Steven Awalt

Jerry Goldsmith himself has stated (in an interview from the period by writer Randell Larson) that he worked exclusively with Spielberg on the score. Pretty darned good proof there. Q: How did you receive the assignment to score POLTERGEIST? JG: Steven Spielberg called me about five months before it went into production and wanted to know if I would be interested in doing it. He´d long been an admirer of mine, and we had met several times. I said I´d be very interested, so he sent me a script and I loved it. I was very excited about being involved with anything with Spielberg, anyway. Q: What sort of musical approach did you take on this film? JG: With Spielberg, probably more than any other director, there´s a tremendous amount of discussion. He's very articulate about music, and one can discuss for hours about approaches. Anything I did was not on my own volition, it was a joint effort in that we both agreed what we were trying to do with the music for the picture. We wanted a childlike theme for the little girl; Spielberg felt that much of the action in the closet should have a quasi-religious atmosphere to it. There was something definitely non-human about it, yet it was not evil all the way. It was discussing specifics like that which resulted in our approach. Q: So you worked mainly with Spielberg? What about director Tobe Hooper? JG: He was not involved at all with post-production. That was all strictly with Steven, and I worked very closely with him.

I have it, but I can't vouch for the sound quality because my DVD player happens to be one of the few players that can't handle it (I have an old Panasonic A-110). I was able to listen to it through my computer, but it's not hooked up to my surround sound system. I'm really surprised you don't remember reading about it, Alex. This site and my site made a big deal of it when it was announced, and I know you read both sites. Must've slipped by you.

I can officially confirm this (straight from Universal), as I reported on it (and complained about it) on my site back on September 16. http://spielbergfilms.com/newsarchive.html To me, this looks like UHV sticking it to fans to help make up for a poor box-office take. You want bonus features that are now a standard on almost every single DVD release? Gotta pay the premium. And then they do their normal tactic of selling a fan-aimed gift set with a product most fans will already have (Williams' score CD), which helps further inflate the SRP.

I wasn't disagreeing with you, Neil (you're certainly more knowledgeable than most reviewers of the title to date). I was simply playing devil's advocate on one of the preceding posts to point out the simple fact that whatever the error, the bottom line is that Lucasfilm and Fox are responsible for the final released product. They obviously knew of the issues (given the statement they released tonight) and they feel it is a "creative decision" and not an error of any form. So no one should place the blame completely in anyone's laps (including the techs who screwed it up) except Lucasfilm and Fox.

And even if it's not a mixing error and it is a replication error, it's still ultimately Lucasfilm and Fox's responsibility to make sure the replication facility did the job properly. So any errors come down to them. Hope they will be as responsible and aggressive about taking care of their error as they were promoting the DVD releases.

Maybe there were too busy making changes to the films, Joe I'm really looking forward to the DVDs, despite the soundtrack error on "Star Wars," but something struck me today when reading an interview with Lucas: he's really been pushing the fact that he supposedly complained in interview after interview about how the original films weren't any good (I don't remember any of this!?), and so he rejiggered the films in 1997. Fair enough (I suppose), he had studio/budgetary/technology restrictions (the last point is highly debatable). But how can he justify the new changes, if he really needs to (which apparently he feels he needs to since he talks about it in every interview) under these pretenses since absolutely no one and nothing was tying his hands from making the majority of the 2004 changes back in 1997? Moot point at this point, of course.

Looks like Neil's information is beginning to spread! Besides the AICN review, The Digital Bits have corrected their review (not sure if they actually came to the conclusion about the reversed channels post-review on their own or if they saw Neil's information, but I'd hope the former since no nod is given to Neil). Their correction can be found here: http://thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents They say they have a call in to Lucasfilm to see if they're going to have a recall/exchange. After waiting so long for the DVD set, you'd think they could have gotten it right. Between this, the E.T. and Back to the Future FUBARs, it makes you shake your head in wonder at how they can't get these big films right! Damnit, how do I delete this post? Sorry, Neil. Just went back to reread recent posts and see that you already caught The Digital Bits post. You know, the studios should hire you for quality control work. It took one man to find an error that so many reviewers (and professional QC folks) couldn't find!

I wouldn't believe this just yet. The source was "Total Film" in their "Spielberg Special" (quite the opposite). In 26 pages of coverage, there was literally almost an error per page (factual errors, mind you). If this doesn't bring this publication's veracity in to question, I don't know what else would. I'm sure there will be "Indy" DVD rereleases someday, of course, but it's only been a year now so I wouldn't expect it so soon. If anything, if "Indy 4" comes to pass, that'd be the most logical time Lucasfilm and Paramount would milk fans again.

I agree with Neil?"War of the Worlds" is far from original at this point (although it once most certainly was, and really I hope Spielberg's film brings new life to the sub-genre). But to discount something as fresh and original as "Minority Report"...hard to take that too seriously. And for my vote, I'm most excited for "Revenge of the Sith," "War of the Worlds," "Goblet of Fire," and the Mossad film. Hope he can get to all of these!

Those who are happy that the "Mossad" project is supposedly dead can stop celebrating now. As I've been shouting all along, the Post article is pure b.s. Here's the proof: From spielbergfilms.com's update today: "August 6, 2004 Updates -'Mossad' project still moving ahead despite contrary rumors Ever since The New York Post's gossip column wrote that Steven Spielberg's "Mossad" project was delayed due to concerns over terrorist threats to the production (see our August 3 news update for the back story), I've found a shameful amount of other media picking up on this story verbatim which has caused much unnecessary confusion. Let it be known today (he proclaimed in his best Charlton Heston voice) that there is no truth in the Post's story regarding the film's delay, period. Steven Spielberg's spokesperson Marvin Levy kindly cleared up the matter for spielbergfilms.com today with the following definitive truth: "Thanks for checking with us. The NY Post story was wrong about the speculation about the delay. It is and has been the script pages which continue to get to Steven almost every day. That's the reason for the delay," Levy said. The kicker of this was that the Post had this same information from Mr. Levy, yet they decided to concoct some fanciful story that the production was delayed due to terrorist threat. Sadly, too many other sources have picked up on the Post's fabrications and now word around the Net (and even in some print sources) is that the project is indefinitely on hold. The Post story (along with many other sources) have also been calling the film "Vengeance," something we've been avoiding here at spielbergfilms.com since its been made clear a few times from DreamWorks that the project will not be specifically based on the George Jonas book "Vengeance" (although DreamWorks/Universal has optioned the rights to Jonas' book as it potentially is one of the contributing sources to the project.) Finally, a bit of good, if not concrete news on how quick Spielberg will be pulling this film together. Had the film made its original June start date for production, Mr. Levy told us that the film may have been completed for a release this year(!), but as the start date has been pushed back to August (or later), "we don't have a date and that will depend initially on when we start." By the sounds of it, if there aren't any major stumbling blocks, filmgoers should expect the production to distribution turn-around to be rapid. So there you have it. Steven Spielberg is working on the "Mossad" project as we speak, a project that you can bet will prove to be one of his most powerful, though-provoking and (possibly most importantly) balanced historical dramas he's committed to film yet. Stick with spielbergfilms.com for continuing, and hey, truthful news on this incredibly intriguing project...

Marian, what's a waterphone and where can I hear it in the "Poltergeist" soundtrack?

[in response to Jeshopk's post, I forgot to quote it...] I'm not sure if the theme to "The Lost World" would be identifiable to the average person, but I would argue that a film that made almost $615 million worldwide in just its theatrical run certainly had some kind of a high cultural impact, which leads to the interesting point that not all high profile film's scores, no matter how great, register with the public in general. Certainly an extremely popular film helps deliver a composer's work to more ears, but I think there is more to Williams' success as a writer than just the films he's been attached to. The best combination, of course, is when his writing and the film's popularity both tap in to the zeitgeist as it has more times than any composer in film history. Perhaps if Goldsmith had more chances to score more high profile films (he certainly should have had more and I think modern "A-list" directors should be ashamed that they didn't use such an incredible resource for their films), more of the common masses would have had a chance to enjoy Goldsmith's works.

You're a good man for that Joe (now only if I could get you to see my way on the "Poltergeist" thing)

I think people might recognize "Carol Anne's Theme" from "Poltergeist" too.

That's true about Kingsley?he had to leave the project because of the delay from the original June start date to accomodate another committment he had (Roman Polanski's "Oliver Twist"). Quite a loss. The worst thing about the new news of the project's entire cancellation is that other sites (imdb.com, IGN, Dark Horizons) are starting to pick up on the Page Six gossip without even questioning it. The Page Six article cites the delay of the film's start date from June (it is pushed back to a potential August start date now while the script is worked on more) and then directly infers that the film has been deep sixed because an "insider" says Spielberg is worried about terrorist attacks on the shoot (like this hadn't been seriously discussed between Spielberg/DreamWorks/Universal from the get-go). Its always a possibility they decided to stop the production (part of me hopes they will if the threat is serious), but for this unsubstantiated news to spread through the 'Net like Gospel is just annoying business-as-usual.

It's not widespread "putting down" of Williams, but the fact that he's been excluded from numerous "important" composer list that have popped up to eulogize Goldsmith is a subtle put-down in itself (I have seen more direct attacks on Williams, though). I would agree with you that Williams isn't as "innovative" as Goldsmith was. Williams works in a more traditonal, classical style, of course. But that doesn't mean he isn't every bit as important of a composer as Goldsmith was like some people seem to think.

Don't trust that Vengeance news, it originated from a gossip column in the New York Post that was merely commenting on the delay from the June shoot date. They have no concrete evidence that the film is being (temporarily) shelved. Until a legitimate source picks up on this, I wouldn't believe a word.

I've been wanting to ask other Williams fans' opinions on this since the unfortunate passing of Jerry Goldsmith, who before anyone takes offense I should point out I am a great fan of along with the music John Williams. I noticed on numerous film score boards (especially the horribly biased FSM) that when people would be eulogizing Goldsmith's death, they'd make comments like "Goldsmith was the only notable composer of the later half of the 20th century," or they'd list big laundry list of important composers, with the painfully obvious exception of Williams, or they'd outright compare Williams to Goldsmith making Williams contributions to the history of film scoring seem less important (Williams may be popular, but Goldsmith was a true innovator, etc.) I've never found any childish need for competition between these two brilliant artists as I enjoy both of their works for different reasons. Why then, do so many people, including supposedly learned film score commentators (again, I'm thinking of some FSM writers) feel the need to ignore Williams' obvious talents, creativity and historical importance in the world of film composers, especially in relation to Goldsmith? I held off a bit to start this topic out of respect for those grieving Goldsmith's death (I know I still am everytime I think of his work or listen to a score by him), but I'm getting a bit tired of reading Goldsmith threads with such immature (dare I say a Thaxtonian phrase?) fan-boy assesments of Williams merely to prop up Goldsmith?an artist whose talents certainly don't need propping!

He already did?it's called "Poltergeist."

I think the studio has the rights but Goldsmith's estate would get a cut.

Just doubled-checked: it appears CNN was wrong (as I thought). A Kerry-Edwards press release confirms this.

From all I have read, Spielberg didn't have anything more to do with the film than to suggest to Kerry that James Moll ("The Last Days," a Spielberg-produced documentary) direct the film. To my knowledge at this point, there's no truth in CNN saying that Spielberg directed anything on it.

Not sure of the exact lyrics, but "Kick the Can" and "It's a Good Life" are two separate segments. The first is the Spielberg segment you're looking for the lyrics to, and the second is the Joe Dante segment.

I love it! Pure, classic "Star Wars." Now let's hope the movie lives up to the legacy for once!

"Alien" should've and would've been on that list if the Academy had taste once and a while. Goldsmith's lack of nominations (per capita compared to his great work) and lack of Oscar wins is another one of the great crimes of the esteemed Academy voters.