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Joel McNeely's A Million Ways To Die In The West


Jay

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Hearing great things about this score!

Here's the OST track list:

1 A Million Ways to Die [Explicit] (Alan Jackson) 2:27
2 Main Title 2:33
3 Missing Louise 2:08
4 Old Stump 0:45
5 Saloon Brawl 1:50
6 Rattlesnake Ridge 1:28
7 People Die at the Fair 2:11
8 The Shooting Lesson 2:16
9 The Barn Dance 2:29
10 If You've Only Got a Moustache (Amick Byram) 1:31
11 Anna and Albert 4:19
12 Clinch Hunts Albert 3:41
13 Racing the Train 2:21
14 Captured by Cochise 2:07
15 Albert Takes a Trip 2:24
16 The Showdown 2:20
17 Sheep to the Horizon 2:00
18 End Title Suite 2:30

And here's samples!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KB5NYT8/

And here's a music video for the opening title song!

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A nice-sounding collection of stuff we have heard a million times before.

Trailers was awful. Why do grown american men always act like 12-year olds whenever the subject of sexual intercourse with the opposite or even same sex comes up? I can't remember John Wayne or Robert Mitchum cracking nervous jokes about getting laid in the late 30's!

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After reading McFarlane's and McNeely's interviews about this score in FSM Online, I blind-preordered this. Their descriptions of the things they were doing were right up my alley, and I like McNeely.

I doubt you could drag me into the movie though.

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I was afraid this would be full of country/western-type songs and stylings, like the track above. However, when I heard the clips, I was totally blown away by the playful western modes a la Silvestri or Broughton. Nothing we haven't heard before, but still enjoyable. Looking forward to it. Film too, as I'm a big MacFarlane fan.

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Looking forward to it. Film too, as I'm a big MacFarlane fan.

Guess that makes two of us! I don't think many like him around here.

Not many here like Zimmer either, but I do (and you do too, if I remember correctly). Let us minorities huddle together and pat ourselves on the back! ;)

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Creator of Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show, exec producer of the new Cosmos, writer/director of Ted

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Creator of Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show? Highest paid TV producer of all time.

Recently forayed into film with Ted. Big John Williams and film score fan.

EDIT - What I get for posting at work!

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It is a comedy score that plays it typically straight for this type of film and seems to reference all the Western music cliches. Did anyone expect more from this? Sounds like solid orchestral writing though.

Oh and the song was a fun parody of Western theme song tunes. The Wild West was a death trap!

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I actually watched this movie at a sneak preview in Dublin last week.

It's a comedy! The score is very much aping the familiar Elmer Bernstein western sound while playing it straight.

The opening titles over beautiful aerial shots of the Grand Canyon come with huge letters like in a classic Tiomkin western. Must see!

The film has lots of very funny jokes - there's a hilarious bit about why people getting their picture taken in the West never smiled!

And on the downside, a couple of jokes fall flat, unfortunately.

It's different from 'Ted' in being more absurd.

What really works is MacFarlane's central character - an unlucky shepherd who feels uncomfortable with his place and period.

Very much like Woody Allen.

Also - and maybe this was the biggest surprise - the romance between MacFarlane and Charlize Theron is very touching.

Overall, the audience enjoyed it a lot.

Watch out for Chris Lloyd as Doc Brown in his 'Back to the Future 3' outfit.

What's more, it felt like a good time at the movies in 1990 all over again!

But they should have cut 20 minutes of fart jokes. Probably a 'tribute' to 'Blazing Saddles'. And the train scene sucked.

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While MacFarlane's work leaves me cold, this is a pretty great pastiche of western scores. Obviously not even remotely groundbreaking, but it's certainly a fun listen. And I kinda love that theme song.

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Even for a blockbuster film score, this is surprisingly unoriginal. I'm on the 7th track right now, and more of it seems to be temp-inspired than not. Mostly Copland, but also some Bernstein, Bryant and Goldsmith.

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The point of this score is to call back on the stylings of those old western scores. I don't think there was ever a way this would have been a truly original score.

This score is fun, and it actually plays the genre straight enough to seem sincere. A lot times with comedy scores that follow traditional styles, they end up sounding tongue-in-cheek, even if they're playing it straight. I don't think this scores has that problem.

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Which was filmed in 1989 and set in both 1985 and 1885, but release date trumps all.

Curiously, someone has already edited the Backtothefuture.wikia article for Back to the Future III to claim that Doc Brown's cameo means that the BTTF series takes place in the same universe as A Million Ways to Die in The West. Wow...

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  • 3 months later...

An expanded release is available now on iTunes.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/million-ways-to-die-in-west/id914419620

01. A Million Ways To Die (2:27)
02. Main Title (2:33)
03. Missing Louise (2:07)
04. Majesty of the West (0:43)
05. Old Stump (0:46)
06. Show Us the Gold (3:23)
07. Saloon Brawl (1:50)
08. Rattlesnake Ridge (1:28)
09. People Die At the Fair (2:11)
10. On the Move (0:51)
11. The Shooting Lesson (2:16)
12. The Stagecoach Robbery (3:34)
13. The Barn Dance (2:29)
14. If You've Only Got a Moustache (1:31)
15. Old Stump Bluegrass (3:06)
16. Anna and Albert (4:18)
17. Hello Sweetheart (1:26)
18. Looking For Anna - Ride To Albert's (1:17)
19. We Should All Just Wear Coffins As Clothes (4:21)
20. Clinch Hunts Albert (3:41)
21. Racing the Train (2:21)
22. Someone's Coming (1:12)
23. Captured By Cochise (2:07)
24. Albert Takes a Trip (2:24)
25. The Showdown (2:20)
26. Sheep To the Horizon (2:00)
27. End Title Suite Extended (3:14)
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Well, MacFarland is a big film music fan, so I wouldn't be surprised if he put money aside in the budget for such a release.

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  • 1 month later...

Wrong. Your first link is to the AU iTunes store, so it's in AU dollars.

Your second link is to the US.

Here's a US link for the first release, where it's $9.99

https://itunes.apple.com/US/album/million-ways-to-die-in-west/id876766096

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Out of curiosity, has anyone here compared the OST to the Digital Deluxe Edition to the FYC CD to the FYC Web site tracks?

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On 1/21/2015 at 10:30 PM, Jay said:

Out of curiosity, has anyone here compared the OST to the Digital Deluxe Edition to the FYC CD to the FYC Web site tracks?

 

There you go.

In yellow are the tracks that are exclusive to a release (or tracks that contain music exclusive to a release).

 

A few comments:

 

- The FYC website doesn't offer anything exclusive. All 6 cues found there appear on both the Deluxe Edition and the FYC CD.

 

- Similarly, the OST doesn't offer anything exclusive. All the tracks on the CD appear on both the Deluxe Edition and the FYC CD.

On a sidenote, the OST program is in chronological order, minus the track A Million Ways To Die, which should go right before End Title Suite.

 

- The Deluxe Edition features two exclusive tracks not found on any other release: The Stagecoach Robbery and End Title Suite Extended (oddly enough, the FYC promo didn't include them, even though there was enough space for both on the disc. Maybe because they didn't appear as is in the film?).

On a sidenote, the DE program is mostly in chronological order, with a few exceptions: A Million Ways To Die should go right before End Title Suite Extended, Show Us The Gold should go right before Old Stump, and Looking For Anna - Ride To Albert's [00:28 - End] should go after We Should All Just Wear Coffins As Clothes.

 

- End Title Suite Extended is the unedited end credits suite. The OST, the FYC CD and the FYC website all featured an edited down version of the cue, with the ending of the Main Title [02:21-02:33] tracked at the end of this cue (at 02:14). The unedited version of the end credits found on the Deluxe Edition features the original ending of the cue.

 

So, basically, the only thing you need is the FYC CD + the two tracks only found on the Deluxe Edition (The Stagecoach Robbery and End Title Suite Extended). The OST and the FYC website are useless.

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At first, I thought maybe it was music for a deleted scene (because I didn't remember any stagecoach robbery in the film), and that was why it wasn't included on the FYC CD (because of the new rule that says that FYC CDs should present the music as heard in the film). But after doing a quick Google check, I saw many reviews which mention a stagecoach robbery, so apparently the scene is in the film. So either the cue(s) is (are) not used in the film, or... I don't know!

As for the unedited end credits cue, I supposed it's because the film uses the edited down version of it that the unedited version wasn't on the FYC CD.

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