[Closed, Sink] Now Playing XXXVIII

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE MINI-SERIES (RICHARD GIBBS)

I'm going to listen to all the BSG scores this week, starting with this one. Even though it doesn't have the typical McCreary sound, I still like a lot of the musical ideas on this album.

Gibbs was in Oingo Boingo with Elfman back in the day. He's done some scores too, but never quite the fame of his fellow band member. His BG score is pretty good.

Looking at the liner notes now, Bear McCreary has an "additional music by" credit. No mention of an orchestrator so you may also be correct Pawel.

Good choice! Let me know if you think any differenly about the first part after all this time.

The Abyss is one of my favourites from Silvestri, and that's only for the 3 ending cues. They're pretty much mindblowing to say the least.

And I could do with an expanded treatment of this one.

NP: A.I. (John Williams)

Underrated score for one of the most underrated films of all time.

I love AI too. I did choose two Barry scores (Bonds - Goldfinger and Living Daylights) over this one at the HMV in Oxford Street when I was in London. Got both of them for the price I'd get just AI for, so it was a no-brainer.

I've always liked the score (but this is one instance where the album just doesn't feel right to me - I've never heard the promo extended one, I'm sure I wouldn't want two CDs of it, but I wonder if a better score album could have been put together). Couldn't take to the film at all.

I like both a great deal, however I'm not sure the nonsense is as marked as you suggest. The last third of the film is pretty sugar sweet, despite the mortal overtones, and I can't believe Kubrick would have gone there, having read his outline for the film. (For example, one small change that makes all the difference: David makes not coffee for his mother, but fixes her favourite alcoholic drink, a bloody mary. The irony of a robot child mixing a cocktail for a grieving mother is so strong, but must have been a bit bitter for the Beard.) Still for all that, it is a film of richer concerns than the more popular film that followed, Minority Report.

The score is wonderful, one of Williams' latter-day best, both as composition and as a score. The John Adams, Richard Strauss and Philip Glass references in particular show Williams continues to mine the best of the concert sphere for new ideas, trying his own versions. I wouldn't mind if the -- frankly vomit-inducing duet Broadway ballad -- on the album, was replaced with more of the score's diverse range. (E.g. the theme which dominates the first third of the film isn't on the album.)

Igor - Patrick Doyle

Not the one of the best Doyle scores with its somewhat jerky movements from comedy to mock-horror and such. It's like a more kiddie version of Frankenstein.

I see no point in making the story grittier than what it already is at core. I see nothing sugar sweet about it, in fact, but rather a restraint and "cool" detachment - almost clinical precision - to the very end. But at the same time it's very emotional. It's a particular combination there that Spielberg has managed in his more serious fare, like SCHINDLER and MUNICH.

I also love the song, with lyrics and especially without. Especially when it reaches that very low note....that gets to me every time.

Yup, but you know....the WHAT IS is always more interesting than the WHAT COULD BE.

NP: Largo Winch 2 (Desplat)

Not my favourite from the composer. The first score was quite a bit stronger than this -- maybe a bit of fatigue set in?

Still, I guess when your last year and a half in film includes Fantastic Mr Fox, Un Prophete, The Ghostwriter, Harry Potter 7, The King's Speech, and The Special Relationship, you're allowed to have an 'off film'. (Haven't heard Tamara Drewe yet.)

But why did it have to be this one?