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The Omen: (Jerry Goldsmith) From a practical,
logical standpoint, the entire premise of popular 1976 film
The
Omen (and others like it) seems a bit silly, though commonly held
fears of the Antichrist certainly do present fantastic opportunities
when entering the realm of horror motion pictures. After all, why spend
half your screenplay establishing a strong villain when you can rely on
the one that organized religion has already established to scare the
wits (and money) out of people for centuries? The exact circumstances of
the birth of the Antichrist are the topic of
The Omen, inflicting
terror on a couple that has unknowingly adopted the child of a jackal
and who will, naturally, pay the ultimate price through the supernatural
powers of their demented little boy. Although
The Omen was a
restricted by a surprisingly low production budget, it experienced a
tremendous critical and popular response, and subsequent box office
grosses of over $60 million all but guaranteed the two cinematic sequels
to follow within five years. The first two films of the series feature
similar storylines, showing the frustrating pursuit of Damien, the young
Satan, by Italian representatives of the Church while the innocent
families housing the little brat learn about his identity too late in
their own emotional turmoil to kill him with the necessary daggers. In
The Omen, the formula was both fresh and excruciating, because
not only was the nobility of Gregory Peck on the line, but the child was
so vulnerable as a young boy compared to his older forms seen in the
sequels, by which time he was self-aware and could defend himself in
supernatural ways very easily. Several shocking and sudden displays of
violence punctuated these films, with impaling and beheading scenes as
memorable as any in the history of cinema. One of the unique challenges
facing producer Harvey Bernhard in his endeavors to bring these three
films to the big screen was an inherent lack of continuity. With Damien
played by different actors in every film and an extremely limited number
of characters carrying over through the narratives (oh, the joys of
death!), the films had no guaranteed cohesiveness in what audiences
would see and hear on screen. Even director Richard Donner would not
return to more than an executive role after his success with
The
Omen (moving on to
Superman, understandably). Enter composer
Jerry Goldsmith.
The production team of the original
The Omen didn't
have the necessary funds available to hire Goldsmith, who was already at
the top of his game. After hearing the composer conduct one of his
famous concerts, however, Donner and Bernhard confirmed their interest
in him and specifically sought a special budgetary allowance from 20th
Century Fox for his hiring. That money came directly from the top, and
Goldsmith was launched on a course to his only Academy Award win. The
composer's music for the films of this trilogy doesn't reflect much of
anything else in his career. The oppressive tone of liturgical chanting
at its most menacing is a style that he would later touch upon briefly,
as in
Poltergeist II: The Other Side, but not with the kind of
development he had utilized in these works. Goldsmith admitted that he
was a bit rusty in his skills at choral writing, though with some help
from his faithful orchestrator, Arthur Morton, he managed to produce one
of the most memorable choral-related scores in film music history. Never
one to shy away from the chance to revisit his material in a sequel
(even in franchises with very poor follow-ups), Goldsmith extended the
general sound of his music for
The Omen in 1978's
Damien: The
Omen II before taking the same tone of orchestral and choral colors
in a different direction for 1981's
The Final Conflict. Despite a
lack of overarching musical continuity in the rigid structures of the
three compositions, Goldsmith did pepper all three with the same style
of relentless religious extroversion, applying similar choral techniques
in particular throughout the separate scores. The foundation work for
the franchise that was conceived and cemented in
The Omen
includes its striking title chant, a piece of music so powerful that it
was actually nominated separately from the score for its own "Best Song"
Oscar. The chilling brutality of "Ave Satani," whispering and shouting
the Latin translations of "Hail Satan!" and "Jesus Christ!" (among other
things) over a muscular and deliberate orchestral churning in the bass
region, is effective in part because Goldsmith staggers the progression
of the theme at differing rates in the treble choral performances and
the underlying orchestral bass. This off-kilter merging of the two
halves of the theme produces a very unnerving effect without the need to
resort to obvious dissonance or outright pounding to achieve the same
ominous fright level in the audience. The same instrumental elements
eventually provide the plucky suspense of later cues as well.
The forceful chanting of "Ave Satani" would eventually be
revealed by the second score as the theme for Damien himself, a fact
that was not entirely clear in
The Omen because of the entire
film's bitter personality. One of the more ridiculous claims that you
hear from mainstream listeners is that this Goldsmith theme was inspired
by Carl Orff's famous "Carmina Burana." While the composer did indeed
look to inspiration from the past for the general tone of this theme,
Orff was not among the references. In fact, nothing in
The Omen
sounds anywhere near as similar to Orff's music as, for instance, the
climax to James Horner's
Glory or half a dozen others in the
modern age. If anything, Goldsmith's music for this franchise has a much
more curious source of consistent inspiration: John Barry. Not many
younger listeners recall that Barry went through a period in his career
during the late 1960's and early 1970's, after his spirited jazz and
before his lush romanticism, when he wrote extremely heavy and
occasionally brutal music for domineering orchestra and chorus. The
interesting connection that Goldsmith's three scores related to
The
Omen have to Barry starts with 1968's
The Lion in Winter. The
stomping movement of "Ave Satani," its bass string progressions, and
style of chanting that divides the men and women are all highly
reminiscent of the opening title theme of
The Lion in Winter, and
this similarity carries over significantly to
Damien: Omen II. By
the time Goldsmith mutates his theme for Damien into an entirely new,
expansive form for the character's maturation as a grown man, the
resulting thematic identity for
The Final Conflict is remarkably
reminiscent of Barry's 1970 score for
The Last Valley. Where
Goldsmith excels beyond these more simplistic works of Barry, of course,
is in the devious complexities and snarling nastiness of his take on the
same general idea. Any composer can simply pound out grandiose horror
music that retains a fair amount of harmony to appeal to our guilty
pleasure senses, but Goldsmith creates a difficult environment that
challenges the listener rather than placating expectations or the needs
of album presentations. That said, the concluding seconds in "The Dogs
Attack," using timpani and harmonious orchestra hits on key, remind of
John Williams in a more conventional sense. Without resorting to
dissonant noise, Goldsmith offers truly a mean-spirited work that is not
only unnerving in its explosions of a liturgical nature, but also in his
ground-breaking employment of whispering from the choir that defines
this particular score.
The instrumental colors of
The Omen are somewhat
predictable, including the use of chimes to represent church bells. The
extremely creative use of the choir is perhaps the most memorable aspect
of the music for
The Omen, including the agonizing slurring of
performance pitch to denote a sinking feeling, though more credit needs
to be given to Goldsmith for his method of developing his ideas
throughout the picture. The use of foreshadowing impending doom is
masterful in these regards, serving as a basis for the eerie moments of
uneasy calm a few years later in
Alien. For casual listeners
enjoying an album for
The Omen for the first time, there might be
some surprise in the discovery of one of Goldsmith's most charming
family themes in its ranks. This theme of hope and romance, representing
Peck's ambassador and his wife's love for each other (and their
affection for their son), is obviously deceptive in its application. But
its existence in the early scenes of
The Omen accentuate the
difference between the usual, peaceful atmosphere of a family and the
horrors of this particular one. Performed on piano, strings, harp, and
woodwinds, this theme is as lovely as any that the composer wrote,
occupying "On This Night" and "The New Ambassador" and extending to a
pretty performances of relief on high strings in the latter half of
"Where is He?" Hearing Goldsmith break this theme down through the use
of slightly atonal hindrance is a treat, starting with the opening of
"Safari Park" and extending through "The Bed." By "Don't Let Him" and "A
Sad Message," the theme has mutated into one of tired and scared
desperation, its primary melodic line never again accompanied by
complimentary, harmonious bass. It's possible, if not likely, that
listeners weary of being beaten into submission by the "Ave Satani"
theme in
The Omen will find solace in this family theme's six or
so minutes of purely major-key optimism. While Goldsmith originally
wrote a massive incarnation of the "Ave Satani" chant for the final
scene of the film, as the ambassador takes Damien into the church to
execute him, this cue was replaced with a tortured variation on the
family theme for the final cut. Unfortunately, this piece of music was
lost in its master form and does not exist on album. As could be
expected, the theme is not revisited by Goldsmith in the sequels,
confirming that it was attached solely to the Antichrist's adopting
parents and their false perception of innocence in the boy. The original
score's conversational scenes conveniently accessed this theme in
various layers of discord, and while the first sequel featured its own
brief family theme, that one never receives the same kind of smart
development heard here.
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2001 Varèse: | | |
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Despite the effective handling of the family theme
(which occupies almost as much air time as the liturgical material for
the boy), listeners inevitably grasped onto the "Ave Satani" variations
throughout
The Omen and attributed the score's success to those
portions. For each of the killing scenes, Goldsmith very effectively
increases the intensity of this chant until the chorus reaches a
perverse climax. Even after several of these explosions of energy,
The Omen fails to cease impressing. In fact, by "The Alter," the
score's momentous power and inevitable march to doom is difficult to
pull away from, despite the difficulty such sequences present in terms
of an enjoyable listening experience. Without a doubt,
The Omen
is not a soothing experience on album, and archival sound quality on all
its album releases will be disappointing for some listeners. So
disturbing is the demise of the family theme and the brutality of the
"Ave Satani" variations that
The Omen is easy to classify as a
classic composition worthy of study but only occasional appreciation on
album. Its ultimate attitude is so nasty that listeners may be attracted
to the more streamlined version of the same ideas in
Damien: Omen
II or the somewhat operatic tone of
The Final Conflict.
Still, in its purpose and execution,
The Omen remains the
superior of the three. The score has experienced a limited but
ultimately rewarding life on album. Goldsmith was asked to prepare a
song version of his family theme specifically for the LP record, and
this song, performed by his wife, is as lovely as it is out of place.
It's the kind of redeeming Goldsmith song that belongs in
The Secret
of N.I.M.H., not
The Omen. Still, it is a worthy piece when
pulled aside along with the two early cues of family bliss. The LP and
Varèse Sarabande's identical 1990 CD both included this piece in
the middle of the jumbled presentation of 34 minutes of music from the
score. In 2001, the same label offered expanded, remastered editions of
all three scores, including a chronological arrangement of
The
Omen that added fifteen minutes of material. As mentioned before,
the first score does still sound a bit archival in its range, especially
compared to its successors, but since it is a work to intellectually
appreciate rather than casually play for a good time (unless you're one
of those sick exceptions), that lack of expansive soundscape isn't a
major blow to even the 2001 album. A 2005 repackaging of all three
"Deluxe Editions" together for a retail price of less than $30 made them
very affordable, not to mention a compensation for more difficult retail
availability of the 2001 albums by then. Overall,
The Omen is a
necessary inclusion in any Goldsmith collection, but a highly disturbing
one at that.
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| Bias Check: | For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.26 (in 113 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.32
(in 133,462 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The inserts of all the albums include information about the score and film.
