Restored Isolated Score: Black Sunday

[Holko 9,499]

Next up is Williams' grin-inducingly fun thriller score for this fantastically shot tense movie. (although these videos do not represent its cinematography well enough, partly due to their selective nature and partly due to problems coming from having to render footage at different speeds. Mike(?) wrote a good track-by-track and theme breakdown so I'll mostly comment on the film usage and notable sync points.

 

 

 

1M1A Beirut - unused in the film, this is my best guess.

1M3 Commandos Arrive - Used as is.

1M4/2M1 Commando Raid Part 1

2M2 Commando Raid Pt 2

2M3 Commando Raid Pt 3 - No real idea where these 3 split, they're mostly used as is with some microedits. The cuts back and forth between Dahlia and the van are very highly emphasised, also the different "phases" of the mission - arriving, setting up the bombs, starting to sneak around, entering and starting the massacre - all have their own tempo and orchestral denseness level. Notable is the string pause when Kabakov meets Dahlia, and the ticking countdown tempo after they set off the bombs.

2M4 It Was Good - used as is.

 

 

3M1 Dahlia Arries - used as is.

4M2 The Unloading - used as is.

4M3 Speed Boat Chase - the film only uses the opening, discards the final escape dash.

5M1 The Telephone Man - The film discards the ending percussion for Michael, opts to only keep his whistling.

5M2 The Captain Returns - used as is.

 

 

5M3 Nurse Dahlia - unused.

6M1 Kabakov's Card - well, these two gave me a bit of a headache. in the FSM track, they're joined with the next cue too, which separates from them logically. But these two... If I sync up the end of the remainder without 6M2 to the Kabakov's Card scene as is, I could cut it off at a  point where it syncs up to the start of the scene, but then I would be left with too little for Nurse Dahlia - also, as it is in the film, it starts with music that sounds too much like that remainder to the Nurse Dahlia scene and not like the music that's synced up to it. My best guess - Mike significantly overlapped these two, dropping the buildup from 6M1 that's just repeated from 5M3. My best attempt was to cut off 5M3 at the point where the terrorist motif changes from bass flute to flute and a held high string note and mock up the buildup for 6M1 from 5M3 - so 5M3 is the marimba and piano opening then just bass flute, 6M1 is the marimba and piano opening then just the flute and held string.

6M2 The Hypodermic - used as is in the film. Since it's overlapped with 6M1's fadeout on the FSM (as heard at the end of 6M1 where I couldn't do anything), I mocked up a clean opening from 5M3 here too.

6M3 Moshevsky's Dead - The first half is unused, it would have scored Kabakov's reaction and inner emotional state immediately instead of only coming in when we cut away like in the film.

7M1 The Test - Unused in the film. There would be multiple ways to sync it up without knowing the original intent, maybe the footage would even have to be edited down, but this was the best guess I arrived at, the score coming in as we cut to the shot of their faces in the light, escalating as the monologue ends, shifting to the threatening note as they fly away.

8M1/8M1A Building the Bomb - Used as is.

 

 

8M2 Miami - used as is (also tracked over a second Miami air shot and date reminder later).

10M1 Dahlia's Call - Mike says this is for the scene that follows right after, Dahlia making a passionate demand of Fasil to let her finish the mission. I don't see any way of an entire reel being between them until this was composed for much later. I couldn't find any good place for it in the speech so in the end, I left it here where it might not be correct - it syncs up well enough.

10M5 The Last Night - unused, the film opts to throw out JW's "love theme" and instead dimly keeps Hotel Lobby playing from the previous scene.

11M1 Preparations - used as is, except for the very end. I chose to remove a shot of musician fans and have this partial Kabakov playing over the larger shots of the stadium and Kabakov.

11M5 Passed - unused, and I can see why - it works on album as a first "terrorist" cue for the final stretch, but Michael's only shown at the very end, it doesn't work over the other crew making funny faces.

11M7 The Flight Check - used as is.

 

 

11M8 Airborne - In the film this cue starts later, right before we cut inside the cockpit, I decided it works better scoring the blimp rising up.

12M3 Bomb Passes Stadium - used as is for this wonderful long take.

12M4 Farley's Dead - used as is.

13M2 The Blimp and the Bomb - mostly used as is, the opening before we cut to Dahlia uses tracked material, and the ending is removed because of removed shots. Here begins the final stretch of action which JW scores as tightly to the picture as possible, reacting to actions, gunshots, vehicle movements and dynamic changes in very fun ways. Unfortunately this cue is the most intact his score gets in the final film for a good while.

13M3 The Take Off - Only the end is used in the film, starting with Michael shouting to Dahlia to throw the body out - the rest is tracked over. Note the tense opening, the mad rush of strings for the police car, the catroonish sting for the crash, the mad rush of piano and brass for Kabakov arriving and his theme for him shooting at the blimp, and the fateful heavy terrorist waltz as the blimp seemingly escapes.

 

 

13M4 Underway - unused, this is the best place I could find for it, where the film tracks other material.

13M5/14M1 Air Chase part 1 - Used as is except for the opening strings - score parts for the cuts back to the game being removed will remain consistent, though understandable on some level to choose to instead focus on the crowd noise that'd drown it out anyway. Note more heavy waltz tempo for the huge blimp, and the agile rushing climbing strings for example for the helicopter maneuvering around it.

14M2 Air Chase part 2 - if my guess is right, this would be for the high-octane shootout between Kabakov's helicopter and the terrorists' blimp. Used only partly, the rest tracks other material all over. The strings vs waltz remain consistent, the cuts back to the stadium are very low-key and minimalistic here to contrast with the action. Note also the held strings for Kabakov and Dahlia's second staredown.

14M3 - Air Chase part 3 - this is likely the next part of the chase, where the focus is now to stop or divert the barely blimp and save the people. Mostly unused. Williams changes the tempo and stakes here, we go much slower but not less tense, the cuts back to the stadium are now scored with variations on two string notes climbing higher and higher to note the danger they'll soon be in. Note also the motif for the dangling hook, Kabakov's theme and the high strings when he starts sliding down and hanging, and the rising motif when the blimp finally reaches the stadium. The film drops this slower approach and tracks all kinds of faster cues all over.

15M1 The Blimp Hits - This might be controversial and even goes against what Mike writes. 14M3 finishes really well IMO. In the film 15M1 (along with many other places where it's tracked) plays where I ended 14M3. If I put 15M1 where it is in the film, we'd have a minute of black screen for unavailable footage. Instead, I tried something different and synced it up to this bit at the end of the stadium pandemonium. If I'm right and it scores Michael's final attempts to light the fuse line as well as the quick chaotic cuts to everything else, then this cue is completely unused where it was intended to be, but used a lot everywhere else in the finale.

15M2 The Explosion - Partly used, but the film loops the opening portions over the second half until the helicopter lifts off and flies away. Here, after the manic air-gunfight and the slow attempts to redirect the blimp, the bomb is finally lit and JW amps up the tempo again with a countdown-esque percussion that gives way to more purely orchestral tension scoring as the blimp is finally lifted away. Note the Kabakov theme entering as we see him flown to safety, the glorious buildup and the satisfying release as the camera moves to the blimp and it finally explodes.

15M3 The End - unused.

 

 

Alternates and alternate placements

Starting with a portion from 15M3 The Explosion, to show how 15M3 The Explosion (revised ending) was probably intended to fit into it - note the switch for the Kabakov theme from a "not quite out of the woods yet" minor rendition to a big major one, followed by glorious triumphant fanfares replacing the simple satisfying release of the original. Since this ends not far behind the same spot where the original does, I thought I'd add the percussionless 15M3 mix too to show how this last minute rescore really required a different end credits approach, since this doesn't fit together at all.

Then comes 15M1 The Blimp Hits in its film placement replacing the end of 14M3, in case some people prefer it being here.

And finally, a reconstruction of the very very strange film edit of the finale - 15M3 The Explosion playing out in full, then its revised ending just thrown after, not really synced to anything after its starting point, then the film edit replacement for the credits. No idea what the hell they were thinking, maybe it was so late that they didn't have time to remix the ending?

[JohnnyD 1,220]

Awesome! This is great!

[Jay 37,287]

Wow, another one!

[Holko 9,499]

In the process of migrating all my iso videos from throwaway accounts to my main Drive, I decided to redo these with a better rendered video source (also added subtitles), the messy framerate was the only thing I was unhappy with in this very fun project.

[Jay 37,287]

Awesome!

[Bespin 8,480]

Thanks for these vids!

[scoreman36 68]

Taken me far too long to realise what a masterpiece of suspense writing this score is - this analysis is just brilliant, thank you so much for posting!