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  1. Thor contemplated it, but I'll start a new one I guess smile

    Ennio Morricone - Queimada

    For the last week I have been exclusively listening to Morricone, a career I have a huge backlog in and that even features many classics, in huge part to my general problems with Italian cinema. There have been some definite discoveries, especially as many scores are well-represented on Spotify. Except the Abolisson track, I haven't really listened to Queimada, which for some reason reminds me of a prog rock version of The Mission, but that might just be me biggrin

    Anyway, this has been a beautiful adventure indeed. I don't think I seriously met a new score I wouldn't like yet. Some are beauties, I Promessi Sposi and Il Prato are definite discoveries for me and scores I will return to very often.

    Due to Morricone's passing I also watched Once Upon a Time in the West again, which... led me to watch the whole Dollar trilogy (in reverse, though). Giu la testa is next for me. While A Fistful of Dollars is a bit rough at times, this is great cinema definitely.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  2. Thanks for starting a new thread Pawel!

    I've been listening to a new score this week. The Adventures of Huck Finn by Bill Conti. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid and I wanted to BE Huck Finn, he was the coolest (and I had a big crush on Elijah Wood back then). The music is very spunky and playful, but with heart, as it should be. I'm not sure if anything in particular stands out, it's an enjoyable listen - I just wish the album was longer. It's feels like it's over before it really begins.
  3. Ennio Morricone - Days of Heaven

    One of his very best, period. That love theme takes the cake, but a lot more is going on there. Now I have The Farmer and the Girl on repeat, my poor CD...
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeJul 18th 2020
    Ennio Morricone - Revolver (expanded release)

    It is not entirely fulfilling, but it´s one of his very best, featuring his best song (ever) and his best minimal music idea (ever).
  4. Great action music there!

    Ennio Morricone - Once Upon a Time in America

    Thus endeth my series. I am definitely open to more discovery, but this was also a largely symbolic endeavor. Versatility is the key point and nothing one can sum up in just mere couple of sentences.

    He was a genius and he will be missed.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeJul 19th 2020
    indeed. But unfortunately, the impressive 12-minute long version is not used in the film.
  5. Ilan Eshkeri & Shigeru Umebayashi - Ghost of Tsushima

    A very interesting score. The Eshkeri bit is fairly straightforward though a very decent listen in and of itself. But Umebayashi's contribution is beautiful and reflective. I have the finale on repeat!
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  6. Jerry Goldsmith - The Ghost and the Darkness

    Intended to revisit this (the first CD of the Intrada release) for a long time, but today is a better day than any other, the 16th anniversary of his passing.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  7. Wow, has it really been that long? I remember hearing the news on the radio during my early morning commute to a college internship I had at an ad agency at the time. I remember being in tears on and off throughout the day and my coworkers kept wondering what was wrong. I didn't really want to tell them that it was just a legendary film composer passing, and not something more personal - but in all honesty, as a film music lover, composer deaths do hit hard. They kind of become a part of your life and memories through their music, so as weird as it sounds to some people, it does feel like losing a longtime friend.
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      CommentAuthorAtham
    • CommentTimeJul 22nd 2020
    Beautiful words Filmscoregirl. And so true.
    I had the same reaction when Goldsmith passed away. Also with James Horner.
  8. Oh gosh yes, absolutely with James Horner too - he was the one who got me into film music oh so many years ago with AN AMERICAN TAIL as a kid. I remember crying my way through THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN because there were little pieces of his genius still to be found there after his death and how hard it was thinking about his life cut short, his grieving family and also what the score might have been had he been able to finish it. It's hard to think that we'll never again hear new creations, sounds and experiments or musical artworks from some of these giants of film music. But we can treasure who we have still and continue to appreciate the contributions of those we've lost. smile
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      CommentAuthorAtham
    • CommentTimeJul 22nd 2020
    Yes. Absolutely! smile
  9. Jerry Goldsmith - Tora! Tora! Tora!

    I am aware I am in the minority on this one, but it's one of my Goldsmith favorites. Brilliant, challenging, intelligent.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  10. PawelStroinski wrote
    Jerry Goldsmith - Tora! Tora! Tora!

    I am aware I am in the minority on this one, but it's one of my Goldsmith favorites. Brilliant, challenging, intelligent.

    Love it!

    Goldsmith gets right into mind of the Japanese in this one.
    The views expressed in this post are entirely my own and do not reflect the opinions of maintitles.net, or for that matter, anyone else. http://www.racksandtags.com/falkirkbairn
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeJul 24th 2020
    Pino Donaggio - Il Carniere

    One of his best. It's good that the death of Morricone triggered me te revisit some works of other Italian composers I hadn't listened to in a long time.
  11. Blake Neely - Greyhound

    One of two recent war scores that sadly tries to out-Dunkirk Dunkirk. But while Midway (which I didn't bother to listen to outside the film, mind you) is, well, Harald Kloser, Neely's score features a corker of an Americana-laced theme and the final cue is probably among this year's best.

    The film itself could benefit from better action music or the lack thereof, but in and of itself is a good simple war story, with the short length (a tad over 90 minutes with credits) being very very refreshing in the time of overly bloated epics.

    That said, Midway would be a much better film if they didn't try to cram half of the early war on the Pacific into it. However, the opening short depiction of Pearl Harbor is hundred times better than the travesty Michael Bay attempted to do.

    A rewatch of Tora! Tora! Tora! is imminent.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeJul 25th 2020
    James Horner - A Beautiful Mind

    One of my top 10 scores of all times, which is quite remarkable as I generally admire a different kind of scoring. Still, Horner is probably the composer I have listened to the most, but this score has many beauty marks.. As a listening experience, on cd, it is perfect, while some of the unreleased music is rather uninspiring, as is the overall ridiculous use in the film and the never-ending unoriginality of Horner in general, but this is something I mostly set aside.
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      CommentAuthorSouthall
    • CommentTimeJul 26th 2020
    Joep wrote
    Ennio Morricone - Revolver (expanded release)

    It is not entirely fulfilling, but it´s one of his very best, featuring his best song (ever) and his best minimal music idea (ever).


    I absolutely love this one. And I agree it's his best song.
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeJul 26th 2020 edited
    What's your second best song? Mines probably Amii Steward - Il Segreto del Sahara.
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      CommentAuthorLSH
    • CommentTimeJul 27th 2020 edited
    NP: GREYHOUND - BLAKE NEELY

    Just... nothing. No feelings whatsoever.

    In his review, James Southall's musings of an astronomically more enjoyable parallel universe hit home far more than this score ever could...

    "You can imagine what someone like James Horner would have done for this movie had he still been around – you can imagine it very clearly because it would probably have been The Perfect Storm with a military filter applied..."
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeJul 28th 2020
    Ji-woong Bark - Bom Yeoreum Gaeul Gyeoul Geurigo Bom

    In a way, it's a hugely degrading synth score, but the evocative, meditative core is instantly rewarding.
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      CommentAuthorLSH
    • CommentTimeJul 28th 2020
    Edmund Meinerts wrote
    LSH wrote
    VERTICAL LIMIT - JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

    It's a shame that this has become a relatively forgotten gem in Howard's portfolio. I'm listening to the naughty version and can definitely recommend this for an expansion. The original CD is a terrible representation. Pish.

    Whoever decided that "Rescuers Arrive" didn't need to be on the album deserves several hundred lashes. (Sorry to revive the old thread haha)


    Absolutely. There's lots of great stuff missing, especially from the third act.


    NP: ANGELS IN AMERICA - THOMAS NEWMAN

    Stunning. I believe this is the best representation of all the 'things' that Newman does.
  12. Dat main title.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    •  
      CommentAuthorLSH
    • CommentTimeJul 29th 2020
    PawelStroinski wrote
    Dat main title.


    I think it might be his single best composition. Utterly utterly gorgeous.
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeJul 29th 2020
    Today, I have played a lot of 1980s and 1990s Hong Kong action music, which is often not very rewarding musically, but effective in context.
  13. Any John Woo film scores?
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2020
    Amongst things. The music to some of his early Kung fu films (1970s and 1980s), his heroic bloodshed... There is on occasional ´catchy tune´, but it's mostly the degenerative type of music. Somehow effective in each of the films, but in reality, and especially in the spectacular ones (Lat Sau San Taam-Hard-Boiled, Dip Huet Seung Hung/The Killer), I couldn't care less for the music.

    I also listened to a lot of music of the most essential kung fu/ action films of both decades, including a lot of re-use of existing scores (I compiled it myself), original scores and newly composed scores (for am English-based market). Especially these last ones are often musically more interesting, but from a different point of view, they fail miserably in grasping the basic concept. In a lot of these films, there’s a wealth of ingredients that fail; bad acting, bad music, inconsistencies, poor melodrama, humor for the acquired taste (some of it does work, some of it doesn't), whole segments that are almost impossible to enjoy..... But If the choreography, cinematography and editing are good in these action scenes, nothing else matters. I have seen so many films in which a sluggish synthesizer action rhythm isn't obtrusive, nor really elevating it, but it's somehow effective and even enjoyable. There's even some music I despise in and out of context, but still, it doesn't hurt a spectacular scene, which is remarkable.

    Going back to John Woo. The Killer has melodramatic ingredients I couldn't care less about, but such melodrama is much more digestible with good music, which is evident in Face Off. It's the only film that almost equals some of his best earlier works, while there's a less rough around the edges approach, and there is a smoother American feel in many ways, in which a cheap synthesizer score would actually have hurt the film. Hard Boiled, devoid of melodrama, has so much music that leaves me cold.

    In short, most of it was true torture.
  14. In some ways, it's actually quite hilarious how The Killer actually uses Horner's Red Heat to underscore half of the scenes that feature music.

    I'd like to try and hear the Hard Boiled action motif outside of the picture.

    Face/Off is the closest film to his Hong Kong best, because Woo was given complete artistic freedom on it. On every other one there was some executive tampering. In case of Mission: Impossible 2 it was actually downright painful as Woo was forced out of the editing room (by Cruise; he did the same with De Palma on part one) and they had to cut one hour of plot from it.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    • CommentAuthorJoep
    • CommentTimeJul 31st 2020
    The Killer is a rather notorious example, as so many others. Maybe, I will write a review of the music in a randomly selected Hong Kong 1970s - 1990s action film.
    • CommentAuthorLars
    • CommentTimeAug 1st 2020
    PawelStroinski wrote

    Face/Off is the closest film to his Hong Kong best, because Woo was given complete artistic freedom on it. On every other one there was some executive tampering.

    I would say the closest is Hard Target, even without complete artistic freedom. You have never seen such violence and bloody shootouts in his other Hollywood movies again. All the other movies are stylish Hollywood mainstream films.