 |
| Goldsmith |
Coma: (Jerry Goldsmith) The understandable
obsession of writer and director Michael Crichton with topics relating
to medicine and experimental science collided with the public's interest
in deception and manipulation from powers beyond their control in the
1978 film
Coma. One of Crichton's most fiscally successful
pictures,
Coma took advantage of public fears of the
establishment by targeting the medical community, suggesting the
possibility that doctors could intentionally induce comas in patients
visiting a hospital for otherwise mundane surgeries, allowing them to
perform experiments on those patients once a significant collection of
brain-dead patients could be assembled. When a young female doctor in a
hospital causing and collecting comatose patients begins to suspect that
something is awry, she sets off a tense thriller in which she naturally
becomes a target, eventually putting her on the operating table herself.
A solid cast highlighted by young stars competently brought Crichton's
story to life, though it was the general creepiness of the story that
helped
Coma earn solid grosses at the box office. Conspiracy
films were certainly not absent from composer Jerry Goldsmith's career
during this time, with
Capricorn One largely defining this style
of music from the veteran later in 1978. Goldsmith had already
collaborated with Crichton for the writer's directorial debut on
television, and the two friends would work together again twice in the
short term future. One thing that can be said about Goldsmith's music
for Crichton films with absolute certainty is that you never know
exactly what you're going to get. Some of the composer's most unorthodox
compositions have accompanied these productions, and
Coma is
undoubtedly a perfect example of this creativity. Unfortunately, none of
Goldsmith's music for films directed by Crichton translates into a
particularly enjoyable listening experience, the 1984 electronic score
for
Runaway intolerable in many places.
Coma presents
different challenges, because the composer made several wise decisions
about the score that make it highly effective in the context of the
picture while also dooming it as album. Along with his recommendation to
leave the first hour of the film unscored, allowing the tension to speak
for itself in an eerily quiet atmosphere, Goldsmith also decided to
treat
Coma with a rough, dissonant tone through an unconventional
instrumentation. Much of the score's personality is defined by an
otherworldly element of discord that twists reality to suit Crichton's
ominous plot.
If you're investigating
Coma because you seek a
pleasant score, you're deranged. Few efforts from Goldsmith are more
daunting that this one. He eliminates a brass section, reduces the
percussion, and utilizes four pianos on top of strings, woodwinds,
keyboards, and cimbalom to create an alienating environment that, with
the help of the composer's famous echoplex machine (best known from
Patton and
Alien), imitates the sounds of surgical
implements. The confinement of the ensemble to these high-pitched tones
of clattering and banging metal is very unnerving. Extreme discord of
the many striking suspense cues in
Coma is aided by a title theme
that is itself disjointed and challenging, suggested frequently through
a faintly disconnected two-note progression that is often processed
through the echoplex. Consistent rhythms are almost nonexistent in
Coma, the meter edgy and unpredictable in its shifts. Goldsmith
rarely allows for any relief in the mass of suspenseful underscore,
allowing one notable transition to a harmonious reward at the end of "A
Free Ride" (to accompany a temporarily successful escape on screen).
Also easier on the ears, of course, is the obligatory love theme for the
young doctor and her life-saving boyfriend, only heard twice
significantly in the film. In the resolution cue "A Nice Case" and an
early scene of character-building romance ("Cape Cod Weekend"),
Goldsmith explores a light, contemporary theme for strings, piano, and
acoustic guitar that has remarkable similarities to John Williams' style
of writing for such pop material during the 1970's. This theme was,
perhaps not surprisingly, translated into a disco variant by Goldsmith
for use early in the film as source material. He also, interestingly,
re-recorded his theme from his 1963 score for
The Prize for
hospital source music as well. When it debuted on LP record,
Coma
relied heavily on its variations of the love theme, the remainder of the
score's contrasting material heavily edited for an abbreviated but
adequate presentation. Those contents were eventually released on CD by
Bay Cities in 1992 and Chapter III in 2000 (just before the latter
label's closure). The complete score was eventually pressed on a limited
album by Film Score Monthly with two other (totally unrelated) scores
for Crichton's earlier projects. The FSM album is a bit convoluted in
its inclusion of the three disparate works, though it does remix the
score from a different source than the previously remastered
arrangements on the Chapter III CD. Regardless of the album,
Coma
is an effective and interestingly disturbing suspense score that simply
will not amount to a functional listening experience on album for all
but Goldsmith's most ardent collectors.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Written for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on All Albums: **
- Overall: **
| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26
(in 124 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.29
(in 153,454 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The inserts of the 1992 and 2000 albums include basic information about the
score and/or film. The 2005 album is extensive in its detail about both.
