Sunday, January 27, 2013

Jerry Goldsmith 1990 to 2004



So its been a few weeks, and I have not delivered the final part of my Jerry Goldsmith journey, and I am sorry. But now I feel like my computer may deem it worthy to NOT shut down in the middle of me writing this article (this is my fourth attempt).

With that aside, you are probably wondering why the fuck it goes to a random number like 2004? Well that because Jerry Goldsmith unfortunatley passed away that year. So without any further interruptions, lets get on with this!

1990: Total Recall


When a composer that has scored an uncountable amount of movie and tv music over a 50 year period gets up and declares a specific score to be his masterpiece, you generally perk up and pay attention.
The opening beats to this movie set the tone, the mystery and the action, along with an oncoming tidal wave of suspense and sci-fi operatic epicness. This score is the perfect blend of Goldsmiths action, sci-fi, and thriler related music, which suits the movie perfectly. It doesnt surprise me that Jerry Goldsmith deemed this score his best. It seems like this is the music he was working his whole lifetime to acheive, and this movie was the perfect platform to use it in. Every composer looking to score a sci-fi film need not look any further than this.
Listen to this why running out of breath on Mars.



1998: Deep Rising


First and foremost, if you haven't seen Deep Rising, why the fuck are you still here? Go watch it right now please.
There isn't much to say about this music, other than everytime the main theme pops up during this film about giant sea snake thingys, I want to dance to it, and load up a crossbow at the same time. The pounding and exotic nature of this music just sounds like a really fucked up time on a cruise ship, which is actually what the movies about, so go figure!
Listen to this when riding your gi-joe awesome boat across the high seas, you dance if you want to.



1999: The Mummy


Wow, i don't care what people think of this film, it rocked. It was entertaining as hell. The late 90's were Brendan Frasers years of glory. The 80's had Raiders of the Lost Ark, but all through the 90's there were no high adventure tales, old school danger and intrigue, anti-heroes getting the girl, fighting the local assholes, all that jazz, mummies, you know the stuff.
That was, until The Mummy came out.
Jerry Goldsmiths music in this is Egypt. Even if thats not the music they play in the bazaars there, we have been raised on hollywood version of Cairo, so that every time we see a pyramid, we hear this kind of music:


Dont listen to it for too long, your ears will hurt.
Jerry looks like he took inspiration from these sources however, and made his own action music out of it and made it more awesome. The music in the movie suits our feeble imaginings of Egypt and its grandeur, circa early 1900's.
Listen to this when you are escaping gigantic walls of sand, or Arnold Vosloo, or both, they are as scary as each other. 1.54 jumps up from behind and has casual sex with you by the way.


So ends our journey. Hopefully I have introduced you to a different train of though in regards to Jerry Goldsmiths movie music, and maybe even movie music in general. People don't seem to care that much anymore when composing scores, Harry Gregson Williams I am looking directly at you you transformer porn recorder.
There are few that keep the dream alive, amazing artists such as Michael Giacchino (Star Trek 2009), Brian Tyler (Bubba Ho Tep), and Ramin Djwadi (Game of Thrones) pumping out amazing music every step of the way. I also have to shout out Alan Silvestri, who keeps on making amazing music decade after decade, with no sign of stopping anytime soon.
Its a damn dirty shame that people would rather use generic, lame shitty music that would not even make it past the editing room usually. Theres an alarming 'That'll Do' attitude going on nowadays. Sorry to call you out again Harry Gregson Williams, but if you actually put a motif or two in the Total Recall remake, I might have actually enjoyed one of the 800 chase scenes, or one of the 500 other scenes that should have but didn't have ANY emotional impact.

I'll leave you guys with this, because it is kind of a segue into my next article about the dying art of Opening Titles. These opening titles reportedly cost over a million to make, which is nutbar city (population Salkinds) but I don't give a shit, it's not my money.


Yep, music by Jerry Goldsmith. By the way, this movie is fucking awesome.





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