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Comments
The fact that they never brought him back and struck gold when they brought on David Arnold to score the next FIVE movies speaks volumes.
Is that a fact?
It means they liked Arnold, not necessarily that they disliked Serra. Arnold was "promoted" by Barry after his S&S project. Again, they liked Arnold; it doesn't mean they disliked Serra.
Seems EON doesn’t think Arnold is as essential as many Bond fans seem to believe.
Who ends up scoring the first film for the next Bond will be telling as to their attitudes towards the music. A familiar sound in an unfamiliar film does a lot to put ones mind at ease.
I do think, regardless of how they view the GoldenEye score in isolation, that they realised that Serra was not going to be the guy to score multiple films in the series. I quite like the Serra score. I also quite like the Arnold scores.
Can't blame you, it really is a Geat Score.
CAN I HAVE A WORD WITH YOU?....Another great track from Serra's LÉON - THE PROFESSIONAL.
Yeah, and that's how they'd always seen the non-Barry composers: none of the group of Martin, Hamlisch, Conti or Kamen were brought back for another go, but not because they weren't happy with them, it was just the method to vary the house style occasionally. Once they got to the 90s and it looked increasingly clear that Barry wasn't coming back I guess they thought it can't do any harm to establish a new house style.
I enjoyed Serra's score but I don't remember thinking he'd be back for the next one any more than I thought Sean Bean would.
I think that varying-the-house-style thinking has gone now: I'd be surprised if they don't try and get Zimmer back for the next one.
Drastically changing things up from film to film within the same actor's tenure isn't something I'd personally prefer, especially if the idea of an overarching continuity that they've been experimenting with in the Craig era is to be repeated again (that is, of course, unless it really isn't working creatively).
I'm a stickler for musical continuity; it's one of my pet peeves about the Marvel scores, and why I didn't like Danny Elfman's Justice League score. It's just one of those things that ties everything together nicely.
http://jamesbondradio.com/composer-john-altman-explains-what-went-wrong-with-goldeneyes-score-exclusive-by-matthew-chernov/
According to the attached you are right. But it was too late to sack Serra when they realised. According to Altman, it was Micheal G Wilson who really hated Serra’s score.
Yes, I did like Casino Royale a lot but the bits I didn't like included hanging on to bits and pieces of Brosnan's time, such as Dench (although she was so strong and improved later down the line, so forgivable) and keeping Arnold on. He upped his game and it is a good score, but a fresh sound would have really helped the reboot I think.
Unless it's Thomas Newman? ;)
And Elfman did try and give continuity in his own way by bringing back the most iconic Batman and Superman themes, but I take your point: it's not consistent with the previous films for those versions of those characters.
Haha! No, Newman's scores are fine - I just prefer Arnold's efforts overall. And despite the common opinion, I don't have too much of an issue with the reuse of themes from SF. Most of it, such as the reprisal of "Mother", made perfect sense. It's just his action material in general that I feel is extremely lacking.
Re: Elfman, yes. I saw what he was trying to do; I just found it spectacularly misjudged. It sounded like a Youtube fan score.
But anyway, back to GoldenEye; there's a few bits about the score that I would change, but it hits its marks for the most part. I like Serra's use of drums in particular. There's a great tiny musical moment where Onatopp is stalking Bond in the sauna, and he grabs her and throws her in and raises the PPK before throwing out the "safe sex" line. I love that, and the percussion amps up the coolness of it.
+1.
I don t care for neither the scene nor the accompanying score. Would be really interesting to hear Serra s original score for it.
"A Pleasant Drive In St. Petersburg" is on the album release.
Thanks, I just checked it out. So much better than the boring trite from Altman.
It's a bit video-gamey for my liking but it's fun to listen to. I do like the Altman arrangement as well though.
If you enjoy the scene, maybe that helps? For me it is one of the worst scenes in an already very poor film.
Yeah, that's a fair point; it certainly helps alright! Are you a fan of any of Serra's other scores, @Thunderfinger?
I really like parts of the GE score( e.g. in the statue park scene, that is wonderful), while other parts are really poor (e.g. Monte Carlo car chase scene). Love his Leon score. Not too familiar with the rest of his work. I did see The 5th Element when it came out, but remember nothing of the music, so I guess it didn t stand out either way.
Really. I thought the opposite. Serras version is like a 90’s computer game.
Neither is great or really manages to elevate the scene. It is just that if I should just listen to one of them on its own, the Serra track is much less boring.
Ah right. Fair enough. I prefer the ‘rousing’ quality of Altman’s piece, mainly just because it includes a more blatant use of the Bond theme.
I can understand that. I just don t feel much arousal from either piece honestly, or the scene in itself.
Just as i guessed.Thanks for posting that.
Pleasure. Allegedly, the Producers were happy with Arnold’s more Barryesque traditional sound in TND. To be fair Arnold made that film seem better than it was with his score in my opinion.
Barry was complimentary it seems:
https://www.thejamesbonddossier.com/james-bond-films/tomorrow-never-dies/soundtrack.htm
Agreed. Some rousing brassy Bond sounds for sure.