After “Jaws” and “Star Wars,” John Williams became everyone’s first choice. Too often, Jerry Goldsmith was left with the dregs.
But the man was a professional, a true work horse, who also had a rare talent for speed. He wrote the replacement score for “Chinatown” in ten days. When Randy Newman was dropped from “Air Force One,” again he saved the day, writing and recording the music in less than two weeks.
Unfortunately, not every film was “Chinatown.” For every “Planet of the Apes,” “Patton,” and “Papillon,” there was “The Mummy” (with Brendan Fraser), “The Haunting” (remake), and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action.”
Williams got “Superman.” Goldsmith got “Supergirl.” Williams got “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Goldsmith got “King Solomon’s Mines” (with Richard Chamberlain). Williams got “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.” Goldsmith got “Baby: The Secret of the Lost Legend.”
But even when the movies were terrible, Goldsmith’s music was like a consolation prize. And nothing can take away the classics. He was one of the last of the greats, and he lived through a great era, so we certainly have enough to cherish. He just had the bad fortune to have more stamina than the movies themselves, which got weaker and weaker and weaker.
The composer himself expressed frustration at his music being drowned out by ever more-elaborate sound effects, which is why his scores tended to become more streamlined – and less memorable – in the ‘90s. He would have lost his mind in these days of laptop editing, when movies can be trimmed and shuffled within an inch of their lives, right up until the day of distribution.
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 Zimmer knockoffs.
To honor Goldsmith, and as kind of a belated tribute to special effects artist Douglas Trumbull, who died earlier this week, let’s take a look at the show-stopping drydock sequence from “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979).
In a tight spot in post-production when the effects work was proving to be lackluster, director Robert Wise reached out to and implored Trumbull to work his magic. Trumbull was already a legend in the field, having worked on “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Silent Running,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
“Star Trek” would require more composites than “Star Wars” and “Close Encounters” combined. Paramount Pictures was over a barrel, with an impending deadline that would result in a mega-lawsuit from exhibitors if it didn’t deliver.
Trumbull accepted the challenge, but he drove a hard bargain. In exchange for his services, he leveraged a considerable fee, release from his Paramount contract, and ownership of the technology he developed for “Brainstorm,” his dream project, long languishing in development hell, so that he could shop it around to other studios. Without flinching, Paramount blurted “Yes!” Trumbull assembled his crew, divided them into three teams, and they worked seven days a week, 24 hours a day, for the next seven months, to bring the picture in on time.
Say what you want about the movie, but the effects and the music are unimpeachable – especially this sequence, which Trumbull directed himself – a perfect marriage of music and visuals of a kind you will not find in movies today. This is how it’s done, kids.
https://youtu.be/tpEv8pRGkME?t=25
As a post-script, we’ll be celebrating the legacy of Douglas Trumbull on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Because Roy will be participating in a live theater event with Country Gate Players this Saturday (“Radio Noir Murders” at 6 pm at Belvidere Manor in Belvidere, NJ), we’ll be taking the week off from our movie-fueled digressions. But we’ll be back at the base of Devil’s Tower, watching for your Kodály hand signals in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, NEXT Friday evening, February 18, at 7:30 EDT!
https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner
For now, happy birthday, Jerry Goldsmith!
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.:
The Blue Max
Planet of the Apes:
Patton:
Chinatown:
The Wind and the Lion:
The Omen:
The Great Train Robbery
Star Trek: The Motion Picture: