Sam Peckinpah/Jerry Fielding. Sam really didn’t like Bassman’s
score to Ride the High Country. (Yikes, I love that music.)
Can’t find out how he felt about Major Dundee’s score.
However, he found his perfect composer, Jerry Fielding,
for the Wild Bunch, and what a wonderful combination. He did five
more scores for Sam. I know Steve McQueen axed one Fielding score
for The Getaway. But why didn’t he use Fielding for Convoy, Cross
of Iron (love Gold’s music), Ballad of Cable Hogue,
or for Pat Garrett/Billy The Kid, which has IMHO a weak score by Dylan?

Ron Howard’s first breakthrough movie was Splash with a fine
Lee Holdridge score. Never used him again; anyone know why?
Did he decide he could afford bigger names? (Utilizes mainly Horner
and tossed out Shore’s Ransom.)

Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves inspired an Oscar winning score
by John Barry. In his next two films (which he either controlled or
directed) he used James Newton Howard. (Excellent scores by JNH
but why not Barry who CAN write more than just melodies? His action
music is fine as in Bond, James Bond.)

Bernard Herrmann has often mentioned his superb relationship with
Orson Welles in Citizen Kane and Magnificent Ambersons. He liked the
fact the Welles allowed him to do what he wanted. Yet, Welles didn’t use
Herrmann for his Shakespearean movies or for Touch of Evil. Any idea
why?

Brian De Palma had great scores from Donaggio for Body Double, Blow
Out and Dressed to Kill. He used G. Moroder for Scarface. Then he tapped
Morricone for Casualties of War and The Untouchables. I love both
Morricone scores, but why drop Pino? R. Sakamoto scores Snake Eyes,
and then DePalma returns to Morricone for Mission to Mars.

Maybe I’m a little compulsive, but when something works so well, I can’t
help but wonder why the changes? Anyone know?

NP Dressed to Kill

Good topic, Joan (and thanks for the recommendations lastnight).

H'ness, "awright." I'll give you a rest tonight; you have to start packing for Detroit. I forgot about Noon Wine, a TV drama with Jason Robards I believe. Wish I could see this some time.

I also saw he didn't do Marked For Death like I had thought. His second Seagal film was Hard To Kill. Out For Justice was the third and final Seagal film he composed.

David Arnold, who got his "first" breakthrough with Danny Cannon's YOUNG AMERICANS (he had also worked extensively with Cannon on a number of student films), was ditched for JUDGE DREDD, although he WAS into the picture at one point. The studio wanted a more high-profile composer, and sought out Jerry Goldsmith, followed by Alan Silvestri.

Could you tell me where you read about Peckinpah's dislike of Bassman's score for "Ride the High Country"? Not that I doubt it at all; it's just that it's also one of my all-time favorite movies, and I'm eager to read everything I can about it. Thanks!

By the way, about "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid": according to Marshall Fine's biography of Peckinpah ("Bloody Sam"), Dylan wrote a ballad about Billy the Kid at the request of the movie's screenwriter, Rudolph Wurlitzer, who was a friend of Dylan's. Apparently Peckinpah was so taken by the ballad that he hired Dylan to do the whole score (and gave him a part in the movie besides.) Of course, Fine says that Dylan first played the ballad for Peckinpah after the two had had a dinner of "goat's head soup and tacos, tequila and mescal, marijuana and cocaine," which could partly explain Peckinpah's enthusiasm.

I can understand using Bob Dylan’s song, but his underscore didn’t
do much for me.

As for Peckinpah and Fielding, one of the bios mentions that when Sam heard the Wild Bunch score for the first time he didn't like that either. He sent a note to Fielding saying it sounded like Vienna instead of the West. Finally, Camille Fielding got on Jerry to go see Peckinpah and tell him he was wrong and that the score was good and he should use it.

As for why directors don't use their favorite composer on some projects might have a lot to do with finances, schedules, where the film is being shot or edited, etc.

There are a lot of neat composer-director collaborations where the images and music and the personalities of the two people seem to mesh well: Williams/Spielberg, Goldsmith/Schaffner, Rota/Fellini, Hitchcock/Herrmann, Elfman/Burton, etc.

Two little known collaborations I think have been fruitful are the ones between Philippe Sarde and Jacques Doillon and between Sarde again and Andre Techine. Stretching back one finds Maurice Jaubert and Jean Vigo, Joseph Kosma and Jean Renoir and Marcel Carne, Basil Poledouris and John Milius, Christophe Komeda and Roman Polanski, Aram Khachaturian and Mikhail Roehm, and many others.

One of the nice elements of such a collaboration might be the freedom the composer has to work in once the director trusts the composer to give him what he/she wants. Or, in the case of Poledouris and Milius--he might just be your surfing buddy.

NP I/J The Last Crudsade

I wonder if Goldsmith stepped in for Fielding on BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE because Fielding's collaboration with Peckinpah on THE WILD BUNCH, however rewarding, had been exhausting and tempestuous for both of them. Peckinpah might have just been trying someone else on for size. Goldsmith liked Peckinpah a lot ("he was completely mad, but one of the biggest talents in Hollywood"), and supplied a warmer score than Fielding arguably could have written (all the Fielding stuff I've ever heard has been pretty terse -- even his warm stuff seems to run cold.)

Joan, your earlier story about Peckinpah not liking Bassman's first music (hearing it over the phone) -- that sounds like him, he had the identical reaction to THE WILD BUNCH when he first heard it (either an inferior recording or an inferior tape player, if memory serves == of course it wasn't finished yet). Fielding was a mild-mannered sort who had trouble sticking up for himself, but he went ballistic in this case, and Peckinpah was always VERY responsive to (and scared by) people who did that -- there's a similar story about how he verbally creamed one of his longtime editors on PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, and was chewed out in turn by another, enraged editor, Roger Spottiswoode.

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but here it is again: producer Ed Feldman wanted Lalo Schifrin to score THE WILD BUNCH, but Peckinpah insisted on Fielding. And when Fielding's score for THE GETAWAY was thrown out, Peckinpah took out a trade-paper ad praising his work and implicitly damning the people who slashed it.

Back on topic: It strikes me that there are an AWFUL lot of directors who don't stick with the same composers because they don't know how to talk with them, and don't much care anyway. Hence, the "flavor of the month" gets it. If you see how much Goldsmith was passed around among directors in the 1970s -- sure, some repeat directors, but often as not, he was just "the guy to get." This was true of Horner later, as well. And it seems to be true of the Media Ventures folk today.

Howard Shore/Jonathan Demme which lasted up until Beloved

Jerry Goldsmith/David Anspaugh which lasted up until Moonlight and Valentino scored by Shore

Franklin J.Schaffner/Jerry Goldsmith which lasted a really long time until Schaffner's passing

Hans Zimmer/Ridley Scott which has grown from their Black Rain collaboration

Henry Mancini/Blake Edwards this one lasted like what seemed forever until Mancini's passing in 94.

Georges Delerue/Francios Truaffut which lasted almost forever

James Newton Howard/Andrew Davis almost everyother movie with the exception of the bombs Chain Reaction and Steal Big, Steal Little

James Newton Howard/Michael Hoffman they've been together a little while with the exception of Soapdish and Midsummer Night's Dream

Elmer Bernstein/John Landis almost every movie on Landis' resume has Bernstein attached to it until Coming to America and turned to him again for Oscar and hasn't been back with him since

George Fenton/Neil Jordan this was a really fruitful and exciting combo with their unexpected quirkiness and then a little project called Interview With A Vampire came up and out Fenton went. Jordan and now Elliot Goldenthal have become the perfect collaboration go figure.

Howard Shore/David Cronenberg this isn't the most sick and twisted combo ever. They've been together almost forever with the exception of Dead Zone and show no signs of breaking up.

Elmer Bernstein/Ivan Reitman these guys worked great together for a long time but broke up after the disaterous Legal Eagles.

James Newton Howard/Ivan Reitman these guys have produced big hits and misses together. From hits like Dave to duds like Father's Day, they should agree on a winning project and run the gauntlet again.

Randy Edelman/Jonathan Lynn this combo is definetly hit and miss. They score excellent comedies like My Cousin Vinny and do duds like Greedy (which is actually pretty at times) and they had a winner this year with The Whole Nine Yards, but will they produce another hit, who knows?

Michael Kamen/John McTiernan the Die Hard Trilogy plain and simple. Perfect. Last Action Hero, huh!!

Arthur B.Rubinstein/John Badham this combo produced some wonderful films in the 80's like Wargames, Whose Life Is It Anyway and Stakeout. Their last collaboration was the underrated and much maligned real time thriller Nick of Time. and hardly been seen since.

Mark Isham/Alan Rudolph another strange but perfect pair who produce solid films. Afterglow is probably their best collaboration.

James Newton Howard/Lawrence Kasdan definetly the best cohesive pair of Hollywood's who's who. Ranging from solid film's like Grand Canyon to the recent Mumford, hopefully we'll see more from this pair soon.

James Horner/Walter Hill this combo seemed like the perfect fit for a while staring their first collaboration, the exciting and propulsive 48 Hours and ending with Another 48 Hours. Hill now leans on the musical shoulders of Ry Cooder who he's had a really fruitful collaboration for a long time and it continues up till now.

George Fenton/Nora Ephron these two have been uniquely linked to each other since the disaterious Mixed Nuts and now the upcoming Numbers starring John Travolta. No abandoning ship here.

Marco Beltrami/Wes Craven they had three sucessful collborations on the Scream trilogy will they get together again doing something other than horror.

Dave Grusin/Sydney Pollack these two first got together on the thriller Yukuza and have been together ever since. With Sabrina scored by John Williams being the lone exception.

Terence Blanchard/Spike Lee talk bout an underrated/overrated combo these are it. Blanchard is a really underrated composer who deserves more attention than just scoring Spike's Joint's. They been together since he started performing on Spike's father's sensational score to Do The Right Thing.

BTW for Carter Burwell fans everywhere he's scoring Blair Witch 2 coming in the fall. Good fun ain't it.