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Goldeneye Score by Eric Serra: Severely Underrated?

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  • Goldeneye95Goldeneye95
    edited December 2012 Posts: 546
    I agree %100!!! The Goldeneye score from Eric Serra is very underrated. I love the Cold War music. I listen to it on my iPhone & still enjoy it to this day.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    FromCanadaWithLove wrote:
    I rank Serra's score as the worst in the entire franchise. Sorry.
    While I'm not a big fan of the score, I think it's rather good in what atmosphere it attempts to create.
    Bill Conti's score, however, is one of the main reasons I cannot own, nor ever watch again the Bond movie it totally ruins for me. THAT makes Serra's score look like pure genius by comparison. :-<
  • RossiRossi
    edited December 2012 Posts: 157
    At least, his score is something original. it's not a John Barry's ill-fated pastiche, just like, hmmm, some cues from that other fellow...
  • SirHenryLeeChaChingSirHenryLeeChaChing
    edited December 2012 Posts: 3,494
    That means nothing if "original" sucks as bad as this score does. Pastiche, please. At least I know I'm listening to a Bond soundtrack.
  • quantumofsolacequantumofsolace England
    Posts: 279
    A terrible score for a terrible film.
  • GetafixGetafix
    Posts: 11,425
    Arnold has taken his pastiche work up a notch recently. He's not a touch on Barry but he's been doing a better job than Newman managed. I'd be happy to see someone else given a go but on the strict understanding that they're scoring a Bond movie and not a generic action film. However, I'd also be prepared for Arnold to return. Better the devil you know....
  • SirHenryLeeChaChingSirHenryLeeChaChing
    Posts: 3,494
    Getafix wrote:
    Arnold has taken his pastiche work up a notch recently. He's not a touch on Barry but he's been doing a better job than Newman managed. I'd be happy to see someone else given a go but on the strict understanding that they're scoring a Bond movie and not a generic action film. However, I'd also be prepared for Arnold to return. Better the devil you know....

    My biggest problem right there with the GE soundtrack. This should be a prerequisite for any composer hired for a Bond film, to understand and give us the Bond sound. The films demand that as it's part of the legacy Barry left. Arnold, despite his deficiencies in the action department, does that and he's getting better at doing so while injecting some things of his own that worked, QOS was a big step forward for him and I'd be content with another effort which I think he will get.

    I liked the SF soundtrack because I can at least say that Newman paid some attention to the legacy, unlike Serra.


  • brinkeguthriebrinkeguthrie Piz Gloria
    Posts: 1,400
    Risico wrote:
    imranbecks wrote:
    Any insights as to why they used Eric Serra in the first place back then when they were producing Goldeneye? Wasn't there a better composer around back then? At the time, there were the likes of Jerry Goldsmith and Hans Zimmer, and not forgetting David Arnold whom they later used after GE onwards. Why did they go with Eric Serra?

    Thinking back to 1995, it was probably on the strength of his score for Leon (aka The Professional), with Jean Reno and Natalie Portman.

    Just read that John Barry was offered the Goldeneye job but turned it down.
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    Serra's score was awful and a poor copy and paste job of his work fir La Femme Nikita and Leon.
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,196
    There are some interesting aspects to the Goldeneye score but on a whole it's disappointing.

    Often one has to be forced out of a comfort zone; This was done to Arnold with Casino Royale; he had to compose without relying on the James Bond theme. Outside of Tomorrow Never Dies, Casino Royale is his finest work. I am not against Arnolds return; the break may produce an inspired score.
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    CR still sounded 100% Bondian. It's easily his most mature-sounding work for all the Bond movies he had worked on. Serra's score was , to be kind, interesting, as it to this date the score with the biggest departure of Bond sounding music. As I mentioned, his score overall sounds like a lazy rehash of Leon and La Femme Nikita. Serra really phoned it in imo.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,264
    From what I've heard in the film itself, I'd say it deserves to be even more underrated.
  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    For all the action that ensues in Goldeneye, and Brosnan does well, the overall scores that year were disappointing. Even Turner's theme intro, isn't actually up to much, but a damn fine effort than some other artist releases of the last fifty years we could mention. I have nothing against Serra as an individual, but once again, some of the music we got to hear that year, was questionable to say the least. I always switch off when Goldeneye ends to save any subsequent music heard
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,264
    Baltimore_007 wrote:
    For all the action that ensues in Goldeneye, and Brosnan does well, the overall scores that year were disappointing. Even Turner's theme intro, isn't actually up to much, but a damn fine effort than some other artist releases of the last fifty years we could mention. I have nothing against Serra as an individual, but once again, some of the music we got to hear that year, was questionable to say the least. I always switch off when Goldeneye ends to save any subsequent music heard

    Yes, that'll be good ol' Serra whining on with 'The Experience of Love'
  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    The very same, Sir

    I call it "The experience of turning off and not listening"
  • SirHenryLeeChaChingSirHenryLeeChaChing
    Posts: 3,494
    Baltimore_007 wrote:
    The very same, Sir

    I call it "The experience of turning off and not listening"

    I call it "the experience of ripping off Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music" ;)


  • TheBondFanTheBondFan
    Posts: 822
    I just watched GE, and tbh, I could not stand the music.
  • dramaticscenesofQOSdramaticscenesofQOS
    Posts: 1,282
    People tend to forget the better parts of Serra's score such as the song "Experience ...." at the end and how well it goes with the scene. Serra used synths that were commonly used in the 90's for many movies and tv shows. Such movies as far foward as 2000 like The In Crowd used these same synths.

    Aside from being a person of his time in an otherwise timeless film, Serra's score seems very focused on blending his music with the mood that the movie wants to convey: that of a Bond living in a world where time has moved on past the Cold War and that of his feeling of being peerless. This is best sounded-out when he finally meets Alec again "back from the dead". Another mood blending instance is his score for when he's on the beach with Natalia. The scenery and score blended well together although the acting surely did not live up: bad acting and passive dialogue pressed onto the audience.

    It seems like the composers who work very well to closely blend their scores to fit the mood that the writers are trying to convey on-screen are the ones who take the brunt end of the stick: Thomas Newman's score isn't all that good and it borrows a bit from CR yet David Arnold didn't get an Oscar nomination for neither CR nor QOS for pieces like The Dead Don't Care About Vengeance"
  • robbie313robbie313
    Posts: 16
    I can honestly say that I would actually enjoy GoldenEye a lot better if Serra's score weren't attached to the film. It's a complete pile of crap.
  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    Can't argue that, and if only they had found someone else to do the closing music other than Serra, it could of been so much better. If people liked it, or thought it was some good sounds, then fair enough, but I'm not buying into it. Why wasn't Turner asked to do the end music instead ? Would of been such an improvement
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    edited January 2013 Posts: 9,117
    dramaticscenesofQOS wrote:
    People tend to forget the better parts of Serra's score such as the song "Experience ...." at the end

    How to render your argument meaningless in the opening statement! I'm guessing youre not a high court barrister dramaticscenesofQOS?
  • bondsumbondsum
    Posts: 3,333
    I agree with @SirHenryLeeChaChing on this one. I blame film-composer agent Richard Kraft for not only suggesting Serra but persuading him to take the job after first turning it down. Serra says: "When they called me to score this movie, they said that they were big fans of my music, so I thought the best thing was to write my music, and not to be influenced by the old James Bond.... So I just did what I wanted."

    And there lies the problem with the score for me, at times it sounds like someone on magic mushrooms let loose on a synthesizer keyboard. As @SirHenryLeeChaChing states, at least Newman and Arnold understood they were composing a Bond movie and were clever enough to give nods towards Barry and the past within their compositions.

    Even Serra recognizes he should have perhaps paid more attention to the legacy rather than playing the frustrated artist once the critics had their say. Serra says: "Now I would have composed something different to avoid the problems, plus I would have been a bit more professional instead of being so artistic."
  • MalloryMallory
    Posts: 2,159
    Goldeneye is not a Bond score.

    However it is the right score for the film. It defines Goldeneye. The entire tone of the film, the portrayal of Bond, and how the franchise is having to move away from the Soviet Cold War era that had existed until that point.

    The film deals with the effects of the cold war finishing, and a large chunk of the story (pretty much everything up until they go Cuba) deals with this. I would find it very tough to watch the St Petersberg/Severnya scenes with a traditional bond score. It just wouldn't work. The score amplifies the script, and the cloud the end of the soviet era casts over the first and second acts.

    It doesn't completely work. The score for the Aston/Ferrari chase is pretty shocking, and the original score for the tank chase is hideous, and I'm glad they replaced it. I find that the majority of the score does incorporate the Bond theme really well, and Serra provides some really interesting interpolations of it. It's not Barry's 007 theme, nor is it Normans's, it's Serra's version of the Bond theme. and in this film it really works.

    As I mentioned, Goldeneye is a very different Bond film, and Serra's score recognises this. I wouldn't change it for anything.
  • SirHenryLeeChaChingSirHenryLeeChaChing
    Posts: 3,494
    bondsum wrote:
    I agree with @SirHenryLeeChaChing on this one. I blame film-composer agent Richard Kraft for not only suggesting Serra but persuading him to take the job after first turning it down. Serra says: "When they called me to score this movie, they said that they were big fans of my music, so I thought the best thing was to write my music, and not to be influenced by the old James Bond.... So I just did what I wanted."

    And there lies the problem with the score for me, at times it sounds like someone on magic mushrooms let loose on a synthesizer keyboard. As @SirHenryLeeChaChing states, at least Newman and Arnold understood they were composing a Bond movie and were clever enough to give nods towards Barry and the past within their compositions.

    Even Serra recognizes he should have perhaps paid more attention to the legacy rather than playing the frustrated artist once the critics had their say. Serra says: "Now I would have composed something different to avoid the problems, plus I would have been a bit more professional instead of being so artistic."

    Thank you! I hadn't heard of nor read Serra's comments about the score but it's nice to read it and feel justified in what had been only my educated opinion as a fellow composer to this point, that indeed Serra did do what he wanted without regard to the musical legacy. I always knew he was more capable than this sonic garbage after listening to other work he had composed and always wondered what he was thinking. It takes a real man to publicly admit he put out a crummy effort by Bond standards and his own, and I have greater respect for him and his talent as a result.



  • bondsumbondsum
    Posts: 3,333
    It's a pleasure, @SirHenryLeeChaChing. I copied the quotes from Jon Burlingame's excellent The Music of James Bond book where each chapter is dedicated to every Bond musical score up until QoS. Worth a read if you like your Bond music.
  • hawkehawke
    Posts: 1
    Well Serra's score for Goldeneye had some interesting cues to say the least, but as mentioned earlier in this thread already this score was indeed the first actual "odd man out" in the series of Bond scores.
    Let's be honest here, if they hadn't redone the "Drive in St-Petersburg" track in the last instance, there would have been absolutely nothing on this soundtrack that would have resembled the real Bondian music feel/vibe.
    It seems that Eric Serra's ego was so big that he said like: "hey I am bigger than anything that the Bond franchise has to offer, so I will just score the music that I feel like I embody and give a big a screw you to every-Bond-body"

    I just invite you to listen to the score of Luc Besson's movie "LEON" (also scored by Eric Serra) and find out how much similar it is to the Goldeneye Score.

    Luckily after Serra, David Arnold took over, who as John Barry admirer could put his ego aside and take the Bond music into the 21st century while staying true to the series.

    And when everyone was criticizing (imho wrongfully) Arnold for becoming too predictable and uninspiring, Thomas Newman took over the role of scoring the Skyfall score.
    And in my opinion Newman did let his ego speak in exactly the same way as Eric Serra did in 1995 and also produced a score which isn't typically Bondian.

    Funny how time changes, and in this case (with the help of the bought media and the sickening marketing system) Newman is even nominated for an Oscar on this one..
  • GetafixGetafix
    Posts: 11,425
    The GE score is the worst Bond score ever.
  • BlofeldsCatBlofeldsCat
    Posts: 15
    Yeah this is probably the worst, but it has a distinct character and I do think that for better or for worse it helps Goldeneye stand out amongst the canon and that this distinctness contributes towards some considering Goldeneye a classic (although I don't think it is personally). The score can be dark, creepy and industrial when it works well and is very reminiscent of the Cold War and Soviet Russia which is pretty cool.

    But at the same time there's just some utter shit tracks in there which are just inappropriate and clash with the scenes they're put with. "Ladies First" and "We Share The Same Passions" lead the pack, and as for "A Pleasant Drive in St. Petersburg"....holy shit.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    hawke wrote:

    I just invite you to listen to the score of Luc Besson's movie "LEON" (also scored by Eric Serra) and find out how much similar it is to the Goldeneye Score.

    Are you joking? Leons score is genius whilst GEs is awful. The only similarity is the scene with Bond and Natalya on the beach and even that is a pale imitation of anything in Leon.

    You arent yet another troll by any chance are you?
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,960
    Wow, people absolutely loathe Serra's GE score.

    I...I enjoy it. Bring on the love hate.
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