So anyway, I was listening to Krull while working tonight, and I stumbled upon a real gem that I had completely forgotten about. It actually kinda pisses me off really - knowing that the man has such an awesome feel for accentuating any given moment in a film so very gloriously, and that he shits all over such a talent so regularly by being one of the most highly skilled musical plagiarists ever.
Sure, Ride of the Fire Mares is awesome, so are the Main Titles, but a real treat happens starting around 1'35" of the Inside the Black Fortress cue (Track 8 on the 2ND disc of the 2-CD SuperTracks bootleg - for those out there who don't have it...find one, NOW!). It's the scene where Colwin first breaks out the Glave to actually use it. He and the others are standing around the dome prison holding Llysa. It's a shit scene really! It would've/could've/should've been a fantastic moment, but thanks to some terrible camera work, blah special effects, and a little poor acting, it more or less failed...until...
Jimbo threw in his score cue.
OK, so it still failed in the end, but thanks to the music, they almost nailed it. This is without a doubt one of the better musical excitement build-ups I can remember. Like I said, alone, the scene flops, but with the score cue, it does a complete 179 degree turn (deduct a degree for the letdown that followed, regardless of how great the music is/was). The orchestra slowly starts revving, and even without the benefit of picture, you still get this wondermous sense of "Stand back folks, you're about to see some serious shit here!". I've heard this cue umpteen thousand times, and last night it still gave me goosebumps. It's brilliant...fan-fucking-tastic. Unfortunately, once the Glave is actually out, the excitement kind of peters-out. It's like waiting for the money shot, and all you get is a puff of air - no release, no boobies covered in a hot puddle of Elmer's glue...just some red-faced lame-ass holding his Johnson ("oops, sorry...my balls must be dry!"). It's a stripper-cake and the bitch is dead because some idiot cooked it with her in it!
But hey, at least the music still kicks ass!
James Horner was a genius, now he's a hack...but a genius hack nonetheless!
3 comments:
In the words of Richard Strauss:
"I may be a second-rate composer, but at least I am a first-rate, second-rate composer!"
This is James Horner's greatest score. Hands down. No contest. Sure he builds on the Holst, Vaughan Williams and Malcolm Arnold he so loves, but aside from Robbie Coltrane's little comic moments ("Can't a man even talk to himself without bein' interrupted?") the score is more-or-less the only thing that makes the film watchable.
Did you know that apparently, Robbie Coltrane was dubbed over! So was Lysette Anthony (she supposedly wasn't British enough!). She's not the greatest actress in the world, but she was relatively easy on the eyes. If the movie had had a couple more $million to play with, and a couple more estabished actors in some lead roles (I shit you not Ken Marshall looks like the poster boy for NAMBLA today - he is the late night sneaky uncle!), it might have been a mega-hit.
Anyway...
I just love digging something older out and finding something new in it...or in this case, rediscovering something wonderful that I had long forgotten about.
Good times, good times!
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