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Planet of the Apes
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(1968)
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1985/1992 Project 3 |
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Composed, Conducted, and Produced by:
Orchestrated by:
Arthur Morton
Herbert Spencer
Alexander Courage
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LABELS & RELEASE DATES
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Project 3
(1985/1992)
Soundtrack Listeners Communications (Japan) (1990)Intrada Records(November 22nd, 1992)Varèse Sarabande(1997)Volcano Records (Japan) (1997)Masters Film Music (2001)Pioneer/Geneon (Japan) (April 23rd, 2003)La-La Land Records (October 23rd, 2019)
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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The original 1985 and 1992 Project 3 CD albums were
regular commercial releases. The identical 1990 Soundtrack Listeners
Communications album has long been considered a bootleg. Intrada
Records' 1992 album was a regular release but is long out of print.
The 1997 Varèse Sarabande expansion with a suite from Escape
From the Planet of the Apes is also a regular release and remained in
print at typical CD prices two decades later. Re-issuing its contents
are the 1997 Volcano Records, 2003 Pioneer, and 2007 Geneon albums, all
commercial Japanese products.
The 2001 Masters Film Music was a regular release but is difficult to
find. The 5-CD set from La-La Land Records in 2019 contains all five of
the original franchise scores and was limited to 5,000 copies at an
initial price of $70 through soundtrack specialty outlets. That 2019
set remained available five years later.
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AWARDS
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Nominated for an Academy Award.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... if you must intellectually appreciate one of the most
awkwardly inappropriate parody scores in the history of cinema, Jerry
Goldsmith's acclaimed avant-garde music an intrusive misfire of
planetary proportions.
Avoid it... if you have no interest in hearing dissonant orchestral
shock effects and unintentionally humorous ape noises while watching
gorillas on horseback herd primitive humans, though such music can be
useful if you are seeking a divorce.
BUY IT
 | | Goldsmith |
Planet of the Apes: (Jerry Goldsmith) Widely
praised as one of the top 100 films of all time, 1968's Planet of the
Apes ushered in a science fiction franchise that endured for
decades. Loosely based on the 1963 novel by Pierre Boulle and refined
into its final, budget-conscious form by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling,
the concept depicted American astronauts crash landing on a primitive,
backwards world where apes have evolved from humans and control them as
the masters of the land. Charlton Heston's lead astronaut, George
Taylor, ultimately becomes the lone survivor of the mission,
differentiating himself from the mute human population in ways that
frighten and exhilarate the ape scientists that rehabilitate him from a
throat injury during his capture. The ape society, meanwhile, is divided
by its own subspecies so that warriors, politicians, and scientists each
have distinct interests, and Taylor eventually convinces the scientists
that he is indeed intelligent despite being temporarily unable to speak.
Eventually, upon an escape attempt, he publicly calls his captor a "damn
dirty ape" and is put on trial. In the end, he is allowed to take a
female human (with a suspiciously close shave of her body hair!) and go
free, proving along the way that the ancient human society on the planet
was intelligent. The movie closes with a comment about nuclear war that
is as famous as any scene in cinematic history. The surprise ending has
been spoiled for nearly all audiences nowadays, but the quality of the
tale persists, yielding four direct sequels and a bevy of remakes and
reboots in the 21st Century. Aside from the mere audacity of its
concept, the 1968 movie was considered revolutionary in two of its
artistic characteristics: its make-up and its music. The latter has long
been greatly respected because of its overwhelming embrace of
avant-garde methodology. Because of scores like 1966's Fantastic
Voyage by Leonard Rosenman, among others, atonal dissonance had
become an intellectual fad in the industry. Rosenman himself was
considered a logical composer to match up with the otherworldly
environment of Planet of the Apes, but director Franklin J.
Schaffner continued his collaboration with Jerry Goldsmith to achieve
largely the same end result. (Rosenman would score two of the direct
sequels, however.)
The musical style that Goldsmith set in motion for the
Planet of the Apes franchise was very much in line with what
Rosenman and Alex North were writing and popularizing at the time, and
the three men were close friends. As Schaffner and Goldsmith strategized
the concept, they determined to openly employ all the techniques that
Rosenman and North had been exploring, without the early synthesizer
accompaniments that Goldsmith himself had been applying to his more
challenging assignments. The spotting of Planet of the Apes
remains one of the most suspect failures of any classic film in memory,
the application of music supplied very sparingly, presenting very little
narrative value in and of itself, and yielding an almost parody tone for
a concept that, while it does have its side humor, was not intended to
be funny. (Goldsmith himself found the occasion amusing enough to merit
wearing an ape mask at one of the recording sessions, though.) Much of
the film is left without music at all or it is dialed to such low levels
that it doesn't accomplish more than the purpose of ambient sound
effects, including the opening astronaut sequences and the pivotal
revelation and closing credits at the end. Schaffner's intent was to
allow the sound of silence or, as in the finale, the sound of ocean
waves, to accentuate the lonely gravity of the story at those moments.
In so doing, however, the decision robbed Goldsmith of all ability to
tease conventional fantasy at the start and deconstruct it from the
perspective of the astronauts in the story. If he had taken that path,
the scene in the cave and thereafter near the end could have rebuilt
that early convention to a tragic variant. Instead, the score for
Planet of the Apes hits listeners with the atonal dissonance
immediately in the opening titles without any remorse, declining to set
up the audience for the impending shock via misdirection. The music
throughout the film is generally too obvious when present and contains
no narrative flow whatsoever, serving only to provide primordial,
reactionary adjustments to the atonal figures and performance emphasis
from the perspective of the strange world itself. The planet and its
society are already strange enough; creating music that tries to
accentuate that foreign world only makes for laughable over-emphasis,
especially by the time ape noises are incorporated into the music.
Certainly, Planet of the Apes was not intended to
be a comedy film, but it occasionally straddles that line of parody
unintentionally. Goldsmith's brazenly placed stingers combined with
cinematic zooming techniques popular to the era (such as when the camera
suddenly zooms in too close on someone's face or a prop for a moment of
realization or other shocking emphasis) are embarrassingly juvenile in
tandem. In one early instance during which a tiny American flag is
planted near the crash site, Heston's strangely maniacal laughter
accompanies the zoom instead of music, but the effect is the same. In
the "No Escape" scene, however, as Taylor tries to elude horseback
soldiers, this technique is utilized as the camera zooms in far too
close on his face and a whistle of alarm goes off; the apes in the
marketplace all start throwing fruit at him to Goldsmith's percussion
and musical ape sounds for a combination that is hysterically funny
without intending to be. That whistle, incidentally, is not actually
part of the music, but nobody would have really noticed any difference
if it had been. The two major chase cues of the score, "The Hunt" and
"No Escape," joined by "The Intruders," make for highly interesting but
also chuckle-inducing expressions of primordial zeal, and after the
initial surprise of the film's plot is revealed, these cues scream
parody and encourage viewers to laugh at apes on horses using whips to
bring down humans as if a sickly perverse rodeo was in process. That
strategy of overemphasizing particular moments in the score to force the
otherworldly nature of the concept converts to the opposite end of the
spectrum, too; as the famed "damn dirty ape" line sinks in, Goldsmith
unleashes a blast of a single, dramatic ensemble chord of parody size.
Although it doesn't quite match the timing of the shot particularly
well, this conclusion to "No Escape" is arguably the score's single most
tonal moment, and it shows that the music could have engaged more
effectively in a dichotomy of culture. (That cue smartly ended the
original album presentations for that reason.) Regardless, the chosen
strategy for Planet of the Apes not only misses the mark by
overplaying its foreign, inaccessible demeanor, but it makes for an
extremely unpleasant score both in context and on album. While the work
was never destined to maintain a hummable theme that audiences would
remember, it actively struggles with its own perspective. As such, it
still stands as one of the most overrated scores of Goldsmith's career
and even of all time industry-wide.
Much of the glory and controversy surrounding Goldsmith's
approach to Planet of the Apes involves his choice of
instrumentation. A full orchestra is employed for the recording, but
it's by no means the highlight. As mentioned before, very minimal
electronics are used, mainly an electric harp run through the Echoplex
machine most famous from Patton. Instead, organic alternatives
were sought to generate the same sounds. The composer makes significant
use of pitch-slurring instrumental techniques and prickly striking and
plucking, and the former is a precursor to representations of
mind-bending concepts that extended all the way through the 1990's for
him. An impressive host of barbaric specialty instruments includes a
bass slide whistle, scraped gong, log and bongo drums, friction drums
for the howling ape sounds, rattle bamboo angklungs, a scratcher or
scraper, and ram's horn. Alongside this massive percussive array are
traditional orchestral instruments like woodwinds, celesta, piano, and
chimes abused to sound different. On the other hand, brass and snare
usage is more conventional. Some of the metallic effects employed in the
score are so unlistenable that they transcend to being humorously awful,
such as those near the end of "The Search." The same issue plagues the
outright silly ape emulations in "No Escape" and "The Intruders," which
could be insanity-inducing if not so cheekily amusing. The ondes
martenot-like effect in "The Forbidden Zone" is another distractingly
awkward intrusion. All of this cacophony of odd sounds is treated to
some recurring motifs by Goldsmith, including one overarching theme of
sorts. These ideas offer no distinction at all when comparing the
attitude of the motifs for the humans and apes, with a total lack of
warmth for sympathetic characters on either side. Shades of dissonance
are everywhere, with few tonally accessible chords to be heard
throughout. Only the primitive alien atmosphere is addressed, with no
attempt to evolve any themes to convey a point. Rambling piano figures
and two-note descending wind pairs frequently mingle with more formal
ideas. There is one dominant main theme in Planet of the Apes,
built upon a challenging scale that typically features disjointed
ascending phrases of typically four or five notes. Its fingerprints are
everywhere in the score, and yet they remain elusive and typically
deconstructed so that listeners only hear parts of the progressions in
short, rapid bursts. For this exact reason, almost nobody would
recognize it when isolated from the film.
Goldsmith's disquieting main theme for Planet of the
Apes is perhaps best appreciated intellectually in the "Main Title"
cue, debuting at 0:49 on piano and then elusively on flute and
subsequently explored over the next minute in arguably its most cohesive
performance. Although the chase cues are the most flamboyant in the
score, this rendition of the main theme is the best concert arrangement
of ideas from the work, as it manages to reference some of the apes'
material as well. By design, the composer allows the theme's
progressions to degenerate as the cue moves along. It returns at 0:31
into "Crash Landing" on celesta for several phrases in quiet suspense,
and the fully orchestral passages of action in the cue only use
repetitive fragments of the idea. (In ways, the middle portions of this
cue address the sinking of the spacecraft with Goldsmith's most
conventional action moment, but even here, it's rarely tonally
accessible.) A piano interjects with it a few times in the first half of
"The Searchers," and Goldsmith passes its phrasing between woodwinds and
drums in "The Search," where new harmonics are explored for the major
performance at the end of the cue. The main theme dances everywhere on
strings and winds early in "The Clothes Snatchers," consolidating on
ominous oboes in the cue's second half. It's only barely evident in "A
New Mate," a cue with zero compassion, and attempts to provide some
warmth from woodwinds late in "The Revelation" but cannot. The common
progressions are sped up considerably in "No Escape" for panic before
transitioning into both a new timpani riff and overlaid thematic device
in "New Identity." The idea accelerates again at the start of "A Bid for
Freedom," becomes twisted into a barely recognizable form on violins
late in "The Forbidden Zone," and reminds with a quick brass reference
at the end of "The Intruders." Only the theme's rising portions survive
to generate repetitive, layered suspense in "The Cave," albeit with
annoying muted trumpets on top, and it opens "The Revelation - Finale"
on its own and recurs as the two lead humans ride off to find their
promised destiny. There exists absolutely no general arc to this theme
in the score, and it never returns to the somewhat more cohesive form
that it enjoyed in "Main Title." Even in the final performances of the
theme during "The Revelation - Finale," Goldsmith never truly solidifies
what or who the wayward theme represents, its last prominent conveyance
placed over a rather unimportant shot of the lead antagonist ape being
freed on the beach. It is, like the instrumentation more generally,
merely awash.
The secondary motifs in Planet of the Apes are
far less complicated and can be applied more efficiently by Goldsmith as
stingers or rhythm-setters. A plucked echoing effect for searching and
suspense is the domain of the electric harp and/or string section.
Somewhat humorously, Michael Kamen might have been emulating it for
moments of suspense in Die Hard. It is first heard at O:53 into
"Main Title," in which the thumping, MacArthur-foreshadowing
piano bookending the cue is a sibling. This idea is prominently placed
afront "The Searchers" and "The Search." It is altered for more diverse
performances in "The Forbidden Zone" and joins pitch slurring effects
and slashed gong in "The Revelation - Finale." This searching motif has
no real impact in the closing cue, as it is featured low in the mix
relative to the wave sounds, and it ends the score with more of a muted,
guitar-like tilt. The other recurring motif is the ape wail for the
gorillas on horseback being generally rude to the humans. Two to
three-note cries from the specialty horns serve as a war call for these
nasty villains, and Goldsmith offers a preview of this material at 0:22
into "Main Title." It returns at 1:03 into "The Hunt," becoming a
rhythmic device, and shifts to full ensemble at the outsets of "The
Revelation" and "No Escape." The final reminder occurs as the gorillas
initially start chasing Taylor at 0:17 into "The Revelation - Finale."
Ultimately, these motifs only function to accentuate the instrumental
chaos and atonality of the whole. While the music is a mixed bag in the
picture, it translates to a hideous listening experience on album. For
those seeking to appreciate Goldsmith's strategy nonetheless, the "Main
Title" cue summarizes the score's three motifs while "The Hunt" and "No
Escape" offer the rambunctiously outrageous action material. Though this
score was lauded at the time for its experimentation, it has since aged
far more badly than the film itself, the lack of any meaningful
narrative, dichotomy of tone for characters, or truly tasteful nuance.
The album history for Planet of the Apes is long, its original,
distinct LP album arrangement by Goldsmith less abrasive but still
inaccessible. That presentation debuted on CD between 1985 and 1992 from
Project 3 and Soundtrack Listeners, and Intrada added "The Hunt" as a
1992 alternative that was rearranged by Masters Film Music in 2001. From
1997 to 2007, several labels, including Varèse Sarabande, offered
a longer presentation with a 16-minute suite from Goldsmith's Escape
From the Planet of the Apes. A superb 2019 La-La Land set with all
five original franchise scores includes both variants of the work with
proper film versions of cues. On any album, be ready to appreciate one
of most unlikely parody scores of all time.
@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 3.24
(in 135 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.26
(in 154,325 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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Patronising vitriol Expand >>
Richard - June 15, 2024, at 11:10 a.m. |
2 comments (403 views)
Newest: June 29, 2024, at 6:54 a.m. by
Louis Banlaki |
| 1985-1992 Project 3/SLC Albums Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 24:54 |
• 1. Main Title (2:09)
• 2. The Revelation (1:33)
• 3. The Clothes Snatchers (2:36)
• 4. New Identity (2:04)
• 5. The Forbidden Zone (2:50)
• 6. The Search (4:51)
• 7. The Cave (1:17)
• 8. A Bid for Freedom (1:16)
• 9. A New Mate (1:04)
• 10. No Escape (5:14)
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| 1992 Intrada Album Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 30:43 |
• 1. Main Title (2:13)
• 2. The Revelation (1:34)
• 3. The Clothes Snatchers (2:38)
• 4. The Hunt (5:10)
• 5. New Identity (2:04)
• 6. The Forbidden Zone (3:06)
• 7. The Search (4:56)
• 8. The Cave (1:19)
• 9. A Bid for Freedom (1:21)
• 10. A New Mate (1:05)
• 11. No Escape (5:17)
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| 1997-2007 Varèse and Japenese Albums Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 67:07 |
• 1. Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare* (0:13)
• 2. Main Title (2:13)
• 3. Crash Landing (6:40)
• 4. The Searchers (2:25)
• 5. The Search Continues (4:55)
• 6. The Clothes Snatchers (3:09)
• 7. The Hunt (5:10)
• 8. A New Mate (1:04)
• 9. The Revelation (3:20)
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• 10. No Escape (5:39)
• 11. The Trial (1:45)
• 12. New Identity (2:24)
• 13. A Bid for Freedom (2:36)
• 14. The Forbidden Zone (3:23)
• 15. The Intruders (1:09)
• 16. The Cave (1:20)
• 17. The Revelation, Part 2 (3:15)
• 18. Suite From "Escape From the Planet of the Apes" (16:27)
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* composed by Alfred Newman |
| 2001 Masters Film Music Album Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 35:23 |
• 1. Main Title (2:13)
• 2. The Search (4:57)
• 3. The Clothes Snatchers (3:09)
• 4. The Hunt (5:10)
• 5. A New Mate (1:05)
• 6. The Revelation (3:22)
• 7. No Escape (5:39)
• 8. New Identity (2:26)
• 9. A Bid for Freedom (2:38)
• 10. The Forbidden Zone (3:24)
• 11. The Cave (1:20)
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| 2019 La-La Land Album Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 77:29 |
• 1. Main Title (Film Version) (2:18)
• 2. Crash Landing (6:53)
• 3. The Searchers (2:30)
• 4. The Search (4:59)
• 5. The Clothes Snatchers (Film Version) (3:13)
• 6. The Hunt (5:13)
• 7. A New Mate (1:08)
• 8. The Revelation (Film Version) (3:22)
• 9. No Escape (Film Version) (5:42)
• 10. The Trial (1:49)
• 11. New Identity (Film Version) (2:28)
• 12. A Bid for Freedom (Film Version) (2:40)
• 13. The Forbidden Zone (Film Version) (3:27)
• 14. The Intruders (1:12)
• 15. The Cave (Film Version) (1:23)
• 16. The Revelation - Finale (3:22)
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Original 1968 Soundtrack Album: (25:39)
• 17. Main Title (2:14)
• 18. The Revelation (1:38)
• 19. The Clothes Snatchers (2:40)
• 20. New Identity (2:06)
• 21. The Forbidden Zone (2:54)
• 22. The Search (4:58)
• 23. The Cave (1:21)
• 24. A Bid for Freedom (1:23)
• 25. A New Mate (1:08)
• 26. No Escape (5:18)
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(Music from this score only appears on CD 1 in this set) |
In the sparse packaging of the 1985-1992 Project 3 and Soundtrack Listeners Communications albums, there is only a note from Charlton Heston about the score in the 1985 Project 3 pressing. The insert of the 1992 Intrada album features a note about the score and the additional track featured on that album in particular. The 1997 Varèse Sarabande and 2001 Masters Film Music CD packaging contained no extra information about the score or film, but the 2003-2007 Pioneer/Geneon re-issues from Japan contain 6-page booklets with notes in Japanese. The 2019 5-CD set from La-La Land Records includes extensive information about all the films and scores in the original franchise, including the full note from Charlton Heston. Some pressings of that set included the wrong CD art for the first CD in the set, accidentally featuring that of the 1997 Varèse CD that was still in print at the time.
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