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Post by Jens Dietrich on Sept 18, 2009 7:36:12 GMT -8
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MikeP
Orchestrator
Posts: 537
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Post by MikeP on Sept 18, 2009 7:45:27 GMT -8
That list is pure gold.
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Post by Jon Broxton on Sept 18, 2009 7:51:02 GMT -8
This is very, very cool.
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cheno
Conductor
Posts: 1,012
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Post by cheno on Sept 18, 2009 14:20:22 GMT -8
All movies without Kevin Bacon?
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Joe Irvin
Conductor
(I'm the one in the middle)
Posts: 815
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Post by Joe Irvin on Sept 21, 2009 13:15:33 GMT -8
Interesting...it does seem to stop just before Hollow Man...
True epicness Jens.
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Post by Jens Dietrich on Sept 21, 2009 15:38:06 GMT -8
Interesting...it does seem to stop just before Hollow Man... That's because I already own any released Goldsmith-scored movies not on this list. That's right, I own Hollow Man. I know, I know... but it comes with a Goldsmith commentary track!
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Joe Irvin
Conductor
(I'm the one in the middle)
Posts: 815
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Post by Joe Irvin on Sept 23, 2009 8:52:11 GMT -8
Yeah, crap...I forgot about that when I sold mine...
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Post by Jon Broxton on Sept 23, 2009 9:31:45 GMT -8
So? Mini-reviews? I'm genuinely interested to hear your thoughts.
On a related issue, I watched THE BLUE MAX for the first time this weekend. Kinda hokey, but the aerial photography was amazing, as was Jerry's score in those scenes.
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Post by Jens Dietrich on Sept 23, 2009 14:06:43 GMT -8
So? Mini-reviews? I'm genuinely interested to hear your thoughts. On a related issue, I watched THE BLUE MAX for the first time this weekend. Kinda hokey, but the aerial photography was amazing, as was Jerry's score in those scenes. I am going to start (very) mini-reviews this weekend. I originally conceived this to be a Twitter thing, but I can also talk about the films some here. I am just kind of a lazy writer. My main problem with The Blue Max is that George Peppard and Ursula Andress are both hopelessly bad actors.
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Post by Jon Broxton on Sept 23, 2009 14:13:16 GMT -8
My main problem with The Blue Max is that George Peppard and Ursula Andress are both hopelessly bad actors. True, but Jeremy Kemp more than makes up for it in sliminess
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Post by Jens Dietrich on Sept 26, 2009 18:25:25 GMT -8
Alright, Jon, you asked for this, the first micro-review:
Even though I saw Lonely Are The Brave first, I am going to write about The Spiral Road now since it's fresher in my mind, and I liked it a whole lot less. It's basically a melodrama about the clash of personality and philosophy between two doctors working in the jungles of Java in 1936, played by Burl Ives and Rock Hudson. Ives represents faith and philanthropy, Hudson represents atheism and pragmatism. Hudson is a brilliant doctor, but he is self-servingly motivated, interested primarily in fame and wealth.
Now I like all this stuff. Both Hudson and Ives are great in their roles, and the dialogue, while a bit hokey, is thoughtful and intelligent. For about an hour and a half or so, I thought it was a fine film. Jerry Goldsmith's score is fantastic, very much in the style of Morituri and The Sand Pebbles, but with even more of an Alex North influence. It's really classic, early Goldsmith and I desperately want it on album.
Then the last fifty minutes kick in with a completely different and bizarre plot line. Hudson goes to investigate some trouble with a native witch doctor practicing black magic, who has been driving several of the other doctors insane (I know, I know... it's fucking ridiculous), and in the process is driven nearly insane himself. Wandering around the jungle by himself, constant drumming preventing him from sleeping, slowly going crazy... he empties his gun into a lake showing a reflection of himself, then stumbles into the arms of a rescue party. In the end, he reevaluates his self-centered mindset, realizing that no man is an island, that man needs a higher power... blah blah blah. It's all rather terrible. As much as I disliked this part of the movie, it's where Goldsmith's score really shines, full of bombastic atonal wonderment. One might call it overscored, but I loved every second of it. Again, I need to obtain this somehow.
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Post by Jens Dietrich on Sept 26, 2009 20:07:44 GMT -8
Fun bit of trivia I just found out, the scene of bearded, insane Rock Hudson stumbling through the jungle which I described above was actually the basis for the into to Monty Python's Flying Circus. From the IMDb:
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Post by Jens Dietrich on Sept 27, 2009 17:45:30 GMT -8
So, I just finished watching Seven Days in May. It's a goddamn amazing movie. Tautly directed by John Frankenheimer, with a powerhouse script by Rod Serling, full of earnest conviction and wit, and strong performances by Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster and Fredric March. March, playing the President, is about to enter a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Russkies, and popular four-star general James Scott is scheming to overthrow him to prevent that from happening, fully convinced the treaty would eventually spell doom for the U.S. Douglas plays an idealistic colonel who learns of the coup and decides to intervene.
It's an incredibly forward-thinking, modern movie for its time, both stylistically and in terms of its political message. The many speeches about the nature of patriotism, loyalty and duty ring as true today is they undoubtedly did then.
Jerry Goldsmith's score is extremely minimal, but also extremely effective. I'd say there's no more than 20 minutes of music in the film, and most of it is just percussion and piano, but dammit if the score doesn't up the tension dramatically every time it makes one of its rare appearances.
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Post by Jon Broxton on Sept 28, 2009 0:23:29 GMT -8
Sounds excellent. Thanks for doing these, Jens... I'm really interested in hearing more!
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Post by Yavar Moradi on Oct 10, 2009 13:01:42 GMT -8
Yeah, I want to hear more too!
Yavar
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