Congo (1995) - Soundtrack

Despite my having purchased the mass market paperback edition of Michael Crichton's Congo, when it first hit the shelves of our local Waldenbooks, way back in the fall of 1981, I would not read the novel until the mid-90s. Well after having devoured both Jurassic Park and, I think, Sphere. So it goes.

Congo was a fun read and this long-gestating film adaptation, on paper, looked to be just my thing. Director/producer Frank Marshall, who had produced Jurassic Park, was coming off of both Arachnophobia, which I had seen on the big screen and loved, and Alive, which I had seen on home video and enjoyed. The script was penned by John Patrick Shanley, an Academy Award winning writer. Creature creator extraordinaire Stan Winston was tasked with creating both Amy and the albino gorillas. The score was composed by one of my all time favorite composers, Jerry Goldsmith.

Oh, and Bruce Campbell also had a small role in the film. How could this movie miss?

Well, if the lackluster to scathing reviews are to be believed, Congo missed by a country mile. Oops. So I passed on seeing it on the big screen and, because of the non-ending distractions of life, never got around to seeing more than a few clips from the film. What little I saw gave me the feeling that I was not missing out on all that much. Could be wrong, though. Might still give the movie Congo a shot. Maybe. I have no idea.

But I did nab this expanded release of Jerry Goldsmith's score for the film and am very grateful for having done so.

The liner notes penned by Jeff Bond detail Goldsmith's long history of collaborating with Crichton. Goldsmith scored Crichton's first film as a director, a 1972 TV-movie titled Pursuit, as well as two popular theatrical releases from 1978, Coma and The Great Train Robbery. Bond also notes how Goldsmith's score for Congo reflects the composer's conscious decision to work with directors new to him, to better invigorate his creative process and output.

Goldsmith was brought onboard when James Newton Howard was forced off the project by a scheduling conflict. South African composer and performer Lebo M, who had done some preliminary work with Howard, stayed onboard to work with Goldsmith and the result is a bright opening theme. One that Bond describes as being "counterintuitive" to a quasi-monster movie about mutant gorillas.

"...the choice reflect[s] Goldsmith's desire to avoid the obvious," Bond opines. "[To] find the lyrical element of a genre film."

While there is ample warmth surrounding the character of Amy, the intelligent ape that both anchors and bridges the adventure yarn's fantastical elements, Goldsmith does not skimp on the action-adventure sonic fireworks.

The end result is an entertaining listening experience that makes me think I should sit down and watch the damn movie.

Coma (1978) - Soundtrack

While Goldsmith's tense and icy score for Michael Crichton's film adaptation of Robin Cook' best-selling medical thriller Coma may not be one of his most memorable, it does serve as an excellent example of how less can be so much more. Since the first half of the film features no underscore whatsoever.

The liner notes for this Bay Cities Compact Disc note how Goldsmith's "ornate use of harps, bells, and dissonant piano" recalls his famous score for the classic episode of TheTwilight Zone, The Invaders. While other sections feature "dark, somber string passages that give way to explosive percussion effects and distorted violins" that sound "like a dry-run" for ideas Goldsmith would expand upon in his brilliant (and for the most part unused) score for Alien (1979).

Also included on this reissue of the 1978 album are two pieces of period appropriate disco-themed ephemera. One is a disco version of Goldsmith's love theme for the film. The other is Disco Strut, an unrelated chunk of album padding that was composed by Don Peake (The Hills Have Eyes and The People Under the Stairs, more on these scores later).

City Hall (1996) - Soundtrack

Although I do remember the theatrical release of this 1996 melodrama, I have not seen it. Film's like City Hall were just not in my interest wheelhouse at that particular time. Just one of countless examples of films that slipped through the cracks and were fast buried underneath the sands of time. So it goes.

When Varèse Sarabande released this deluxe edition of Jerry Goldsmith's score, I picked it up. Yes, Goldsmith might have grumbled (good-naturedly or otherwise) about my desire to collect every note of his score like bottle caps, but I like what I like and I want what I want. So it goes.

Tim Greiving's liner notes reveal that Goldsmith drew his inspiration from Leonard Bernstein's only film score, for On the Waterfront (1954). Greiving describes that score a featuring a "lonely, bluesy French horn and a percussive rumble." Elements that Goldsmith put to very good use for his brief 34 minute score for City Hall.

Chinatown (1974) - Soundtrack

I have come to theorize, and feel free to poke as many holes in this as you might deem necessary, that just about every film contains a clarifying mission statement that explains, or defines, its core themes to its attentive viewer(s).

Chinatown's mission statement might be when Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) tells Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), "I was trying to protect someone from being hurt, ended up helping her get hurt."

Reading Kevin Mulhall's liner notes for this compact disc re-issue of the original soundtrack album offered some interesting facts and trivia.

Jerry Goldsmith was a last last-minute replacement and had all of ten days to spot, write and record a score for the film.

"I got a flash of the orchestral fabric," Goldsmith says in the notes. "I had no idea musically what it was going to be but there was a sound... I wanted strings, four pianos, four harps, two percussionists, and a trumpet."

Oh, what a trumpet...

Being the original album, this release combines cues and/or uses alternate takes different from those used in the film for 'better' listening. Although the complete film score has been made available, I have yet to make an upgrade. I am satisfied with this presentation.

Capricorn One (1978) - Soundtrack

I remember looking forward to seeing Capricorn One, way back in 1978, because I thought it was going to be about a rescue mission to retrieve astronauts that had crashed on Mars. When I learned that the astronauts never got off of terra firma, my interest cratered and I did not see the film until it made its television debut. 

It comes as no surprise that the very first thing I noticed about the movie was its score, which Jeff Bond's liner notes describe as opening with a "vivid, percussive anthem for orchestra."

For far too long I had to make do with the truncated 35 minute re-recorded soundtrack album, which smoothed and softened the score's tough, astringent, and avant-garde touches into a more retail market friendly symphonic sound.

Listening to the actual film music now, I agree with Bond's closing observation that Goldsmith's "score is more complicated, uncompromising and experimental than its re-recorded album indicated."

A fact that also explains why Goldsmith would continue to mine and explore the themes he created for Capricorn One, leading him to craft the memorable 5/8 musical powerhouses for the Rambo films and so many others.

The 'Burbs (1989) - Soundtrack

1989 was a great year for Jerry Goldsmith music, at least for me. I have never, ever gotten tired of listening to this scores for Leviathan, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, or, the subject of today's post, The 'Burbs.

The first two, which will be the subjects of catalogue posts of their own when I alphabetically get to them, benefited from having official soundtrack releases, back in the day. The 'Burbs did not.

It took about three years for Varèse Sarabande to release a limited edition soundtrack. That release contained a paltry 30 or so minutes, though. Goldsmith's complete score hovers around an hour or so of music. I made do, because having 30 minutes to listen to was better than having nothing at all.

The opportunity to upgrade came when La-La Land Records issued this remastered Expanded Edition of the complete score in 2022. Jeff Bond's liner notes describe Goldsmith's energetic work as "a busy, leitmotivic score." Sounds about right.

Breakheart Pass (1975) - Soundtrack

Jeff Bond's liner notes point out that Jerry Goldsmith's "skill at fashioning highly propulsive and rhythmically inventive action music" made him the perfect choice to score this Charles Bronson starring hybrid of western and spy thriller set aboard a speeding train. 

Goldsmith's "disjunctive main theme for brass backed up by synthesizer" is "book-ended by a bold fanfare for horns that acts as both a building block of much of the score's rhythmic material and a musical stand-in for the train's whistle and engine roar."

I don't know if I would go as far as Bond does, when he declares that the main theme is "one of the most exciting and satisfying in the composer's career." But I am comfortable stating that this soundtrack offers a robust and entertaining listen. Another solid and satisfying offering from the composer of so many of my all-time favorite film scores.

The Boys from Brazil (1978) - Soundtrack

The film adaptation of The Boys from Brazil may or may not have pinged my pop culture radar when it was released in October of 1978. I kind of sort of remember being intrigued by a newspaper advertisement for the film, but that's all.

Until 1980, that is. September 28, 1980, to be exact. That is when The Boys from Brazil made its network television debut. I remember watching that version of the film. 

I did not know that there were different versions of the film. Nor that the abrupt ending of the network television version would become the most notorious of them. I just thought the movie ended with Mengele (Gregory Peck) getting ripped apart by dogs.

In 1983 or 84, while my family was living in Hong Kong, I bought the original soundtrack for the film, because the music was by Jerry Goldsmith and therefore it must be good. It was, but I had forgotten how Goldsmith, via a request made by the film's director, Franklin A. Schaffner, had drawn musical inspiration from Wagner and Strauss. But it worked.

When Intrada released this expanded edition of The Boys from Brazil soundtrack in 2008, I was more than happy to make an upgrade and had no regrets when I gave it a listen.

Goldsmith, who received his 11th Academy Award nomination for this score, wrote 55-minutes of music, although only a mere 39-minutes of dramatic score (minus source cues) wound up being used in the film. 

Jon Burlingame's liner notes for this release details what was and was not used in the film, information that will be of interest to film music nerds like me.

Basic Instinct (1992) - Soundtrack

As good as Jerry Goldsmith's score for Basic Instinct is, and it is very good, it is not the music I most associate with the film. That would be Blue by LaTour, because of its being put to excellent use in the film's trailer. That is what I first 'hear' whenever I am wont to think about Basic Instinct. Which is not all that often, truth be told.

After having worked together with excellent results on the 1991 science-fiction action-adventure Total Recall, director Paul Verhoeven and composer Jerry Goldsmith joined forces for 1992's Basic Instinct. While the creation of the main theme for the former went rather smoothly, the journey to creating the main theme for Basic Instinct turned out to be a frustrating and challenging one.

"Jerry felt the movie needed a 'heart' that would elevate it," Verhoeven shares in the liner notes. "But when he started to play music in his studio, I disagreed with it... I didn't want...a romantic heart, because the movie is too harsh and cold-blooded [for] that."

Goldsmith took it in stride, though. After a piece of music eventually caught Verhoeven's ear and was placed under a scene featuring an intimate conversation between femme fatale Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) and troubled detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas), the film's elusive main theme was discovered at last.

"In a flash, it became clear to Jerry what the score should be," Verhoeven explains. "From then on, he could write the score in one run, and we were sailing with the wind."

Goldsmith's main theme is not an overtly romantic one, as requested. Instead it is a haunting and almost hypnotic one. The liner notes describe it invoking "the feeling of being mesmerized." Which is accurate.

While most of the score plays under dialogue and sex scenes, there are a few moments that allowed for Goldsmith to display his gift for propulsive and brassy action composition. This occurs during an over-the-top sequence involving a bit of reckless driving on a winding Northern California highway. 

As good as the music for the scene is, the way it plays out always struck me as being ridiculous to the point of self-parody. It is probably intentional, but I nonetheless wince at the melodramatic goofiness of the scene whenever I see it.

But that viewing experience memory does not hamper my listening experience whenever I play this expanded edition soundtrack. The music remains an icy delight to this day. 

Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985) - Soundtrack

How is it that I have yet to see this "Lost World" style fantasy-adventure film? It has dinosaurs in it! It also has William Katt, who I would have known, at the time, from his appearances in Carrie and The Greatest American Hero, Sean Young, who I would have likewise known, at the time, from Blade Runner and Stripes, and Patrick McGoohan, who I would have known from David Cronenberg's Scanners. I have watched many a movie that had far fewer points of interest to me than the four I just gave for Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend.

The movie also has a nifty Jerry Goldsmith score. One that was a part of a string of scores from him that featured extensive use of keyboard synthesizers. Others from this time period included the memorable scores for Gremlins, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Explorers, and Rambo: First Blood Part II. That is one hell of a creative hot streak for Goldsmith.

To be both honest and fair, there were, arguably, two primary reasons for my not having seen Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend in the mid-to-late 1980s. 

First, it was released while I was living in Hong Kong. While I did see a great many films, and also learned that a great many films could and would be altered for international release, Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend was not one of them.

Second would be that it was a Disney film. Which meant that it was silly "Kid's Stuff" that, way back in 1985, 18-year-old me would not have been the least bit interested in seeing. Gah, I was such an immature dork back then. I really should give this movie a look.

Alien Nation (1988) - Soundtrack

Goldsmith's unused score for Alien Nation was one of only three he composed and performed entirely on synthesizers. The other two were for Michael Crichton's 1984 science-fiction thriller Runaway and Martin Campbell's 1988 legal thriller Criminal Law. More on those later.

Alien Nation would be the second collaboration between director Graham Baker and Goldsmith, following 1981's The Final Conflict. While Goldsmith's score for Alien Nation might not be as robust as the one he wrote for The Final Conflict, it did not deserve to be rejected.

The big irony here is how the story behind Goldsmith's score, told in the liner notes of this limited release from Varèse Sarabande, is more interesting than the film it was written for.

A melody that is used throughout the score was first written by Goldsmith for the Oliver Stone film Wall Street. After Goldsmith quit Wall Street, he opted to use it for Alien Nation. When that score was rejected, he recycled his unused melody yet again, for The Russia House (1990). The third time was charm and the melody became one of Goldsmith's better known and admired love themes.

Alien (1979) - Soundtrack

1979 was the year that I "discovered" Jerry Goldsmith, because I got the soundtrack albums for both Alien and Star Trek The Motion Picture for Christmas. Up until then the only film composer's name that I was familiar with was John Williams, who had provided the memorable score for my favorite movie of all time, Jaws. More on that later...

As for my discovery of Goldsmith... 1979 would also be the year I figured out that there were people behind the camera responsible for creating and crafting the movies and television programs I was watching and, more often than not, enjoying. It was when I started to pay closer attention to all the names listed in both the opening and ending credits.

I had not seen Star Trek The Motion Picture, but was a big fan of the show, which is no doubt why my parents chose to give me that particular soundtrack album. Alien, however, had been one of the most impactful cinematic experiences of that year for me. (John Carpenter's Halloween would be the other one. But that is yet another subject for another post at another time...)

I do not know if it was on Christmas Day itself, but I do remember the jolt when I first noticed that the very different sounding scores for both Alien and Star Trek The Motion Picture had been composed by the very same man. Whoa.

Film editor Terry Rawlings temped his working cuts for Alien with as much of Goldsmith's past music he felt would communicate the kind of mood he and director Ridley Scott wanted for the film. The composer, who disliked temp tracks, did not appreciate Rawlings efforts. Goldsmith would also be infuriated and insulted at Rawlings and Scott's decision to retain the temp music for three sequences and the end titles in the finished film. Those three sequences utilized pieces taken from Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated score for Freud (1962), while the end credits were accompanied by a section from Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2.

That is why the first time I listened to the Alien soundtrack, on that Christmas Day way, way back in 1979, hearing music that I did not recognize at all was a disconcerting and disappointing surprise.

12-year-old me was confounded and frustrated by all this unrecognizable music. Especially the Main Title. Where was the weird and haunting music that had played over the opening credits in the movie? I wanted to hear what had been in the movie. I did not know that this was the music Goldsmith had composed for the movie and, for a variety of reasons, had not been used.

Even though Goldsmith liked to grumble about his scores being collected as if they were bottle caps. About said collectors wanting each and every note of music, regardless of its quality or meaning. What he might not have realized, or understood, was how something he might have found unimportant, or unrepresentative of what he was doing with the score, could be very important to a listener, or fan, such as myself.

What imprinted on me was the Main Title used in the film. Which is included in this 2007 release from Intrada that contains every note Jerry Goldsmith composed for the film. 

While the film version's inclusion was appreciated by adult me, and would have been adored by 12-year-old me, I now understand Goldsmith's frustration with how his subtle approach to the opening of the film was dismissed and discarded. That he was made to do something obvious. In the liner notes Goldsmith laments, "The original one took me a day to write, and the alternate took me about five minutes."

Now that I have had the chance to listen to them side by side, adult me can hear the difference. There is real craft and passion in the original version, while the alternate is a professional, albeit passionless, work-for-hire piece.

Having each and every note can offer quite the education and I consider this 2-disc set to be one of the Crown Jewels of my soundtrack collection.