He may have been the older composer (by three years), but if we’re to go by dates on a wall calendar, Jerry Goldsmith was born two days after John Williams. And despite being one of the greatest film composers of his age, he never could wholly escape Williams’ shadow.
Blame it on the blockbusters.
By the late ‘70s, once the studios got their heads around the unprecedented box office of “Jaws” and “Star Wars,” Goldsmith started to get tossed either projects Williams passed on, or cheap knockoffs of Williams’ successes.
Williams got “Star Wars;” Goldsmith got “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” Williams got “Superman;” Goldsmith (first choice, but he had to turn it down) got “Supergirl.” Williams got “Raiders of the Lost Ark;” Goldsmith got “King Solomon’s Mines” (the Richard Chamberlain version). Williams got “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial;” Goldsmith got “Baby: The Secret of the Lost Legend.”
Don’t get me wrong: Goldsmith was an amazing composer, and his talents were matched to plenty of enduring classics: “The Sand Pebbles” (1966), “The Blue Max” (1966), “The Flim-Flam Man” (1967), “Planet of the Apes” (1968), “Patton” (1970), “Papillon” (1973), “Chinatown” (1974), “The Wind and the Lion” (1975), “MacArthur” (1977), “The Boys from Brazil” (1978), “The Great Train Robbery” (1979), “Alien” (1979, butchered in the sound editing), and numerous incarnations of “Star Trek” (beginning in 1979).
He could also write like the wind. He had just ten days to compose and record a replacement score for “Chinatown” (after Phillip Lambro’s original was rejected). The result is one of the most effective scores of the 1970s.
Sadly, the movies got weaker. In 1997, he stepped in for Randy Newman on “Air Force One.” Does anyone even care?
By his final decade, he was stuck writing music for garbage like “The Mummy” (1999), “The Haunting” (1999), and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” (2003). A notable exception was “L.A. Confidential” (1997), but rarely were his later projects up to his talent.
Goldsmith himself expressed frustration at his music being drowned out by ever more-elaborate sound effects, which is why his scores became more streamlined – and less memorable – in the ‘90s. He would have lost his mind in these days of laptop editing, when films can be trimmed and shuffled within an inch of their lives, right up until the day of distribution.
But he was one of the last of the greats, and he lived through a great era, so we certainly have enough to cherish.
For television, he wrote music for “Dr. Kildare,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Waltons,” and “Barnaby Jones.” He was the recipient of five Emmy Awards.
Incredibly, despite EIGHTEEN nominations, he was honored with but a single Oscar, for his influential score to “The Omen” (1976). Goldsmith died in 2004, at the age of 75. If he were to come back today, he would mop the joint with all the Hans Zimmers of the world.
Happy birthday, Jerry Goldsmith. I sure does miss you.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.:
Planet of the Apes:
Patton:
Chinatown:
The Wind and the Lion:
The Omen:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture:
