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Topic: Replacement Scores
Swashbuckler
Oscar® Winner
I was posting on Brad Wills' topic about Morricone's What Dreams May Come when something occured to me. I started thinking about how much I liked Kamen's score, and how, except in the Hell sequences, it is so much an intergral part of the film.Several of the best film scores are replacement scores...
I'm not neccesarily talking about something like Air Force One, here (in which case it's only a question of degree of overbearing patriotism), I'm talking about when the film and score fuse into a seamless whole.
I was thinking most specifically of Chinatown, which Goldsmith supposedly wrote in a week to replace a previously recorded and somewhat ineffective score by a previous composer.
Possibly being the best film Goldsmith had ever been involved in the making of may have accounted for some of the inspiration, but you have to admit that that particular score is above and beyond the call of duty. It as work of genius. And it was apparently done in one week.
Another replacement score that produced a fits-like-a-glove product was Elfman's Mission: Implausible, which may have been the only aspect of the film that paid more than lip service to the original series, and gave that film a dignity that made it seem more sophisticated than it really was.
What other scores were written as replacements for another composer's work that truly became one with the film? As I said, I'm refering to works that comes across as an intergral part of the film, rather than merely effective scores. There are plenty of those.
posted 06-09-2000 10:07 PM PT (US) Lou Goldberg
Oscar® Winner
Great topic and a neat insight. Often we slam studios/directors for just trashing a score and hiring someone new as being insulting to the composer or whatever. One composer even said that he'd be more than willing to change things but that people refuse to work it out--they don't like your first version, so out you go. We often feel so sorry for the dumped composer (Herrmann on Torn Curtain) that we ignore the merits of the replacement score to compensate. I haven't heard the rejected scores to Frenzy, The River Wild, The Molly McGuires, Since You Went Away, and others, but the replacement scores for these are just great. I've heard the rejected scores for some films and liked them and still thought the replacement scores were great as well.
posted 06-09-2000 11:34 PM PT (US) Hard Target
Oscar® Winner
Talking about rejected scores is fun isn't it. It adds to the depth and the mystery of the film scoring community. I've always been intrigued and curious about them. Who and why? What's it studio politics or the director not liking the music. or was it creative differences. These are the questions that people raise up when they hear about rejected scores. I have more than a few of them in my collection and they're good. Like Howard Shore's Ransom and Jerry Goldsmith's Two Days In The Valley which are light years better than the scores that James Horner and Anthony Marinelli eventually stiched up for these films. The best part my lie in the stories that these rejected scores my bring. Like the infamous stories of Jerry Goldsmith's Legend, Alex North's 2001 and the ever popular, Lalo Schifrin fiasco involving The Exorist. In which to this very day, director William Friedkin refers to his score as ****ing mariachi/samba music, which clearly is not. Despite these setbacks, all of these composers have fought hard and lived to fight another day and other projects.So let's have a moment to reflect on the rejected scores of years past:
Waterworld (Mark Isham)
The Horse Whisperer (John Barry)
Two Days In The Valley (Jerry Goldsmith)
Streets of Fire (James Horner)
Invaders From Mars (Christopher Young)
Legend (Jerry Goldsmith)
Dangerous Beauty (Rachel Portman)
Halloween H2O (John Ottman, almost all of it)
The Craft (Thomas Newman)
Ready-To-Wear (Thomas Newman)
Ransom (Howard Shore)
Mission Impossible (Alan Silvestri)
Chinese Coffee (Howard Shore)
The 13th Warrior (Graeme Revell)
Prince of Tides (John Barry)
Thomas the Tank Engine (John Barry)
Primal Fear (Thomas Newman)
What Dreams May Come (Ennio Morricone)
Interview With A Vampire (George Fenton)
Playing By Heart (John Barry, most of it additional Music by Christopher Young)
High Fidelity (Carter Burwell)
Sniper (Gary Chang, most of it additional music by Hans Zimmer and Mark Mancina)
Die Hard With A Vengance (Michael Kamen's wealth of new material)
K2 (Hans Zimmer)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Georges Delerue)
Young Guns (James Horner)
Alien Nation (Jerry Goldsmith)
Last Man Standing (Elmer Bernstein)
Gladiator-1992 (Jerry Goldsmith)
The Picture Bride (Cliff Eidelman)
Indian In the Cupboard (Miles Goodman)
The Journey of Natty Gann (Elmer Bernstein)
The Scarlet Letter (Ennio Morricone)
The Scarlet Letter (Elmer Bernstein)
Frenzy (Henry Mancini)
I Love Trouble (Elmer Bernstein)
The Exorcist (Lalo Schifrin)
2001 (Alex North)
Air Force One (Randy Newman)
Assassins (Michael Kamen)
Fair Game (Michael Kamen featuring David Sanborn)
The River Wild (Maurice Jarre)
First Knight (Maurice Jarre)
Mystery Man (Stephen Warbeck most of it rescored by Shirley Walker)
The Truman Show (Philip Glass)
Practical Magic (Michael Nyman)
Breakdown (Basil Poledouris)
Interview With A Vampire (George Fenton)
Wings of the Dove (Gabriel Yared)
Rosewood (Wynton Marsalius)
Marvin's Room (Thomas Newman)
Les Miserables (Gabriel Yared)
Tremors (Ernest Troost, most of it rescored by Robert Folk)
Dead Bang (Gary Chang, most of it rescored by Michael Kamen)
Heaven Help Us (James Horner)
Silver (Howard Shore, most of it, rescored by Christopher Young)
Mouse Hunt (Bruce Fowler)
Quick Change (Randy Edelman, parts of it, rescored by Howard Shore) posted 06-10-2000 01:11 AM PT (US) H Rocco
Oscar® Winner
I think Gary Chang was replacing someone else on 1996's ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, but I'm not sure. I've heard a lot of different names attached to that one, but am not sure if scores were actually written. The only name I can remember (and who knows if he wrote or recorded anything) is Zbigniew Preisner.On CHINATOWN, Goldsmith replaced the avant-garde composer Phillip Lambro. Hearing a trace of Lambro's score at the time, Goldsmith years later observed, "I couldn't believe it, it was Chinese-sounding!" Goldsmith gave a short interview to the BBC expounding on, among other things, Jack Nicholson's input into the CHINATOWN score: just follow this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/movies/film2000/interviews/goldsmith.shtml
[This message has been edited by H Rocco (edited 10 June 2000).]
posted 06-10-2000 02:29 PM PT (US) Swashbuckler
Oscar® Winner
Yes... Philip Lambro... I remember hearing the name, but couldn't remember it when writing my original post.The most famous rejected score is probably Alex North's 2001, and while there is no question as to the quality of that music, there is a bit of contraversy about what Kubick replaced it with. However, as Royal Brown pointed out to me at one point, regardless of how good the material was (and he is a huge North fan), the simple fact is that Kubrick's work made the film more accessible to audiences.
In the case of The Exorcist, having heard Lalo Schifrin's score, while I disagree completely on William Friedkin's take on the score (he really didn't like it), I have to say that the absence of music from everything but connection tissue within the film was extremely effective, giving the film the documentary feel that he was going after.
The previous two cases have no scores in them per se (although Jack Nitszche did create some sounds to bridge the different pieces in The Exorcist), and in both cases the rejected music has been made available.
I do remember that the special edition laserdisc of Benny and Joon had the film with an alternate score on one of the analog tracks, but I never got that and have no idea who composed the alternate score. What's interesting about that is that, unlike pretty much any other film (with the possible exception of Legend, which doesn't really count, since that score wasn't really rejected as such) the film can be seen either way.
[This message has been edited by Swashbuckler (edited 11 June 2000).]
posted 06-11-2000 08:36 PM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB