MovieMusic.com Message Boards: Elliot Goldenthal

Message Boards

Movie Soundtracks

Elliot Goldenthal

Archive of old forum. No more postings.

Please visit our new forum, The MovieMusic Lobby, to post new topics.

Author	Topic: Elliot Goldenthal

Ben Penserga Oscar® Winner	What about Elliot Goldenthal? He's put out some OK stuff like "Batman Forever" and "Heat".
posted 04-29-1999 01:44 PM PT (US)

J. Peter Wolk-Laniewski Oscar® Winner	Elliot Goldenthal is one of my favorites. His best work (I think) is Alien3. There was some gorgeous music at the end of the film and some great, fiery, dark work in the second half. Another good one is Sphere. It has a more traditional theme with his trademark cool orchestrations and some sweet trumpet solos. Goldenthal has a pretty non-linear approach, but I'm looking forward to his future scores.
posted 04-30-1999 01:24 PM PT (US)

Sean Bires Oscar® Winner	"SPHERE" is one of my favorite soundtracks. It is very claustrophobic and atmospheric. Elliot Goldenthal emulates the psychological terror of the film with repetetive, pounding blasts and captures a dark, moody atmosphere with softer tracks like "Main Titles" and "Wave". Some songs were left out of the soundtrack though (such as the opening scene... the main charactor was in the middle of nowhere on a helecopter, approaching a fleet of naval ships). The ending scene of the film was left out (the scene where the Sphere returns to space). Despite the shallowness of the film (especially when compared to the great novel), Elliot Goldenthal delivers a great soundtrack.
posted 04-30-1999 08:39 PM PT (US)

J. Peter Wolk-Laniewski Oscar® Winner	I'm pretty sure the reason the last scene from Sphere isn't on the CD is because Barry Levinson reshot a different ending after putting the first cut in front of a test audience. Goldenthal probably cranked some music for the new final scene after the CD had been finalized. Welcome to Hollywood.
posted 05-01-1999 12:57 PM PT (US)

SFT Oscar® Winner	Both Sphere and Alien 3 where excellent, but you can´t seriuosly mean that Batman Forever was good... SFT NP: NightBreed, Danny Elfman [This message has been edited by SFT (edited 05-01-99).]
posted 05-01-1999 01:29 PM PT (US)

Ben Penserga Oscar® Winner	I didn't say it was good, just OK. It's not his fault Elfman set the bar so high.
posted 05-01-1999 01:41 PM PT (US)

SFT Oscar® Winner	he...
posted 05-02-1999 03:59 AM PT (US)

Moovtune Oscar® Nominee	It's true that new music was written for "Sphere" due to a change in the ending. Most of the film was scored in New York, Elliot's home base, but the final scene and a couple of other scenes were scored at Skywalker Sound in San Rafael during the final week and a half of dubbing. The soundtrack CD contains less than half of the music scored for the film and in the film itself the music was drastically edited (very adroitly) by the music editor due to constant changes in editing of the film. The first scoring sessions were at the beginning of December '97 but the final cut of the film didn't come in until mid January '98.
posted 05-10-1999 12:44 PM PT (US)

Magdi Oscar® Winner	Every single score Goldenthal has written is at least very, very interesting. You can hear his strong personal style in each work - and that's a great quality. A lot of people always mention Alien3, Interview woth a Vampire & Sphere but there are more goodies: Pet Sematary: scary modernistic approach, good use of voices Demolition Man: a lot of fun, because Goldenthal is playing around with well-known action schemes Golden Gate: very meditative with some asian instruments Heat: cool ambient score, avantgarde strings and Pink Floyd guitars mixed together Michael Collins: clever use of Irish music, very strong action cues Batman Forever is just different to Elfman's approach. I love Batman Returns, but BF has both powerful and witty moments, too. Goldenthal has a intellectual and often ironic way of handling his basic material (there's Wagner, 50s-SF-stuff & Herrmann). Give it another try!
posted 05-12-1999 10:26 AM PT (US)

Pmrsim unregistered	Besides Goldenthal's (excellent) filmscores, I want to recommend his non-filmmusic. The Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio is a mindblowing musical experience. No, I am not overreacting, it is absolutely stunning. If you haven't heard it yet, than go get it. (3 tracks, 65 min.) Another brilliant piece is the ballet Othello. This music is very close to Alien3 and I really enjoy it. Again, if you haven't heard this one, than it's time you did. (approx. 70 min.) His music for Juan Darien is a bit (too) strange though. It's very carnevalesque. It's very weird and might be disappointing. But Othello and FWP are excellent!!
posted 05-20-1999 09:28 AM PT (US)

Floyd Pepper Oscar® Winner	Ooops! I am quite surprised that nobody mentioned Interview With A Vampire. I think this is a wonderful score combining the atmosphere of the vampire's tragic tale with modern structure and modern orchestration. To my mind Goldenthal is very talented in composing adagios that are really touching. Take the Intro of Alien 3 and the music when Ripley jumps into the fire with the chestburster coming out - I almost wept when I heard it! To those of you who like Alien 3 as well: What do you think about Frizzell's Resurrection? I think Frizzell has done a good job, it's been like pushing Alien 3 a bit further on... [This message has been edited by Floyd Pepper (edited 06-02-99).]
posted 06-02-1999 04:31 AM PT (US)

PeterK FishChip	Floyd, I agree with your suggestion for Interview With A Vampire. What further blows my mind about this score is the fact that Goldenthal replaced George Fenton on the assignment and had only three weeks to write the music. Absolutely stunning - many composers couldn't deliver such work in three months! PeterK NP - "Heaven's Gate" by David Mansfield
posted 06-02-1999 09:53 AM PT (US)

J. Peter Wolk-Laniewski Oscar® Winner	Floyd: I liked Alien Resurrection, but I thought Frizzell used way, way too many synth sound effects. There's a bit of good action music on track 10, but you have to listen through all the computer generated noise to hear it. The main theme is pretty good, but still think Alien3 is the best one of the series.
posted 06-03-1999 06:02 PM PT (US)

Old Infopop Software by UBB