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      Williams and Goldsmith talk movies

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    Author
    Topic:   Williams and Goldsmith talk movies

     Hector J. Guzman
     Click Here to Email Hector J. Guzman
     Wizard
     

    I was watching a show they aired last year on CBS that I had on tape and decided to make a transcription of stuff our beloved Johnny boy and the Maestro Jerry had to say about movies.

    The show was an AFI list of the too 100 best thrillers ever made. The list is kinda silly but as long as we got to see Johnny boy and Jerry talking, it's okay.

    Keep in mind they often only play part of what they had to say and sometimes it sounds kinda redundant or unnecesary.

    One problem had was understanding what Maestro Jerry was saying, he kinda talks like me, hehe, he's talking and then he says something I hardly understand and moves to other stuff.

    So here it is:

    SAVING PRIVATE RYAN(1998)
    John Williams:
    That battle scene, Omaha Beach, could have been score with music. Steven Spielberg chose not to, and use only the horrific sounds of the World War II machine guns and the rifles.
    When the battle was over the camera starts to pan along the beach where the bodies of these boys were all lying and the orchestra begins to play then.
    ===============================================
    POLTERGEIST(1982)
    Jerry Goldsmith:
    Probably the scariest thing that you could do is put a child in danger.
    ===============================================
    THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL(1951)
    JG:
    The Day the Earth Stood Still. Oh! That movie was brilliant! No one had seen anything like this before. The story was, you know, wonderful. What a statement.
    ===============================================
    THE OMEN(1976)
    JG:
    In the case of The Omen, the child is the devil and I remember there was always this force going on, the music starting very softly and all of a sudden you hear the voices coming and you say "Uh-oh!".
    So the music [sort of] set the whole thing up, built it up and then the sound effects finished it. So there was a case where sound and music worked...
    ===============================================
    THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN(1960)
    JG:
    The Magnificent Seven, Elmer Bernstein made the classic western theme. It was melodic and exciting. God only knows it's been ripped enough by anybody else.
    ===============================================
    CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND(1977)
    JW:
    With Close Encounters, Spielberg said to me the signal should be five notes. I wrote about 300, very quickly 300 examples of five notes, so finally we said "well, we'll settle on the one that goes[Williams whistles theme from Close Encounters]". That dome(?) is the fifth tone of the scale which in musical terms creates an expectancy of something else is going to happen.
    ===============================================
    E.T. THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL(1982)
    JW:
    The music in the film was so beautifully wedded, rhytmically speaking, it gave the end of the film a kind of operatic [Williams pauses] lift if you like.
    ===============================================
    STAR WARS(1977)
    JW:
    I have to credit George Lucas with the idea that the music of Star Wars should be sort of familiar, so the creatures are humanized by the music and the odd landscapes of the other planets are made familiar by the language of the music, so again kind of orientation from the music that the visual disorientation doesn't provide.
    ===============================================
    A CLOCKWORK ORANGE(1971)
    JG:
    If the composer(?) had said "allright, here: write a score to this" I would have been hardpressed to figure out what to do, instead of lighthearted, frivolous music playing against this sort of decadent, um... and it worked.
    ===============================================
    VERTIGO(1958)
    JW:
    The tower where we lose our balance altogether, Bernard Herrmann does this wonderful almost nauseating swirl to the music, whips you around and around 'till you finally do lose you inner ear balance and experience "vertigo".
    ===============================================
    KING KONG(1933)
    JW:
    It has one of the earliest thriller scores and one of the best, really, done by Max Steiner.
    ===============================================
    RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK(1981)
    JW:
    Raiders of the Lost Ark was a wonderful opportunity for action music, music [that] had such a rythmic drive and a hero's tune [Williams hums Raiders theme] this kind of swagger as he runs and jumps on his horse, does all his athletic tricks.
    ===============================================
    JAWS(1976)
    JW:
    The motif of Jaws is something less than a melody, something less than a tune, an effect. The music is the shark. And the effect probably in this case is going to be provided by the basses and cellos, something very low and getting to the visceral aspect of what we hear and feel.
    ===============================================
    PSYCHO(1960)
    Steven Spielberg:
    One of the most important things about that film aside from Hitchcock's genious, was Bernad Herrmann's score. The low, you know, ominous rumblings, almost melodic. Almost like, you know, smelling the perfume of a corpse in a funeral parlor.
    ===============================================

    [Message edited by Hector J. Guzman on 11-16-2002]

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    posted 11-16-2002 09:41 PM PT (US)     
     

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