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1/26/02 - In the Bedroom: (Thomas Newman) "In the early
years of his career, Thomas Newman created a lengthy resume of small
budget projects, for which he gained the recognition necessary for him to
assume the lifestyle of Alfred Newman. He then, however, gained his
largest following by creating large scale orchestral scores for mainstream
films, catapulting him into several Academy Award nominations. But then,
at the turn of the century, though still landing blockbuster scoring
assignments, Newman made a sudden and enormously contrasting change of
style, returning to a minimalistic, small ensemble approach to his big
name projects. With American Beauty and Erin Brockovich
shedding every resemblence of the scoring technique he had employed at the
popular height of his 1990's career, Newman acquired an entirely new fans
base. The definition of exactly what this "minimalism" is has been
fiercely debated, with some referring to it as "modernism" and others as
the "less-is-more" approach...." * Read the entire
review.
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1/21/02 - Gosford Park: (Patrick Doyle) "When one thinks
about a Robert Altman film, the original score isn't the first thing that
comes to mind. His character rich dramas often receive their acclaim for
their outstanding direction, screenwriting, and acting. The intensely
intimate manner by which Altman typically concentrates on the story and
its characters rather than anything more flashy can cause the scores for
his films to fade away into obscurity. In many cases, his films don't even
need a score. This wasn't the case, however, with Gosford Park,
which was a musical-like diversion for Altman. The film follows the same
kind of theatrical stage-like bubble of action, with the murderous
who-done-it story played out in the lavish confines of a mansion in a
century past. The characters are musically inclined, breaking out into
song in several parts of the film. The period and decadent style of the
setting necessitates a score to accompany the songs, and for the project,
Altman looked no further than Patrick Doyle...." *** Read the entire
review.
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1/12/02 - The Black Stallion/The Black Stallion
Returns: (Coppola/Walker, Georges Delerue) "The films based on The
Black Stallion fantasy story were a fixture of the early 1980's,
offering children's films about the human/nature relationship that had
been short in quantity until that time. While the first film retains the
most attention for its more classic storyline, the second film was noted
for its remarkable score. Both films were produced by Francis Ford
Coppola, and it was because of this connection that Coppola's father,
Carmine Coppola, ended up with the assignment to score the first film. To
say that the scoring process of The Black Stallion was a mess is
generously worded. The film was originally to be scored by William Russo,
but immediate disagreements with first-time director Carroll Ballard about
the musical approach caused the composer to walk away without writing a
note. Working with Carmine Coppola yielded a decent score, though Ballard
was set to cut it to pieces and demand re-writes of that
material. Luckily, for The Black Stallion Returns, director Robert
Dalva and veteran French composer Georges Delerue hit it off
immediately...." **** Read the
entire review.
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1/11/02 - Beauty and the Beast: (Alan Menken) --Special
Edition-- "Even though the original album came back into print late in
the 1990's, the most highly acclaimed animated song and score combination
of recent times remained incomplete on CD. Disney wasn't best known for
pressing exemplary albums for its films in the 1990's, a practice that has
changed ten years later. There wasn't an enormous mass of music from
Beauty and the Beast missing from the commercial album, though
there was just enough of it to cause die-hard fans --and there are a LOT
of them in this case-- to scrounge around on Disney box compilations and
the likes for extra material. Many even took solace in the Broadway
recording, and an interesting debate about which Belle (Paige O'Hara or
Susan Egan) was better for the part. It was common knowledge that a few
score cues and at least a few songs were rejected from the final cut of
the film, and none of that material was previously available on
CD...." *** Read the entire
review.
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1/8/02 - Godzilla: (David
Arnold) --Promotional/Bootleg-- "The Dean Devlin and Roland
Emmerich hit parade was in full force by 1998, with the filmmakers riding
the fiscal and popular success from Independence Day and
Stargate in the years prior. The first large-scale Americanized
version of the Godzilla tale sent the giant lizard to New York City
in what was supposed to be another Independence Day sized
extravaganza on the big screen. The hype for the film was based on the
motto "Size Does Matter," though in the end it turned out that the size of
budgets matter as well. The film did well at the box office at first, but
fizzling popular demand for the traditionally Japanese franchise caused
the film to lose audiences' interest long before the prior two
collaborations had. A terrible plot and extremely harsh ciritcal response
to the film put a dent in Devlin and Emmerich's action film careers, and
would be noted by film music fans as the end --at least for a while-- of
the working relationship between the two filmmakers and their friend and
composer David Arnold...." **** Read the entire
review.
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1/5/02 - The January Theme of the Month is the annual election of
Filmtracks fans' favorite CD release, composer, and "score as heard in a
film" from the past year. While John Williams, James Horner, and Jerry
Goldsmith dominated the first four annual elections at Filmtracks from
1996-1999, 2000's strong showing by James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer, and
Rachel Portman shook up the mix. The year 2001 adds even more new
contenders to the old favorites of past years. The new 2001 vote started
January 5th, 2002, and will conclude February 20th, 2002. Check it out!. New
software has been added to this year's voting booth to further weed out
multiple-vote offenders, making this one of the more accurate tests of
public film music opinion online. What do you think about the results of
these elections from this year and years past? Sound off at The Filmtracks
ScoreBoard...
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1/4/02 - Domestic Disturbance: (Mark Mancina) "Earlier in
2001, the film Domestic Disturbance was mentioned as being one of
the larger autumn releases from Hollywood. It was to be a film of an
intriguing suspenseful plot that would carry it to deep riches at the box
office. Unfortunately for the film, it was released just before a
Muggle-treasured film about a little school named Hogwarts, and
Domestic Disturbance thus disappeared off the charts after only one
week of theatrical success. With Travolta the boatmaker as the center of
attention, Domestic Disturbance is the typical "your ex-wife
marries a wealthy creep, your troubled kid knows the guy is a murderer,
but nobody believes the brat until everything gets really
suspenseful" kind of flick. After some confusion as to who would score the
film, contemporary artist Mark Mancina provided a functional score for the
film. It was one of those projects that fit a very familiar scoring
formula for whomever would end up composing for the story, and Mancina did
a decent job in producing more than what was expected...." *** Read the
entire review.
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