Eiger Sanction: Due for a Remaster?

[Andy 4,071]

I'm sadly not very familiar with The Eiger Sanction.  It doesn't get mentioned much, so my guess is it's probably cut from the same cloth as Earthquake, but didn't qualify as a "disaster"movie to make the box set.

 

I can't stomach the eBay prices... How likely is this title to get a new spit shine from M.Matessino?  It is just been announced for a new blu ray release from Kino Lorber.

[Jay 37,268]

Mike actually mentioned it recently, on this podcast:

 

https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2020/05/12/mike-matessino-far-and-away-the-river/

 

Starting around the 1 hour, 13 minute mark

[Bespin 8,472]

It's due because I don't even have the original CD in my collection!

[Jay 37,268]

Me neither

[Bespin 8,472]

It's about time to focus on the real priorities for once!!!

[phbart 609]

I'm eager for Eiger.

[bruce marshall 1,314]

All I remember of the score is JW in Baroque mode- lotsa harpsichord.

[Andy 4,071]

I’m glad to hear it’s a candidate for rerelease. It’s for some reason a score I keep forgetting about when I look at 1975-1984. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,010]

5 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

All I remember of the score is JW in Baroque mode- lotsa harpsichord.

 

Well, wasn't it during the baroque period that JW started out writing film scores?

[bruce marshall 1,314]

2 minutes ago, Hedji said:

I’m glad to hear it’s a candidate for rerelease. It’s for some reason a score I keep forgetting about when I look at 1975-1984. 

The film is not very good.

It's NEVER mentioned in discussions of Eastwood's directing ouevre

[Andy 4,071]

I haven’t seen the film, but it lists Drive In Corman Queen Candice Rialson in the credits. Probably a bit part, but she’s a doll. 

[bruce marshall 1,314]

22 minutes ago, Hedji said:

I haven’t seen the film, but it lists Drive In Corman Queen Candice Rialson in the credits. Probably a bit part, but she’s a doll. 

Iirc she goes FULL FRONTAL!😁

[Thor 7,457]

I wouldn't be opposed to a straight, remastered reissue, but I think the existing CD sounds fine.

[Jurassic Shark 12,010]

21 minutes ago, Thor said:

I wouldn't be opposed to a straight, remastered reissue, but I think the existing CD sounds fine.

 

Is there any old JW release you don't think sounds fine?

[Thor 7,457]

Yes, if you go back far enough; 60s stuff and the like. Although now many of these have been cleaned-up well too, to sound as good as they can.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,490]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

I wouldn't be opposed to a straight, remastered reissue, but I think the existing CD sounds fine.

It's nice and dry, and not as muddled as the OSTs on either side.

[Andy 4,071]

2 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

Iirc she goes FULL FRONTAL!😁

 

Stop.  Really?  I can't tell if you're kidding. 

 

She's great in Pets and Hollywood Blvd.  And her lady parts literally have a speaking role in Chatterbox.

[Jurassic Shark 12,010]

I love lady parts!

[filmmusic 1,822]

The film is getting released by Kino from a new 2K scan in November, so who knows, maybe the score gets released too..

[bruce marshall 1,314]

1 hour ago, Hedji said:

 

Stop.  Really?  I can't tell if you're kidding. 

 

She's great in Pets and Hollywood Blvd.  And her lady parts literally have a speaking role in Chatterbox.

According to Mr.Skin she has a bit part.

I was thinking of another blonde actress who gets nekkid in the film.

Sorry to get your hopes up😞

[Andy 4,071]

  It's okay.  Her other filmography leaves little to the imagination.

 

So anyways... Yeah, filmmusic is right... Kino just announced the blu ray, so that was what made made me think of this score, which I rarely do.

 

 

 

[rough cut 1,714]

I've had Eiger for a couple of years now, I bought it in 2014 for about a quarter of what the going rate is today. I thought it was expensive back then...

 

The music is jazzy and breezy. The score is mostly monothematic, but the main theme is great and it's fun to hear it in different arrangements. However, the meat of the score is in the cue Training With George. I can't go on enough about this track! It is one of my top 10 JW tracks of all time. I couldn't have imagined living without it, and not having it readily available in my collection, for the last 6 years.

 

It is amazing.

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,010]

Too much reverb!

[Thor 7,457]

No, I think the reverb is gorgeous. A perfect reflection of the baroque jazz melancholy of the score. It's not a sound that is suited to a 'dry' environment. Same applies to something like Roy Budd's GET CARTER. The reverb is almost part of the composition itself.

[Muad'Dib 1,800]

On 8/11/2020 at 2:08 PM, bruce marshall said:

All I remember of the score is JW in Baroque mode- lotsa harpsichord.

 

Listen to this beauty! Jazzy baroque

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,490]

If you want more of that, try TRAINING WITH GEORGE, and  GEORGE SETS THE PACE.

 

(edit TWG has been mentioned. Sorry)

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Thor said:

No, I think the reverb is gorgeous. A perfect reflection of the baroque jazz melancholy of the score. It's not a sound that is suited to a 'dry' environment. Same applies to something like Roy Budd's GET CARTER. The reverb is almost part of the composition itself.

Agreed. I still think it sounds fairly "dry", though.

Thor, do you think that the reverb is artificial? Compare it to EARTHQUAKE, THE TOWERING INFERNO, and it certainly sounds it.

[Thor 7,457]

10 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Thor, do you think that the reverb is artificial? Compare it to EARTHQUAKE, THE TOWERING INFERNO, and it certainly sounds it.

 

Yes, I think so. An intentional choice.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,490]

Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't (THE SECRET OF N.I.M.H.).

[SilverTrumpet 638]

Just listened to Jeff's episode about this score today. I had never heard of it before that. 

 

Sounds cool from the samples. Would love a new chance to listen to it.

[bruce marshall 1,314]

The training montage is all I remember

[Naïve Old Fart 9,490]

2 hours ago, SilverTrumpet said:

Just listened to Jeff's episode about this score today. I had never heard of it before that. 

 

Sounds cool from the samples. Would love a new chance to listen to it.

As I've posted before, the entire OST is on YouTube.

[Muad'Dib 1,800]

And let us not forget!

 

 

Rock n' roll, baby

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I had it and never listened to it.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

No mention of Fifty Miles of Desert? This forum is as dead to me as this movie is to Eastwood's career.

 

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,010]

I like that kind of piano accompaniment.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Same! I love it when Williams wrote in that mode...after the 70s he didn't do it much anymore, but with Crystal Skull he showed us he could still tap into that. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,010]

It's been ages since I listened to Crystal Skull - could you point out the track?

[Nick Parker 3,040]

 

Not to say this is the only example of this writing after the 70s.

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,010]

Thanks. Is that on the OST?

[bruce marshall 1,314]

2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

It's been ages since I listened to Crystal Skull - could you point out the track?

I sold my copy.

Boring score

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Zzzzzzzz......

[Naïve Old Fart 9,490]

12 hours ago, Nick Parker said:

 

Not to say this is the only example of this writing after the 70s.

 

There's something similar on DENIS STEALS THE EMBRYOS.

[E-Wan 65]

Kyle Eastwood (Clint Eastwood's son) plays the jazz arrangement of music from The Eiger Sanction

 

 

 

The track is from Kyle Eastwood's album Cinematic

 

 

[Thor 7,457]

Yeah, someone posted that video awhile back. Neat stuff.

[stravinsky 203]

I'm hoping when this score gets the same treatment as the Disaster Box we are in for a surprise equal to hearing the full score for Earthquake for the first time. 

[crumbs 14,287]

So long as the scoring elements were preserved, the remaster should be revelatory when Mike works his magic. Earthquake sounded like it was recorded yesterday!

[stravinsky 203]

Just a shame a significant portion of the score is basically source music. But it was 1974 I guess. 

[crumbs 14,287]

Not really familiar with the score, is the source music Williams composed?

 

Hopefully Mike's able to include everything. JW's a bit inconsistent with regards to allowing source music on expansions (but had no issue with the source music in the Disaster Box, and that was the same era).

[Omen II 1,235]

1 hour ago, crumbs said:

Not really familiar with the score, is the source music Williams composed?

 

Does your question refer to Earthquake or The Eiger Sanction, @crumbs?

 

Almost all of the source music in The Eiger Sanction is by John Williams, the exception being a minute or so of Chopin's Nocturne in E flat major heard emanating from another apartment as Wormwood climbs the stairs prior to his killing right at the beginning of the film.  Most of the other source music (totalling about 12 minutes) is heard at Ben Bowman's ranch in Arizona while Hemlock prepares for his assignment on the Eiger, although there are also a couple of quasi source music pieces as Hemlock and Jemima get it on after he picks her up during a plane flight.  The source music is similar in style to much of the source music in Earthquake.

 

I agree with others' comments that a presentation of the full score would be revelatory.  Not only is the OST a complete rerecording (as was the case with Jaws, Earthquake, The Missouri Breaks, etc.) but much of the brilliant music for the climbing scenes in the last third of the film is not represented at all.  Just one example is the music for the scene where the French climber Montaigne is mortally injured in a rockfall, a classic Williams action cue that can be counted among his best work of the 70s, in my opinion.

 

Incidentally, most of the source music in Earthquake is by John Williams, although he cannot claim credit for the Hare Krishna chant!

 

On 8/11/2020 at 6:26 PM, Hedji said:

I haven’t seen the film, but it lists Drive In Corman Queen Candice Rialson in the credits. Probably a bit part, but she’s a doll. 

 

Candice Rialson plays an art student who tells Hemlock (Clint Eastwood) that she will do "anything" to get a better grade.  He tells her to go home and "study her little ass off"!

[crumbs 14,287]

Finally had a chance to watch this film and now I understand why this score is so desired! Not only for the unreleased film score, but just to hear what Mike could achieve with the audio quality.

 

So glad it's on his radar because the music is quite an eccentric mix of genres in the film. The film score would pair brilliantly with the OST. Pleasantly surprised that most of the jazzy source music works in tandem with the film score (like Earthquake) so I'm less concerned about source tracks being omitted from an expansion (maybe except the Chopin excerpt... though it would be nice to have, being so prominent in the film!)

 

But the prospect of Mike remastering the sound quality is exciting; the recording sounds terribly flat in film and on album. No idea if it's a bad recording or just the primitive mastering/film mixing from the 70s but surely it shouldn't sound this bad. Earthquake was recorded a year earlier and that remaster sounds like it was recorded yesterday! If Mike's able to achieve something similar with Eiger, it'll be revelatory.

 

BTW, the new Bluray master impressed me. Recommended for anyone who hasn't checked the film out. Yes, it's grainy as hell and dripping with film defects, but that's how a film from that era should look! Lots of great zoom lenses that reminded me of Kaminski's work on Munich, and overall the cinematography was very impressive.

 

And yes, the film itself is... problematic... but it's unfair to judge a 45 year old movie through the prism of modern standards.