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i own a copy, and am very happy with it. “black beauty” and “scrooged” are both as they’ve already been released; i believe “good will hunting” is from the “for your consideration” cd and sounds completely professional, not to mention beautiful.
wow, i must say… i totally disagree. i think “death proof” is tarantino’s near-masterpiece, right after “jackie brown.” i agree with monsterhead, it was too good for the “grindhouse” format, and that – i think – is keeping some people from seeing the genius of it. as it stands on its own, i think it’s incredible. some of tarantino’s most real observant dialogue ( i can’t think of the last time i heard women sound like real women in a film). the pacing was perfect (deliberately slow, then bam! full speed), like setting the whole thing to invisible music.
what intrigued me most was that the film had a real thematic quality to it, something i was not expecting. i see the whole thing as a very feminist picture. “stuntman mike” uses his car (we all know what that stands in for, it’s no mistake that he’s a stuntman) to keep power over his women in the worst way. when women use the same weapon against him, (remember key dialogue they throw at him, “tap that ass,” etc.), he’s now nothing but a crying baby… who they pull from the safety womb of his car, and pummel to pieces… the end, women are victorious!
what makes “death proof” so exciting to me is that it can be deconstructed in ways most american films cannot. and it’s a pretty damn fine film.
i’ll probably be tarred and feathered for this one, but i thought young’s work here collaborated very well with raimi’s images. the way the music pulsated from begining to end… it rushed in and out like waves, breathing with the pace of the action, until it finally exploded into something like an anti-climax, as does the scene itself. i was at the edge of my seat (this is a terrific action sequence) and the music was a big part of that.
it’s a little simpler than what elfman would have done; less abstract. that’s why elfman’s a better composer, i think. but maybe raimi prefers music that blends with the action, rather than calls attention to itself.just saw “notes on a scandal” last night, and i must say, i was very disappointed in the score. i’m a huge fan of glass, particularly his scores to “the hours” and “kundun,” both of which i think he deserved oscars for. but this time, i felt the music pushed me away rather than brought me in. it was overpowering at times, a little too bombastic, and was hitting the emotions a bit too heavily. i was much more impressed with his score to “the illusionist,” also this year.
if i were voting, i’d go with “pan’s labyrinth.” and “the queen” score would be my runner-up.i myself just revisited this score, and was amazed at how good it really is. and it really foreshadows the direction elfman has gone as a composer… suggesting his later scores such as “to die for” and “freeway.” this may be the best elfman score for a film people never heard of. i’ve also been listening to a lot of “a simple plan.” oh so beautiful.
i agree with you, but i find that burton is one of our most overrated directors. in almost all cases, elfman’s music transcends the film itself (“edward scissorhands” and “batman” are great examples of this). what’s even funnier to me is that burton’s best film, his masterpiece, is “ed wood” – which, as we all know, had no elfman participation. so that may be a good sign re: “sweeney todd.”
navarrete’s “pan’s labyrinth” score is a masterpiece! i was so thrilled to see it nominated. for those of you elfman fans, if you haven’t heard this score, do so right away (preferably within the film). i think you’ll be very pleased with it, it’s right up any elfman fan’s alley.
as for the film itself, i was simply blown away by the power of it. i can easily argue that it is one of the finer accomplishments in filmmaking of recent memory, and is my pick for the best film of the year… and most probably of the decade so far. you can take any scene from it and analyze it to no end; the use of music, sound, imagery, editing, structure, and performance all work together in bringing the genius of the director’s vision to absolute light… every piece fits, and stands alone as a tribute to the art of filmmaking. i have always loved the cinema, but should my love ever dwindle, there are those films that would rekindle my faith: dreyer’s “the passion of joan of arc,” renoir’s “the rules of the game,” disney’s “pinocchio,” kurosawa’s “rashomon,” fellini’s “8 1/2,” kubrick’s “a clockwork orange,” scorsese’s “raging bull,” stone’s “natural born killers,” and now del toro’s “pan’s labyrinth.”
peter gabriel has written a few great scores, particularly for scorsese’s “the last temptation of christ.”
actually, the scene with the apes was more than just an homage… it was right out of “2001: a space odyssey,” with the black monolith replaced by the wonka bar. a little cut-and-paste, that’s all. something tells me, like the scene or not, kubrick would not have been happy with this.
Ah yes, a few scores to his credit – every one of them beautiful.
1939’s Of Mice and Men, 1949’s The Red Pony and The Heiress (which won the Academy Award that year for best original score), and a few more I am yet to hear. If you haven’t heard any of these, at least in parts, get to it right away. And thanks for reading my post.the top fifty american film scores of all time, if you ask me, are in chronological order…
City Lights – Chaplin, 1931
King Kong – Steiner, 1933
The Bride of Frankenstein – Waxman, 1935
The Adventures of Robin Hood – Korngold, 1938
Gone With the Wind – Steiner, 1939
Citizen Kane – Herrmann, 1941
Kings Row – Korngold 1942
Now, Voyager – Steiner, 1942
Laura – Raksin, 1944
Spellbound – Rozsa, 1945
The Best Years of Our Lives – Friedhofer, 1946
Captain From Castile – Newman, 1947
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir – Herrmann, 1947
The Red Pony – Copland, 1949
The Day the Earth Stood Still – Herrmann, 1951
A Streetcar Named Desire – North, 1951
The Bad and the Beautiful – Raksin, 1952
On the Waterfront – L. Bernstein, 1954
East of Eden – Rosenman, 1955
The Man With the Golden Arm – E. Bernstein, 1955
Forbidden Planet – B. Barron / L. Barron, 1956
The Spirit of St. Louis – Waxman, 1957
Touch of Evil – Mancini, 1958
Vertigo – Herrmann, 1958
Anatomy of a Murder – Ellington, 1959
Ben-Hur – Rozsa, 1959
The Alamo – Tiomkin, 1960
Psycho – Herrmann, 1960
Lawrence of Arabia – Jarre, 1962
To Kill a Mockingbird – E. Bernstein, 1962
The Lion in Winter – Barry, 1968
Once Upon a Time in the West – Morricone, 1968
Planet of the Apes – Goldsmith, 1968
The Wild Bunch – Fielding, 1969
The Godfather – Rota, 1972
Murder on the Orient Express – Bennett, 1974
Jaws – Williams, 1975
Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Williams, 1977
Star Wars – Williams, 1977
Altered States – Corigliano, 1980
Chariots of Fire – Vangelis, 1981
Conan the Barbarian – Poledouris, 1982
The Natural – R. Newman, 1984
The Mission – Morricone, 1986
Batman – Elfman, 1989
Glory – Horner, 1989
Edward Scissorhands – Elfman, 1990
The Piano – Nyman, 1993
Schindler’s List – Williams, 1993
Kundun – Glass, 1997
