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Scores better than the films they were composed for


rpvee

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Let's start a list of films that we each think had a better score than the film itself. I'm sure there are several! I'll start:

The Governess - Edward Shearmur

governessfilmposter.jpg

Seriously, I'd had the soundtrack to this movie long before I actually saw "The Governess" itself. I'm a huge fan of Ofra Haza, so hearing her heavenly voice combined with soft, soothing sounds from the Middle East (and the occasional calming bird call) made this soundtrack one of my favorite albums on my iPod.

Then I finally got around to watching the film itself. In fact, I just finished it... and I feel like the score was actually much better than the film itself. The film was well made and well acted, but it was also a bit strange, and the fact that they only used Ofra's voice during the sexual/love scenes was embarrassing and pathetic, her voice deserves better use than that.

Again, a well made film, just undeserving of the marvelous score composed for it.

Here's a piece from the soundtrack, called "Salome" (excuse the relatively poor sound quality, the soundtrack isn't very well known so this is the best there is on Youtube at the moment):

And here is how such a haunting and beautiful piece of music was used (warning: some slight nudity, but in an (attempted) artistic way). :rolleyes:

So post your thoughts on films with better soundtracks than the movie itself!

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Lady in the Water

The Village

Basically the entirety of M. Knight Shyamalan post-Unbreakable career. :lol:

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Nearly every score Goldsmith ever wrote.

With the exception of:

"Planet Of The Apes",

"Patton",

"The Omen",

"The Wind And The Lion",

"Alien",

"Under Fire",

"Basic Instinct",

for starters...

That's why I said "nearly" ;)

I caught a bit of the traversty that was King Soloman's Mines on tv the other day. Awful, dire movie; but damn that action music was good.

Jerry Goldsmith: The Christopher Lee of film music.

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Nearly every score Goldsmith ever wrote.

With the exception of:

"Planet Of The Apes",

"Patton",

"The Omen",

"The Wind And The Lion",

"Alien",

"Under Fire",

"Basic Instinct",

for starters...

Also 'The Sand Pebbles', 'Gremlins', 'The Ballad of Cable Hogue', and quite a few more.

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Add The Ghost and the Darkness to that list of goodies. But man, he scored a lot of stinkers, too.

Undoubtedly. I think it's mostly because he scored such a huge amount of movies that with that much work and this kind of industry, you're bound to get your fair share of crapola.

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Scores better than their films? Loads! Off the top of my head...

"Hook",

"The Swarm",

"Jaws2",

"Jaws3D",

"King Kong"(1976),

"King Kong"(2005),

"The Lost World:JP",

"Gremlins",

"Raise The Titanic",

"Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade",

"Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull",

"Jane Eyre",

"Goodbye Mr. Chips",

"How To Steal A Million",

That's enough to be going on with.

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Scores better than their films? Loads! Off the top of my head...

"Hook",

"The Swarm",

"Jaws2",

"Jaws3D",

"King Kong"(1976),

"King Kong"(2005),

"The Lost World:JP",

"Gremlins",

"Raise The Titanic",

"Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade",

"Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull",

"Jane Eyre",

"Goodbye Mr. Chips",

"How To Steal A Million",

That's enough to be going on with.

What's wrong with 'Gremlins'?

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No offence to you, Charlie, or anyone else who likes "Gremlins", but it's a film that I have never been able to connect with. To me, it's a bit like "Ghostbusters", in that all seems to be a joke that's gone way over my head. I will admit, though, that I really like "Gremlins II".

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If anything Gremlins 2 qualifies as a score that is much better than the film, not Gremlins.

Alfred Newman's The Greatest Story Ever Told and Miklos Rozsa's King of Kings are tow scores much better than what ended up on film. I'd even add Dimitri Tiomkin's score to The Alamo as well.

But yeah Goldsmith scored his share of stinkers, because he did so much work.

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Brian Tyler's Timeline is exponentially better than the movie

So is Goldsmith's original score for that film.

Yeah, I gotta listen to that soon. One of the few Goldsmith scores I haven't heard. That and LLL's Trek V to name a big one that comes to mind. Trek's on my desk, opened of course, but I guess I'm just waiting for a special day to listen to it....and I've had it since Christmas!!

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If I've seen a bad movie, I've seen and HEARD a bad movie so the score gets thrown out with the movie, AFAIC.

No 50/50-it's ALL or *nothing*.....

You don't hear people say "Damn, that was the S-------------T movie I've ever seen! I'm gonna get the soundtrack tomorrow!!!!!

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You don't hear people say "Damn, that was the S-------------T movie I've ever seen! I'm gonna get the soundtrack tomorrow!!!!!

True, but sometimes one is fortunate enough to be forced to give the score another chance, apart from the contagious horribleness of the film, which can lead to the realization that the score is actually great. Case in point for me personally: Hook. I know some people love the film, but I think it's just cringe-worthy. As a result, the score irritated me at first blush, and it was only with subsequent listens (after allowing the memory of the film to fade) that I realized it's a true masterpiece.

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If I've seen a bad movie, I've seen and HEARD a bad movie so the score gets thrown out with the movie, AFAIC.

No 50/50-it's ALL or *nothing*.....

You don't hear people say "Damn, that was the S-------------T movie I've ever seen! I'm gonna get the soundtrack tomorrow!!!!!

Completely disagree with you. I've seen plenty of shitty movies, where I noticed the score was good and bought it. You don't have to like the film to like the score it was written for

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60-75% of my collection features music from films I'll never watch again. There have been many films I thought were bad but the music captivated me.

If the movie sucks I'll try and pay attention to the music, that way my experience will have some positives, I may have wasted $7.00 on crappy film but I've got a new soundtrack to buy.

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