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Which Jerry Goldsmith auto-pilot action score is the best?


Brundlefly

Which Jerry Goldsmith auto-pilot action score is the best?  

21 members have voted

  1. 1. Which of those three scores is the best?

    • Executive Decision
    • Chain Reaction
    • U.S. Marshals
  2. 2. Air Force One is better than all of them!



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I've been wondering what you think of Jerry's auto-pilot action scores and which one you can recommend.

 

"Executive Decision", "Chain Reaction", "Air Force One" and "U.S. Marshals" are sometimes called the "Big Four". Is it worth having them all? Is it worth buying the deluxe editions? Do the remaining scores require a deluxe treatment? Are there further scores you would consider to belong to the "Jerry Goldsmith auto-pilot action scores"-series?

The_Big_Four.png

Discuss and recommend!

 

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Air Force One is just REALLY well done.

Regardless of time pressure and composer sharing, it's exciting stuff in all its many action tracks.

With some pretty darn good themes as well.

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I really like the "sneaking mode" of Executive Decision. There are many subtle, quiet cues unlike Air Force One. The only score I have not in my shelf is Chain Reaction. Is it as good as ED?

20 hours ago, Pieter_Boelen said:

Air Force One is just REALLY well done.

Regardless of time pressure and composer sharing, it's exciting stuff in all its many action tracks.

With some pretty darn good themes as well.

I really like AFO because it's a real standalone action score and is hardly a Total Recall clone. Let's not forget "The Hijacking".:wub:

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Air Force One is easily the best of the four no doubt.

 

I wish the poll had an option in the first question for not having a preference out of those 3 because I haven't listened to them enough to have a favorite.  AFO is great, though!

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1 hour ago, publicist said:

'Chain Reaction' is certainly the most varied of the three. It also harkens back to the 70's, more so than the others.

It has an E-guitar sometimes, hasn't it?

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4 hours ago, publicist said:

Only...do not get the old Varése, it was one of Goldsmith's really bad producer jobs.

I'm already ashamed of my stupid question. Chain Reaction had one of these 30 minutes OSTs! Even if the deluxe edition is too long or redundant, the OST is surely too short and missing great moments!

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In their recent deluxe editions of Chain Reaction and Executive Decision Varese Sarabande mention their 90s' albums in a very negative way. That indicates they really have the aspiration to re-do the remaining "30 minutes shit". Air Fore One and Small Soldiers ahead, but also The Haunting and U.S. Marshals! Medicine Man, Hollow Man, L.A. Confidential and The 13th Warrior have to wait!

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6 hours ago, Sally Spectra said:

US Marshals has a decent album too.

Hollow Man, 13th Warrior, Medicine Man are all decent 50 minutes albums. All of them contain more than two thirds of the score.

 

U.S. Marshals, Air Force One, The Haunting and Small Soldiers are not decent at all. I mean even Goldsmith wanted them to be longer, but that wasn't possible due to awful re-use fees.

 

L.A. Confidential is decent, although it is very short, because it contains three quarters of the score and just 10 minutes are missing.

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39 minutes ago, Brundlefly said:

Hollow Man, 13th Warrior, Medicine Man are all decent 50 minutes albums. All of them contain more than two thirds of the score.

 

U.S. Marshals, Air Force One, The Haunting and Small Soldiers are not decent at all. I mean even Goldsmith wanted them to be longer, but that wasn't possible due to awful re-use fees.

 

L.A. Confidential is decent, although it is very short, because it contains three quarters of the score and just 10 minutes are missing.

 

But who would want US Marshals to be any longer? Pretty much all the highlights are in there anyway.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Executive Decision has long been one of my JG favourites and so it's clear where my vote went. ;) So I was also really happy to finally see the proper deluxe edition come out in 2016, although there is also a very good bootleg on 2 CDs which even contains source music (such as the classical piece playing in the London restaurant before the suicide bomber blows himself up).

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If I had to make a list that shows which action score is based the most on Total Recall and which the least it would be as follows:

 

Total Recall

 

0% based

----------------

The Sum of All Fears

Timeline

U.S. Marshals

Air Force One

Along Came a Spider

Chain Reaction

Executive Decision

----------------

100% based

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On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 9:25 AM, Maglorfin said:

Executive Decision has long been one of my JG favourites and so it's clear where my vote went. ;) So I was also really happy to finally see the proper deluxe edition come out in 2016, although there is also a very good bootleg on 2 CDs which even contains source music (such as the classical piece playing in the London restaurant before the suicide bomber blows himself up).

The third track of the DE was especially missing on the OST. As well as the bomb motif.

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8 hours ago, Evil-Lyn said:

Executive Decision is a good one to listen to during the morning routine.

It's a easy listen. Therefore I like it.

 

12 hours ago, Display Name said:

If I had to make a list that shows which action score is based the most on Total Recall and which the least it would be as follows:

 

Total Recall

 

0% based

----------------

The Sum of All Fears

Timeline

U.S. Marshals

Air Force One

Along Came a Spider

Chain Reaction

Executive Decision

----------------

100% based

I would swap the bold titles. The Sum of All Fears is better than Timeline though.

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  • 3 months later...

If Air Force One is 30% sneaking music and 70% action music and Executive Decision 70% sneaking music and 30% action music, how is the balance of U.S. Marshals and Chain Reaction in comparison?

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I know that you like it a lot. But I was asking for the approximate percentage of action and sneaky music regarding the complete score. I have seen Air Force One often enough and listened to the C&C of Executive Decision to estimate it roughly, but I haven't listened to Chain Reaction yet and haven't seen U.S. Marshals often enough.

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It's just a regular thriller movie. Of course there isn't 70% action music. Also it's heavier so it's harder to differentiate what you would label as 'action'. Just background music w/o much to contribute amounts to maybe 30% - the movie only had 55 minutes of score, remember.

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9 hours ago, publicist said:

It's just a regular thriller movie. Of course there isn't 70% action music. Also it's heavier so it's harder to differentiate what you would label as 'action'. Just background music w/o much to contribute amounts to maybe 30% - the movie only had 55 minutes of score, remember.

66 minutes?

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  • 3 months later...

I saw U.S Marshals at some point when it came out and I don't remember a thing from the score.

 

How long's it going to take before Varese's dark age is largely rectified? I'm thinking years at this point.

 

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On 6.3.2018 at 1:16 PM, Richard Penna said:

I saw U.S Marshals at some point when it came out and I don't remember a thing from the score.

 

How long's it going to take before Varese's dark age is largely rectified? I'm thinking years at this point.

 

I somehow love the style of U.S Marshals. It is maybe my personal favourite of the three inferior scores. A deluxe treatment would probably not deliver anything new, but it would just extend the running time of that enjoyable score.

 

Regarding Goldsmith, a substantial part of Varese's dark age has been fixed over the past few years.

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I didn't remember a note of U.S. Marshals either, and certainly prefer its predecessor, but in revisiting the film I've warmed up to the score a little more, especially after I noticed a little motif that carries over from the emergency landing scene to Snipes' jump from the rooftop. As expected, that motif was not included on the album

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  • 1 month later...
  • 5 months later...

Thank you for dumping this thread. I'm certain it was totally worth that kaseycockroach-ish comment.

 

By the way, I'm still waiting for two of these four scores! How am I supposed to be totally certain what score is the best, when I just know one half of two of them?

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