dice to randomly select a score, and I would choose a piece to start replaying in my head. It was the closest thing I had back in those Stone-Age days to a shuffle option. I could put together randomly assembled lists on cassette or (eventually) CD, of course, but I was the one putting it together so I knew what the order would be, and eventually I'd learn the order anyway and it wouldn't work any more. I dreamed of a time when technology would do it for me. And like flight, space travel, and measles vaccination, one day my dreams became reality. I do have certain playlists for certain activities or arenas—you can't write to distracting action music, and each major composer has his own collection of best-ofs—but for the most part, I let the collection go where it will and enjoy not knowing what's coming next. And it never gets old for me.

My first thought: $30 for an obscure book on just one film score? My second thought: Why not? Where the hell else am I going to get information like this? Supply meets demand. . . . I think I'll order myself a copy.

Wow . . . that trailer was some seriously awful crap. Can't even imagine I'll take the time to watch the show now. And about that promo poster . . . what's with the cables attached to the jet packs? Didn't they have free-moving jet packs in the movie? If this takes place years after the story in the film, why would they need cables now? And does it really make sense to have jet packs if you can only use them where they've got cables strung up? (Actually, the bigger and more damning question is: did some knucklehead use a still from the show before the cables were matted out?) So have most networks at one time or another. Fox is actually much better at taking a show that's great during its first season and horribly and inexplicably maiming it by changing its premise during its second season, leading to cancellation immediately thereafter. (Looks like they're taking a shortcut on this one and just making it terrible from the start.)

This is the real world. Everything else is the matrix. Sorry to see you go, Richard. I can understand the desire for privacy (not many people know this, but "Uni" isn't my real name, either), although I'm not sure I see the need to take it to these lengths. I can respect your wishes, though, even if it deprives us of your company. Wow . . . that thing is good.

Both older and younger, for me. My 21-year old has been hooked on JW for years (I know how to raise 'em). My 10-year old got a tablet last Christmas that's packed with film music from a number of different composers, but he especially loves Star Wars and Star Trek music.

I'd love to be creative and totally original with this, but I can't think of a better example than "The Ballroom Scene." When you have a gift like that in your hands and you fail to use it, you're guilty of criminal incompetence. Which is one of the reasons the answers to this question are bound to be limited. Most directors would kill to have JW scoring their film, so he has very few rejected scores and pieces making it a very small pool to draw from. There'd be a lot more to choose from if you were asking the same about Goldsmith, Horner, or most other composers.