Mission Impossible articles, interviews, etc.

[DannyBiker]

I’m currently working on a paper about filmmusic and I’d like to find articles or interviews about Mission : Impossible by Brian De Palma. I’m looking for trivia related to the music and film or music analysis.

Thanks !

[Dawg Man]

I can’t think of any off the top of my head. I remember a while back Elfman saying something to the extent of the whole Mission: Impossible thing feeling really surreal and weird. It wasn’t only that it was a last minute kind of score. De Palma was, along with Scorsese back in the 70’s, one of the young directors who respected and used a lot of the ailing and aging Bernard Herrmann’s talents — Elfman’s #1 influence. Obsession and The Bride Wore Black were two movies I think they did together (correct me if I’m wrong). Herrmann had even signed to do Carrie but died during Taxi Driver.

The whole experience felt, therefore, like Elfman was taking the reigns from Herrmann while working with De Palma all those years later.

[Monsterhead]

For whatever it’s worth: Herrman did the following for De Palma; SISTERS and OBSESSION. Truffaut made THE BRIDE WORE BLACK and also FARENHEIT 451 (with music by Benny). There is a very good article as part of the liner notes for SISTERS DVD out on Criterion. The article is called “Murder by Moog: Scoring The Chill” and was in fact written by De Palma and appeared in The Village Voice back in 1973.

In it, De Palma recounts his experience working with Herrmann…

I do not think that you’ll find much on MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. Elfman was not De Palma’s choice and was brought in by Tom Cruise against the director’s will. Elfman replaced Alan Silvestri, right?

[Author]

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