This would be so much better with a decent soundtrack. Terrible music.
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pacwarbuff — 15 years ago(August 21, 2010 04:13 AM)
Jerry Fielding is a "Love Him or Hate Him"-type composer.
I once dismissed his work because of what I felt were his lack of "hummable" themes, yet I realized that I had been listening for years to things in Jazz that have that same kind of floating, "In/Out" sound with avant-gardeI'm searching for terms here "textures"in that they may not be melodic like John Williams', but the sound Fielding's music makes is itself memorable, like his Arthur Bishop motif from The Mechanic, which in terms of Fielding is actually quite catchy! No one does percussion or that "churning strings" effect like he did and it's instantly recognizable.
With Fielding, melodies weren't the point. He marries the music to the images and it always works wonderfully. Whenever I listen to his "Chato's Land" score, I hear and see the desert, which is practically a character in that film. The fact that he could do that and convince me of it, is testament to Fielding's great ability.
I struggled with Fielding's music for decades until his music for Kolchak: The Night Stalker showed me the way! That 8/4 time signature themeoften played during shots of the Chicago skylinewas the kicker! After years of rejecting Fielding's music for what it wasn't (with John Williams-like, "feel good" melodies)and accepting it for what it was (dark, brooding, and "difficult"; much like the era in which it was composed), he became my favorite composer.
Consilio et prudentia -
sherlock-37 — 11 years ago(March 11, 2015 05:17 PM)
It's a brilliant score, in my ears.
The brilliance of the movie is at least, 1/2 because of the brilliance of this score by Jerry Fielding. It's definitely not a knock off project for him.
I wouldn't bother watching the movie without the score. The images and score are a perfect match.
Is the score all original, or is there some, say, Alban Berg in there? I understand there is some Mozart played in situ, as part of the set sounds. The score becomes part of the sounds of the set, at one point. Very film noir a la French policier. Funny, there are no police here. It's really a three actor piece, plus the fourth actor; the score by Fielding. I loved the score from the first time I saw the movie in the 70's except, I didn't exactly know what I was listening to. Now, I know. It's 100% genius.
My accountant says, 1 + 1, 40% of the time, equals divorce. -
mail-2217 — 11 years ago(March 18, 2015 07:37 PM)
Wow I just saw the intro on cable and -my- thought was 'Who is -that- guy? I didn't know Charles Bronson movies had such -great- music!'
Whoever the guy was? Talented. So many of the guys who used to do Outer Limits and lots of TV shows they could -really- write and arrange like Schoenberg, Bartok, etc. You never hear really cool string writing like this nowadays. -
DracTarashV — 10 years ago(June 10, 2015 02:47 PM)
A typical 1970s funk-style score would have been so much better to you. I think this is a kick ass movie, but Jerry Fielding's score elevates it from very good to memorable. It's a brilliant score in my mind.
Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!