Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... on any album if you desire some of John Scott's best career adventure material, but especially on the 1997 bootleg if you seek a sampling of this superior music from several of his notable scores. Avoid it... if you have no interest in engaging and massive orchestral action music, or if you're stuck on John Barry's score for the 1976 predecessor in the franchise and can't live without its themes. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
King Kong Lives: (John Scott) Ten years after our favorite Kong was machine-gunned off the top of the World Trade Center in the 1976 Dino De Laurentiis production of King Kong, a sequel was released under the notion that the beast survived the fall and had been hidden by the government during the following decade. The 1986 production of King Kong Lives was another De Laurentiis venture, opening with the final scene of the 1976 film and featuring much of the same crew. Director John Guillermin would return for King Kong Lives, only to see the cheesy film end a long career that had included better memories like The Towering Inferno. The script is really what sunk this sequel, with its laughable premise and ridiculous fallacies of logic, rendering the film completely pointless. Kong and a lady ape escape long enough to fornicate and yield a baby Kong just as the military finally does get the best of belligerent daddy, setting up another possible sequel. The actors seemed to realize that they were involved in a hopelessly boring production, given their completely uninspired performances of television-worthy dialogue. The film does have the notable attraction of a brief partial nudity shot of actress Linda Hamilton, as fans everywhere eventually re-discovered. One member of the original crew who would not return was composer John Barry, despite the director's continued insistence that the score feature tragic romance music rather than straight bombast for some of its action scenes. Guillermin turned to veteran composer John Scott, whose career varied greatly between television, documentaries, and feature films from the early 1960's through the 2000's. Even though he continued composing well into the digital era, he'll probably be forever known for scoring countless Jacques Cousteau documentaries in the 1980's, the mass of which somewhat degrades the more unique highlights in his feature work. His large-scale action scores, especially those in the 1980's, can't be dismissed, however, and King Kong Lives was one such triumph that far eclipsed the film in quality. In fact, Scott's work for King Kong Lives is so magnificent in scope that it adds another laughable aspect to a film that was already trying all too hard to take itself seriously. In many regards, it's a more sincere, grandiose, and enjoyable alternative to Barry's music for the prior film. Scott's music for King Kong Lives is larger than life in every regard, forcing the Graunke Symphony Orchestra to its limits of bombastic capabilities. Expect to hear none of Barry's material return, however, a minor disappointment. With phenomenally engaging and powerful themes for both Kong and the hunters charging after him, Scott cranks up the volume with performances of action arguably more raw, primal, and ruggedly appropriate than the that written by Barry or James Newton Howard for the other modern Kong films. An flowing interlude to the main Kong melody serves as a love theme for Lady Kong, the Kong baby, as well as the dumb human relationship in the film, and this remarkably romantic material is effectively heartbreaking counterpoint to the immense size of the sound that Scott provides for the rest of the score. Hints of Golden Age sensibilities exist in the highly lyrical romanticism of the themes, with Scott's title identity sharing similarities to John Debney's reworking of the Disney "Phantom Manor/Haunted House" music and foreshadowing, intriguingly, Gabriel Yared's rejected music for Troy in 2004. The careful alternating between minor and major modes for the primary theme is key to its malleability for a wide range of emotional situations, including the obvious shift to the major when baby Kong is born. The propulsive theme for the human hunters and military, highlighted by "Lady Kong Gets Gassed" and perhaps informed to a minor degree by Jerry Goldsmith's First Blood, is fun but not quite as memorable. The balance between sections in the orchestra is extraordinary, with flourishing woodwinds accompanying intelligent layers of brass and strings in every major cue. A particular moment of outstanding spread in the players comes in "King Kong Lives/Main Titles," when Scott expresses the romantic interlude on high strings with no bass, until a moment of sinking feeling at 1:09 during which the soundscape is completed very satisfactorily for the remainder of the theme. The German performers knock themselves out in King Kong Lives, often generating more harmonically pleasing noise than even the most active John Williams or David Arnold science-fiction efforts. The tone of the snare-ripping, brass blaring score strongly resembles what Bill Conti would attempt to achieve for Masters of the Universe the following year, but Conti's recording is less vibrant and engaging. There is undeniable energy throughout King Kong Lives without the Conti tendency to overtly skirt the realm of cheese. Overall, King Kong Lives is the kind of score that ages well because it was already an out-of-place throwback in the 1980's, its Golden Age sensibilities just as attractive decades later. There are minor weaknesses in the score, including the "cutesy" tendencies with woodwinds that Scott often employed at lighter moments. The center of the score, cues which deal with the flirtatious interactions, do fall back on familiar Scott nature music territory and are not necessarily inferior but they are a bit more anonymous and possibly tedious for his collectors. Aside from these minor quibbles, King Kong Lives competes favorably amongst extremely heavy competition in 1986 as one of the best of the year. Scott's arrangement of the score for a roughly 47-minute album has always been a very entertaining experience, and its resounding sound quality has never been an issue. At the time of the film's release, this presentation was only made available in America on LP and cassette, though a Japanese CD of the same contents was released as well. Grunts and roars from Kong preceded two cues on this CD, however, displeasing some but serving as great sound effects for others to use on hung-over roommates. A popular 1997 "Ape Records" CD bootleg, unrecognized officially at the time by the composer, provided the King Kong Lives score in all its magnificent sound quality, along with the sound effects and a few suites from other notable Scott scores. The suites from Greystoke and Shoot to Kill are known and expected highlights from the composer's career. More interesting, however, are the two minutes from Phantom of the Sun, intoxicating in its merging of classical and exotic elements, and the title theme from The Final Countdown, which is as lyrically heroic as you can get. These cues are also in crisp sound quality, and given the long frustrating unavailability of Phantom of the Sun on album, its inclusion here is most welcome. Bootlegs rarely achieve top ratings because they typically exhibit at least some minor flaws, but this pressed "Ape Records" album, complete with attractive insert, is nothing short of outstanding and was well worth the $40 for those who purchased it from soundtrack specialty outlets upon its release. In 2012, Intrada finally took Scott's presentation and released it officially. The sound quality on this product isn't noticeably different from that of the 1997 bootleg, and it's obviously lacking the bonus tracks, but it eliminates the sound effects. The 2012 product also finally relieves the availability issues of King Kong Lives on the market, and for that, Intrada deserves a nod, though a soft spot will always exist for the prior CD releases, grunting noises and all.
Music as Heard on the 1987 and 2012 Albums: **** Music as Heard on the 1997 Bootleg: ***** Overall: **** Track Listings (1987 Victor Album):
Total Time: 47:10
Track Listings (1997 Ape Records Bootleg):
Total Time: 72:30
Track Listings (2012 Intrada Album):
Total Time: 47:03
All artwork and sound clips from King Kong Lives are Copyright © 1987, 1997, 2012, Victor (Japan), Bootleg (Ape Records), Intrada Records. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/17/97, updated 10/15/12. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 1997-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
1987 Victor
