The Soundtrack
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Coma
kayekaye-1 — 17 years ago(July 28, 2008 02:29 PM)
Cacophonous, crashing, clanging, cliched mess. Really intrusive and laughably, horribly like that from some kind of a parody of the genre. Also, the scenes and set pieces - especially those showing Susan's discoveries in the facility - had all suspense removed, nothing coming as a surprise, because of the sound editor's way of using the said sawing violins and screeching brass as a clumsy signal that was about as subtle as an axe. Enough to almost ruin the film entirely - such a shame.
When morning comes twice a day or not at all -
HeartMonger — 17 years ago(September 25, 2008 07:03 AM)
Goldsmith's score to this film is one of his best ever. monty39 said it best, and I will too. Coma also happens to be one of my absolute favorite scores of his of all time. as monty39 said, one of his chilling and beautifully haunting scores he ever did.
Young man is angry! Girl is afraid! He wants to get high, she wants to get paid! City's Burning! -
digiscript34 — 17 years ago(December 04, 2008 05:51 AM)
I think the O.P. was referring to the overall sound mix within the film and I'd agree to a certain extent. Keep in mind this is a film done in the late 70s with a monaural soundtrack so I myself don't expect the same amount of brillience and clarity that I'd expect from a movie made this year.
But that in itsself didn't compromise the overall impact Coma had on its audiences in its original theatrical release. At least not for me, I enjoyed thoroughly, then and now as I occasionally view my own edit that I did for broadcast recently. -
kayekaye-1 — 17 years ago(December 19, 2008 09:47 AM)
OP explains: The score was not that great IMHO but the sound mix was terrible: the editing both within and in introducing the scenes/action, and also the clumsy use of volume changes. This latter technique was first done in Bonnie and Clyde (1968) to emphasize the violent scenes, and was subsequently seized upon and done to death throughout the 70s.
When morning comes twice a day or not at all -
Endut_Hoch_Hech — 16 years ago(April 06, 2009 09:13 AM)
I love the fact that the soundtrack album has both the brilliantly chilling, metallic sounding score and the howlingly dated "Disco Love Theme from Coma". Boy, that Jerry Goldsmith could write in any genre
Thomas, if you is a mouse catcher, I is Lana Turner - which I ain't -
londomollari — 12 years ago(July 17, 2013 02:16 PM)
As a fan of the score, I got a real surprise tonight when listening to a bad copy of the soundtrack for the western Black Patch (1957). This was Goldsmith's first film score and the music has never been officially released.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that parts of that score were re-used for Coma! Black Patch has the same chilling pianos, strings and percussion which sounded so modern and frightening in 1978 way back in 1957. So, some of Coma's standout tracks existed 30 years before!