A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
|
|
|
World of Westfahl |
Encyclopedia Introduction |
All Entries |
Acknowledgements
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
(1929–2004). American film composer.
Previously composed music used in: "Nightmare at 20,000
Feet" (1963), episode of The Twilight
Zone; The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (tv
series) (1966-1967); The Mouse from
H.U.N.G.E.R. (animated short) (Abe Levitow 1967); Conquest of the
Planet of the Apes (uncredited) (Thompson 1972); Kingdom of the Spiders (John "Bud"
CARDOS 1977); The Dark (Cardos 1979);
Game of Death II (See-Yuen Ng 1981); Supergirl: The Making of the Movie (documentary)
(Peter Hollywood 1984); Star Trek: The
Next Generation (tv series) (1987-1994); Omen IV: The Awakening (tv movie) (Jorge Montesi and Dominique
Thenin-Girard 1991); "Caretaker" (1995), episode of
Star Trek: Voyager; "Damien" (1998), episode of South Park; Behind
the Planet of the Apes (documentary) (Kevin Burns and David Comtois 1998);
"Small Soldiers: Size Doesn't Matter" (1998), episode of HBO First Look; Hollow Man:
Anatomy of a Thriller (documentary short) (2000); Fleshing
Out the Hollow Man (documentary) (Jeffrey Schwarz 2000); Visions of Mars (documentary short)
(Schwarz 2001); Imagining Total Recall (documentary
short) (Schwarz 2001); Creating a Myth
... The Memories of Legend (documentary) (J. M. Kenny 2002); Shock and Awe: The Return of Alien (documentary)
(David Hughes 2003); The Beast Within:
The Making of Alien (documentary) (Charles de Lauzirika 2003);
Star Trek: The Experience—Borg Invasion
4D (short) (Ty Granorolli 2004); The
Curse of the Omen (tv documentary) (John McLaverty 2005); The Omen (John Moore 2006).
Appeared in: The
Omen Revealed (documentary) (Kenny 2000).
What's that, you say? You were expecting another name?
Well, I'll mention that other fellow later, but for now, let me focus on the
case for Goldsmith. His career commands attention, first of all, because of its
breadth and its length. He began by working for television, contributing
distinctive music to several episodes of The
Twilight Zone, including his extensive, amazing efforts for the classic
episode that entirely lacked dialogue, "The Invaders." After he had left the
series, his music was surely reused
in more later episodes than the one episode ("Nightmare at 20,000 Feet") that I
happen to know featured his recycled work. He moved on to other early science
fiction series like Thriller, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and
The Man from U.N.CL.E., until John
FRANKENHEIMER recruited him to accentuate the suspense of his grim near-future
thrillers Seven Days in May and Seconds. He went on to a productive forty years of
film work, usually at least one film score per year. But his first major
triumph was his score for Planet of the
Apes. As a teenager, when I saw the film for the first time, I was struck
by the odd-sounding music that accompanied the opening scenes of the film,
which was doing far more than the actors or director to convey that the
astronauts had indeed landed in a strange, unsettling world full of grim
surprises to come. He also had the wisdom to write absolutely no music at all for
the film's final scene, fully recognizing that its stunning conclusion would
have the greatest impact with nothing but the sounds of the ocean waves and
Charlton HESTON's anguished scream.
Goldsmith then became a film composer who regularly
received major assignments, including several of the big-budget science fiction
movies that became increasingly common in the 1970s, largely due to the success
of the Goldsmith-scored Planet of the
Apes. But an achievement that really
stands out is his score for The Omen.
Watching the rough cut, Goldsmith surely recognized that, despite the
high-profile talents involved with the film, it was in fact an execrable mess,
and the only possible solution would be some unusual, and unusually prominent,
music to provide the needed aura of suspense and excitement that the film so
obviously lacked. Skillfully employing a high-pitched vocal chorus to great
effect, Goldsmith triumphed against impossible odds to make the movie a huge
hit, paradoxically just about the only film around that is worth watching
solely in order to listen to its score. An awestruck Academy gave Goldsmith his
only Oscar for Best Original Score and even, bizarrely, nominated a ditty from
Goldsmith's score named "Ave Satani" for Best Original Song.
At this point, with statuette in hand and a track record
of proven success, Goldsmith should have become the most sought-after film
composer in Hollywood.
Unfortunately, there was at the time a trite, bombastic, overemphatic film
composer named John WILLIAMS who had teamed up with a trite, bombastic,
overemphatic director named Steven SPIELBERG to score a few big hits, inspiring
everyone in Hollywood
to want their next film to have a John Williams score. In these dire
circumstances, Goldsmith then became the man you asked to create a John
Williams score whenever John Williams wasn't available. The first major sign of
this sad development was Goldsmith's work for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. True, the film did have a few
touches of the old Goldsmith, like the ominously low-pitched tones that
accompanied the immense alien spacecraft V'Ger, and true, the film's rousing
theme music was regularly used in later films and the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, becoming
the music most closely associated with the durable Star Trek franchise. (Indeed, as additional evidence of his genius,
consider how often Goldsmith's music has been reused by later filmmakers who could well afford to commission
original work—so that, long after his death, one must continue to update his
filmography.) But, for the most part, the score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture was perfectly functional but
unmemorable.
So, although Goldsmith would go on to competently score
many of the most noteworthy science fiction films of the next two decades—including Alien, Twilight Zone—The
Movie, Gremlins, Innerspace,
three more Star Trek movies, and the
zany Looney Tunes: Back in Action,
his last credited work—the music generally lacked the magic of his earlier
work. It is as if Goldsmith was surrendering
to the limited expectations of his employers: fine, he seemed to say, if you
want John Williams music, I'll give you John Williams music. But Goldsmith had
shown, many times over, that he could do much better than that.
|
||||||||
To contact us about encyclopedia matters, send an email to Gary Westfahl. Hosted & Designed By:
If you find any Web site errors, typos or other stuff worth mentioning,
please send it to our Webmaster.
Copyright © 1999–2013 Gary Westfahl All Rights Reserved Worldwide
