The Empire Strike Back & Return of the Jedi:
Multiple Sequels:
The Empire Strike Back & Return of the Jedi:
The Empire Strikes Back is perhaps the best sequel score ever
written, followed closely by Return of the Jedi. Williams
masterfully utilizes over ten themes throughout the three scores and
weaves them together in the final installment. The "Special Edition"
releases are recommended because they include most of these overlapping
themes.
Full reviews: The Empire Strikes
Back and Return of the
Jedi
The February, 1997, Theme of the Month: The Star Wars
Trilogy: Special Edition
Batman Returns & Batman Forever (& Batman and Robin):
Danny Elfman's Batman Returns used the same grand theme as
Batman, but lost much of the energetic action-packed drive that
the Batman had. Batman Returns was a darker film, and
Elfman complimented it with a stranger, less coherent score. With
Batman Forever, Elliot Goldenthal replaced Elfman when Tim Burton,
Michael Keaton, and many others left the series after production battles
and inflamed tempers. Goldenthal wrote a theme that sounds remarkably
similar to the original Batman theme and continued Elfman's gothic
style very well. He added some jazzy moments of his own as well. Granted
the original theme was not used, Goldenthal did his best to parallel
Elfman's groundwork. Goldenthal returns with his theme to Batman and
Robin.
Full review: Batman
Returns.
Aliens & Alien 3 (& Alien: Resurrection):
The Aliens films have never had a memorable theme, however all of
them have the same dark feeling of something about to pop out of your
stomach. Goldsmith's original had a stellar final track with theme,
however it never surfaced again. Horner's score, although considered one
of his boosting efforts in his career, is not particularly stylish in its
own. In 1992, Elliot Goldenthal was still unkown to many soundtrack fans,
and he composed a similarly dark score without dominant themes. I do not
personally listen to any of these scores at any great length. The best
way to experience them is through the Varese Sarabande Alien
Trilogy collection that includes tracks that weren't on the original
releases. The fourth installment is not scored by any of these three
composers, but rather by John Frizzell (Dante's Peak).
Full review: The Alien
Trilogy (Varese Sarabande)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - Star Trek VIII: First Contact:
Boy, What a mess! Goldsmith, then Horner, then Horner again, then
Rosenman, then Goldsmith again, then Eidelman, then McCarthy, then
finally Goldsmith again. There are dozens of reasons for this.
Goldsmith's main theme for Star Trek: The Motion Picture has
become the most widely recognizable theme, appearing as "The Next
Generation" theme on TV for seven years. Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek
II: The Wrath of Khan was given to upstart composer James Horner (at
the time he was a complete nobody and soundtrack fans thought it was an
atrocity to replace Goldsmith with an unknown composer!). The third
installment was very similar to the second, with direct corellation in
storylines. When Leonard Nimoy took the reigns in The Voyage Home,
he wanted a classical composer --thus Leonard Rosenman and his Academy
Award nomination. After the giant success of that film, producers brought
Goldsmith back to score The Final Frontier (after his theme won
all the TV awards for The Next Generation). Ironically, the score was the
only highlight of the film. When Nicholas Meyer returned to direct The
Undiscovered Country, he desperately wanted to score the film with
Gustav Holst's "The Planets" suite. The license fee, though, was
extraordinary and he settled upon newcomer Cliff Eidelman. Surprisingly,
Eidelman urgent, shadowy score is considered a favorite among many
Star Trek fans. For Generations, the budget of this "TV
movie" ran low and TV composer Dennis McCarthy (of The Next Generation &
Deep Space Nine) was hired. With the spark of a massive film to follow
featuring only the next generation crew, Paramount incresed the scope and
budget for First Contact. Jonathan Frakes, who held admiration for
Goldsmith's abilities, hired Goldsmith for a superb score that combines
themes from many previous Star Trek scores.
Full reviews: Star Trek VI:
The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek:
First Contact.
James Bond: From Russia With Love - Goldeneye (& Tomorrow Never
Dies):
For a long time, John Barry was the master of James Bond. He began with
the second installment and scored all of the Connery films, and most of
the Moore films. Recently, he expressing his intent to move on from Bond
and be involved with more "serious" films. His price is also rather high
nowadays. The Bond theme itself, composed by Monty Norman as the main
theme for Dr. No in 1961, has become a widely recognizable icon,
and has been included in almost all subsequent Bond films. I personally
like the scores that feature it more than less, which is the case with
the Connery/Barry scores. Barry's Moonraker, Octopussy, and
A View to a Kill are all good scores as well, with the latter two
being collectibles. Octopussy was one of the very first CD
releases, and A View to a Kill is released on a Japanese label and
can be difficult to find. Notable non-Barry scores: The Spy Who Loved
Me won an Academy Award for its song (which is now mutilated into the
Safeway jingle --I always thought it was strange selling groceries with a
jingle that was originally a song about getting laid...) and Eric Serra
began the new generation of Brosnan Bond films with his electronic score
to Goldeneye. Goldeneye is perhaps the weakest of all the
Bond scores, with lengthy segments of electronic dribble and the lack the
original Bond theme. Tomorrow Never Dies is scored by newcomer
David Arnold, which was a surprise for many film music fans because John
Barry was initially interested in the job.
Full Review:
Goldeneye
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom & Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade:
Both sequel scores are very good. The infamous Raider's March is mixed
well with the multiple new themes that arise in the sequels. Original
music from Temple of Doom did not carry over to The Last
Crusade, but this was understandable because the thrid film had no
extra elements from the second film. Some interesting points: Two
sequences from Raiders of the Lost Ark were inserted to the
sequels by Williams just for fun: the music for the incredibly funny
scene in Raiders when Indy is searching for Marion in the baskets
and blows away a master arab (with flashing swords and all) --that
fanfare of music is repeated in Temple of Doom when Indy is
confronted with the same type of swordsmen, but this time doesn't have
his gun. In Last Crusade, when Indy is below the streets of
Venice, he comes across a picture on a wall of the Ark of the Covenant.
For a brief moment, the Ark's haunting theme from Raiders creeps
into the score. The first CD release of Temple of Doom (and it's
the only release as of 1997) is a top collectible.
The original score to Back to the Future was never fully released.
The CD with its title includes two concert version tracks of music from
the film, but not the original recordings. Silvestri's two sequel scores
are released, however. The main theme from Back to the Future is
great, and Silvestri does great variations with it in the futuristic and
past scenes of the sequels. As far as action sequel scores go, these are
very good compositions.
Page created 5/21/97, updated 5/23/97.
Version 1.1 (FilmTracks Publishing)
Copyright © 1997, Christian Clemmensen
(tyderian(at)best.com/tyderian(at)filmtracks.com/tyderian(at)selway.umt.edu)
The "Moon and Sword" logo is Copyright © 1995, Clemmensen. All
rights reserved. "Real Audio" logo and .ra are Copyright © 1997,
Real Audio (www.realaudio.com).
"Academy Awards" and the Oscar statue are ® AMPAS, 1996.