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Inchon
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Composed, Conducted, and Produced by:
Orchestrated by:
Arthur Morton
2006/2013 Albums Produced by:
Douglass Fake
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LABELS & RELEASE DATES
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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The 1988 Intrada album was a regular commercial release, but it
went out of print in the 1990's and has sold for over $40. The 2006 Intrada
album was limited to only 1,500 copies and sold out quickly, eventually fetching
over $150. The 2013 Intrada re-issue of the 2006 contents is a regular commercial
release available initially for $20.
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AWARDS
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None.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... only if you consider yourself a staunch collector of
Jerry Goldsmith's works, because while Inchon is a decent
composition, its terrible recording nearly ruins the listening
experience.
Avoid it... if you demand a truly vibrant and engaging
representation of the war genre from an otherwise reliable Goldsmith,
though the sound quality issues are mostly to blame for this score's
ills.
BUY IT
 | | Goldsmith |
Inchon: (Jerry Goldsmith) So what happens when a
religious leader decides to bankroll a major American motion picture in
order to put a positive spiritual spin on a ill-advised military
operation of an era past? Inchon in the answer. When Korean
Reverend Sun Myung Moon decided in the late 1970's to spend $48 million
on a lavish tribute to the United Nations invasion of South Korea's
important port of Inchon in 1950 to repel Communist forces from the
North, little could anyone have predicted what an unimaginable nightmare
the production would become. Poor casting, led by a completely out of
place Sir Laurence Olivier as General Douglas MacArthur, astronomical
cost overruns, an awful script with laughable dialogue, botched
direction of action sequences by James Bond director Terence Young, and
an anti-North Korean religious tone that defines the film purely as
propaganda all combined to make Inchon one of the most
unfortunate entries in the history of cinema. The process of making and
editing the movie dragged on for four years, during which time the
length of the epic war film was drastically cut several times and the
death of a lead actor necessitated the total removal of his character.
Decent action sequences could not salvage ridiculous side-stories for
unnecessary characters, and the Communists are portrayed as such savages
that they don't even have a spoken word of dialogue in the picture.
Ultimately, Inchon's $48 million cost yielded a gross of only
$150,000 in return, despite efforts by Reverend Moon's devoted followers
to hype the film at its eventual 1981 debut. The situation regarding the
music for Inchon was just as problematic, with Jerry Goldsmith
stepping in when John Williams reportedly bowed out early in the
process. Goldsmith was a natural choice for the assignment given his
experience in handling large-scale war films, including those with an
oriental tilt. It must have been tempting for the composer to utilize
his familiar theme for General MacArthur from the 1977 film bearing his
name, but instead he conjured a new identity for Olivier's sickly
portrayal. The recording of the score was itself a nightmarish part of
the production, forced into a small room under a church in Italy and
rotating players over the course of a haphazard month of recording in
1980. The lack of a proper facility caused daunting restrictions for
Goldsmith, especially with such a large percussion section and the
inability to sonically separate the group's sections or eliminate
copious, accidental room noise, but the composer looked back at the
experience as a generally positive challenge.
The composition itself is adequate in every one of its
tasks, but not particularly memorable in any of them, either. Goldsmith
did indeed try to make the best of the situation by spicing up his
ensemble with creative percussion that dominates portions of the score.
Also at play is a significant depth of melody, with no less than four
major ideas intermingling regularly throughout the work. As such,
Inchon is a relatively smooth listening experience. The title
theme for the General stirs up a fair amount of pomp but does not
compete with Goldsmith's material from MacArthur. Its two major
performances ("MacArthur's Arrival" and "Inchon Theme") would make for
worthy compilation material (though it's rare to hear Inchon
anywhere else). A romantic melody heard in "The Apology" and rearranged
in "Love Theme" is a foreshadowing of Goldsmith's Legend and
subsequent heartfelt ideas of the 1990's and is the highlight of the
score. A theme for the martyr character of Lim has just as poor an
impact as Goldsmith's representation for Inchon harbor; both could pass
without notice for any listener not closely deconstructing the work. The
overall tone of the score is predictably variable, with the composer
taking little stylistic chances in either the action or contemplative
sequences. This conservative approach, distinctive only because of its
faint oriental progressions at times, causes Inchon to be a
somewhat pedestrian score. Goldsmith rearranged the Italian recordings
into an LP presentation that is so jumbled and sliced into pieces that
it doesn't really resemble what is heard in the picture, though it made
for a more interesting listening experience. A mock version of that
arrangement was reassembled by the composer and Intrada Records in 1988,
with Goldsmith making a few new changes for a 55-minute edition. In
2006, Intrada revisited the score once again, presenting a very limited
2-CD album of both the original LP arrangement and the complete 55
minute score (without the edits and minor truncations of the 1988 CD).
That product sold out quickly, prompting Intrada to eventually, in 2013,
re-press that set in identical form with no quantity limitations.
Unfortunately, all of these albums, despite the best mastering
technology available in their times, could not salvage a recording that
featured major distortion, ambient studio sounds, and a very flat
soundscape. In short, Inchon sounds awful, even compared to its
contemporary peers. The distortion in the swelling string portion of
"The Apology" nearly ruins the cue. Performance flubs, such as the low
brass errors in the latter half of "The Scroll," don't help. This score
badly needs a full re-recording, and in lieu of such treatment, only
Goldsmith's most ardent collectors should seek any of its album
releases. @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 3.29
(in 113 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.31
(in 143,750 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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Incheon
Taikou - July 6, 2013, at 10:14 p.m. |
1 comment (965 views) |
Re-recording
Krishna Manohar - July 26, 2009, at 2:47 p.m. |
1 comment (1570 views) |
| 1988 Intrada Album Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 53:45 |
• 1. Prologue and Main Title (3:48)
• 2. Resignation (2:10)
• 3. The Children (0:44)
• 4. The Bridge (3:30)
• 5. The Apology (2:36)
• 6. The Church (4:41)
• 7. The Mines (5:07)
• 8. The Landing (1:18)
• 9. The 38th Parallel (1:15)
• 10. Corpses (1:44)
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• 11. Task Force (3:07)
• 12. Medley (2:13)
• 13. Inchon Harbor (1:12)
• 14. Love Theme (2:49)
• 15. The Lighthouse (3:13)
• 16. The Tanks (3:53)
• 17. MacArthur's Arrival (0:50)
• 18. Lim's Death (3:12)
• 19. The Trucks (3:02)
• 20. Inchon Theme (3:21)
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| 2006/2013 Intrada Albums Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 93:50 |
CD 1 (Previous/LP Album Presentation): (38:27)
• 1. Main Title (2:25)
• 2. Resignation (2:13)
• 3. The Bridge (3:33)
• 4. The Church (4:00)
• 5. The Mines (4:22)
• 6. Task Force (3:09)
• 7. Medley (2:16)
• 8. Love theme (3:03)
• 9. The Tanks (3:44)
• 10. Lim's Death (3:15)
• 11. The Trucks (3:03)
• 12. Inchon Theme (3:24)
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CD 2 (Complete Score Restoration): (55:23)
• 1. Prologue and Main Title (3:49)
• 2. The Bridge (3:32)
• 3. The 38th Parallel (1:18)
• 4. Medley (2:14)
• 5. Love Theme (3:01)
• 6. The Aftermath (0:53)
• 7. The Tanks (3:41)
• 8. A Change of Course (1:14)
• 9. The Church (2:24)
• 10. MacArthur's Arrival (0:50)
• 11. The Harbor (1:15)
• 12. The Trucks (3:00)
• 13. Corpses (1:18)
• 14. The Children (0:48)
• 15. The Apology (2:39)
• 16. The Lighthouse (2:29)
• 17. The Clock Watcher (0:36)
• 18. The Mines (5:38)
• 19. Resignation (2:11)
• 20. The Landing (1:20)
• 21. Lim's Death (2:12)
• 22. The Scroll (2:21)
• 23. Task Force (3:06)
• 24. Inchon Theme (3:21)
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The inserts of all the albums include information about the score
and film, the 2006 and 2013 booklets extensive in their detail.
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