MARCO BELTRAMI

Was well impressed with the sound samples on The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, so I've gone and ordered that score yesterday. Looking forward to hearing it in full!

For everybody well impressed with it and irritated it was released as an iTunes exclusive release... Did we already know Beltrami's excellent 3:10 To Yuma will soon also be released in proper CD format?

The cool cover artwork:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5 … SS500_.jpg

AMAZON page:
http://www.amazon.com/3-10-Yuma-Marco-B … amp;sr=1-1

Great news, probably the first Beltrami I'd really like to buy!

Beltrami is a good composer, but Hellboy shows a quality above the good standard, Hellboy is simply sensational. Alas I'm talking about the full score and not the rather small short release of Varèse, because that one didn't even have the Hellboy hero theme, which is just sooooooooo good

Truly, everyone who liked Hellboy the original release or not at all will be blown away when they find out the simply killer stuff that is on the recording sessions promo. Truly, seek it out

Mimic isn't bad either of course

I Robot isn't bad, but is a bit too dark perhaps for my liking, not the agressive darkness of Hellboy which I totally like I am Dina is defintely not bad, I have the score and its something different from him, the sad fact was I liked the pieces by Jorane just a tad more than the score

Agree. One of his greatest themes and, as you say, its statement in this particular track is amazing; also its appearance in "Gut Grenade".
And the love theme for Hellboy and Liz is one of his best themes IMO, absolutely beautiful and dramatic at the same time.

Agree.


Music is a funny old thing!! Doesn't even Underworld: Evolution do anything?!

It does sound like Hellboy a bit - it's a Beltrami score! But it's Hellboy on steroids!

Hellboy which is easily the best thing Beltrami has ever done. I thought it was going to be all gravy from here on out but man was I wrong. So far, his earily work has outshone his more recent efforts. Oh, and I'll give you I Am Dina. A rare dramatic treat from Beltrami.

As of late though I'm not finding much interest in his work... 3:10 to Yuma aside.

The Omen was never going to live up to Goldsmith's original and even though Beltrami took the film down a different route it was standard horror scoring... something he did much better in Scream. However, Altar Of Sacrifice was a dynamite action cue.

Live Free Or Die hard was just plain awful with only one good action lick... "The F-35" The rest was sonic wallpaper and the same damn action cue over and over and over and over and over. Yawn! Again, he had to fill the shoes of another legendary composer and failed.

Terminator 3. While I appreciate trying bring an orchestral voice to this series I still would have preferred another fine electronic effort from Brad Fiedel. While Fiedel's scores are horrible to listen to on CD at least in the film it was the right approach. Beltrami should have gone more down that route.

-Erik-

Spoken like a true soundtrack fan.

Couldn't agree more! I adore UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION and it's an absolute must-have for Beltrami fans!

Well, Erik my friend, i disagree there.

LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD is one hell of an action ride that terribly elevates the pure fun movie it accompanied but we've been over this again, i don't think i'll convince you unless you watch the movie damn loud, reset yourself and go play the score equally loud or something afterwards!

The remake of the OMEN in 2006 and especially in the way they've done it (dull, to be mild) would sound terribly overloaded with as score like Goldsmith's. The modern-day brooding darkness of the score which has several heavily-dynamic dark passages in it is what the makers of the film seek for, imo, and as a standalone listen - when played loud and given the time, it has a lot of captivating and ominous thrills for the thriller film score lover to enjoy. I, for one, do; greatly.

As for T3: Man are you sure you've given this the time and repeated listens to show you what it's got? 'Cause it has some massively complex and twisted orchestral action in it that's way beyond standard scoring imo; play "Blonde Behind The Wheel" for instance and play it loud! Man, that thing's a killer!

Tommy, I always hesitate listening to complete scores (bootleg danger!) but I've read a couple of times here on the forums that it's a great listen. I'll give it a shot.

I saw the film and the sound mix was terrible. But from what I did hear the score did absolutely NOTHING for me... except for that one track I mentioned before. It was awful. A lazy effort. Those tinckering synths, the oh-hum orchestral music... it was what itwas... sonic wallpaper that did NOTHING to enhance the film. Boy, did I ever miss Michael Kamen on this film. Beltrami was the wrong, WRONG choice. And the album is painfully boring. No variation, no emotion, nothing! It's just... THERE... and it doesn't do ANYTHING interesting at all. A snoozer!!!



Demetris, I respect you, we are friends, but I hate comments like that. It's like saying Golden Age scoring wouldn't work in Hollywood today. Sure it would, but the MTV generation and video music buffoons who run the studios now won't allow it. So, when you say something like the original The Omen wouldn't work in an Omen film... I honestly think that's a load of bull crap. The second best friggin' cue on the album is the last track... the homage to Goldsmith's score. If the score had anything in it like that last track then I would be applauding Beltrami for his effort. Like I said, Beltrami's score, no matter how dark, brooding or dynamic you think it is can't stand up against Goldsmith original or his The Final Conflict! That stuff is light years ahead of Beltrami's work and far more affective!



Good music yes... right score for the film, no. Like I said, I'll take Feidel's action music from the Psychiatric Hospital Escape over anything Beltrami wrote for T3. Like I said, T3 might make for a far more pleasing listen experience, Feidal's work served the film much more. Those droning chords for the T-1000 are haunting and terrifying. I don't think Beltrami's accomplished any of that in his score.

-Erik-

Erik,

T3 issue: stuck in the past a bit? No matter how successful the Feidel's Terminator might be, i still think that Beltrami's effort's far better on every single level and i'd doubt you actually let yourself listen to the new score for what it is, rather than constantly comparing it to the original, even without actually realizing it. It's logical, i'd have probably done that if i came from your generation of listeners and / or had the exact same musical tastes as yours, thus i can perfectly see how you might have connected the whole Terminator thing to the Feidel sound overall. That's perfectly normal and expected too since that came first but - i guess this is where tastes and the afore-mentioned differences between us two come in and I know we won’t agree- i would never take it over the complex dark beast that is Beltrami's T3.

As for THE OMEN, you completely misunderstood me. You know me better than that mate to actually assume I was saying Beltrami’s OMEN Is better than Goldsmith’s!?

I'd never say that nor that Goldsmith's original score for OMEN wouldn't work in Hollywood today. I was talking about the remade film in particular, like you're talking about Terminator, the film above. Have you seen THE OMEN, the remake? I too agree with you about the MTV generation of film-makers / producers running a lot of Hollywood's studios today and it sucks but that's the kind of the film THE OMEN (remake) is indeed. It's not even as half as frightening or intense as the original OMEN film when it came out (according to the time the respective films were released of course). It's friggin' dull, nothing happens for the largest of its duration. Where would you fit the otherwise spectacular inferno that is Goldsmith's original over this? Would the dumb filmmakers let you do that?

I would be crazy to diminish the value of the Goldsmith original nor am i comparing the two (this with Beltrami's) as the former is tremendously greater and we're not even discussing this; but i really think Beltrami did his best with what he had to both meet the filmmakers' demands and also create a fresh, brooding and modern dark score.

I really hate it when a remake or a sequel to an old film's being done today and everyone barks about how not faithful to the original the new score is; well what did you expect? What’s the value of yet another clone? It's rarely gonna happen; I know you might bring up Tyler’s AVP2 as an example were it did happen (IF it finally DID happen, we’ll have to listen to the full CD to judge that) but that’s just one in a dozen and maybe the filmmakers of AVP2 were actually smart enough to actually LET Tyler do that; In the majority of the relevant remakes / sequels this is not the case however and i say get the new stuff for what it is and what it might have to offer to us today and if you want the glory of the past there's always the original there waiting for you. No matter how bad it might sound to some and how vividly some might not like this, the sound of the Golden Age will probably never return in film music again; at least not in the form we've been used to.

You know, I first didn't care much for Reign of Fire (Shearmur), I accepted it but it never clicked. Years later I listened to it again and my god I was simply blown away by it. Who knows this score can do the same? If I just could hear it again