Our scheduled discussion about the Michael Crichton science fiction thriller “Runaway” (1984) on tonight’s Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner has been postponed until Sunday at 7 PM. Which means you are now free to enjoy my Viking show on “Picture Perfect” – that’s right, all music from Viking movies – tonight on KWAX at 8:00 EST (5:00 PST)! Stream it at the link.
ODINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!
We’ve got the need for mead!
This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of swords and fjords, as we travel north for music from movies about the Norsemen.
In “The Long Ships” (1963), two Viking brothers, played by the unlikely pair of Richard Widmark and Russ Tamblyn, make off with a king’s funeral ship – and the king’s daughter – as they set sail on a quest for the fabled “Mother of Voices,” an enormous solid gold bell – also coveted by a Moorish prince, played by the late Sidney Poitier. Needless to say, camp value is high. The music for this British-Yugoslavian production is by the Serbian composer Dusan Radic.
“Prince Valiant” (1954), based on the enduring comic strip by Hal Foster, is set in the days of King Arthur, though Val himself is a Viking prince of the kingdom of Scandia. And indeed Vikings play an important role in the film. Victor McLaglen is Val’s Viking pal Boltar, Janet Leigh is Princess Aleta, James Mason the villainous Sir Brack, and Sterling Hayden a ridiculous Gawain. Robert Wagner dons the signature page-boy haircut.
The score is every bit as vivid as the film’s Technicolor. We’ll hear selections from a very special recording, with the composer himself, Franz Waxman, conducting.
Michael Crichton’s 1976 novel, “Eaters of the Dead,” presents an unlikely, fish-out-of-water alliance, between historic Persian ambassador of the 10th century, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, and a band of Vikings. They overcome their cultural differences to face off against the Wendol, humanoid creatures who periodically emerge from the mist to feed on human flesh.
Crichton’s story was filmed in 1997 and ultimately released as “The 13th Warrior” (1999), with Antonio Banderas as Ibn Fadlan. The production was plagued by misfortune. The original director, John McTiernan, who found success with “Die Hard,” was fired for running over-budget, and Crichton himself was brought in to re-shoot a number of the scenes. Nevertheless, the film proved to be a box office failure. But any movie to feature a Jerry Goldsmith score – and Vikings! – can’t be all bad.
The legendary Jack Cardiff, who actually directed “The Long Ships,” provided the stunning cinematography for “The Vikings” (1958). The film stars Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, and Ernest Borgnine. Although unintentionally amusing on several levels, “The Vikings” is highly regarded for its attention to detail and stabs at historical accuracy – particularly in regard to its Viking dragon boats.
Also impressive is the haunting score by Mario Nascimbene, which we’ll hear in a digital re-recording, issued on the Prometheus Records label, featuring the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Nic Raine. The recording is like mead from Valhalla.
I hope you’ll join me for an hour of runes and tunes. It’s the definitive mix-tape for your dragonship, on “Picture Perfect, music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EST)
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EST)
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EST)
Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!
It’s been all high notes for countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo since he graduated from Princeton University in 2004.
This weekend, he returns a conquering hero – the winner of a 2022 Grammy Award (his third nomination), for his recording of John Corigliano’s “The Lord of Cries,” and the recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2020 Beverly Sills Artist Award – to sing two works with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.
Costanzo will perform not only music by Baroque master George Frideric Handel – the aria “Quella fiamma” from the opera “Arminio” – but also a recent piece by Princeton alum Gregory Spears, “Love Story” – on a text by Tracy K. Smith, who served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2017 to 2019 – written specifically for Costanzo on a commission from the New York Philharmonic in 2021.
Princeton University graduate student Nina Shekhar’s “Lumina,” also premiered by the NYP, will open the program, which will conclude with a dramatic rollercoaster – and an audience favorite – Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
Music director Rossen Milanov will conduct at Richardson Auditorium, Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. A pre-concert talk will precede the Sunday performance at 3 p.m.
In recent years, Costanzo has proved himself an Akhnaten for the ages, in New York and elsewhere. His performance in Philip Glass’ opera about the first monotheistic pharaoh was revelatory and a high point of the Met’s streaming during the pandemic.
Costanzo headlined Corigliano’s Dracula opera at its debut in Santa Fe in 2021. He’s also created roles in Jimmy Lopez’s “Bel Canto” and Jack Heggie’s “Great Scott.” Clearly, opportunities for countertenors have expanded well beyond the 18th century.
Witness Costanzo’s versatility firsthand this weekend with the PSO. For tickets and information, visit princetonsymphony.org.
In some ways, the transparently lean budget of “Runaway” (1984) makes its vision of the future that much more realistic. How many science fiction projects throw good money after bad to try to make us believe our robot overlords will be sleek, impervious, and totally bad-ass. When the robots go haywire in “Runaway,” they look like a future we might truly inhabit, in which we know domestic robots will be every bit as cheap as our printers, our vacuum cleaners, our coffee makers, and our digital clocks. When one breaks, we’ll toss it in the dumpster and go to a gross box-store and buy a new one.
In contrast, Roy and I, both issued back in the 1960s, just keep chugging along, week after week, for nearly four years, as a matter of fact, on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, saving you the labor of having to overthink sci-fi screen entertainment of yore.
In “Runaway,” writer-director Michael Crichton revisits some of the preoccupations he explored in “Westworld” and later resurrected for “Jurassic Park.” You can bet your bottom dollar at some point the tech is going to run off the rails. At the same time, he draws on a good many clichés from 1970s cop pictures. (Long-suffering Chief of Police: “You screwed up good, Ramsay. We got two dead officers, understand me, mister?”)
If the movie were made today, undoubtedly it would be much edgier and self-consciously dystopian, with the themes of terrorism, technology run amok, media exploitation, and all-pervasive surveillance, ramped up and heavily, heavily underlined. And most certainly, there would be a weightier emphasis on the moral complications of harnessing artificial intelligence. But this was the 1980s, when the cotton candy billowed as profusely as Cynthia Rhodes’ perm.
Poor Tom Selleck, whose movie career never caught traction from the time he was forced to turn down “Raiders of the Lost Ark” because of his “Magnum P.I.” contract, has charisma and screen presence, but his efforts for the multiplex (“High Road to China,” “Lassiter,” “Quigley Down Under”), while undeniably entertaining, are all pretty disposable.
But shed no tears for Tom. He’s had a very good career, working constantly since at least the ’70s, and he’s been a star since “Magnum.” And in the movie house, he did have one runaway hit with “Three Men and a Baby.” The kid in that film was more believable than the one in this one, which makes Selleck’s acting ability perhaps all the more underrated.
However, it is Kiss’s Gene Simmons who steals the show, as an arms-dealing sociopath. Simmons’ grins exude menace in a way you would expect of a slippery cinematic psycho. He’s Simmons Bar Sinister.
None of it is meant to be taken very seriously. There’s one jump-scare that had me howling with laughter, and the long-deferred, though inevitable fade-out kiss goes on forever through the end credits (in a hail of sparks).
The creative team had the funds to hire film composer Jerry Goldsmith – who wrote the rollicking music for Crichton’s Victorian heist picture “The Great Train Robbery” (1978) – but apparently not an orchestra, so we get wall-to-wall electronica. I love Jerry, but I wasn’t really a fan of his electronic music. (I’m looking at you, “Gremlins.”) Brad Fiedel’s electronic score for “Terminator,” which buried “Runaway” at the box office, was less intrusive.
Bottom line: “Runaway” is no classic, but it’s a fun slice of ‘80s cheese. Bring your crackers to the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc. We’ll run off at the mouth about “Runaway,” this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!
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