Path: ...!local-1.nntp.ord.giganews.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-2.nntp.ord.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2024 03:08:35 +0000
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 2024 20:08:35 -0700
From: Pluted Pup <plutedpup@outlook.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
User-Agent: Hogwasher/5.24
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID: <0001HW.2C3103B3004A11EE305AA638F@news.giganews.com>
Subject: Re: Superman (1978) John Williams' score
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
References: <v5hksf$28sr0$1@dont-email.me> <atropos-6B7FBA.12231526062024@news.giganews.com> <0001HW.2C2E243900109E3D30D7BA38F@news.giganews.com>
Lines: 84
X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com
X-Trace: sv3-uqPA50vFx/W21KyC2IoisNkhaKU1NUimRFlWxDKjS1EOTvF/uPrU0So+LsfRyH+6/wlCB1n7QLyui2h!p/4+iodzXiogY30TK1MYV1rjXRzFYzSHMiTYsvdD9O0Je2mAEnsIq5wcntdrghRfkRMFIdM1z4e2!yo1E
X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com
X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
X-Postfilter: 1.3.40
Bytes: 5315

On Thu, 27 Jun 2024 15:50:33 -0700, Pluted Pup wrote:

> On Wed, 26 Jun 2024 12:23:16 -0700, BTR1701 wrote:
>
> > In article<v5hksf$28sr0$1@dont-email.me>,
> > "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>  wrote:
> >
> > > Throughout June, TCM was playing various movies to celebrate the scores
> > > of Hollywood's best-known composers. To honor John Williams, they chose
> > > to play Superman. In the host's comments, it was new information to me
> > > that Jerry Goldsmith had turned the movie down as he was scoring
> > > something else, although you'd think the guy who scored Chinatown over a
> > > weekend after the earlier composer was fired would been able to do it,
> > > just by never sleeping for two months.
> > >
> > > It's a great score, but it's always always always annoyed me that you
> > > cannot hear the score properly over the opening titles because of all
> > > the whooshing noises as each title flies by. I've always hated that.
> > > Salkind hired the guy who had just received an Oscar for Jaws, so I
> > > think the audience really wants to hear the music.
> > >
> > > Yes, I know the main theme is derivative (of previous works of his own,
> > > plus the usual romantic composers that movie music is supposed to sound
> > > like), but the first four notes of that one major theme in the music
> > > conveys such a sense of joy and optimism, it's just perfect.
> >
> > So much of the criticism many film composers have of "being derivative"
> > is wholly undeserved. Almost every time it's done specifically and
> > intentionally by the composer on orders from the director.
>
> The ultimate derivative soundtrack is the "composer"
> Tom Jonson in The Braineaters (1958). It's his only film
> credit on imdb.com, listed as "music by" but on the
> screen itself it says he's the composer.

No, I just rewatched it and the credits say Music By.

> He managed to
> compose his soundtrack to include lots of Russian
> classical music, like Prokofiev's Nevsky Cantata, and others
> I forget, but it's one of my favorite soundtracks!
> I like tried and true classical music much better than the
> freshly composed stuff that imitates classical music.
>
> May as well mention Robot Monster (1953), one of my favorite
> soundtracks, this is unique, so far as I know, by Elmer
> Bernstein, and it's too bad the idea to issue a separate
> soundtrack wasn't pursued so the recorded parts were thrown
> in the trash. (Robot Monster was produced by a rogue's
> gallery).
>
> >
> > For example, the opening scene of STAR WARS, with the huge Imperial Star
> > Destroyer rumbling in overhead, almost endlessly. People say Williams
> > just lifted that part of the score from Holst's "Mars" from "The
> > Planets", but the reality is that Lucas actually temp-tracked that scene
> > with Mars and when Williams came in to score it, Lucas kept sending him
> > notes saying, "Make it sound more like Mars. I really like the sound of
> > Mars there." So Williams basically mimicked Holst's piece as close as he
> > could without risking a copyright violation.
> >
> > So now all these years later, we have lackbrains like Hutt claiming
> > Williams all but plagiarized Mars in STAR WARS.
> >
> > The same is true for so many composers whose creativity is leashed by
> > whatever the director wants, not what they can actually produce.
> >
> > > One of the pieces I really like is "Welcome to Krypton" (I really have
> > > no idea what it's called), slightly reminiscent of Aaron Copland and
> > > early Charles Ives.
> >
> > 1M1 Prelude / 1M1A The Planet Krypton
> >
> > > Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor isn't the way I ever pictured Lex Luthor but
> > > he made it work. Of course it would have been better to create an all-new
> > > character for the movie. Why was Valerie Perrine a henchwoman? Yes, she
> > > got to distract Major Nelson in that one scene
> >
> > Which doesn't age well, as a bunch of soldiers surround a pretty girl
> > passed out on the side of the road and instead of summoning medical
> > help, they all giggle and start planning on how they're going to
> > sexually assault her.