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Originally posted by joan hue:
If you scroll down the above URL, he mentions the music. I'd love it to sound like a Goldsmith thematic western.

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O.K., now even more excited! AICN is hard to swallow sometimes, but the music comments are damn promising.

Can't wait to see the film and hear the score. Hopefully this will be the movie to bring the western back to life again.

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Originally posted by La La Land Records:
I have been told that a score release is forthcoming. It's late due to the release date change of the film from Nov to sept. Expect a release from Lions Gate Music in october.

Can't wait to see the film and hear the score. Hopefully this will be the movie to bring the western back to life again.

MV

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Will this be an iTunes download only release or will we have an actual CD?

James

On the film, its like many from Hollywood and the film industry today, they lack the good new scripts and ideas so they keep falling back and doing remakes. The first 3:10 will be hard to beat with Van Heflin and Glenn Ford and the score by Duning was good too. Its either a poor remake or many dumb sequels, i/e/ the latest Rambo junk.

SOUND CLIPS in the official website of the movie, under the 'soundtrack' tag http://310toyumathefilm.com/

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Originally posted by Shaun Rutherford:
The clips on the net are pretty good, for Beltrami.

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Originally posted by sean:
HAHA! You gonna' take that, nuts? (He reckons it's the BEST score of the week.)

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To answer the question, Sean, not lightly. In fact, I'm holding off on a full blown Sean-like tirade in favor of a peaceful discussion on Beltrami (there's been too many derogatory pundits about these boards as of recent). And, like my other heroes Howard Shore, Elliot Goldenthal, and Ennio Morricone, I'll politely offer the fact that Beltrami's music isn't for everyone. That said - contrary to my own belief that I'm probably wrong in this assumption - have you ever heard anything Marco Beltrami's written, Shaun? Sure, one might push him aside as a simple Genre-ready composer, but forget not that Maestro Goldsmith might once have been considered this as well. Sure, we've heard enormous amounts of Goldsmith music and loved nearly every bit of it; but have you seen even 30% of the films he's scored? Did you enjoy said films? No? Chances are you loved the scores. The same could easily be said for Beltrami. He's scored some tremendous duds in his small, yet prolific career, but nearly all of his scores deliver upon a unique sound and style. Sound a bit like Jerry?

NP> Shore's eXistenZ (*****/*****)

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Originally posted by scoreguy16:
I have to agree with Nuts here, Beltrami hasn't written a score I haven't liked. Though my favorite is still Scream, I'll pretty much listen to anything he's written.

Clayton

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Originally posted by nuts_score:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>Originally posted by scoreguy16:
[b]I have to agree with Nuts here, Beltrami hasn't written a score I haven't liked. Though my favorite is still Scream, I'll pretty much listen to anything he's written.

Clayton<HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

What's funny is that your first Beltrami usually remains your favorite. Granted, he's done more complex and larger work than Blade II, yet I absolutely adore that score. It's phenominal![/B]

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I know! I don't know what it is about the score to Scream, but I absolutely love it. I think it's the way the sound design is with it, mixed with his (this is weird to say for a movie like Scream) emotional themes. Especially the track for Dew Barrymore's opening... Very effective, mostly the last 2 minutes of it and the little tribute to the theme from Halloween in there... Good stuff!

Clayton

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Originally posted by nuts_score:
Sure, one might push him aside as a simple Genre-ready composer, but forget not that Maestro Goldsmith might once have been considered this as well. Sure, we've heard enormous amounts of Goldsmith music and loved nearly every bit of it; but have you seen even 30% of the films he's scored? Did you enjoy said films? No? Chances are you loved the scores. The same could easily be said for Beltrami. He's scored some tremendous duds in his small, yet prolific career, but nearly all of his scores deliver upon a unique sound and style. Sound a bit like Jerry?

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I'm not sure that parallels between their careers make much sense here. Whether they write for duds or hits... who cares when it's the music you're discussing. If you want to compare Goldsmith and Beltrami, then you mostly end up doing Beltrami a disservice. Take Hollow Man as an example. Had Beltrami scored that, he would have produced a first rate theme, then blanketted the rest of the movie with dissonant noise which you could easily have tracked from just about any other Beltrami horror score. Goldsmith at least produced something more than randomly generated unpleasant sounds.

Seriously though, if I were any more sarcastic the internet would've broke.

The acting is superb. Crowe makes a fine villain. Some of the
minor characters are fleshed out enough that you care about them.
I especially enjoyed the return of Peter Fonda. Ben Foster will
soon earn the moniker of the world's best psychopath. I think he
is becoming a caricature of himself. The most amazing performance,
Oscar worthy, comes from Christian Bale. He just keeps growing as
an excellent actor. The geometry of his face is all carved planes of
personal pain.

The movie has a bang-up opening and a rousing finale, but mainly it
is a character-driven movie. If you are only into relentless action, you
may find this movie rather slow. I loved watching the actors reveal
new layers of themselves. I thought the themes of varying degrees of
good and evil, personal redemption, and the discovery of courage in
the face of hopelessness, were well-developed. There are surprises
in this movie that are different from the original movie.

I really wanted a better score for this movie. Ain't It Cool News kept mentioning
a rousing western score. Where? Some Morriconeish twangy guitars
with a tossed in trumpet isn't all that rousing for me. If you want to really
hear the two main themes which are IMHO just okay, stay for the
end credits. To me the movie used a minimalist approach in the scoring.

I, of course, wanted the rousing approach of an Alfred Newman, Goldsmith,
Moross, Bernstein, Morricone, or for a current update, a Broughton or
JN Howard.

Still, the movie emotionally resonated with me, and I hope it will
resurrect the western genre in Hollywood.

Beltrami's music was fine, but of course was mixed too low much of the time to make any serious impact other than the main title and the end action sequence. And the piece from the score, "Ben Takes The Stage / Dan's Burden," I'm certain was not included in the film, as I looked forward to how this piece might play out on-screen for the entire film, but nothing came of it. It's an incredibly fun/cool piece of music and it's a shame it wasn't exploited to it's fullest potential anywhere in the film.

To nuts: I know you're the relentless apologist for Marco Beltrami, but this score is nowhere near as cool as it could have been, seriously, without the inclusion of said piece in the film.

The score is more of a homage to Morricone than it is to any other composer steeped in Western scoring and does a nice job of it. Zimmer did a good job doing just that for a piece on Pirates 3 and Beltrami does a good job here, too; Morricone deserves these classy tributes for sure.

I wanted to love, love, love this film; but ultimately, this is a good movie draped in a great movie’s clothing. And it all comes down to the script and direction. First, I’ll discuss the performances, which will lead into how disappointed I was with the direction. Bale and Crowe both turned in greatly admirable performances, and neither felt as though it encapsulates the other (a bit like DeNiro and Pacino in Heat, which I will compare this film to more in this review). Crowe’s Ben Wade is a wonderful screen villain; one that scowls while seeming to charm you endlessly. Respectively, Bale’s Dan Evans is a wonderfully conflicted hero; Bale presents his role as a sort of tortured soul, and it’s a no-brainer that he’s out to gain the respect of his family. But this three-dimension aspect of the main roles comes solely from the actors, who are working far and above what the material implies. This said, the direction can’t keep up with the acting; not in the least. Even Ben Foster, in a role similar to Val Kilmer’s in Heat, really fires his role on all cylinders. His character is a violent, obsessive sociopath; a hero-worshiper who doesn’t know any better. I was very pleased with his exit in the film. Hell, even Peter Fonda, usually such a mediocre presence, gives his character a lot to say (the script, however, doesn’t). And it’s a damn shame that Alan Tudyk has to be the guy who dies doing something heroic again; or, when will this guy get a break? But director James Mangold can’t shake being terribly mediocre (a crime he committed almost offensively in Walk the Line) and has absolutely no style; he can call nothing of this movie his own, because it’s all been done before (remarkably recent in Open Range). Sean’s right, the handheld “shaky-cam” approach to the Western genre is a step in the wrong direction; which is why I’m looking so forward to The Assassination of Jesse James. I’m not deploring handheld camera work at all - some of my favorites, from Werner Herzog to Christoper Nolan (and even Paul Greengrass’ effective use of it in United 93) - but some director’s think “shaky” means frenzied. The only thing that’s frenzied is the audiences head. His takes run short and his vistas aren’t expansive enough (however, there were a few really great shots, especially towards the end). In short, this film could’ve been amazing in a more capable director’s hand (like Michael Mann!).

Beltrami’s score, as has been said, is mixed terribly too low. On its own, the score is ball-bustingly amazing; definitely one of my favorite Beltrami scores. I see where Joan is coming from, because it seems that a fews cues were cut from the final picture (as Sean’s notes); but Joan, baby, I know you’re a Morricone fan like the best of us (me) but give Beltrami a little space. It should also be noted that Beltrami’s score isn’t a direct rip-off of anything Morricone has done in the Western genre, he’s using the same scoring and instrumental techniques but the style is very Beltrami. This score delivers, and I think you’ll enjoy it when it comes to album.

So, yes, I guess I am a Beltrami apologist.

NP> Jerry Goldsmith's The 'Burbs (****/*****)

Do we really need to argue about whether or not Crowe could have gotten away earlier? I suppose he could have. Then of course there would be no movie. And honestly he does pull it off that once and comes close a few times before. For all the film does well story-wise I'm willing to give it just a little suspension of disbelief, being that it's a melodrama and not a bio pic.

I was afraid Beltrami's score was just gonna sit on the sidelines much like his Three Burials score, but it did gather momentum as the story moved on, coming to the forefront toward the end. It was like he was actually building the score up through the film, giving it a sense of progression, which is something that is sort of lacking in recent film scores. Either it's completely in your face from opening to close or usually it's barely a presence at all. It wasn't thematically outstanding, but it wasn't mediocre by any means. You could certainly hear his signature voice throughout. For there being little thematic material, that's quite an achievement isn't it? Especially when we have other composers who throw in a full choir and orchestra and still manage to sound like everyone else and yet no one at all.