Classic Ross Amico

Tag: The Omen

Jerry Goldsmith Overshadowed Genius

Two days after John Williams’ birthday falls the anniversary of the birth of Jerry Goldsmith. Unfortunately, this would essentially become the story of Jerry’s life, as despite being three years Williams’ senior and having cracked the A-list ahead of his younger colleague, Goldsmith often seemed to be caught in Williams’ wake.

Sure, he distinguished himself with some of the great film scores of his time, including those for “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 “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979). For television, he wrote for “Dr. Kildare,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” and “The Waltons.”

But by the 1980s, the films began to get weaker. It seemed like Goldsmith was always getting tossed the projects Williams passed on, or cheap knockoffs of Williams’ successes. By his final decade, he was stuck writing for such garbage as “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. I can recall many a moviegoing experience in which Goldsmith’s music wound up being the only redeeming quality.

Furthermore, he had a reputation for being able to compose at white heat, so he was frequently called upon to write replacement scores for films like “The River Wild” (1994), “Air Force One” (1997), and “The 13th Warrior” (1999). He composed and recorded the score to “Chinatown,” one of the best of the 1970s, in only ten days.

Criminally, he was honored with but a single Academy Award, 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 this world. Like the John Henry of Hollywood composers, he’d be churning out quality film scores to put all the cheap-ass computer steam-drillers to shame.

Happy birthday, Jerry Goldsmith!

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

February 10, 2025
Remembering Jerry Goldsmith Film Music Legend

When he was a kid, Jerry Goldsmith loved going to the movies to enjoy the music – just the way I loved going to the movies as a kid to enjoy Jerry Goldsmith!

Goldsmith, born on this date in 1929, wrote indelible scores for dozens of films, such as “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 sound editing), and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979).

For television, he wrote for “Dr. Kildare,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “The Waltons.”

By the 1980s, the films began to get weaker. It seemed like Goldsmith was always getting tossed the projects John Williams passed on, or cheap knockoffs of Williams’ successes. By his final decade, he was stuck writing for such garbage as “The Mummy” (1999), “The Haunting” remake (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 had a reputation for being able to compose at white heat, so he was frequently called upon to write replacement scores for films like “The River Wild” (1994), “Air Force One” (1997) and “The 13th Warrior” (1999). He composed and recorded the score to “Chinatown,” one of the best of the 1970s, in only ten days.

Incredibly, he was honored with but a single Academy Award (of 18 nominations), 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 moody droners and computer noodlers, with their narrow palettes and paucity of inspiration.

Happy birthday, Jerry. I hope they’re still making good movies wherever you are.

Goldsmith discusses film music, circa 1986

Documentary from 1993

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUemenAQYQ4

Introducing and conducting his music with the National Philharmonic in 1989

Introducing and conducting his music, and others’, with the BBC Concert Orchestra in 1994

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR6c8QWIh90

Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqofviC4PG4

February 10, 2024
Jerry Goldsmith Underrated Film Score Genius

He was a smith who forged gold from the basest of materials – film music’s alchemist extraordinaire. Once John Williams kickstarted his blockbuster hog, Jerry Goldsmith may have been destined for the side car, but he possessed a refined genius all his own.

Goldsmith was a consummate professional with a rare talent for speed. When Randy Newman was dropped from “Air Force One,” it was Goldsmith who stepped up, writing and recording the music in less than two weeks. He wrote the replacement score for “Chinatown” in ten days.

Unfortunately, not all the films were “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 served as 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 had 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 Zimmers of this world.

Happy birthday, Jerry Goldsmith. I sure does miss you.

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:

If you’ve got a hankering for Goldsmith’s “Capricorn One,” it kicks off last week’s episode of Picture Perfect on WWFM – The Classical Network. Follow the link for the webcast and click listen now.

https://www.wwfm.org/show/picture-perfect-with-ross-amico/2023-02-03/picture-perfect-february-4-going-to-mars

February 10, 2023
“The Omen” Didn’t Scare Me

Granted, the film’s gruesome set-pieces are all pretty unforgettable. But I’m sorry, “The Omen” (1976) just didn’t scare me. Then again, my dad took me to the drive-in to see “The Omega Man” when I was five. So I was probably fairly well inured to stuff-and-nonsense like the son of Satan being born to a jackal. Atticus Finch and family terrorized by the Devil’s Rottweilers? A little silly, don’t you think? But Charlton Heston, the last man on earth, battling legions of plague-induced zombies? That sh** can happen!

Few would deny that the 1970s was a very strange decade. It was an era when audiences could accept supernatural Rottweilers doing the bidding of Satan, and a successful franchise spun out of “The Doberman Gang.”

One thing I think we can all agree on is that little kids are creepy. Also, David Warner looks sinister even when he’s supposed to be one of the good guys. (I was amused to learn that Warner held on to the film’s iconic severed head for years – until it was taken by his wife when they divorced.)

FUN FACT! Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar-winning music can be used to underscore almost any situation.

Lawn crew pulls up at development [Cue “Ave Satani”]

Sniff carton to discover milk has turned [Cue “Ave Satani”]

Squirrel hangs upside down from tube feeder [Cue “Ave Satani”]

Try it!

Then check out our conversation about “The Omen” on last night’s Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.

Next week, we’ll be joined by Bill Scurato, managing director of Country Gate Players. Bill is presenting a Saturday night film series this month (with a 100th anniversary screening of F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” tonight at 8:00) at Country Gate Playhouse in Belvidere, NJ.

On the 29th & 30th the players will present a “live experience” assimilating Ed Wood’s masterpiece of incompetence, “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” We’ll learn more about it, when we discuss one of the films shown at Country Gate this month, George A. Romero’s seminal zombie classic, “Night of the Living Dead” (1968).

So leave your brains in the comments section. Human flesh is on the menu, when we livestream on Facebook, next Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

PHOTO: Rubber bands had to be put around the muzzles of the “Satanic” Rottweilers in order to make them look like they were snarling

October 15, 2022
The Omen Is It Scary Or Just Confusing?

The unholy love-child of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Exorcist,” “The Omen” (1976) proved to be the fulfillment of a prophecy that big-studio mainstream demonic horror was here to stay.

But is the movie particularly scary?

Sure, it’s got atmosphere to burn, with a creepy nanny and a Jerry Goldsmith score replete with mumbo jumbo Latin chorus. But it’s more of a Hitchcock film (perhaps by way of Brian DePalma) than anything that’s going to make you sleep with the light on or haunt your consciousness.

Granted, the big set-pieces are pretty unforgettable. But how many of them make any sense? “The Omen” is puzzlingly devoid of psychological, mythic, or even biblical resonance, despite the characters’ repetition of a passage from the Book of Revelation.

What it did have was enormous success at the box office, which allowed director Richard Donner to make “Superman,” and for that, at least, we are blessed. For 20th Century Fox, this son of a jackal proved to be a lucrative cash cow. Of course, Fox is now a subsidiary of Walt Disney. To contemplate that Disney is now in a position to crank out more “Omen” films is scarier than anything in the movie.

Anyway, it ain’t “The Exorcist,” but the power of friendship compels me… to show up for our discussion of “The Omen.” Unleash your Satanic rottweilers in the comments section. I’ll be feeling every one of the 666 minutes of the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, this Friday evening at 7:30 EDT.

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

October 13, 2022

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