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Having said that, Time to Get out 1-3 IMO.
There are some very good compositions on SF, but The Bloody Shot is not one of them.
It's not the best but it is a likable track. It's too repetitive though. It loops, goes into an action beat then loops again. It's too simplistic and lacks any complexity. Not my favorite.
Time To Get Out:
A tense buildup followed by great exciting chase music. It keeps your heart pumping and you at the edge of your seat. This is a good example of Arnold not needing to use the Bond theme for an action scene.
I agree. QoS was far and away his best work IMO. He was overusing the Bond theme far less in this movie and in CR, and I enjoyed both as a result.
I disagree. He might have in TND but he restrained himself after that. You can never use enough of the Bond theme. I could see why it wasn't used so much in CR but It needed it more in QOS and SF even. It's a Bond movie and a Bond movie needs the Bond theme.
Arnold's best work was on TND and especially TWINE in my opinion. He did so much more inventive work on those soundtracks.
In this particular case I think "The Bloody Shot" is the one track on the Skyfall-album on which Thomas Newman completely excells as action composer. I especially like the final 30 seconds. The climac is so much more nuanced and inventive compared to "Time To Get Out".
3 - 1 for "The Bloody Shot".
I seem to recall having this debate before. We disagree on this. Less is more when it comes to the Bond theme IMO.
Additionally, IMO, if you must use it, integrate it into the composition. This is what Barry did masterfully and so it seemed like a new track every time, even though he was using the Bond theme in it. he create a new melody around it. It's difficult to do, but when it's pulled off, it's amazing. He only overused it in the earlier films (pre-TB) when he was still getting his feet wet.
I really don't see how less is more. It's a freaking Bond movie. Less has never been part of the formula. It's always More with more. Bond has never been "Less" Less Bond theme in a Bond movie makes it Less of a Bond movie.
We may disagree but that doesn't mean the debate has to stop. This is a comparing thread after all. I want more Bond theme in my scores. It tells me it's a Bond movie and that $&^% is going down. Without it you just have a generic spy movie score. Bond is anything but "less."
It's difficult to explain and I don't want to derail this thread. Barry integrated the Bond theme into his score in each of the later movies beautifully. You could discern it but it felt as part of a newer composition.
That to me is the way to do it. It's more difficult to do and just blasting it out there to me is regressing. I rarely saw Arnold integrate it properly.
He didn't use it at all or much in either CR or QoS and I preferred both of these scores from him because of it. When he used it, it was too obvious to my ears. Not when Barry did it in later years particularly.
It's just my preference. There's no right or wrong here as we are debating music. I'm not going to get into it here because I will derail Gustav's thread, which is focusing on these two compositions. I have selected Arnold's in this case.
I am astonished that somebody can claim "The Bloody Shot" is "simplistic" or "lacks any complexety"! The rythm, orchestration and harmonies are far more complex and refined there than what you'll find in most modern action music, including "Time To Get Out". I like both however. They might not be up to the excellence of Barry at his best, but then again, what is? Besides we need to remember that not all of Barry's action tracks were top notch (that means; up to his usual standards).
3-1 for "Time To Get Out", wonderful track.
It's a magnificent piece of music that the audience should be stroked with during those typical 'Bond moments' i.e. when he does something only Bond would do. For example, I'd love to hear a full juicy Bond Theme in Skyfall's PTS when he uses the excavator to board the train.
1-3 for Time To Get Out, as it incoporates cues of the fabulous rejected theme song by Shirley Bassey (
The Bloody Shot reminds me, just like DrShatterhand said, of the Dark Knight score. That's not bad, it just doesn't fit a Bond movie.
TBS is entertaining enough but it doesn't hold my interest the whole way through. The horns starting at the 54 second mark remind me of John Williams. Seems like it's reminiscent of Indiana Jones but I couldn't tell you from which one. Like much of the SF score, it's okay but it fails make a significant impact on me.
I love the fade in to TTGO. This track has such a wonderful ebb and flow to it. Each part organically grows into the next. Nothing feels forced. I really feel that Arnold hit his stride with CR and QoS, with QoS being my personal favorite. Hopefully he will get the chance to contribute to the series again.
Yeah TOGO is an amazing track that just keeps up on you, grabs you and never let's go of you until it's done with you. It's such a great track and works wonderfully well to not just open the movie but really enhancing the visuals of the unfolding action. I TTGO is one of the best tracks in the entire series.
--> "White Knight", including the gunbarrel part (pts, TND)
--> "Backseat Driver" (TND)
--> "Come In 007, Your Time Is Up" (pts, TWINE)
--> "Pipeline" (TWINE)
And compare those with "Time To Get Out" (QOS). Suddenly, that track looks rather bland. "TTGO" isn't innovative at all. Especially concerning the choice of music instruments (use of electronic percussion, amount of orchestra members, strings), the consistency (rhythm), and a nuanced approach (slowly building towards a climax).
The only thing that I recall from "TTGO" is the use of bloaring horns in favour of more nuanced instruments. And, where David Arnold did such innovative work on TWINE and TND, "TTGO" simply is....too "stripped off"!
For me, "The Bloody Shot", composed by Thomas Newman, gets punished by very undeserved John Williams comparisons. At least try and find a similar track from "The Dark Knight"-trilogy! I find "TBS" way more memorable, way more "melodical" than many lackluster themes from "The Dark Knight". If you HAVE to compare "The Bloody Shot" with recent action music, then compare it with "To The Roof", a track from "The Bourne Ultimatum", composed by John Powell.
Also, do people ask themselves what actually ARE Thomas Newman's best tracks from his Skyfall-score? Because I think "The Bloody Shot" is really among them. It builds up slowly, it is more nuanced, it has key changes, it has the wonderful nuanced electronic percussion injected to it, and the final part, just seconds before Bond gets shot off the train, is very tense. For me, it feels more "realistic" and "dramatic".
The Bloody Shot is Grand Bazaar, Istanbul part II.
Best thing is to lissen them as one track insteed (On the soundtrack it are track 1 and track 14)
As single track The Bloody Shot is good, but not better then Time To Get Out. Also iam not fan of the train scene what remember me to much as Die Another Day hovercraft chase.
The Bloody Shot is a good cue and builds the suspense nicely but the former is more memorable and also loved the way it got returned to at the climax of QOS in the desert. It's one of Arnold's cues I'd love to see revisited in a later Craig film if either return after Spectre.
Yes I do prefer SF PTS and I was fond of Newman's score, I'm hoping TN gets a chance to use the JB theme more but like Barry did reinvent and weave it through new cues composed for Spectre. I think there is a time to be subtle with it but I hope he gets to blare it more than once during the film, maybe in the PTS.
TTGO wins for me. 1-3
Newman's "The Bloody Shot" represents some of his weakest and most nondescript action writing for Skyfall in my opinion: repetitive strings and percussion chugging along, trumpets punching the air without melody or emotional resonance. One of the few tracks I've left completely off my preferred listening playlist for Skyfall. The preceding "Grand Bazaar, Istanbul" is a much finer example of Newman's action writing.
Arnold's "Time to Get Out," on the other hand, builds slowly and suspensefully over that tremendous opening push across the water before exploding into big Bondian trumpets and finally cooling down with some chill piano and electronics with a brief first statement of the "No Good About Goodbye" theme. The clear winner here for me.
Arnold can't return quick enough, IMO. I really hated some of the SF score, particularly the OTT brassy Bond sections like when Bond is rescued by helicopters on Silva's island. It sounds like deliberately forced nods to Barry because Newman has to, rather than because he wants to. Arnold sounds like a genuine Barry fan, which is why some his tracks really work (Vesper theme, Night at the Opera, etc.)
I can understand "Time To Get Out" wins it, but to say "by milesss" IMO is slightly overestimated.