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  1. My review of VICTORIA & ABDUL, for anyone who's interested:

    https://moviemusicuk.us/2017/09/22/vict … as-newman/

    Jon
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      CommentAuthorSouthall
    • CommentTimeOct 15th 2017
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      CommentAuthorSouthall
    • CommentTimeOct 29th 2017
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      CommentAuthorMartijn
    • CommentTimeOct 29th 2017
    Thank you for your review of Thank You For Your Service.

    Would you do me the service of a review of my thank you for your review of Thank You For Your Service?
    'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn
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      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeNov 3rd 2017
    Only would we get a response like tha from Martijn.
    Tom smile
    listen to more classical music!
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeJul 21st 2018
    Pocket review of THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE:

    http://celluloidtunes.no/the-man-with-o … as-newman/
    I am extremely serious.
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      CommentAuthorLSH
    • CommentTimeJul 22nd 2018
    I'm a massive fan of Newman's earlier scores - indeed he seems to revisit that style a lot lately - but I haven't heard this one yet. Looking forward to it.
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      CommentAuthorBregt
    • CommentTimeDec 16th 2019
    1917: Sam Mendes latest movie gets high praise, yet still a few weeks before it is released here. I'm immensly looking forward to it. Also because Newman is the composer!

    You can listen to the score on the FYC website.
    https://universalpicturesawards.com/1917/score
    Kazoo
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeDec 16th 2019
    Outside a track or two, the score is a huge letdown. At least on album. I'm sure it fares better in the film, which doesn't premiere in Norway untill January 24th.
    I am extremely serious.
  2. Thor wrote
    Outside a track or two, the score is a huge letdown. At least on album. I'm sure it fares better in the film, which doesn't premiere in Norway untill January 24th.


    True, you would expect it to contain a hefty doses of Newman emotion. But that's barely there. Plus War Zimmer is never far away (was surprised to hear Thin Red Line even in it)
    waaaaaahhhhhhhh!!! Where's my nut? arrrghhhhhhh
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      CommentAuthorBregt
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2019 edited
    Yeah, I'm disappointed too. I had heard The Night Window on Spotify, the only track that was released, so I was a bit hyped. But the full album is a let down. Oddly enough, there's indeed a bit of Zimmer's war scores in there. Journey to the Line and even Dunkirk (the propelling/ticking/...)
    Kazoo
  3. Newman deserves an Oscar at some point but would be quite a travesty if he gets it for this. It barely even sounds like him. "Night Window" and to a slightly lesser extent "Ending" are the only cues worth hearing really.
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      CommentAuthorBregt
    • CommentTimeJan 3rd 2020 edited
    What an impressive movie.

    Visually it's just downright stunning. I'll never forget some of the scenes: the part with the fantastic track The Night Window got me goosebums and scares shocked . Playing with light and darkness. Some of it made me think of ... Skyfall

    As a viewer, you're not spared from the horror of the trenches. Since the movie is seemingly one long shot, some of the setpieces (those with the dugouts for example) must have been huge. The story is simple, the focus is on the path of the two soldiers where so many things go wrong, but also, where the soliders are quite lucky too.

    You could say that initially the long shot is distracting, but that is purely out of interest for me "how the hell did they go from there to that angle". The camera travels from out of a trench towards a crater and hovers over the water inside it, all in one take. It's only a few times you know it's a new scene. But perhaps people will be distracted. The feat might also be seen as that the story in itself is weak. For me, it made it spectacular because of that.

    Newman delivers a very supportive score, I don't think much else could've been done, due to the nature of the story. I was disappointed by hearing it on cd, but in the movie, it adds to the tension and spectacle. The two highlights of the cd are also the highlights in the movie: The Night Window and Sixteen Hundred Men. Great that music is in the forefront, even with all the explosions and war sounds. Lots of elements from his Bond scores as well in this music.
    Kazoo
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      CommentAuthorezukax
    • CommentTimeJan 7th 2020
    Really excited to finally have this on vinyl - the ‘American Beauty’ soundtrack by Thomas Newman. It’s a great pressing and sounds so good.
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      CommentAuthorLSH
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2020
    Literally about to walk in and watch 1917. Very much looking forward to hearing how the score works in context. It’s not massively listenable on album, bar the highlights everyone has now pointed to, but I’m expecting greatness with picture. Other than that, I’m looking forward to the film as a whole.
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      CommentAuthorLSH
    • CommentTimeJan 14th 2020
    ...

    And wow. That was quite something. I’ve left rather speechless.
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeJan 15th 2020
    I saw 1917 yesterday. The score works much better in context than it does in album (except marvelous setpieces like "The Night Window", of course), but this scores pales in comparison to TOLKIEN, IMO. A much weaker film, but a much stronger score. TOLKIEN is his best of 2019.
    I am extremely serious.
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      CommentAuthorBregt
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2020
    What did you think of the film?
    Kazoo
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2020
    Well, it's not the ravishing masterpiece I had been told about. It's no new SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, that's for sure. But overall, it's a great, slick film with some incredible setpieces. I liked it considerably better than my colleagues.
    I am extremely serious.
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      CommentAuthorLSH
    • CommentTimeJan 17th 2020
    It has stayed with me for a good few days. Technically, it’s superb. The ‘one-shot’ format is impressive on many levels. Some of those sets must have been fucking huge. So kudos to the production designers.

    Sure, it’s a simple story but one which suits the format. Get from A to B. That’s it. Like you said, Thor, there are some very impressive set-pieces, and I think it has a good pace. Even the slower parts are tense and horrifying. Newman’s score kind of lingers ominously in the background until it really needs to shine. And boy does it, when it needs to.
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      CommentAuthorCaliburn
    • CommentTimeJan 23rd 2020
    For who is interested in my thoughts. I have reviewed 1917. I think it was one of the best movie I have seen in years!

    https://soundtrackworld.com/2020/01/1917-thomas-newman/
  4. LSH wrote
    Sure, it’s a simple story but one which suits the format. Get from A to B. That’s it.


    Yeah, I think that was my problem with it. No story. You didn't get to know the characters in any way to made you care much for them. And several implausible parts in what appeared to me to be a movie shot for realism, just made it not work for me.
  5. Been enjoying some Thomas Newman this week. Started out with a new one to me, WHITE OLEANDER, but it's similar to several others, nice but didn't wow me that much, but might be nice dinner music, so then I moved on to a favorite ANGELS IN AMERICA, then a forgettable one FINDING DORY, then to the enjoyable 1917.

    I was thinking about Thomas Newman, and others composers that are among my favorites. And I think for me, my favorite composers write themes that bring on repeat emotion to familiar melodies. If you can write a piece of music that someone has heard a hundred times and it still moves them to tears, then that is a truly great work of art to have that kind of lasting impact despite familiarity and a truly great composer to have crafted it (along with the orchestra's performance too). Thomas Newman is for me one of these composers. After more than two decades, I still cry when I listen to "That Next Place" from MEET JOE BLACK or "So Was Red" that leads into "End Title" from THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.
  6. There's one track from White Oleander that I really, really love, Rollercoaster.

    That said, there is a certain quality to Newman's especially sad music that really speaks to me and it's a certain, however weird that may sound, indirectness. It's not just about the fact that it depicts a very sad situation and emotion. It's the warmth that draws you in. Like Newman was telling you "Yes, I know. But it's OK".

    I don't hear that quality very often. This comes mostly through certain more low-key and pensive scores, like The Thin Red Line and JNH's The Village and Snow Falling on Cedars.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  7. Filmscoregirl wrote
    LSH wrote
    Sure, it’s a simple story but one which suits the format. Get from A to B. That’s it.


    Yeah, I think that was my problem with it. No story. You didn't get to know the characters in any way to made you care much for them. And several implausible parts in what appeared to me to be a movie shot for realism, just made it not work for me.


    And just about this, while I'm in this topic:

    I loved the film big time, with the only small problem was Mendes' constant preference to move the camera in a way that will show as many decomposing bodies in the foreground as possible. Yes, we get it, that war is hell and all that. A lot of other things in the movie show that.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  8. PawelStroinski wrote
    That said, there is a certain quality to Newman's especially sad music that really speaks to me and it's a certain, however weird that may sound, indirectness. It's not just about the fact that it depicts a very sad situation and emotion. It's the warmth that draws you in. Like Newman was telling you "Yes, I know. But it's OK".


    I love that Pawel! I hadn't thought of it that way, but it's so true! Thanks for sharing. smile

    And I'll have to listen in to "Rollercoaster" again on WHITE OLEANDER, thanks for the recommendation!
  9. Take particular note of the use of strings in the cue, that's what's so immersive. That and the chord progression.

    A fascinating thing about Newman is how he manages to write something very deeply emotional while being heart-wrenchingly low-key. While it has a few outbursts, something like Coffey on the Mile from The Green Mile works so well precisely because Newman is in full control of how expressive he is in that particular moment. And again, there is something very affirming to the way he makes it the way it is. It's not telling you how you should feel. It's like Newman was taking the journey with you. "I know it's sad, but it's OK. I'm with you".

    What's even more fascinating about it is that Newman comes from a family who can't be more Hollywood. Alfred Newman almost single-handedly defined at least a certain part of what Hollywood film scores sounded like back in the time and I'd argue also later when orchestras came back (the Ark theme in Raiders of the Lost Ark, perhaps partly the mystical Newman was behind the Force theme in Star Wars). If there was a composer in recent times who'd be close in approach to Alfred Newman that'd be James Horner - his preference for free-flowing synchronization (probably using the Newman system, actually!) than click-track, so the flow is more natural (Newman was dubbed the master of rubato, Horner preferred that, too), the emotional punch and expressiveness, too.

    And yet, with all that, in mainstream cinema for a very long time (I'd say, before Desplat) Thomas Newman was as European as Hollywood could get.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
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      CommentAuthorLSH
    • CommentTimeJul 28th 2020 edited
    Filmscoregirl wrote
    Been enjoying some Thomas Newman this week. Started out with a new one to me, WHITE OLEANDER, but it's similar to several others, nice but didn't wow me that much, but might be nice dinner music, so then I moved on to a favorite ANGELS IN AMERICA, then a forgettable one FINDING DORY, then to the enjoyable 1917.

    I was thinking about Thomas Newman, and others composers that are among my favorites. And I think for me, my favorite composers write themes that bring on repeat emotion to familiar melodies. If you can write a piece of music that someone has heard a hundred times and it still moves them to tears, then that is a truly great work of art to have that kind of lasting impact despite familiarity and a truly great composer to have crafted it (along with the orchestra's performance too). Thomas Newman is for me one of these composers. After more than two decades, I still cry when I listen to "That Next Place" from MEET JOE BLACK or "So Was Red" that leads into "End Title" from THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.


    Great to hear your insight; I agree 100%.

    Funny thing about Newman, being the sort of composer he is, he has very few "show-pieces" for the huge number of scores he's done. But once you've gotten to know him, as a listener, the intricacies of his style become more important and obvious... and even the many short cues (which unfortunately just happens to be the way he writes) have numerous brief and fleeting moments of beauty.

    Someone mentioned Coffey On The Mile from The Green Mile, which is a superb piece, but my favourite moment from that score is at the end of Red On Green when, after being brought back to life, the mouse runs back to Delacroix. The tender melody on oboe, and then strings, as everyone in the film stares in disbelief, breaks my heart. Just a little moment. Newman's great at that.
  10. I mentioned Coffey on the Mile because of how easy it could be to overdo the scene and Newman is really, really walking the tightrope on that one.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
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      CommentAuthorLSH
    • CommentTimeJul 29th 2020
    Yes, and again, I agree totally. It's a brilliantly spotted scene; the music is so gentle and ethereal.