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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you love Jerry Goldsmith's top-notch, energetic and cohesive action material that is saturated with his trademark style. Avoid it... if you prefered earlier Goldsmith action that didn't rely as heavily on considerable synthetic accompaniment to the orchestra. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
When the recording of the score was first planned, the producers wanted to save money by sending Goldsmith to Munich, where musicians could be employed at a more inexpensive rate. After several days of disappointing results from the players who were not familiar with Goldsmith's style, the money was then allotted to recall Goldsmith back to London, where he often records with the superior National Philharmonic Orchestra and the musicians are familiar with the kind of sharp edge that Goldsmith prefers. With a three month break in the middle of recording to allow Verhoeven more time to edit the special effects, Goldsmith recorded Gremlins 2 before returning to finish the job in the final days before the film's release. Despite the score's overwhelming presence in the film, it's not an very lengthy work in its sum. Many of the cues written by Goldsmith were "source cues" such as the "Rekall, Rekall, Rekall" jingle in the train and numerous other ten to twenty second commercial jingles heard in the background. Even "elevator music" ambience music peppered throughout the various locales in the film, including the morning apartment scene near the beginning, was the work of Goldsmith. While not known by many, Goldsmith enjoys writings these little source cues because of the freedom and creativity they allow him. Almost all Goldsmith action scores are good, but Total Recall reaches a level of energy and cohesiveness not heard since The Wind and the Lion fifteen years prior. On one side of the score is the relentless brass which chops its motifs almost like the bullets flying around on screen. At a wickedly fast pace, even for Goldsmith, the action cues are plentiful and expansive in length. The sheer number of chase scenes in the film required Goldsmith to produce an enormous amount of fully orchestral material, much to the delight of his fans. On the other side of the score is the aspect which makes Total Recall a truly unique experience. Because of the futuristic setting of the film and the questions of individual identity suffered by the story's primary character, Goldsmith unleashes his electronics with unequivocal force, allowing them to not only supplement the orchestra, as they do during the chase scenes, but also commandeer entire cues with their majesty. No better of an example is "The Mutant" track, in which a dream-like sequence of free flowing flight reveals the massive alien secret within the red planet. Even the title theme of the film is made distinct by the percussive electronics used to set its rhythms. For the similarly whimsical scenes, Goldsmith compliments the wide choice of synth mixings with a full string section of the orchestra. It has been suggested that because of the similarities in "futuristic identity issues" between Total Recall and The Matrix, the latter film would have greatly benefitted from a comparatively engaging Goldsmith score. Shortly after the film's release, the Varèse Sarabande label released a short album of music from the film. Although fourty-minute albums are not uncommon for orchestral scores, the short release for Total Recall would be almost as controversial for fans as the same label-composer pairing for Air Force One a few years later. Under considerable pressure from fans for an entire decade, Varèse's Robert Townson has finally produced this "deluxe edition" of the score, with countless new cues combining to make a superbly comprehensive album of Goldsmith's music. The major cues now available include three memorable moments: the short, but epic scene of the spaceship traveling to Mars, the moment on the Martian train when Quaid first sees the mountain where the alien machine is housed, and the massacre scene of gunfighting between rebel and Cohaagen forces, which restates the synth rhythms of the title theme. Also a good new track is the "Johnny Cab" chase, which is an extension of the many other chase cues in the film. With seventeen more tracks of music from the film (all of which ordered as they are heard in the film), the album is packed to its limits with pure Goldsmith mastery. The packaging contains lengthy notes about the score itself, though the copy I received has some alignment problems with the printing of the insert which causes words to run off the top and bottom of the pages at a slant. The "Hologram" track from the original album has been respelled to make "Hollowgram," perhaps as a jest to the recent Hollow Man collaboration. The sound quality of the new album is noticeably better than the original, though no technical information is given to explain why. Finally, there is an extra, hidden source cue at the very end of the "New Life" cue which true Goldsmith fans will get a chuckle over. To all collectors of action scores, this fabulous album treatment of Goldsmith's score for Total Recall is simply a necessity on your shelves.
The 1990 Album: *** The 2000 Album: ***** Overall: ****
* Newly Released Track
The original album's insert included no extra information. The 2000 expanded re-release includes lengthy notes about the film and score. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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