Roderick Gauci
Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2002
- Messages
- 165
I have a question regarding the Isolated Score feature found among the supplements in several DVDs. Even though I have a few discs which do have this extra, I have never actually played one yet.
However, one reviewer mentioned that on the fabulous R2 DVD of Sam Peckinpah’s STRAW DOGS (1971), featuring Jerry Fielding’s Oscar nominated music as an isolated score, additional cues have been included. Given that STRAW DOGS already contains two separate Audio Commentaries, were I to watch the disc in its entirety, I would have to sit through the movie, as it were, for four consecutive times! Even for a film this good, I would say that it IS a bit too much!
Now I know that Criterion’s SPARTACUS (1960) and Warner’s SUPERMAN (1978) DVDs (which I just watched last Thursday), for example, include additional cues as a stand alone extra. But are the cues in SUPERMAN also interspersed within the original score during the playback of the Isolated Score feature? In other words, are additional cues common to many DVDs which sport such a supplement?
Although I do believe that a music score adds to the texture of a film when properly married to the images on the screen, I am not so sure about the benefits of having to sit through a two or three hour film in its entirety, just so you can hear the music (beautiful as it may be) on its own, without the distractions of having to follow the dialog or the story-line.
I would much prefer it if more DVD producers would follow Anchor Bay’s example and provide the film’s soundtrack on an accompanying CD, as they did in their superb Limited Edition 3-Disc Set of Dario Argento’s SUSPIRIA (1977), something I really wish they had also done for their Limited Edition of THE WICKER MAN (1973) and the Werner Herzog films scored by Popol Vuh. Or else, they might consider doing something along the lines of VCI’s THE WHIP AND THE BODY (1963) and BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964), where Carlo Rustichelli’s scores can be listened to in full at a stretch over a still-screen. I believe Jerry Goldsmith’s score for PATTON (1970) can also be listened to in this way, albeit playing over the Documentary!
So what do you all guys think?
For the record, I am listing the rest of the discs (excluding Silent films, naturally) in my collection which feature an Isolated Score. Are there any of them which you would particularly recommend in this regard?:
REBECCA (1940) by Franz Waxman – The Criterion Collection [2-Disc Set]
NOTORIOUS (1946) by Roy Webb – The Criterion Collection
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957) by Malcolm Arnold – Columbia [2-Disc Set] (R2)
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) by Bernard Herrmann - Warner
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965) by Maurice Jarre – Warner [2-Disc Set]
THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT (1965) by Krzysztof Penderecki – Image Entertainment
GET CARTER (1971) by Roy Budd - Warner
However, one reviewer mentioned that on the fabulous R2 DVD of Sam Peckinpah’s STRAW DOGS (1971), featuring Jerry Fielding’s Oscar nominated music as an isolated score, additional cues have been included. Given that STRAW DOGS already contains two separate Audio Commentaries, were I to watch the disc in its entirety, I would have to sit through the movie, as it were, for four consecutive times! Even for a film this good, I would say that it IS a bit too much!
Now I know that Criterion’s SPARTACUS (1960) and Warner’s SUPERMAN (1978) DVDs (which I just watched last Thursday), for example, include additional cues as a stand alone extra. But are the cues in SUPERMAN also interspersed within the original score during the playback of the Isolated Score feature? In other words, are additional cues common to many DVDs which sport such a supplement?
Although I do believe that a music score adds to the texture of a film when properly married to the images on the screen, I am not so sure about the benefits of having to sit through a two or three hour film in its entirety, just so you can hear the music (beautiful as it may be) on its own, without the distractions of having to follow the dialog or the story-line.
I would much prefer it if more DVD producers would follow Anchor Bay’s example and provide the film’s soundtrack on an accompanying CD, as they did in their superb Limited Edition 3-Disc Set of Dario Argento’s SUSPIRIA (1977), something I really wish they had also done for their Limited Edition of THE WICKER MAN (1973) and the Werner Herzog films scored by Popol Vuh. Or else, they might consider doing something along the lines of VCI’s THE WHIP AND THE BODY (1963) and BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964), where Carlo Rustichelli’s scores can be listened to in full at a stretch over a still-screen. I believe Jerry Goldsmith’s score for PATTON (1970) can also be listened to in this way, albeit playing over the Documentary!
So what do you all guys think?
For the record, I am listing the rest of the discs (excluding Silent films, naturally) in my collection which feature an Isolated Score. Are there any of them which you would particularly recommend in this regard?:
REBECCA (1940) by Franz Waxman – The Criterion Collection [2-Disc Set]
NOTORIOUS (1946) by Roy Webb – The Criterion Collection
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957) by Malcolm Arnold – Columbia [2-Disc Set] (R2)
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) by Bernard Herrmann - Warner
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965) by Maurice Jarre – Warner [2-Disc Set]
THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT (1965) by Krzysztof Penderecki – Image Entertainment
GET CARTER (1971) by Roy Budd - Warner
