The idea for this post came to my mind after I heard of the death of Leonard Nimony who died in Los Angeles on February 25th 2015. The movie I have to say that I always preferred the original “Star Trek” series to the other ones, especially “The Next Generation”. Of course, Patrick Steward gave a great performance as Jean-Luc Picard, and the effects and even the storytelling was better, for example, the episodes about Locutus are amazing. I just like the original ones better, mostly because of Spock, this fascinating character with his special mixture of absolute logic and his emotions because of his human side. Additionally, I think that the general humour of the original one is much better, think of the Tribbles-episode or the constant fighting between McCoy and Spock. Leonard Nimoy played his character so well that there are rumours that Shatner was jealous because Spock became more popular than his Captain Kirk. With the second movie, the producers wanted to go into a different direction. The first movie was successful, but critics considered the plot too thin for a whole movie. There were also not a lot of action scenes and it was overwhelmed by philosophy. Therefore, Harve Bennett became the new producer, Gene Roddenberry had to step back, and Nicholas Meyer wrote the script and directed. His idea to create a second story about the famous character Khan played by Ricardo Montalbán was a great idea. Here is the trailer: There was not enough money to hire Jerry Goldsmith again. His score for the first “Star Trek”-movie was highly praised and it raised as one of his best and most popular works. For the second movie, James Horner stepped in, and as in “Aliens” he composed again the music for a second movie of a series originally composed by Jerry. The music James Horner’s score is considered as one of his best works, some fans also thinks it is the best soundtrack of the whole series, but I still think that Jerry Goldsmith’s first score is the best among the series. “Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan” is still a highly enjoyable movie, and Horner’s music is a great contribution to the franchise with its fresh musical ideas. Also, starting with this soundtrack, Horner began copying from earlier soundtracks by himself. Nevertheless, the melodies and the action music created an epic atmosphere. Horner demonstrated that he was one of the best composers of the upcoming generation of film music composers. Here is an interview with James Horner: Let’s start with the “Main Title”. In an interview Meyer said that he was tired of the march music in SF-movies. His idea was that Horner, at that time 28 years old, should emphasize more on the aspects of seafaring and swashbuckling. Horner created a score which reminds us of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Horner created a totally new main theme and went straight to action with the second track called “Surprise Attack”. In this five-minute track, Horner gives us an amazing piece of music with atonal effects, a lot of different percussions and beautiful melodies. There is a lot of very good action music in this soundtrack, for example, the fourth track “Kirk’s explosive reply” and especially “Battle in the Mutara Nebula”, over eight minutes long. Not just on the screen and in combination with the movie, these pieces are highly enjoyable. Horner is best when he can show his ability to deal with the force of a big orchestra. Find it here: “Khan’s Pets“ brings us the motif for Khan, the music is haunting and dangerous, to emphasize this character's insanity. In contrast, the short piece called “Spock” focuses on the human side of Spock. “Enterprise Clears Moorings” is another beautiful piece that starts with the new Star Trek melody. “Genesis Countdown” is again a longer track, over six minutes long, and with a dramaturgical structure which is just mind blowing. Horner at his best! “Epilogue/End Title” (You can hear Nimoy’s voice) is the longest piece, an epic track that brings the soundtrack to a great ending. The score was written in four weeks, and an orchestra of 91 people played the music. The length of the total music in the movie is 72 minutes. The music was a huge success and is very popular among James Horner fans and fans of the Star Trek franchise. Horner composed the music for the next “Star Trek” movie, but that score is not as good as the “Wrath of Khan” and some parts of the “Stealing the Enterprise” track are very similar to Sergej Prokofieff’s ballet “Romeo and Julia”. I found a very nice version of the score: Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

Okay, another Patrick Doyle score within a few weeks. I have to say I was not highly interested in seeing the new “Cinderella” movie. When my friend asked me if I want to join here for a movie and suggested “Cinderella”, I was not very excited, but then I checked the facts: Kenneth Branagh director, and Patrick Doyle composer, like nearly always when Branagh directs a movie. That sounds interesting… The movie "Cinderella" is a 2015 American romantic fantasy film directed by Kenneth Branagh, with the screenplay written by Chris Weitz. The film is based on the folktale and inspired in part by Walt Disney’s 1950 animated film. The film stars the gorgeous Lily James as Cinderella, Richard Madden as the charming prince, and Cate Blanchett as the cruel stepmother. Helena Bonham Carter makes a fabulous appearance as Fairy Godmother. Even though I was initially not so keen to see it, I was immediately captivated by it. Let’s face it: this movie is excellent! A beautiful example of how a fairy tale should be directed these days. The special effects are perfectly integrated into the story, and it just fun to see the actors playing their roles. They seemed to have as much fun performing it as I was having watching it. Cate Blanchet is marvellous as the evil stepmother. I did not like her performance as the antagonist in the last Indiana Jones, but here she is great. Richard Madden is a charming prince, and Lily James is the perfect Cinderella. Here is the trailer: "Cinderella" had its world premiere on 13 February 2015 at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival and was released in cinemas on 13 March 2015. It grossed over $543 million worldwide, becoming Branagh’s highest-grossing film to date as a director, and received mostly positive reviews. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design at the 88th Academy Awards. After the release and success of "Cinderella", along with "Maleficent" (2014, with a fantastic score by James Newton Howard), "The Jungle Book" (2016) and "Beauty and the Beast" (2017), Walt Disney Pictures has announced the development of several other live-action remakes from their animated classics series. Perhaps an opportunity for Patrick Doyle to bring back romance and fantasy? The music And now for Patrick Doyle’s music. I do not want to say that his music is the best part of the movie because that would give the impression that the film is not worth seeing. I highly recommend seeing it! We chose an afternoon to watch it, and it was so much fun having kids around who are enjoying the movie, the funny special effects, the humour and the romance. This kind of movie is perfect for Patrick Doyle. It gives the composer plenty of chances to develop melodies and a lovely atmosphere. For me, this is Doyle’s best soundtrack in recent years. I liked how he developed his melodies, especially the tracks using the piano (e.g. Ella and Kit). They are very touching. Branagh knows about the importance of Doyle’s music: “The tone we were trying to achieve was playful and joyful, but also emotional without being manipulative. Patrick found a beautiful yet robust tune that could be orchestrated so that it could offer lots of moods. It had simplicity, joy, and added a sense of fun. And, of course, his trademark: romantic.” With 30 tracks – three of them are songs – you get a lot of music for your money, and the score is highly enjoyable. I want to give some recommendations and comment on some of the highlights in this score. While listening to the first track, you will immediately fall in love with this score. The soundtrack, played by the London Symphony Orchestra, debuted at No. 60 on the Billboard 200, selling 8,000 copies in its first week. Track 5 "The First Branch" is the first highlight with Doyle using the piano. The usage of this instrument reminded me of raindrops falling. "The Stag" (track 8) is Doyle at his best: the composer uses the full force of the orchestra and develops a fantastic dramaturgical structure. Turn the speakers up loud for this track! "Fairy Godmother" (track 10) is a highly enjoyable scene in the movie, and so is the music. Doyle uses a mixture of strings and choir to create a magical atmosphere. The funny tune continues with "Pumpkins and Mice" (track 11). Here pizzicato strings start before the full orchestra enters. One of my favourite tracks is "La Valse De L’Amour" (track 15). Patrick Doyle said in an interview that he started by writing the grand waltz that is the movie’s centrepiece, as Cinderella charms the prince and the King’s court at a lavish ball at the palace. “Everything leads to the ballroom and beyond,” Doyle explains, “so it was crucial.” Therefore, this waltz is exactly as it has to be: “simple and direct, but with strength.” Here is the scene, and let's be honest: This is one of the most romantic scenes ever! This main waltz might motivate you to go back to dance classes and improve your own waltz skills. What a charming scene in the movie, what a lovely melody! Track 19 "The Secret Garden" underscores the scene when the bell is ringing and Cinderella has to leave. Doyle first develops a haunting atmosphere, and you can also hear the sound of the bell, and then the drama starts and the music erupts. My favourite track is "Pumpkin Pursuit" (track 22). This is an energetic, powerful track, full of speed and action. The orchestra is on fire to underscore the dramatic scene of Cinderella’s escape. This 2’30 track is so enjoyable that you want to hear it again and again. Find it here: After that, "The Slipper" (track 23) and "Shattered Dreams" (track 24) are quieter ones and focus more on the romantic moments. "Ella and Kit" (track 26) I have already mentioned. "Courage and Kindness" (track 27) is the last orchestral piece of the score and a fantastic ending to this highly enjoyable soundtrack. For me, this score is the perfect fairy tale, and it shows how much romance, energy and drama a very gifted composer can bring to one soundtrack when the inspiration flows thanks to having a beautifully balanced movie to work on. And now I get back to “Pumpkin Pursuit”…. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

This review is a little later than normal, I have to apologize for this. I was in Germany to celebrate the 75th birthday of my mom, and I had not enough time to write a new review. Also, I want to listen to the soundtrack again, and furthermore, decided to reduce the size of words for each review, so you have not to read so much and can concentrate more on the music afterwards. This and next week, I will review two soundtracks from actual movies you can see in the theatre right now. I did not expect this, but these two soundtracks are so enjoyable, I want to give you suggestions to buy these recent scores. The movie "Kingsman: The Secret Service" is a 2014 action spy comedy film, directed and produced by Matthew Vaughn. The screenplay, written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman, is based on Dave Gibbons's and Mark Millar's comic book series of the same name. The film follows the recruitment and training of Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton), into a secret spy organisation. Eggsy joins a mission to tackle a global threat from Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), a wealthy megalomaniac wanting to deal with climate change in a both brutal and comedic fashion. Colin Firth, Mark Strong, and Michael Caine play supporting roles. Here is the trailer: The movie is great fun. After seeing the preview, I expected this movie to be just another action movie with a lot of special effects and not a very good story. I was not sure whether I really want to see it, but after a long day at work I was exactly in the mood for this kind of movie, went to the nearest theatre here in San Francisco, and …. had great fun!! Of course, some splatter effects are too much, but what the heck, this is such a great and enjoyable movie with some great one-liners (e.g. “Thanks for the Happy meal”), and Colin Furth and Samuel L. Jackson are highly entertaining in their roles. Matthew Vaughn directed the movie, based on the comic book “The Secret Service” by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar”. The movie follows first the recruitment and training of a potential secret agent, Gary "Eggsy" Unwin, with his competitors into a secret spy organization. Jackson is the bad guy, wealthy eco-terrorist, and Eggys will have to fight against him. I will not tell you more about the plot. Until now, the film has grossed over $295 million worldwide. A sequel is planned, I guess. The music The music is composed by Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson. I did not know both composers before seeing the movie and could just find some information about Jackman. Born 1974, he is an English composer, arranger, pianist, musician, and songwriter, and best known for “ X-Men: First Class“, “Captain Phillips“, “Captain America” and „The Interview”. Shame on me, I did not see any of these movies so far. I am not such a big X-Men fan, and for Tom Hanks “Captain Philips” I was not in the mood. Jackman is working together regularly with mentor Hans Zimmer and did some co-programming and co-writing for “The Da Vinci Code”, “The Dark Knight”, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest” and “Kung Fu Panda”. He also has released three albums, “Utopia” (2003), “Transfiguration” (2005) and “Acoustica” (2007). “Kingsman” is an action-score, from the beginning to the end. I really like that this score has some new ideas, some strong action writing and some nice melodies. The soundtrack album has 18 tracks, all action-orientated and enjoyable but also a little bit repetitive. The first one “Manners Maketh Man” is a short piece and introduces the main theme during the first scenes in the movie. The second one, also a little short, is a quieter track and underscores the important medaillon given to Eggsy as a child, the piano part is very nice here. The third piece “Valentine” introduces the synthesizer theme for the bad guy, a little unusual way of instrumentation, but with a great effect in the movie, especially in a Dolby surround theatre. The next two tracks are focusing on the training scenes and reminds you sometimes of the old James Bond scores by John Barry, especially the use of the strings in “Pick a Puppy”. We can skip the next track, and then we finally come to my favorite track of the soundtrack: “Skydiving” is a great action piece, a good mixture of electronics and orchestra, with the main theme at the beginning. This scene is also one of the best of the movie. The potential agents are jumping from a plane and then are told that one of them has no parachute…. We can skip the next four tracks – I did not want to tell you more about the story, the last three tracks are just pure action tracks for the big action showdown. The last track of the soundtrack is also one of the highlights. The composers created another fast moving action track with a high focus on percussion, strings and some electric guitar in the beginning, and some choir, but unfortunately, the end comes too fast and suddenly the album is over. Overall, I like this score very much even though it is very typical for the soundtracks nowadays. They are mostly like a musical Big Mac, enjoyable at the beginning, but you will soon become hungry again and want to have more. The reasons for recommending this soundtrack are that it has a powerful main theme, some nice melodies, and with “Sydiving” a great piece of action music. Watch the movie first, and then decide if you want to buy the soundtrack to enjoy the music afterwards. Here a short video clip: Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

"Needful Things" is one of Stephen King’s best novels. Even though King is not one of my favourite authors, I have read a few of his books, for example "It", "Needful Things", "Pet Sematary", "The Stand", "11/22/63" (King’s best love story) and "Under the Dome" (my latest read). Of these, "Needful Things" is my favourite. The movie I watched "Needful Things" (1993) after I bought the CD of Patrick Doyle’s music. I was immediately fascinated by the main title and wanted to see the movie that inspired the composer to produce such a great soundtrack. Here is the trailer: I do not generally like reading King’s books, but I am also not a big fan of a Big Mac, and the author described his books in an interview long ago as “Big Macs”. For me, King’s books are often too long and too boring at the beginning, but these slow parts when King is developing the concept of the horror later are essential. The author wants his readers first to develop a relationship with the characters. Therefore, you feel touched when the horror faces them. When reading "Pet Sematary", I began to like the family and was shocked when the animal died. Because of the relationship, the family developed with the cat, it is understandable why the family keeps him even though his personality changed after they buried it in the pet cemetery. Most directors make the mistake of cutting these slower parts and just concentrating on the action, but that is the wrong approach. King’s books are so successful precisely because of this particular way of developing the story: the later violence depends on aspects developed in the preceding parts, and the fate of the characters touches you because you understand their feelings. A great scene to explain this approach is in the novel "Needful Things" when Leland Gaunt, who might be Satan himself, attacks Polly Chalmers, Sheriff Alan Pangborn’s lover. Polly suffers from very painful arthritis, and Gaunt who has a cure for her pain attacks her verbally in an insulting manner when he offers her the cure. To receive this cure, she has to do something for him, a mean little favour, but if she does not do it, she will continue suffering. This scene is very well developed, and we begin to hate Gaunt because he is using Polly’s suffering for his sadistic plans. Most King movies are not convincing because the directors have not been able to let the audience develop an emotional connection with the characters. A few King movies have done it differently, such as David Cronenberg’s "Dead Zone" (1983), for me still the best King movie with an excellent cast, "The Green Mile" (1999) with Tom Hanks, "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994, what a great movie!) and finally "Needful Things". This book was the first novel King wrote after his rehabilitation from drugs and alcohol, and it features perhaps the most convincing antagonist in a Stephen King novel. Leland Gaunt is a charming elderly gentleman who opens a small shop in a typical small town. It seems that Gaunt is ideally suited to any customer, but Gaunt asks his customers to do him a favour by doing some nasty things. What Gaunt, well aware of the conflicts between people, asks them to do slowly escalates until the whole town is eventually caught up in madness and violence. It is a fantastic idea! "Needful Things", directed by Charlton Heston’s son Fraser, features Max von Sydow as Gaunt, Ed Harris as the policeman and Bonnie Bedelia, who also played Bruce Willis’s wife in the first two Die Hard movies. I even like the final scene better than the last scene in the book, particularly the last sentences of Gaunt, such a mean guy. The music The CD consists of 17 tracks, two of which are classical songs (the famous Ave Maria by Franz Schubert and Peer Gynt composed by Edward Grieg). In the liner notes, Heston explained that he wanted to work with Doyle after listening to the opening tracks of "Dead Again", also the first soundtrack by Doyle I listened to. The composer explained in the liner notes that the music should reflect the “dark, ancient and evil qualities in Leland Gaunt, but that at the same time it should also capture his sardonic wit, good taste and charm.” Doyle developed the idea of using a choir when Gaunt’s store explodes as the climax of the movie. He then thought it would be a great idea to have a more complex score with more vocals involved, and thought of a requiem mass. With the main title "The Arrival", one of the best tracks, Doyle introduces his haunting main theme. The instrumentation with the dominant string section at the beginning sounds unusual at first. I was immediately caught by this opening and like the track even more when the choir joins in. Overall the soundtrack is a little repetitive, and Doyle needs most of the music to build up suspense, but there are a few very nice tracks such as Needful Things (great use of the piano which is playing the main theme), Brian’s Deed (“running strings” in the first seconds) and The Devil’s Here (the use of the choir is reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith’s The Omen). My favourite track is "Art and the Minister", a short one with a beautiful use of the famous Dies Irae theme. Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) is a Latin hymn attributed to the 13th century and best known for its use in the Roman Catholic requiem mass for the dead or as a funeral march. The Dies Irae poem describes the Day of Judgment when the brave souls will be saved and the bad souls are sent into eternal flames. There is a fine Dies Irae poem written by Ambrose Bierce: Day of Satan's painful duty! Earth shall vanish, hot and sooty; So says Virtue, so says Beauty. Ah! what terror shall be shaping When the Judge the truth's undraping— Cats from every bag escaping! Now the trumpet's invocation Calls the dead to condemnation; All receive an invitation. Death and Nature now are quaking, And the late lamented, waking, In their breezy shrouds are shaking. […] In "Art and the Minister", Doyle uses the choir for a crucial scene and the piece is highly enjoyable. The choir is excellent here, in combination with pizzicato strings and a clarinet playing at the beginning before the rhythm gets faster, and the choir becomes more dominant and erupts after a few seconds. I immediately fell in love with this track when I heard it for the first time, and it is one of the tracks I have listened to so many times over the years that I have stopped counting. Here is the track: There is also a funny story associated with it. When I was living and working in Shanghai for three years, I took a train ride from Nanjing to Shanghai and listened to this track. A young Chinese woman was sitting next to me and perhaps she could hear the louder parts of the track even though I was wearing my headphones. When I stopped listening, she asked me what kind of music this was. She was amazed that someone was listening to this kind of music and not to a well-known pop song. We then had a chat about the movie and the composer. At the next station, she got off and I continued my journey. I did not even know her name and forgot to introduce myself. Just "Blow Them Away" is the track for the surprising showdown. Screenplay author W.D. Richter (who also wrote the screenplay for John Badham’s "Dracula") changed the final scenes to a new ending. End Titles brings the CD to a wonderful ending. For me Needful Things is one of the best soundtracks by Patrick Doyle and highly enjoyable. A must-have in my opinion! Here you can listen to "The Arrival". Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

This is the first review of a soundtrack composed by Bruce Broughton on my website and it was the first movie with a score by Bruce Broughton I saw. “Young Sherlock Holmes” is a fantastic score, and Bruce Broughton is such a talented composer who film music enthusiasts seem to forget about. In the last years, it seems that Broughton was not much involved in big blockbuster movies. Give this man the chance to work on another blockbuster! In the meantime, film music fans should think of putting his scores back into the CD player again. Here is the trailer: The composer Because Bruce Broughton is not so popular these days, let’s start with some basic information: Born 1945 in Los Angeles and raised in Hawaii, Broughton finished 1967 his musical study at the University of Southern California with distinction. He started to compose music for television series such as “Gunsmoke”, “Quincy” and “Dallas”. In 1984, he composed his first soundtrack for a feature movie called “The Ice Pirates”. One year later, he nominated the first time for an Academy Award for this score “Silverado” (1985). This is a wonderful western music for a movie directed by Lawrence Kasdan and worth buying. During his career, Broughton has received over 20 Emmy nominations and has won a record of 10 Emmy prices, most recently for HBO's “Warm Springs”, but also for “Glory & Honor”, “O Pioneers!” and “Dallas: Ewing Blues”. Major motion picture credits include “Lost in Space”, “Tombstone”, ”Baby's Day Out”, “Harry and The Hendersons” (one of my all-time favourites), “Honey, I Blew Up The Kid”, “The Boy Who Could Fly” and the two “Homeward Bound” movies. The movie Also in 1985, Broughton composed the astonishing music for Barry Levinson’s “Young Sherlock Holmes” and earned a Grammy nomination. This fantastic Sherlock Holmes adventure is one of my best childhood memories. Later “Home Alone”- and “Harry Potter”-director Chris Columbus wrote a haunting screenplay about a young Sherlock Holmes, played by unknown young Scottish actor Nicholas Rowe, who met his late friend John Watson for the first time at a boarding school. As a teenager, I started reading Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories and loved them. On Wikipedia, there is a statement by Columbus what inspired him to this story: “The thing that was most important to me was why Holmes became so cold and calculating, and why he was alone for the rest of his life. As a youngster, he was ruled by emotion, he fell in love with the love of his life, and because of what happens in this film, he becomes the person he was later." I will not tell what happened in the movie, so someone who already did not see the movie can still enjoy it and will be surprised. The film is also well-known for including the first fully computer-generated photorealistic, animated character, a knight composed of elements of a stained-glass window. When I saw this movie for the first time, I was highly impressed by this effect, created by Lucasfilm's John Lasseter, now the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studio. The music In 2014, Douglass Fake published a 2CD album with the music, and finally one of my childhood dreams was coming true. Here in San Francisco, I was finally able to listen to this music, and we have to thank Douglass and Intrada for making this release possible. He allowed me to copy the link to buy this soundtrack on my webpage. Please find it here: http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.8569/.f I will just mention a few titles of the wonderful soundtrack. The first track “The First Victim” underscores the opening which soon turns into a shocking nightmare scene. When I was watching this scene as a teenager, I was both scared and highly impressed by the special effects and the haunting atmosphere. Some fans of the score say you can feel the influence of John Williams in this soundtrack. Comparing the scary moments of this first track with Williams’ music for the first Indiana Jones, there are some similarities for sure, but Broughton did not copy Williams music, he created his own musical style. The third track brings us finally the wonderful main theme with sweeping strings and woodwinds before we can hear the majestic parts, played by the brass section. You can find the music here: The next track underscores “Watson’s Arrival” and the first evidence of Holmes’ smart mind, a very nice scene in the movie. I personally like very much the next small piece called “The Bear Riddle” because here you can hear the beautiful main theme played by woodwinds in a lovely interpretation, a very short but highly enjoyable track. “Library Love” introduces the love theme before we will discover with “Fencing with Rattle” one of the highlights of the score. You can still watch this scene on YouTube. Holmes gets his first lesson in dealing with his emotions and suffers his loss against his antagonist Rattle. As Rattle explains: “Never replace discipline with emotion.” Here is the scene: “The Glass Soldier” underscores the mentioned photorealistic character who attacks a priest. This three-minute piece is a great example of building up the suspense with a traditional orchestra without using any electronic effects. “Solving the Crime”, a wonderful scene in the movie with Holmes facing a riddle challenge, is another highlight of the score. I could remember when watching the movie how the emotions of the audience for this scene were carried by Broughton’s dramaturgical structure for this piece. “Holmes And Elizabeth” brings us again a wonderful interpretation of the love theme. Without mentioning the plot of the movie, it is difficult to talk about the following tracks. So, let me just empathize that you will find highly enjoyable action music in “Pastries and Crypts” and “Temple Fire”, and the famous choir theme in “Rame Tep” and “Waxing Elizabeth”. In the extras of the CD, you can listen to the choir and the orchestral part of both tracks in separated pieces. With “Duel and Final Farewell”, Broughton underscores the showdown of the movie and the reason for Holmes later so cold attitude. Broughton’s aggressive action track is highly artistic in its use of percussions and the more dominant brass section this time, not always easy listening like a lot of scores from today’s composers. The dramaturgical structure of this track is perfect, a real musical highlight, and with the love theme in the end also a wonderful ending of the story. When I was a teenager, there were not many soundtracks available. So, I was sitting with my tape recorder in front of our TV set and recording the music from the movie. Therefore, I watched the whole end credit scene and saw the last scene with the final twist. Columbus’ idea to introduce Holmes’ future nemesis Prof. Moriarty, the “Napoleon of crime", is a great joke for the Sherlock Holmes fan community. With over six minutes, this final track for the end credits is not only one of the longest tracks, it is also one of the best. I really admire Broughton’s sense of composing lovely themes and melodies, something I really miss in today’s film music. Here is the link: Unfortunately, the movie was not a big success at the box office, but it was and is still enjoyable, and with the chance to finally now listen to the soundtrack album, you will have even more fun watching the movie. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

The idea to discuss this week Jerry Goldsmith’s “Basic Instinct” was a result of the hype about “Shades of Grey” these days. A female (!) friend of mine here in San Francisco asked me to join her watching the movie. Funny experience, I think I was one of the few men in the theatre and perhaps even the oldest, and the best was really the two girls sitting two rows behind us who were giggling during any bondage scene… result of own experience? Anyway, that is not the topic here. The movie I personally think that “Basic Instinct” is a far better movie. This was the second collaboration between Jerry Goldsmith and Paul Verhoeven, and Jerry created one of his best scores of the 90s with this music. The script was written by Joe Eszterhas, a terrific writer, and if you ever have the time read his autobiography “Hollywood Animal”, a great read about the daily business in Hollywood. I suppose the book gave too much inside information, therefore, Eszerhas was not hired as a screenwriter again. Here is the trailer: Interesting is also the big discussion about the character development in the screenplay. Especially the lesbian and gay community in San Francisco protested against the script and made some crazy noise during the shooting. Eszterhas was willing to make changes in the script, Verhoeven did not want that, and he explained in the interview that he was fighting for the authenticity of the script against the author, a crazy situation. I am a big fan of Verhoeven, and it is sad that he is not working as a director for any big Hollywood movie right now. All his movies are in a good way crazy, he has a sense of naughtiness and especially of the weird aspects of the human personality. So, each of his movies is also like a mirror into your dark side. About the famous scene with the shoot between Stone's legs, I found an interview with Verhoeven: The music For Goldsmith, “Basic Instinct” was the first erotic-thriller he has to compose the music for. There is a deluxe edition of the music with 26 tracks, and I will just discuss a few tracks here. Let me start with the “Main Title” which introduces the haunting main theme. It was funny to watch the reaction of the audience during this scene in Germany. I knew what was happening, but most of the audience did not, so the people were shocked, and the music reflects this shocking scene in a great way. Here is the haunting main theme: “Pillow talk” is the music for the first sex scene between Douglas and Stone. The music underscores the scene in a perfect way; again, you can hear how a composer is able to transform an orgasm into music. Goldsmith has really built up the tension here and then you can hear the release of all the … tension…, of course. “Night Life” is played when Douglas is following Stone on her way during the city. It is a cat and mouse play, and the music reflects this in a great way. Listen especially how Goldsmith uses the percussion while the strings are pushing the music forward. I really like how Goldsmith let the brass section entering the stage. The scene is furthermore beautiful shot, and you see great part of San Francisco and the Bay Area. Here is the famous car chase: The best action track is “Roxy Loses”, what a wonderful piece of music! Nearly four minutes long, this music is a perfect example how to write an action piece and how to build up suspense. Goldsmith let first the strings start to create a haunting atmosphere, and when Roxy suddenly attacks Douglas with her car, the music erupts. Goldsmith is building up a fabulous action piece, not as sophisticated as in his scores of the 70s such as “Wind and the Lion”, but “Basic Instinct” is not a movie for a sophisticated underscoring, so I think he did a great job. The xylophone is greatly used in this piece, and during the last seconds of the track, listen how he uses the percussion. A wonderful piece of music! The last track “Unending Story” is also one of the best, nearly 10 minutes long. I love how Goldsmith is using the trumpets at the beginning to give the audience a feeling about Douglas’ emotional situation. Again, the piano is used to build up a haunting atmosphere, again Goldsmith is then underscoring a sex scene, and then perfectly let the main theme coming in with the credits. A great piece of music, with a dramaturgical structure you have to admire, and wonderfully orchestrated. If you compare this movie with “Shades of Grey”, you really can see how good “Basic Instinct” is. Stone and Douglas are great actors, Verhoeven is director who each time pushed his actors nearly over the limit, and Goldsmith is the best film music composer ever. Also “Basic Instinct” shows a kind of a submissive dominant relationship. Stone is the active part, not only in bed, and she is really dominating Douglas emotionally and “fucks his brain” as Nick’s friend in the movie said. I am sure a movie such as “Basic Instinct” cannot be produced anymore. These times are too obsessed with political correctness, and “Basic Instinct” is really not politically correct at all. “Shades of Grey” is the sex-movie for nowadays, and Christian Grey is symptomatic for the male characters in most of the movies. He gets emotionally hurt by a “Mrs Robinson” and therefore, he is not able to have a normal sexual relationship. Holy crap! So, this guy is not even a dominant or a sadist, he is acting like a hurt animal that is fighting for life…He pretends to be a strong character but he is emotionally weak, and the woman even though a virgin and shy is the strong part. The difference between Douglas and Stone is that both characters are much more interesting than the characters in “50 Shades”. “50 Shades of Grey” is still enjoyable, and what I really like is that this movie is in the end not a typical sub dominant movie: in “50 Shades”, the man is weak, the woman is strong, and he needs her help to escape out of his erotic nightmares. He needs her help to be able to accept sexuality as it should be, passionate, romantic and fulfilling for both sides, and concerning to this idea, “50 Shades” is a feminist movie and perhaps that kind of erotic movie we need these days. And because of this plot, it is not surprising that a lot of women love to read these books: a rich man, hurt in the past, looks for a woman who can heal him… That might be a dream of a lot of woman these days! But I still prefer to see “Basic Instinct” because it is weird in a very good way. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

„Vertigo“ is the first Bernhard Herrmann score I review on this website, the first score to a film by Alfred Hitchcock I will discuss, and for me, one of my favorite soundtracks ever. The movie “Vertigo” is, in my opinion, Hitchcock’s best movie. For a lot of years, “Psycho” was my favourite one because it is really astonishing what Hitchcock made out of the novel by Robert Bloch. “Psycho” is not only one of the best Hitchcock Thrillers, it is also the ultimate thriller and established a whole new genre, the slasher movies. Without “Psycho”, we would have no “Halloween”. Here is a trailer: What makes “Vertigo” unique is not only Herrmann’s music, it is the whole composition of this movie and especially the tragic ending. Perhaps this ending was one of the reasons the movie was not a huge box office success that days, but to be honest this un-happy ending gave the movie just the right kick and it a unique example why Hitchcock created with “Vertigo” his masterpiece. I read the novel by the French writers Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac a few years ago and was highly disappointed. The novel is good, but it is not a masterpiece. Without the movie, this novel would be long forgotten. You can understand the Hitchcock genius in the way he changed just one aspect of the storytelling (the letter scene), and this makes a huge effort. I think there are still some people from the younger generation who perhaps had no time to see the movie, so I will not say too much about it. In Wikipedia, you can read about the editing of this scene and will discover that a good movie is sometimes a result of luck and the decisions of other people than the director. Hitchcock blamed James Stewart for the film's failure because the actor, at age 50, might have been looking too old to play a convincing love interest for Kim Novak, who was at 25 and half of his age. Even Orson Welles did not like the movie very much, he liked “Rear Window” better, and this just shows us that even an Orson Welles was not able to understand the beauty and the perfection of “Vertigo”. The movie was shot in San Francisco, the city I was am living while writing this review, and there are also “Vertigo” sightseeing tours offered in the city. I put one scene with Steward and Novak here: The music You can find various soundtrack editions with the score. I personally prefer Herrmann as conductor of his own music because he has the best understanding of the perfect interpretation and tempi of the score. If you listen, for example, to the soundtrack of “North by Northwest” conducted by Laurie Johnson and compare this with Herrmann’s conducting, you will recognize that Johnson’s style is far too slow. Recently there is also a “Vertigo” CD available conducted by Joel McNeely, a very good recording with the right tempi, but I still prefer Herrmann’s own recording even though McNeely’s recording has more tracks than the original one. The original score for the movie had 42 cues, which comprise about 74 minutes of music heard in the film. The score has a lot of highlights and each track is worth listening, but let me just recommend a few here. The first “Vertigo”-CD I bought contained 11 tracks, and I will mostly focus on this release. There is also an expanded release with 16 tracks; both are conducted by Muir Mathieson. Some critics say that this conductor was not doing a good job, e.g. too much romance and not enough energy in his way of conducting. “Prelude and Rooftop” is also one of the best tracks. The prelude sequence was designed by graphic designer Saul Bass who used spiral motifs in both the title sequence and the movie poster to illustrate the Vertigo-feeling. Herrmann used the strings in a fantastic and haunting way, constantly interrupted by the brass section and various percussion instrument, and each time, I am surprised how he was able to get the musical link from the prelude scene to the immediately starting rooftop chase because there no gap between the two tracks. “Scotty tails Madeleine” introduces the beautiful but also sad love theme. “Carlotta’s Portrait” is a great track to learn how Herrmann could build suspense. “The Bay” underscores a very important scene of the movie, so no comment about this piece and the following tracks. These are very atmospheric pieces, and you have to explain too much of the plot to analyse these. A few words about “The Nightmare And Dawn” because this is a great haunting piece, especially when you have the scene in mind. Are there some similarities to Goldsmith’s “Nightmare” music from “The Burbs”? You have to decide by yourself. I love the dramaturgical structure of this piece and especially the use of the castanets is highly effective to create the haunting atmosphere in the music. Here is the scene: The highlight of the score is “Scene D'Amour”. In this scene, Stewart is happy to finally see his dream come true. Hitchcock created a perfect scene, wonderfully photographed by Robert Burks. The music is perfectly underscoring the emotions of the scene. Hermann created his own “Tristan and Isolde” here: The kiss is the climax, the most intense part of the track with a beautiful interpretation of the love theme, romantic, but also haunting, energetic, nervous, and then finally again very passionate. Overall, you can feel and you know that these happy feelings will not last forever. For me, this is perhaps the best scene ever shot: “The Necklace, The Return and Finale” bring us the showdown and the end of the movie. Herrmann underscored this scene in such an emotional way that brings the album to a great ending. When you listen to the track do not be surprised about the quieter part, it is important for the final scene... I really admire Herrmann’s sense of drama in general, but here Herrmann is just marvellous and demonstrates what a genius film music composer is able to do. Without the score, “Vertigo” would not be so enjoyable. There is the rumour that Hitchcock was not very happy that Herrmann had so much influence with his music, both men were geniuses but also very difficult to deal with. Therefore, it was not surprising that a conflict between these men will end the most successful relationship in movie history. If you look at Hitchcock’s movies after the break up with Herrmann, the director was never able to establish another long-term collaboration with a composer. Herrmann was able to create a career after Hitchcock, and the younger generation with directors such as Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese knew about the musical genius of Herrmann. Even though I do not talk about “Obsession” from 1976 here, this score might be the best score Herrmann composed after the break up with Hitchcock. Check it out! Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

This is the first review of a Patrick Doyle score on my website, so let’s start with some basic information. I was looking for another composer except Jerry, John and Hans who is writing regular for movies. I then discovered Patrick Doyle and heard about his Dead Again is a 1991 American neo-noir[2] romantic thriller film directed by Kenneth Branagh and written by Scott Frank. It stars Branagh and Emma Thompson, with co-stars Andy García, Derek Jacobi, Wayne Knight, and Robin Williams.great music to Kenneth Branagh’s adaption of Shakespeare’s “Much ado about nothing”. The movie "Dead Again" is a 1991 American neo-noir romantic thriller film directed by Kenneth Branagh and written by Scott Frank. It stars Branagh and Emma Thompson, with co-stars Andy García, Derek Jacobi, Wayne Knight, and Robin Williams. Here is the trailer: “Dead Again” was the first soundtrack I bought, and I immediately loved it. I listened to the music first, bought the CD without knowing the film, and saw the movie afterward, a totally different approach from my usual behavior. The movie is another part of the very successful collaboration between Patrick Doyle and Kenneth Branagh. If you do a research, you will find out that a lot of directors like to work with certain composers in a regular way, e.g. Branagh with Doyle, Spielberg with John Williams, and of course, Paul Verhoeven, Fred Schepisi, Joe Dante, Frank J. Schaffner with Jerry. The plot is complicated and has a lot of twists. Therefore, I decided not talking about it at all here. The music “Dead Again”, nominated for a Golden Globe Award, is one of the few soundtracks you also can enjoy when you did not see the movie before. The “Main Title” is one of my favorite tracks not only from this score; I general like this track very much and keep listening to it all over the years. This track is additionally a good example for Doyle’s composing style, and critics are not sure how much influence Doyle’s orchestrator Laurence Ashmore has. Born in Scotland in 1953, Doyle graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 1974 where he studied piano and singing. His first music score was written in 1978. In 1987, Doyle joined the Renaissance Theatre Company as composer and musical director. In his career, Doyle has composed music for different genres such as action, thriller, comedy, and fantasy. He also composed the music for the fourth part of the “Harry Potter”-series called “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” and changed the meter of the famous “Hedwig Theme” from 3/4 to 4/4, a very interesting change. What I really like in Doyle’s way of composing is his sense of melodies; each soundtrack has its own melodies and lovely themes. Doyle is great in working with these themes and melodies through the score, and the interesting part of “Dead Again” is that there is a movie-in-the-movie and also an opera the characters are talking out. In November, 1997, Doyle was diagnosed with leukemia. He still completed his score for “Great Expectations” (another lovely one) and continued to work during treatment. By 1998, his career had returned to full swing, and it seems his fight against cancer was successful. “Dead Again” has 13 tracks, the album has a length of 32 min, and it is very difficult to talk about the music without commenting the movie. In my opinion, this movie is highly enjoyable and if you had no chance to watch it, grab the DVD and have a good time and be surprised about some great twists. Here is the track called "The Headlines", the first track: So, just some basic comments about the score, the music offers a good mixture of dramatic and lovely moments. These quieter moments mostly take place in the 40s, e.g. “Winter 1948”, and Doyle uses strings and brass to recreate the feeling of these times. Some people compare the style of composing with Alfred Hitchcock’s composer Bernard Herrmann, but even though there might be some similarities, the composer style is totally different, and sorry Patrick, Herrmann is a much better composer. Doyle’s music is not as complicated and artistically composed as Jerry’s, Doyle’s music is much more simple, more one-dimensional but because of his sense of drama and romantic, the soundtracks are very enjoyable, and I have quite a lot of them and still like to listen to them regularly. Let me just mention a few tracks: after the energetic main title, there is a quieter piece called “Final Request” with a use of electronics – I think it underscores the interview scene in the Prison - before the short “A Walk Down Death Row” brings back the Action again. “A Woman With No Names” is a good example how Doyle is able to build up tension in a scene. You can listen to how he develops a dramaturgical structure for the first hypnosis scene; overall, the track is very well structured. “Two Halves On The Same Person” brings us after “Winter 1948” again at the actual time of the movie, and the love-interest between the two main characters is making progress. “It Never Rains in LA” underscores one of the love scenes in the movie, a short but very enjoyable track, and a good example of Doyle’s mentioned ability to write lovely themes and melodies. Suspension starts again with “Im Not Roman”, listen here especially to the use of percussion and strings, one reason I really like Doyle’s way of composing. “Ingas Secret” brings us back to the past, the use of the piano is very enjoyable here, Doyle plays this piece as part of the opera which is an important aspect of the movie. “Hightower House” and “Fate Happens/Death of A Madman” are the two action highlights of the score. I like the second one very much, especially the use of the choir. Doyle created a very nice action piece and combines his main theme with the use of a choir for the climax. In the movie, the scene is a little bit over the top and shot in slow motion, but on a big screen, I suppose, it works really well. Even if these two pieces can stand alone, you will have more fun listening when you have the scenes back in mind. “The Door is closed”, beautiful use of the strings and the love theme, and especially the last track “Dead Again”, a great mixture of the love and the dramaturgical aspects of the score, bring this album to a conclusion. After listening to this album, I fall in love with Doyle because he was a man who really brought fresh ideas to the film music at that time. I continued following Doyle’s career and even though he is not such a master as Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams, I like listing to his scores, and “Dead Again” was the first one. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

Today is Western Time! This is the first review of a Western soundtrack and the first review of a score by Elmer Bernstein on my website. I found one orignal trailer of the movie: The composer Elmer Bernstein is one of my favorite film music composers and it is astonishing what he achieved during his career. Bernstein was born April 4, 1922 in New York and died August 18, 2004 in Ojai, California. Like Jerry Goldsmith, he was very often nominated for the Academy Award, fourteen times in total, but won the Oscar just one time, also like Goldsmith. Bernstein won the Oscar for the musical score to the movie “Thoroughly Modern Millie” (1967). Bernstein’s most popular works include the scores to “The Magnificent Seven”, “The Ten Commandments”, “The Great Escape”, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “The Hallelujah Trail “, “Ghostbusters”, and “Airplane”. He was not related to the conductor Leonard Bernstein, but the two men were friends and distinguished from each other by the use of the nicknames Bernstein West (Elmer) and Bernstein East (Leonard). What I did not know before writing this review is that Bernstein faced censure during the McCarthy era of the early 1950s. Bernstein was called by the House Un-American Activities Committee when it was discovered that he had written some music reviews for a Communist newspaper. After he refused to name names, pointing out that he had never attended a Communist Party meeting, he found himself composing music for mediocre movies such as “Robot Monster” and “Cat-Women of the Moon”, a step down from his earlier “Sudden Fear” and “Saturday's Hero”. But McCarthy was not able to destroy the career of Bernstein, so the composer came back after a few years and became very popular with this musical contribution. The scores for “The Magnificent Seven” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” were ranked by the American Film Institute as the eighth and seventeenth greatest American film scores of all time, respectively, on the list of AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. The movie American director John Sturges is well-known for his great Western movies. “The Magnificent Seven” (1960) was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Japanese-language film “Seven Samurai” (1954) and is truly deserved to be considered as a classic movie, starring Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, and supporting cast Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, Brad Dexter, and the German Horst Buchholz. They play a group of seven American gunfighters hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding native bandits led by Eli Wallach. You can find a lot of funny and interesting stories about this movie, for example, that Brynner as the biggest star of the cast at that time wanted to be treated in the best way, e.g. he wanted to have the biggest place to stay on the set. I also read that McQueen was annoyed by Brynner’s behaviour and teased him during the shooting. Robert Vaughn wrote a great story about the rivalry between Brynner and McQueen: “Brynner, who'd won an Oscar for “The King And I”, was the biggest star - aloof and distant - and accordingly stayed in a private house. The rest of us made do with a motel. The rivalry between McQueen and Brynner was clear from the start. Steve started knocking on my door around 6.30am, an hour before we were due on set. Our conversations were always along the same lines. 'Man,' he would say in that husky whisper, 'did you see Brynner's gun on the set yesterday?' 'I can't say I noticed it, Steve.' 'You didn't notice it? It has a f*****g pearl handle, for God's sake. He shouldn't have a gun like that. It's too f*****g fancy. Nobody's gonna look at anything else with that goddam gun in the picture.' Of course, what Steve meant was that nobody would be looking at Steve McQueen. Two days later, there was another early-morning knock on the door. 'Did you see the size of Brynner's horse? It's goddam gigantic.' This time I had noticed. 'Actually, Steve, I've got the biggest horse of the Seven.' McQueen shook his head. 'I don't give a f*** about your horse,' he replied. 'It's Brynner's horse I'm worried about.' I want to ad one movie clip here with a famous scene of the movie: The music Elmer Bernstein’s score to “The Magnificent Seven” became soon a classic. The main theme became iconic and was used in commercials for Marlboro cigarettes, and, for example, also in the James Bond movie “Moonraker” as a funny meant citation. It is interesting that the original soundtrack was not released until rerecorded by the composer for the soundtrack of “Return of the Seven” (1966). In 1994, James Sedares conducted a re-recording of the score performed by The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. Bernstein himself conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for a performance released by RCA in 1997, but the original film soundtrack was not released until the following year by Rykodisc. Sedares’ interpretation of the soundtrack is quite nice but sometimes a little bit too academic and, especially in the beginning, too slow. I like to hear the main theme in a much faster way played and with more energy. Therefore, I prefer Bernstein’s recording. You will find the main theme in a lot of tracks in the soundtrack, there is also a quite beautiful theme for the Mexican villages, heard for the first time in “Council” until it gets interrupted by the theme for the ruthless banditos, a powerful theme for the bad people. Throughout this career, Bernstein demonstrated his great sense for developing melodies and also for local atmosphere, so you have a lot of Mexican flavour in tracks such as “Toro”. A wonderful piece is the track “Training” which underscores, the gunfighters’ training of the Mexican to deal with guns and rifles. Due to the nature of the movie, there are many action tracks in this score. One action highlight to mention is one of the last tracks called “Calvera Killed”. The last track called “Finale” is another variation of the beautiful love theme. I found a clip with some scenes of the movie and the main themes in it: The movie is still a great fun to watch even though I do not understand the last line of Brynner in the movie. In my opinion, this is a little over the top in its approach to bring tragedy to the whole story. Brunner’s costume was so popular that the actor put it on again and played the gunslinger in Michael Crichton’s SF thriller ”Westworld” and in the sequel “Futureworld”, that time more of a parody of his role in “Westworld”. Bernstein’s score became so popular that nowadays a lot of Western scores sound like this one. If you, therefore, listen to Bernstein’s score for the first time, you will be surprised how familiar it sounds. It was so popular that times that even Bernstein began to produce sound-alikes for his other western scores. Who can blame him for that? Bernstein created with this soundtrack the definite western score for American western movies, like Ennio Morricone did with his scores for the Italian western. Here is a clip with Bernstein directing the score: Get a feeling what kind of recording you like – Sedares recording in excellent quality, or Bernstein’s full recording from the 60s with a bad sound quality sometimes. Anyway what you chose, enjoy this wonderful soundtrack from one of the best American film music composers for one of the best American western movies. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

“Moonraker” is the first James Bond soundtrack I review on this site. None of the James Bond scores has ever won an Academy Award! How can the academy ignore the fabulous soundtracks of this series? John Barry won five Oscars for his music, but never for James Bond. The movie “Moonraker” (1979) is the 11th film in the James Bond series, and the fourth to star Roger Moore as Bond. Lewis Gilbert was the third and last time the director, and Christopher Wood wrote the second and also the last time a screenplay for a James Bond movie. With Lois Chiles as Bond girl, James Bond has finally a very smart woman at his side, and Richard Kiel acts the second and last performance as killer Jaws. Michael Lonsdale as Drax gives a good performance, but he is not my favourite. I read the novel a few years ago, and was surprised about the high amount of anti-German comments in the book. Hugo Drax is a German, an ex-Nazi, who wants to destroy London because Germany lost the war. All Germans are again Nazis and, how surprising, dump. I was surprised how boring the book compare to the movie is. Compare to other Fleming novels, this book is more a detective story than a thriller because of the lack of action scenes. For the movie, the plot was totally changed. Because it was as a French-coproduction James Mason was not anymore considered, and French actor Lonsdale stepped it. I would love to have seen Mason in this role, he would be much better. Here is the trailer: “Moonraker” was intended by Fleming to become a film even before he completed the novel in 1954, since he based it on a screenplay manuscript he had written earlier. The film's producers had originally intended to film “For Your Eyes Only”, but the success of Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) and George Lucas’s “Star Wars” guided the way to “Moonraker” “Moonraker” received mixed reviews, some fans think the movie is not serious enough, the jokes are over the top and especially the space scenes are not so good. The quality of the movie seems to drop when Bond is finally going into space. For me, “Moonraker” is my favourite Roger Moore Bond even though “The Spy who loved me” is a better movie. “Moonraker” became the highest-grossing film of the series with $210,300,000 worldwide, a record that stood until Pierce Brosnan’s ”GoldenEye” (1995). The music “Moonraker” is the third and last collaboration between John Barry and Shirley Bassey. In my opinion, “Moonraker” is her best song, “Goldfinger” is a classic and the most dynamic of the three, but I have to say that I like the timeless elegance of “Moonraker” more. Even though the lyrics sounds a little weird because Hal David has to put the word Moonraker into the song, I really like it from the musical point of view. Kate Bush and Frank Sinatra were both considered for the vocals, before Johnny Mathis was approached. Because Mathis was unable to complete the project, Bassey was hired, had just weeks before the premiere date in England and made the recordings with very short notice. For me, John Barry wrote with this score his best James Bond soundtrack. “Goldfinger” is a classic, “From Russia with Love” and “On Her Majesty's Secret Service” have great action tracks and with his last Bond score “The Living Daylights”, Barry demonstrated that he is also able to combine electronics and the orchestra for action tracks in a modern James Bond setting. So, why talking here about “Moonraker”? Because I think it is timeless elegant, especially when Bond is going into Space. With this score, Barry makes a switch in his composing style: away from the jazzy style in earlier scores with heavy brass to now slower music with a high focus on the string section. This more epic way of scoring Barry used also in “Out of Africa” (1985) that let the composer win another Academy Award for best score, and, of course, later Kevin Costner’s big success with “Dances with Wolves” (1990). This epic sound you can consider as the John Barry sound. Here is the love theme to "Moonraker" and you can listen to this very elegant epic sound: “Moonraker” is very special in the way that you cannot hear the James Bond Theme a lot. Barry used also a piece called 007, the secondary Bond theme, Barry first introduced in “From Russia with Love”. A lot of classical music is used, too, for example, Drax plays Frédéric Chopin's Prelude no. 15 in D-flat major on the piano, and Johann Strauss’ Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka is used during the hovercraft scene on the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Film music fans will easily recognize Elmer Bernstein's theme from “The Magnificent Seven”, and for insiders one last thing: The theme from “Close Encounters” was used as the key-code for a security door. The second track of the score is also one of the highlights: “Space Laser Battle” is one of the best tracks. I like the use of the choir here. Barry never did this before in a James Bond score and will never do it again. The choir gives the space scene a specific majestic atmosphere. If you like the scene or not, this track is one of the best Barry ever composed. Elegant, timeless and with great majestic strings. Then you can hear the beautiful love theme in “Miss Goodhead meets Bond”, before we go into action with “Cable Car and Snake Fight”. Here is the "Space Laser Battle": With over six minutes running time, “Flight into Space” is the longest piece of the score, similar to “Space Laser Battle” in his elegant approach of using the strings. “Bond Arrives in Rio and Boat Chase” is another action highlight with using Barry’s James Bond Theme. The last piece is a faster version of the “Moonraker” song, considered as Disco Version. We are now finally able to get a complete album with all the music. Here is the boat chase: Music was always a big part of the James Bond series, and the James Bond soundtracks should be an essential part of every soundtrack collection. With “Moonraker” you have one of the best James Bond soundtracks ever. I really like Bill Conti’s contribution to the series with “For Your Eyes Only” and like David Arnold’s James Bond soundtracks very much. Especially his action pieces brought a fresh attitude to the series, modern composed, but in John Barry’s James Bond style. Thomas Newman’s contribution to the series… I am not a big fan of. John Barry will ever be considered as the only James Bond composer, and “Moonraker” is his masterpiece. Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

Jerry Goldsmith’s music for “First Blood”, the first movie in the Rambo-series from 1982, is classical action music and a good example why Goldsmith’s music was not becoming such popular like John Williams, John Barry or latest Hans Zimmer. The main theme is one of the most beautiful, Jerry has ever written: The movie While re-writing this post, I was reading the Kirk Douglas autobiography called The Ragman’s Son, which I really recommend if you have not yet read it. It is a great book written in a unique style full of romance, sadness, tragedy and anecdotes. I very much admire Kirk Douglas for hiring Dalton Trumbo as the writer for Spartacus even though he had been blacklisted as a Communist sympathiser. When Stanley Kubrick had no scruples taking credit for writing the script, Douglas announced that Trumbo was the writer of the screenplay and helped end the power of the blacklist. Douglas was considered for the role of Colonel Trautman, but he said that he wanted changes to the script. Stallone, not director Ted Kotcheff, made the final creative decision, as Douglas pointed out in his book, and rejects Douglas’s idea of Trautman killing Rambo. Douglas’s idea was that the Colonel realised what kind of Frankenstein-like creature he had created and wanted to end his life. Even though I admire Douglas as an actor and for his body of work, I think this idea shows that he did not get the idea of the script. Compared to the sequel, Rambo is not a killing machine. He is an innocent character and just started going crazy because he was being tortured by the local police. In my opinion, the most important scene is when Sheriff Teasle, played by Brian Dennehy, tells Rambo that he is not welcomed in the city and has to go. Rambo refuses, so Teasle picks him up, discovers his knife and wants to lock him up. The policemen begin to abuse Rambo. When they want to cut his hair and Rambo sees the knife, he has memories of torture in Vietnam and freaks out. This scene is underscored by one of the most excellent tracks in the score called The Razor. Even after he escapes, the abuse continues and Rambo is hunted like an animal without having done anything. In my opinion, he is just acting in self-defence but is slowly losing his mind and overacts due to his will to survive. Trautman, played by Richard Crenna, finally stops him as he is about to kill the sheriff. So why should Trautman kill him? The movie criticises how American war veterans are treated. Rambo explains that they were blaming him for doing his job and not blaming the politicians who started the war. So, if Teasle had let Rambo have his meal, he would have left the city and nobody would have been killed. Another aspect to consider is that the movie is also focusing on the hostile attitude of more right-wing people towards “hippie”-looking people because Rambo was also attacked for his long hair. The same motifs are shown at the end of Easy Rider (1969). Years ago, I read the 1972 novel by David Morrell. Canadian-born writer Morrell worked as an English professor at the University of Iowa in 1970 before he gave up his job and concentrated on writing. The book was inspired by hearing about the experiences of his students who had fought in Vietnam. The character's name was developed from the Rambo apple Morrell’s wife brought home while Morrell was struggling to find a suitable name for the main character. In the DVD commentary, Morell comments that one of the inspirations for Rambo was Second World War hero Audie Murphy. In the end, Rambo gets wounded in the shooting with Teasle and both die. Trautman tells Teasle that he killed Rambo and the sheriff feels a moment of affection for the man he had killed. While I was reading it, I thought that it was not a suitable ending for a movie because it is too intellectual, especially in the way Rambo wants to kill himself in the book. You can decide for yourself which ending is more convincing – the movie or the book – when you read the novel. The music If you listen to the main theme, I think the idea of Rambo as an innocent character might be right. It is one of Jerry Goldsmith’s most lyrical main themes and the track Home Coming is a beautiful example of transforming the feeling of loneliness and peacefulness into music. The guitar is exactly the right instrument for this approach, while the trumpet reminds you of the military aspects of the plot. For this score, there are also different CDs to buy. I recommend buying the two-CD set by Intrada, which has 19 tracks including the song It’s a long road performed by Canadian singer Dan Hill with lyrics by South African songwriter Hal Shaper, an instrumental version of It’s a long road and the theme from First Blood (a pop version). In the liner notes to this CD, Douglass Fake gave a very personal insight into the history of Intrada, a very interesting read, about how it took 25 years to present a complete release of First Blood Finally. Fake explained how Jerry Goldsmith “cut significant bars off the ends of certain cues to allow for smooth edits into other unrelated cues, removed the opening bars of other cues for similar reasons and completely re-organized the sequence apart from the picture.” Compared to the sequel in particular, this score has the right balance between the more lyrical tracks and the now famous action tracks such as Hanging On (perhaps the best track), Over the Cliff (a great piece), Escape Route and The Truck. The already mentioned The Razor is one of most interestingly orchestrated tracks. It slowly builds up the suspense, transforms Rambo’s terrifying memories of torture in Vietnam in atonal music, then mostly underscores the violent action with percussion and just rhythm. When Rambo escapes with the motorbike, you can hear the powerful first blood theme in a full orchestral arrangement. Here you can listen to the track "Over The Cliff": If you compare this first score with the later ones, it is surprising how little Goldsmith in the end uses the main theme. Except for Mountain Hunt, First Blood is the longest track, working like a summary of the score and bringing a typical action track in the Goldsmith style with a heavy focus on the percussion. The action music is Goldsmith at his best, and it is clear how artificially the composer likes to compose his action music. He mostly uses 5/8 and 7/8 time signatures, and the tracks are highly enjoyable. One of my favourite pieces is the shorter track The Truck. Unlike the score of the sequel, this score does not feature heavy electronics. The music to the second part is highly action-orientated ( The Jump is one of Goldsmith’s best action tracks), and the third score is a good mixture of action and more lyrical pieces with beautiful end credits music that was not used in the film. Jerry Goldsmith died on 21 July 2004 after a long battle with cancer. Brian Tyler took over and composed the music for the fourth instalment, an unnecessarily violent movie with gore and splatter scenes to compete with sadistic horror movies such as Hostel (2005) – a bad move. Even though Stallone directed this movie and tried to bring the franchise to a good ending, the violence in the showdown is so over the top that this sequel can be considered the worst of the whole series. I found a nice live version with Goldsmith conducting: One final aspect about Kirk Douglas: the actor considers his western Lonely are the Brave (1962), also with a script by Dalton Trumbo, his favourite movie. The movie tells the story of a cowboy who cannot fit into the modern society and refuses to be part of it. He later becomes an outlaw and is hunted down by a local sheriff, played by Walter Matthau. This movie starts with the idea that the main character wants to visit a friend and then the trouble starts. There are a lot of similarities with First Blood. In the end, the cowboy’s horse is severely injured and the sheriff kills it. The wounded cowboy is taken to hospital. It is unclear whether he will survive his injuries. Jerry Goldsmith composed the music to this western too, and his score was greatly praised by critics and colleagues alike. Bernard Herrmann said that the music was too good for the movie. In this western, the main character was also hunted by helicopter, like Rambo in First Blood. If you compare both scores, there are a great many similarities between the two scores. And perhaps Douglas developed the idea that Rambo should get killed because his cowboy in Lonely are the Brave might not have survived the movie either? Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.

I have to apologize for the delay of publishing this review. My plan was to do it last week, for Christmas, but spending the time with my family in Germany was so pleasant that I decided I give you all a well-deserved Christmas break and publish this review this week now. So, after reading this review, you will know which soundtrack you should buy for next Christmas. The movie “Home Alone” is a Christmas comedy, written by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. Macaulay Culkin made a great performance as Kevin. Despite the huge success of this movie and the sequel, Culkin’s following movies did just reasonably well. Additionally, he suffered from the divorce of his parents, took too much drugs and described the difficult relationship with his rude father later in his autobiography. John Hughes , died 2009, was a great creator of mostly teen comedies and responsible for some of the most successful films of the 1980s and 1990s, including “National Lampoon's Vacation,” “Ferris Bueller's Day Off”, “The Breakfast Club”, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (one of John Candy”s best performances), “Uncle Buck” and “Home Alone 1 & 2”. Chris Columbus is well-known for the first “Harry Potter” movies and also for Robin Williams “Mrs Doubtfire” but also for sentimental crap such as “Bicentennial Man”. People sometimes forget that Columbus also wrote the screenplay for “Gremlins” which gave us a deep insight in his dark side. For “Gremlins”, Jerry Goldsmith composed one of his best soundtracks which I will review in a few weeks. The story of “Home Alone” is not very complicated: Kevin is a boy who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for Christmas vacation. Kevin initially finds himself being home alone, but soon has to fight against two would-be burglars played by Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci. As of 2009, Home Alone was the highest-grossing comedy of all time. The most enjoyable part is the showdown when Kevin is fighting against the burglars in a very funny way and gives them a hard time in their attempt of robbing the house. The slapstick and comical approach of these attacks reminds some critics of the famous animation series “Tom & Jerry”. The music John Williams worked with Chris Columbus again on the “Harry Potter”-franchise, and you can estimate that their good collaboration on “Home Alone” was the reason for this. Williams created a heart-warming soundtrack with a beautiful main title and incorporated famous Christmas songs, such as "O Holy Night" and "Carol of the Bells". The soundtrack was nominated for an Academy Award. In my opinion, the music is good but not enough that this nomination is understandable. The main theme "Somewhere in my Memory" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. The song was written to "run alongside the film". It can be heard in numerous sections of the film, either in full length or fragments, forming the backbone for the film's soundtrack. A version in Spanish was recorded in Spain for the film's end credits. Again, Williams was able to compose a simple song which became quite popular afterwards. The whole soundtrack is repetitive like any other Williams’ soundtracks but if you are tired of listening to “White Christmas” all the time, this soundtrack is a great alternative in your CD player while eating Christmas cookies. Another highlight of the score is “Star of Bethlehem". I thought his track was played when Kevin is visiting a church but one reviewer on Amazon mentioned that he is missing the track when Kevin is visiting the church and it cannot be found on this CD. I cannot verify this without seeing the movie again, so you have to check by yourself. “Star of Bethlehem” is still a great instrumental track, and therefore, the reviewer is perhaps thinking of the choir song in the church scene, and indeed, this song is not on the CD. My personal highlight is “Setting the Trap”; a two minutes track which I like very much because it is one of the few pieces of music composed by Williams which is using electronics and percussion. For Williams, this track sounds very modern, more like a Goldsmith track, and I have to admit that I bought the soundtrack album especially because of this piece of music. Here is a fan clip with the piece in it: I am not sure about the weather condition in your place right now, but if you can still see snow and want to get the Christmas feeling back, get this soundtrack and have a good time! I found a lovely life performance clip, conducted by the Maestro: Copyright © Stefan Riedlinger, 2015, all rights reserved. The reviews and other textual content contained on the amazingmoviemusic.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Stefan Riedlinger.