[Closed] Now Playing XVI

They're performed in a very standard way without a strong enough melody to back them up, their sound is very dry and they're completely out of place from the James Bond musical universe; not that Arnold seems to care a lot by introducing them, as well as stupid americana el.guitars, Santaolallisms and by eliminating the James Bond theme.

I highly doubt it. The pan pipes are likely going to be for Greene, and the them you are talking about probably is Camille's.

But aren't all references to the countries Bond visits incorporated fairly haphazardly into the music. I'm thinking of:
- the wailing vocals when the action moves to Georgia in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH
- the castanets and mariachi trumpet in Cuba in DIE ANOTHER DAY
- the Spanish guitar for the Spanish opening of TWINE
- the faux-orientalism of Barry's 'Wedding' from YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
- the cliched Asian instrumentation that appears late in TOMORROW NEVER DIES
- a bit of faux-sarangi during the snake charmer scene in that Roger Moore Bond film whose name I've thankfully gotten out of my head;


(Awaiting a lecture on how this is somehow completely different and worse than ever.)

The pan pipes are probably going to be for Venezuela!

Too right, sir.

What's with all this "it's not Bond music" rubbish? Does every Bond score have to follow a strict set of rules? No. Should Arnold be able to explore his own ideas more? Certainly.

Oh, and I LIKE pan pipes.

But that actually is a different kettle of fish. The Bond films have evolved into something very modern - Indiana Jones and Star Wars have and will probably always have a specific style, so it's not a good comparison. New Bond means new approaches. And that's what Arnold is doing I guess.

Yes, the Bond theme is important. But have you seen the movie? How do we know that the relative little use of the Bond theme isn't a good idea? It's a necessary ingredient for sure, but would we be complaining if it was overused I wonder?

I think CR proved that you can have a Bond movie without the Bond theme. When I first heard the score to that I thought it was missing a big chunk, but after seeing the movie you understand why it's not always needed. The same goes for Q and Moneypenny.

Well, the lack of the Bond theme and / or its largely diminished usage is not what bothers me primarily but the poor sound and amateuristic handling of the largest part of the score, i.e. everything that is NOT action and dominates the largest part of it as uninteresting underscore.

The additions matching the various places Bond visits and that you mentioned could be done indeed and i am not against them; i wonder if you really understand what i am saying here though, that I don't mind that they exist, but that they are being done is such dry and simple way, largely departed from the coherent, tight and so well-arranged and well-written action tracks on the other hand. Especially when coming from a man like Arnold who's proven in the past numerous times that he can write in various musical styles musically and effectively; it's really disturbing to me to hear amateuristic Santaolallisms or Tarantino-isms without the slightest indication of actually trying to incorporate and change that source music a bit so that it wouldn't sound like a dry lift-off that took you 5 minutes to write and half an hour to record.

All my objections to this are purely MUSICAL. Why is the difference in musical quality between the action cues and the underscore SO VAST? I am not complaining about the number of the action cues 'cause this could pretty much be dictated by the needs of the movie and i can wholly understand it. Why is there SO MUCH UNINSPIRED undescore snoozing in there is what i am asking as well and please don't tell me that all underscore is boring and dry. I’d love it if you could put the fan in you to sleep for just a minute in order to – at least – try to understand my point. I am not saying i am the right one and you aren't but i feel i am being misunderstood.

Never.

Um, I think you were the one who took my response the wrong way. You over-complicate things dude!

<shrugs>

I just like the score for what it is at the moment and I'm looking forward to hearing it in context. Don't really have much else to say about it at this point.

Jerry Goldsmith - Rambo III

Another friendly revisit. Haven't listened to the trilogy since I reviewed it on my website. Not that I forgot how great the scores were. Demetris, you heard the trilogy before?

Do it and later compare it to Tyler's score, which is fun, but I can't really compare. For me it's a big difference in Goldsmith's favor - with his playful rhythms, brutal orchestrations and perfect combination with electronics (mind you though that the SOUNDS aren't always perfect, Goldsmith liked to fart with the synths at some point).

Disturbing it may sound (for me) only in part two, where really Goldsmith farts at times, but the mindless bombast of the orchestration makes up for it, especially with Jerry's renowned knack for odd meters and stuff like that. Except a part here and there, the synths are the best in part 3, where he goes off with some romanticism. When it comes to the sheer brutality and dramatism, First Blood wins.