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Nathan Johnson.
Jesper Kyd.
Paul Leanord Morgan
Or my no 1 choice, David Arnold.
I really loved Dredd's soundtrack.
EON didn't totally cast him aside either, like some here think they did.. Arnold was ready to go for SF, but Mendes preferred working with a composer he had worked with before (which isn't uncommon for directors to do).. and with that he graciously stepped aside.. Arnold still did some work for the 007 Legends game, and also worked on stuff for the Olympics (which featured a 007 opening).... David is still in EON's good graces, and unless he completely drops the ball on a score *cough cough Eric Serra* then he'll continue to be..
Arnold's best work (IMO) has come when he's had a hand in crafting the title theme - TND, TWINE, and CR.. and if you look, those 3 films arguably also provide his best scores... the melodies from either the title theme, or secondary/credits theme are woven all through them...
Newman's score was decent, but i prefer the music to DAD or QOS more... Newman's SF had some good tracks, but at times he came off as sounding more like a poor man's Hans Zimmer - which is what i feared when he was revealed as the composer... there isn't anything on Newman's score that i could put against any of Arnold's more memorable pieces and not be smashed to bits - like "Paris & Bond" "Kowloon Bay" "Elektra's Theme" "Vesper" "City Of Lovers" "Camille's Story" or "Perla De Las Dunas".... the only ones that i could think of that come close from Newman are either "Skyfall" or "Komodo Dragon"....... and as much as people bitched about Arnold's lack of reoccurring melodies - Newman did it even less (reused tracks doesn't count, as Newman did plenty of that) - and hell, he even had to borrow a bit from Arnold for his SF score....
bottom line.. is when i hear a score to a Bond movie, it should not sound like any other movie that is out.. the scores should be unique to Bond, and have their own flavor, and their own quality that can only be rated against itself and previous Bond scores.... all Newman provided was a score that made Bond sound like every other action movie, and thats dull... it's like watching a Star Wars film and expecting to hear the brilliant John Williams score, but all you get is Tyler Bates instead.....
if Mendes was so heavily inspired by TDK, then he just should've gotten Zimmer to do the score - because all Newman did on SF was his best to sound just like him..
how his score got an Oscar nod, and CR didn't is beyond my comprehension..
About the Oscar nod, Newman is Hollywood royalty , doesn't matter if Arnold makes a score 3 times better than Newman's he will never get the honour.
On a side note : Newman's Score in my opinions is ok-ish to good. Arnold's score is great.
But there were some points in Newman's score which was just weird. Like in the PTS when Bond gets out of the Range Rover. Those moments felt so out of context.
As a composer Newman is indeed better as he is a fullfledged composer, which DA just not is. SO the chance of DA making a score 3 times better could be possible but with his recent two outings he did not show any skill in coming up with something remotely original imho.
The scores of both CR & QoB were poor and showed that DA could not come up with any invigorating or exciting stuff on his own. Newmans score was indeed ok-ish but a great deal more interesting than the pastiches DA did offer.
For a Bondfan it is hard to understand how you canot want some new perspective on the Bond music, we should get the best for the franchise and before DA we did get quite some talent. I would like to see that return which would mean that DA finds himself another toy to play with and leave it for a change for the real talent because in my book the franchise does deserve it and it is about time they are getting it.
which is what everyone was hailing Newman for - finally some new blood.. could he offer up a one off score that could rival or top Martin's? or Hamlisch's? or Conti's? or Kamen's?...... we already knew it would be better than Serra's so thats not even up for debate...... but all Newman did was give us status quo action music.... Arnold's music might have sounded 'by the numbers' and 'status quo' for not only yourself but countless others - but at least it felt and sounded like a Bond score... Newman's score you could've transposed over any other film at it would've fit.. it was too vanilla and lacked any identity...
i'd put it alongside Kamen's score in the "decent, but not great" category... but it definitely pales compared to the other one off composers (minus Serra), and dare i say the majority of Arnold's work as well.
That's your opinion mate ;) .
Personally I loved it ! So much so that earlier I used to kick off my day by just cranking up the volume on my home theatre and playing a good action scene from either Casino Royale or Quantum Of Solace. Its just so thrilling and exciting and gets you in the Bond mood imo.
I think that it works far better for SF than Arnold's style of score would. Could Newman give us a more traditional score for a more traditional Bond film? There's only one way of knowing. But I would have no problem with him returning. The only problem I could see is that 20 years from now the score may sound far more dated than any of Barry's scores ever did - somewhat similar to the "disco" score from TSWLM. But as so many elements of Bond films are product of, and representative of, their time it doesn't concern me too much.
Excellent post and I agree with every word.
I'd argue that a good percentage of Skyfalls success is not just down to Mendes but the fact he bought Deakins on board for the visuals and Newman for the soundtrack. Newman totally nails it and his score is dynamic and re-tells the story if you listen to the soundtrack outside of the movie.
For example, take the opening track (Grand Bazaar Istanbul) the first two notes are pure Bond and then it adapts to the visuals. It's inquisitive as we the viewer, along with Bond, don't know what is around the next corner and once established it changes again into more dramatic music with an Arabic twang perfectly suited for the situation. Moving forward, the track ends how it started with the Bond theme as Bond jumps onto the train. After M asks what is going on, finds out Bond is on a train she forcefully instructs Eve with the following line “Well get after them for God sake!”.
As Eve reacts so does the music and Newman hits us with a brand new track (The Bloody Shot) which frankly is superb. Especially the last 30 seconds as it enhances the tension on top of the train with Eve lining up the shot and it plays out perfectly. That opening scene simply wouldn’t work without Newman’s music.
Not that it would be bad but if Arnold was to score that opening scene it would have been one long track with overuse of the main Bond signature theme with drawn out fills.
Newman’s soundtrack is more intelligent and a big reason, even if sublimely, why Skyfall was so successful. It’s also another reason why his score was nominated for an Oscar.
Its the same for Arnold and for every other descent composer out there , Arnold gets Bond , He adapts mundane sounds and give it a Bondish vibe, Just hear the 'Bond in Haiti' cue , you hear the lushness of Haiti and with a tinge of Bond
And not all of his scores are rehash of the Bond tune, 'death of vesper', 'Bolivian Taxi Ride' and many many more.
Awesome comparison there.
Mark, are you a musician or composer that has the technical knowledge to make such a statement? My opinion is that if you were listening to the music and not other people's opinions here on the board, you'd realize Barry's Bond music was updated for the times (a new perspective and approach that Kamen briefly touched on) by Arnold and if you had the technical knowledge you would hear lots of original things going on in rhythms and structure. He's grown there and even the musicians here who don't like him admitted he'd at least improved a good deal with the QOS effort. You not seeing that only proves to me that Arnold should come back because you didn't make one good point in defending a redundant Newman effort as a better one.
true... DA doesn't conduct an orchestra - but he does indeed write his own music, which still makes him a composer - just not as you say, a full fledged composer/conductor... he came from a different musical background than the majority of the classically trained composers out there - but i don't think that makes him any less of a talented artist..
and the fact that Newman is much more advanced composer than Arnold is - and all we got was Zimmer2.0, that really bothers me.... it felt way too dull and average, especially coming from someone who has been around as long as Newman has...
I just don't think Newman "gets" Bond in terms of music.... he didn't do anything on his score that Arnold didn't already do, and do better.... i would take "Time To Get Out"
The Palio" "Bond in Haiti" "Night At The Opera" "Camille's Story" and "Perla De Las Dunas" off the QOS soundtrack, over anything Newman arranged on SF..
What the SF soundtrack lacked was just the opposite: recurrent themes.
almost 99% of scores are written and arranged to what is going on onscreen.. thats why everything is timed up.. very rarely do we get a written score, that is chopped apart to suite the movie - it happens, but not overly often...
the Grand Bazaar track... meh.. it's 'okay' - like the rest of the score.. but it just doesn't do it for me.. i always skip by it because i find it dull and uninteresting... just my personal opinion....
now, take this track from Arnold, and contrast compare to Newman's "Grand Bizarre" - both opened films... and your're correct, Arnold did use variants on the Bond theme in this track - but so did Barry, many a time.. what is wrong with that??.. i don't mind certain note progressions being used - as long as it's not the full traditional theme used over and over and over.. which, in Arnold's last 2 scores, he did very little of..
no.. but a lot of his orchestration sounds damn near identical to something Zimmer would've done - hell, the one part of his score damn near is identical the batman theme used in Nolan's films.. i mean, note by note, it was the same..
i just think, and feel, that for all the boasting the Arnold haters were giving Newman - and to end up with what we got was a bit of disappointment.... i'm not saying his score is awful... i've heard awful before... but it just felt average, and i see nothing special with it - which is a shame...
if people want to move forward from Arnold and get a better composer - fine, i am all for it... but Newman was an overrated lateral move.
I got the same feeling ,while hearing one of the tracks , I can't remember which one it was , the one in Shanghai ?
Read my mind !
James Newtown Howard
Why you ask
yeah that is all I need to say
He has also worked on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight in team with Hans Zimmer. Now THOSE are great tracks.
I'm pretty sure it's the moment when M and Kincade duck into the priest-hole. When the music kicked in, I was expecting a slew of bats to burst out of the tunnel a la Batman Begins.
no... it's the part in the film where Bond is hanging onto the elevator that Patrice is in....
the long tilt shot up showing the elevator on it's ascent up the building is where we hear it..
But Arnold`s soundtracks were brilliant. Especially TND. CR and QOS.