Cat's Eye (1985) - Soundtrack

After his score for Romancing the Stone (1984) garnered positive attention, and just before his score for Back to the Future (1985) would make him a sought after A-list talent, Alan Silvestri was hired to score Cat's Eye (1985). "[Silvestri] was getting his start at the time that we did this," director Lewis Teague points out on a DVD commentary track. "Which is the only reason we could afford him!"

While there was a soundtrack album released by Varèse Sarabande in 1985, it did not make into my collection. Not until 2015, that is. When Intrada released this expanded presentation of Silvestri's original two-track stereo session recordings.

Massive changes were made to Silvestri's score during post-production, of course. Album producer Douglass Fake, in his liner notes, shares how several cues were disassembled, chopped into disparate pieces, and then reassembled, spliced together with unrelated cues.

Rather than attempt to recreate the film's score presentation in exacting detail, Fake and company sequence these original recordings "in the overall picture sequence." Which works for me, since I have not watched Cat's Eye in decades.

For the temperamental purists out there, like me, who might notice the absence of four chords connecting Track #1, Cat's Eye - Intro, to Track #2, Cat Chase, the film edit version is included as a bonus track.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) - Soundtrack

The best thing about this score is Silvestri's instantly memorable five-note fanfare for Cap. Yet that fanfare also has an ironic weakness. Its rousing chest-thumping projection of strength, resilience, and nostalgic Americana is ill-suited for subtler or gentler referencing or interpolation within the narrative underscore. While the fanfare is great for a dramatic punctuation whenever Cap does some heroic feat, or makes a dramatic entrance, it is ill-equipped for anything else.

Which is appropriate for Cap, considering how every conflict is rooted in Cap's rigid and inflexible beliefs standing firm against beliefs and forces that oppose him. Making the fanfare's ballsy intractability a perfect auditory representation for how out of step the man is with just about everyone and everything around him. Nice.

Back to the Future Part III (1990) - Soundtrack

"These are our boys, Jules... and Verne!"

Separate films being made back-to-back, as one giant production, was not unheard of in the late 1980s. The Salkind Clause had existed for well over a decade by the time Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, and Amblin Entertainment announced they would be making two sequels to their 1985 mega-hit Back to the Future, instead of the traditional one. Because they could not fit all of the story they wanted to tell into a single film.

It was a pretty big creative swing that, thankfully for all involved, paid off. Both for its makers and its viewers. Well, this viewer, at least. I recall the warm glow this finale ignited in my heart and the bright smile that spread beneath my widening eyes as Doc and Clara's time-traveling train took flight and swooped off to who knew where or when.

Silvestri's love theme for Doc and Clara debuts in the opening credits, which was markedly different from the second film's rousing "the sky's the limit" action adventure interpretation of the first film's iconic theme. A stylistic shift that communicates the warmer, gentler nature of Part III.

In the liner notes for this 25th Anniversary Edition composer Alan Silvestri describes the love theme as, "...an out-and-out nursery rhyme. Doc's love for Clara was childlike. It was the first time you felt Doc had ever experienced anything like that. And it was meant to be just a one-finger, simple, pure child's nursery rhyme."

That simple one-finger theme, which grows stronger and stronger as the movie progresses towards its exciting race back to the future, is my favorite thing about this particular score. A reminder that, for all of their time-traveling bombast and paradoxical play, the Back to the Future films are, at their core, about the power of love.

Back to the Future Part II (1989) - Soundtrack

Once, a long time ago, I read a critique that proffered an interesting and challenging opinion regarding the scores for Jaws and Jaws 2, both of which were composed and conducted by the legendary John Williams. The opinion was that the score for Jaws 2 was superior to the iconic, and Academy Award winning, score for the first film.

I hold this very same opinion about the scores for Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part II. The former, while fresh, vibrant, and iconic, is nowhere near as fleshed out and expansive as the latter. Of the trio of films, the score for this one is my favorite and the one I listen to the most.

Back to the Future (1985) - Soundtrack

Here is an example of how my completist streak can guide a soundtrack into my collection.  I did not see Back to the Future until 1989 or 90, because I had decided to see Back to the Future Part II, or maybe it was Part III, on the big screen.

That would be the only time I ever watched the first film, although I did watch Parts II and III several more times, after they had come out on home video.

I also passed on the first film's original soundtrack album release, as it emphasized the rock and roll songs in the film, rather than Alan Silvestri's excellent, and iconic, film score.

But when remastered and expanded versions of the soundtracks for Back to the Future Part II and Part III were released, I felt it was only reasonable that I include this remastered expansion, which not only contains the complete original soundtrack, but also a second disc containing early session alternates.

The Avengers (2012) - Soundtrack

Listening to this soundtrack oft times makes my heart starting doing a little dance. Because it brings back the joyous memory of what it was like to see The Avengers for the very first time, on its opening weekend.

I miss that feeling. That energy. That excitement. Because, more and more, my reaction to a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, post-Endgame, has shriveled down to... "Meh. Maybe I'll go see it. Maybe."

But Silvestri's rousing action score and fist-pumping Avengers Theme brings it all back. Reminds me of a time when these movies were something I looked forward to seeing, rather than something I might to catch up with at a later time of convenience. If there is nothing else to watch, that is...