Jump to content

The best ancient Egypt score from roadshow era Hollywood?


JJA

The best ancient Egypt score from roadshow era Hollywood?  

19 members have voted

  1. 1. Which of these scores do you prefer?

    • Alfred Newman / Bernard Herrmann - The Egyptian (1954)
      5
    • Dimitri Tiomkin - Land of the Pharaohs (1955)
      0
    • Elmer Bernstein - The Ten Commandments (1956)
      10
    • Alex North - Cleopatra (1963)
      4
  2. 2. Which of these films is the your favourite?

    • The Egyptian (1954)
      0
    • Land of the Pharaohs (1955)
      1
    • The Ten Commandments (1956)
      13
    • Cleopatra (1963)
      5


Recommended Posts

21 minutes ago, Jay said:

<-- This guy's never heard any of these scores or seen any of these movies.  Sorry!

I've heard some bits of Ten Commandments. Eleventh Commandment is better than all of them were.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Haven't watched neither of those films too.

 

They're not very good.

 

Y'know the whole "Marvel isn't cinema" thing? Well, the Ten Commandments really isn't cinema: its very high-budget stageplay that happened to have been captured by a camera. An hour in I was practically begging the film for a closeup!

 

Cleopatra is, in a way, a more accomplished film. But it gets pretty hokey and its certainly exoribtantly long.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Ten Commandments for film and Cleopatra for score. I almost voted for The Egyptian in the latter category as it is an excellent work, but I feel Alex North's score is just a phenomenal mixture of modernism and cracking tunesmith. 

 

Karol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Chen G.

 

;) 

 

Scorsese specifically likes the theatricality!

Quote

Martin Scorsese later said it was one of his favorite films writing in 1978 that:

 

"I like De Mille: his theatricality, his images. I've seen The Ten Commandments maybe forty or fifty times. Forget the story-you've got to-and concentrate on the special effects, and the texture, and the color. For example: the figure of God, killing the first-born child, is a green smoke; then on the terrace while they're talking, a green dry ice just touches the heel of George Reeves or somebody, and he dies. Then there's the reel Red Sea, and the lamb's blood of the Passover. De Mille presented a fantasy, dreamlike quality on film that was so real, if you saw his movies as a child, they stuck with you for life"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(1956_film)#cite_note-100

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To me the theatrically was a deal-breaker. There are moments where the artificiality of the blocking is almost unbearable, like this prologue of sorts and moments of "biblical" dialogue that had me in stitches:

 

 

Its unintentionally hysterical not so much because of the line itself ("Your eyes are sharp as they are beautiful") but because of the very "Heston enters frame from the left, drops line, exits to the right" blocking. There's a beat after the line where it almost looks like the actress is rolling her eyes at the camera.

 

And that's one example of what's basically the modus operandi of the film...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

David Lean films notwithstanding, I find that I don't really like the epics of the 1950s and 1960s.

 

Which is weird because the epic is by far my favourite genre.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a huge soft spot for them.  The more talky and stagey the better!  I love Fall of the Roman Empire even though I know it's not that great (although the Tiomkin score is an all-timer).

 

I just eat this shit up

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Disco Stu said:

For years I've been meaning to make a supercut of every time Charlton Heston says the word "bondage".

 

So let it be written... So let it be done. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I have a huge soft spot for them.  The more talky and stagey the better! 

 

I can appreciate that too, but sometimes it becomes so stagey, it's alienating. The disastrous THE SILVER CHALICE comes to mind, even though it features a spectacular Waxman score. You're hereby warned in terms of watching that!

 

As to the topic, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS wins for me too. Great album, but one thing I've always found weird in the movie itself -- when Moses leads the people out of the city, Bernstein scores it as an Elgar-type processional. The Britishness of it all always takes me out of it a bit.

 

Never been able to get into the CLEOPATRA score, I'm afraid, and I think I've only seen parts of the film.

 

I actually once owned the EGYPTIAN CD back when it was released on FSM. Don't know what happened to it, I probably didn't like it enough to keep it. Would be willing to try again. Never seen the movie.

 

As for LAND OF THE PHARAOS, I've never seen the film and I don't think I've ever heard the score. Maybe a suite on some compilation, I don't know, but I have no memory of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Jay said:

<-- This guy's never heard any of these scores or seen any of these movies.  Sorry!

 

I know Cleopatra, but did I ever watched the whole movie...

 

Well, I'm not really Egyptian too after all!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I romanticized all those old films as a child. Land of the Pharaohs fascinated me. My first experience with Egypt that didn't involve a vengeful mummy. I was about 4 or 5 when we say it at the drive in.

 

My favorite Egyptian was Edward G Robinson sshheee

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes.

 

Before it even started shooting in earnest, it already ate-up a budget equivalent to that of Ben Hur, just due to a series of false-starts, recasts, changes of staff, issues with sets, rewrites, etc...

 

A disasterously spendthrifty motion picture.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Egyptian for score. It is in fact one of my all time favourite scores and the rerecording performance and assembly is terrific.

 

Cleopatra for movie. For all its flaws, it's the only one that has some layers to it. And the score is also terrific

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.