Catch Me If You Can - Music Hacked?

[Kevin McCallister 0]

I got Catch Me If You Can on DVD the other day, and after watching the film a couple times, I noticed some odd things musically in the film partiularly with the editing. The music isn't necessarily hacked (and is certainly not to the level of disgrace as ATOC or TPM), but it is edited in some confusing ways - (BEWARE OF SPOILERS)

1) The album version main title may possibly be an alternate. The film version is identical to the album, but near the end there are more snaps heard that are not found on the album version of the track.

2) I noticed three occaisions where the cue "Father and Son" was tracked into a scene. Once was when Frank's father loses the car, and the other when the divorce scene starts, and when Frank first talks to Carl Hanratty on the phone.

3) For the divorce scene, two cues are heard. First, "Father and Son" and then halfway through, a section of "Recollections" is inserted in.

4) Almost the entire middle section of "The Flash Comics Clue" was taken out of the film.

5) "A Broken Home" is used twice in the film. First when Frank fins out about his Father's death, and then when Frank first walks into the FBI station. In each occaision, only a portion of the cue was used in the film.

6) There is a small section of "Learning The Ropes" that is different in the film from the album - When Frank sees the pilot first exit the cab until they get inside the hotel.

7) During the End Credits are edited with a section of the main title cut into the track in the film. The loud crescendo heard on the album in the reprise is absent and instead identical to the opening titles. Perhaps it's an alternate, but it's more likely that it was simply tracked for time. Also the track begins the reprise half way through instead of at the beginning like on the album. There are actually a few cuts to the credits in the film. Also after the track ends in the film there is a final "whoosh" sound not heard on the album, but I would imagine this was tracked as well.

Those are some of the main things. There is a lot of unused music, so I don't know why Spielberg, Williams, (or whoever) felt the need to track certain cues repeatedly. Another thing I noticed was that a lot of the unreleased music contained renditions of the "Chase Motif" which bothers me partiularly because is it my favorite theme of the film!

Anyone else notice anything?

[Jim Ware 526]

Most of 'The Flash Comics Clue' actually appears in the airport scene, strangely. Of course, Williams' track titles have been misleading in the past.

'Learning The Ropes' seems to be a combination of at least five separate cues, most of which are longer in the film than on the CD.

[Trumpeteer 302]

The only thing that bothers me about the editing is the main title that you refer to. I noticed the extra finger snaps during the second viewing, and wished to have it on CD.

Throughout the film, many of the cues last less than a minute, and many of them were pasted together on the CD to create a cohesive listening experience.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

well not having SFX, the alternate main title should be easy to rip...

[Adam 1]

I get irritated with all of the tinkering in CMIYC where the Father's theme was inserted and just fades away. As good as the Spielberg-Williams collaboration is, Spielberg is not above this kind of meddling and it usually happens at least once in their movies. It happened quite a bit in this one.

- Adam

[Trumpeteer 302]

As I said before Adam, the scenes that use the Father theme don't last very long, so there is never an instance where we're going to get that whole 5-minute suite.

Personally, having little touches of it (as well as that chase theme) works best for this film. Then you welcome each small use of the themes.

That's not to say I don't understand your frustration, Adam. It's just the way the movie was made.

[Hector J. Guzman 1]

I thought Recollections was a piece that wouldn't appear on the film, the actual piece I mean.

[Rogue_Leader 2]

Are there ANY JW scores that aren't hacked nowadays??

Seems like only Spielberg seems to leave John's scores mostly intact.

[Lurker 5]

Seems like only Spielberg seems to leave John's scores mostly intact.

Catch Me If You Can is a Spielberg film.

Neil

[Adam 1]

Yeah, unfortunately, Spielberg tracks in a different cue once or twice in a movie quite commonly although its done in CMIYC more than usual. Overall, its done more tastefully when compared to more notorious examples (SW prequels). But its hard for me to think of a Williams score to a Spielberg film that comes out completlely unscathed. Even ET and Schindler's List have cues that are tracked in to another scene over his orgininal composition.

Overall, its more forgiveable than with other collaborations since the tracked in music more or less fits and we are still given so much quality music with the vast majority of the score remaining intact.

One point of confusion as I read the previous posts : The Father's Theme is track 8 and the beginning was tracked in several times during the movie. The concert suite of the father's theme is track 4 and has only a very small part tracked in to the movie (as mentioned by Kevin M. in his original post).

- Adam