Archive
POWDER – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Powder is a science fiction-drama film written and directed by Victor Salva, starring Jeff Goldblum, Mary Steenburgen, Lance Henriksen, and Sean Patrick Flanery in the title role as Jeremy “Powder” Reed, a reclusive young man with albinism and extraordinary intellectual and psychic abilities. Jeremy was raised in isolation by his grandparents after his mother was struck by lightning while pregnant with him, but after their deaths Jeremy is brought into the wider world by the kind local sheriff Barnum (Henriksen), school counselor Jessie (Steenburgen), and science teacher Ripley (Goldblum), who recognizes Jeremy’s genius-level intellect and apparently paranormal abilities, which include reading minds, sensing emotions, and even manipulating electrical energy. However, despite their efforts to help him adjust, Jeremy faces alienation, ridicule, and even violence from his peers due to his appearance and strange powers. Read more…
CONGO – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Following the success of Jurassic Park in 1993, screenplays adapted from the action/adventure novels of Michael Crichton were suddenly hot commodities; one such screenplay was Congo, which was adapted by John Patrick Shanley from the 1980 novel of the same name, and which had been kicking around Hollywood for more than a decade. The resulting film was directed by Frank Marshall and stars Dylan Walsh as Dr. Peter Elliot, a primatologist who is traveling to the Congo to return a gorilla named Amy – who he has taught to communicate using sign language via a special glove – to her home in the wild. Meanwhile, Dr. Karen Ross (Laura Linney) is sent to the Congo to find a missing research team led by her ex-fiancé Charles Travis, which was in the area on an expedition to find rare blue diamonds that could revolutionize laser communications, but which vanished after a violent, mysterious attack. Elliot and Ross end up on the same plane together, where they are joined by Herkimer Homolka (Tim Curry, sporting one of the weirdest accents in movie history), a mysterious Romanian treasure hunter who is obsessed with finding the mythical Lost City of Zinj, which is rumored to contain vast diamond reserves. Read more…
ALIEN – Jerry Goldsmith
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In space, no one can hear you scream.
The genesis of Alien came from writer Dan O’Bannon who, having co-written the film Dark Star in 1974, wanted to make a more serious and horrific sci-fi movie. Later, while working on the failed effort by director Alejandro Jodorowsky to bring Frank Herbert’s Dune to life, O’Bannon discovered the work of Swiss artist H. R. Giger, whose ‘disturbing but beautiful’ work further influenced O’Bannon’s ideas for the creature at the center of his story. O’Bannon collaborated with fellow writer Ronald Shusett on the story; they drew inspiration from many works of science fiction and horror, but eventually pitched the idea to studio heads as “Jaws in space,” with the central monster being a diabolical alien that would rape a human to allow its offspring to gestate and, when mature, burst out of the host. Propriety and rating concerns led them to tone down this initial idea and make it a non-sexual implantation, but it was still implicitly a rape, with a male host to make it more repugnant; however, their story was repeatedly turned down by the Hollywood studio establishment, which deemed it too violent and gory. Read more…
THE SHADOW – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!
When people think about classic superheroes people usually think of Superman and Batman as being the forefathers of the genre, but one other character actually goes back further than that: The Shadow, who was created by Walter B. Gibson and who first appeared on the radio and in print as early as 1930 – eight years before Superman, and nine years before Batman. Despite being such an influential early pioneer, The Shadow was curiously overlooked in film for a long time; there were a few B-movies and shorts in the late 1930s and early 1940s that were reasonably popular, but then there was essentially a 50-year gap where the character was ignored by the mainstream, up until 1994 when the character finally got his first big-budget cinematic adaptation courtesy of director Russell Mulcahy and star Alec Baldwin. Read more…
BAD GIRLS – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Despite Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven winning Best Picture at the 1992 Oscars, and despite the efforts of films like Wyatt Earp and Tombstone, the Western genre was still struggling to return to mainstream popularity in the 1990s. The 1994 film Bad Girls, directed by Jonathan Kaplan, was another attempt to reinvigorate the genre, albeit this time with a significantly feminist spin. The story is set in the 1860s and centers around four women – Cody (Madeleine Stowe), Anita (Mary Stuart Masterson), Eileen (Andie MacDowell), and Lilly (Drew Barrymore) – whose lives intersect after a harrowing incident at the home of a brutal brothel owner, where they are forced to defend themselves, and kill a would-be rapist. Following this event, the women decide to break away from their troubled pasts and set out on a journey of freedom across the American frontier – all while being pursued by Pinkerton agents determined to bring the ‘bad girls’ to justice. The film co-starred James Russo, James LeGros, Robert Loggia, and Dermot Mulroney, and boasted handsome and authentic production values, but unfortunately was a box office flop and critical misfire, with many people pointing to fact that original director Tamra Davis was fired a few weeks into production, and that her more serious intentions for the film were changed in order to make it more action-packed and mainstream. Read more…
MACARTHUR – Jerry Goldsmith
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The genesis of Macarthur lay with Frank McCarthy, who served as aide to General George C. Marshall during WWII. McCarthy became a producer at 20th Century Fox Studios in 1949. He was a supreme patriot, and he sought to extol some of America’s greatest generals of WWII. His first project was the biopic Patton in 1970, which explored the life of the brilliant, irrepressible, and profane general of the 3rd Army. Following the great success of the film he selected his next project, a biopic of another iconic, brilliant and rebellious general, Douglas MacArthur. Casting and production challenges derailed McCarthy, but he rebounded and found backing from Universal Studios. He was placed in charge of production with a small $16 million budget, Joseph Sargent was tasked with directing, with Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins hired to write the screenplay. For the cast, the titular role was turned down by George C. Scott and Marlon Brando, and Sargent eventually recruited Gregory Peck. Joining him would be Ed Flanders as President Harry S. Truman, Dan O’Herlihy as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ivan Bonar as Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, Ward Costello as General C. Marshall, and Marj Dusay as Jean MacArthur. Read more…
RUDY – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Arguably one of the most inspiring and beloved sporting drama films ever made, Rudy tells the story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, a working class kid from Chicago who harbors dreams of playing American football at the University of Notre Dame despite significant obstacles – notably, his lack of good academic grades, his family’s financial struggles, and his diminutive stature. However, Ruettiger’s persistence and positive nature eventually results in him making the team, earning the respect of his college teammates, and even being interviewed for the college newspaper, which makes him a cult figure in South Bend. Eventually Rudy convinces the stubborn head coach to put him on the field for the last ten seconds of the final game of his final year at the college – his first and last appearance – whereupon he sacks the opposition quarterback, and is carried from the field in glory while the stadium chants his name. Much of the story is apocryphal and embellished for dramatic purposes, but it’s a feelgood tale nevertheless. The film is directed by David Anspaugh from a screenplay by Angelo Pizzo, and stars Sean Astin as Rudy, along with Ned Beatty, Jason Miller, Robert Prosky, and Charles S. Dutton in supporting roles, as well as Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn making their acting debuts. Read more…
FOREVER YOUNG – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Forever Young was a romantic drama with a fantasy-science fiction twist, written by a young J. J. Abrams (credited as ‘Jeffrey’), and directed by Steve Miner. It was envisaged as a vehicle for Mel Gibson to establish himself as a romantic leading man; he plays Daniel McCormick, a test pilot with the US Army Air Corps in 1939. When his fiancé Helen (Isabel Glasser) falls into a coma after a car accident, and not wanting to watch her die, Daniel volunteers for a top-secret government program where he will be cryogenically frozen and placed into suspended animation for a year. However, when Daniel is finally woken up, he is shocked to discover that it is now 1992; with the help of an inquisitive 10-year old boy named Nat (Elijah Wood) and his charming mother Claire (Jamie Lee Curtis), Daniel resolves to find out what happened – but is soon presented with another problem, as he finds himself ageing rapidly. The film was a modest success at the box office and with critics, who enjoyed its old fashioned charm, unusual time-travel plot, and warm lead performances. Read more…
BASIC INSTINCT – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Basic Instinct was one of the most commercially successful but socially controversial films of 1992. A murder-mystery thriller with strong sexual content, the film was written by Joe Eszterhas and directed by Paul Verhoeven. Michael Douglas starred as San Francisco police detective Nick Curran, who becomes involved in an intense sexual relationship with Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a mysterious and confident novelist, despite the fact that she is the prime suspect in the murder of her wealthy rock star boyfriend, who was stabbed to death with an ice pick while in flagrante. The film, which co-starred George Dzundza and Jeanne Tripplehorn, was controversial for several reasons – for its depiction of the ‘heroic detective’ as an amoral cocaine addict, for its brutal violence (including the opening murder and a subsequent rape sequence), and especially for its explicit sexual content, which included the now notorious scene where Sharon Stone flashes her vagina at police officers during an interrogation. Of course there had been successful mainstream erotic thrillers before – Dressed to Kill, Body Heat, Nine ½ Weeks, Fatal Attraction, and Jagged Edge, which Eszterhas also wrote – but Basic Instinct caught a wave of popularity and social zeitgeist, becoming one of the biggest grossing films of the year, and catapulting Sharon Stone to stardom. Read more…
BLACK PATCH – Jerry Goldsmith
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The genesis of the film lay with producer-director-writer-actor George Montgomery best known for his work in the Western genre. In February 1957 he announced his latest project, “Decision At Sundown” based on an original screenplay by Leo Gordon. The title was later changed to “Black Patch”. His own production company Montgomery Productions would finance the project, with Allen Miller tasked with production as well as directing. A fine cast was assembled with Montgomery starring as Marshall Clay Morgan. Joining him would be Sebastian Cabot as Frenchy De Vere, Diane Brewster as Helen Danner, Tom Pittman as Flytrap (Carl), Leo Gordon as Hank Danner, House Peters Jr. as Holman Lynn Cartwright as Kitty and Jorge Trevino as Pedoline. Read more…
MEDICINE MAN – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Medicine Man is a drama with an ecological theme, written by Tom Schulman and Sally Robinson, and directed by John McTiernan, who at that time was one of Hollywood’s premier directors, hot on the heels of Predator, Die Hard, and The Hunt for Red October. The film stars Sean Connery as Dr. Robert Campbell, a medical researcher working deep in the Amazonian rainforest, who has gone missing after his wife and research partner abandon him. The pharmaceutical company funding Campbell’s work sends Dr. Rae Crane (Lorraine Bracco) – a brash, tough talking New Yorker – to find him; eventually, she locates him working in a remote tribal village, but they clash immediately, with Campbell’s latent sexism and bad-temperedness preventing him from taking her seriously, and with Rae being desperately unsuited to life in the jungle. However, the two bury their differences when a new threat emerges: a Brazilian logging company is building a road nearby, which threatens to displace the local native population, and potentially destroy the plant that Campbell believes may provide a cure for cancer. Read more…
SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the biggest box office successes of 1991, Sleeping With the Enemy is a psychological thriller directed by Joseph Rubin, written by Ronald Bass from the novel by Nancy Price. Julia Roberts stars as Laura Burney, a Massachusetts housewife whose seemingly perfect marriage to Martin (Patrick Bergin) is shown in private to be a repeating pattern of physical and emotional abuse, gaslighting, and obsessive compulsion. Desperate to escape, Laura fakes her own death in a boating accident, moves to Iowa, and starts a new life under an assumed name. Before long she finds herself attracted to a kind and handsome college professor (Kevin Anderson) and starts a tentative relationship; meanwhile, back in Boston, Martin starts to suspect that Laura is not dead, and begins to make vengeful plans to get his wife back. He can’t live without her, and I won’t let her live without him. Read more…
THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY – Alex North
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
20th Century Fox Studio executive Peter Levathes took notice of Irving Stone’s best-selling novel 1961 The Agony and the Ecstasy with almost 51 million copies sold and saw opportunity. He purchased the film rights for $125,000, yet was unable to proceed with the project as the studio suffered significant financial reversals in 1962 due to cost overruns on several films, most notable “Cleopatra”. Industry icon Daryl F. Zanuck was brought in to save the studio, and within 12 months it was again operating in the black. This allowed him to move “The Agony and the Ecstasy” into production. Carol Reed was hired to both produce and direct the film with a $7.2 million budget. A stellar cast was hired including Charlton Heston as Michelangelo, Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II, Diane Cilento as Contessina Antonia Romola de Medici, Harry Andrews as Donata Bramente and Albert Lupo as the Duke of Urbino. Read more…
NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Not Without My Daughter was a true-life political drama/thriller directed by Brian Gilbert, based on the autobiographical book of the same name by Betty Mahmoody and William Hoffer. Sally Field plays Betty, a typical American housewife and mother married to an Iranian doctor, Sayed Mahmoody (Alfred Molina). When Betty and Sayed travel to Iran to visit his family, Betty finds herself plunged into a nightmare when Sayed announces that they will be staying in the country; surrounded by an unfamiliar culture, and with Sayed becoming increasingly abusive and controlling, Betty makes the difficult decision to flee the country and return to the United States, and hatches a dangerous plan to smuggle herself and her daughter across the border to the US consulate in Turkey. Read more…
THE WIND AND THE LION – Jerry Goldsmith
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Director John Milius was a longtime admirer of President Theodore Roosevelt. By chance he came upon an article “Pedecaris Incident” by Barbara W. Tuchman in American Heritage magazine and found a fascinating story which involved President Roosevelt sending American troops to free an American citizen kidnapped in Morocco by a Berber warlord. He was intrigued by the tale and further investigatory reading of the 1924 biography Raisuli, The Sultan of the Mountains by Rosita Forbes inspired him to proceed with a film adaptation. He had always dreamed of filming a grand sprawling epic film and believed this story gave him his opportunity. Given that this was a passion project, Milius wrote the screenplay himself and related: “I consider ‘The Wind and the Lion’ my first real movie. I approached it as a David Lean film, to do it in that style, a large epic canvas, to see if I could pull off great movements of troops. The story is even written that way. Two guys, the Raisuli and Teddy Roosevelt, yelling at each other across oceans.” However, to get MGM Studios buy in, he had to romanticize the story by changing the kidnapped victim to a beautiful woman, and casting Raisuli as one of the dashing leading men of the day. Herb Jaffe was tasked with producing the film and a budget of $4.5 million was provided. Casting was problematic with Omar Sharif turning down the part of Raisuli and Faye Dunaway withdrawing due to illness. Eventually Sean Connery was cast as Sharif Mulai Ahmed Mohammed Raisuli joined by Candice Bergen as Eden Pedecaris. Joining them would be Brian Keith as President Theodore Roosevelt and John Huston as Secretary of State John Hay. Read more…
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