Good Music in Bad Movies

Today’s episode of Sounds of Cinema featured good music from bad movies. Here is a recap of the films discussed on today’s show as well as a few additional titles.

The 13th Warrior (1999)
Directed by: Michael Crichton
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith

The 13th Warrior was based upon Michael Crichton’s novel Eaters of the Dead. The film was an adventure story set in the era of Vikings that starred Antonio Banderas and was directed by John McTiernan. The movie had a long and complicated production and after an initial test screening McTiernan was removed from the director’s chair and replaced by Crichton while composer Graeme Revell was replaced by Jerry Goldsmith. The final movie received tepid reviews. But the score to The 13th Warrior remains popular among Goldsmith’s fans and the music was reused in other films like Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven.


Alien 3 (1992)
Directed by: David Fincher
Music by: Elliot Goldenthal

Fans of the Alien series have never quite gotten over this installment. Following 1986’s Aliens, the third film quite literally trashed everything that its predecessor had accomplished. Alien 3 is a solemn and nihilistic story and composer Elliot Goldenthal complements the movie with a mournful score that is alternately creepy and beautiful.


Death Wish II (1982)
Directed by: Michael Winner
Music by: Jimmy Page

The original Death Wish told the story of a vigilante, played by Charles Bronson, who patrols the streets of New York City and kills muggers with a handgun. The 1974 film was a critical and commercial success. Cannon Films produced a series of sequels throughout the 1980s, starting with Death Wish II in 1982. The Death Wish sequels were quick buck productions that weren’t well received by critics. Roger Ebert, who gave the original Death Wish a three star review, awarded no stars to Death Wish II, a score he reserved for “movies that are artistically inept and morally repugnant.” The music from the first Death Wish was composed by notable jazz musician Herbie Hancock. For the sequel, musical duties went to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. His score to Death Wish II is the only redeemable part of the movie.


Exorcist II – The Heretic (1977)
Directed by: Joh Boorman
Music by: Ennio Morricone

1973’s The Exorcist was a groundbreaking movie and one of the biggest box office hits of its day. Warner Bros. produced a sequel that was besieged by script rewrites, creative conflicts, production delays, and extensive reshoots. Exorcist II – The Heretic was intended to take a cerebral and metaphysical approach to religious horror but it didn’t work. According to original Exorcist director William Friedkin, the sneak preview of Exorcist II was a disaster with the audience laughing at the movie and Warner Bros. executives fleeing the theater. In the years to come, Exorcist II would frequently be cited as among the worst sequels of all time. But its score by Ennio Morricone has many admirers. As an isolated listening experience, the music of Exorcist II hints at what the filmmakers intended. The track “Regan’s Theme” was recently featured in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.


Jaws the Revenge (1987)
Directed by: Joseph Sargent
Music by: Michael Small

The Jaws sequels aren’t well regarded but the musical scores from these films were quite good. Composer John Williams returned for the first sequel and made one of his most underappreciated scores. Music duties were assigned to Alan Parker for 1983’s Jaws 3-D, a movie that is not good but is entertaining shlock. Parker repurposed Williams’ shark theme but used it sparingly and created an impressive array of themes for the new characters and locations. The series came to an end with 1987’s Jaws the Revenge, the worst of the lot. The movie was rushed into production and it shows in the finished product, which Universal made worse by adding a stupid and sloppy new ending for the film’s release on home video. Adapting Williams’ Jaws themes, composer Michael Small created an exciting and emotional score that is far better than the film it is associated with.


King Kong (1976)
Directed by: John Guillermin
Music by: John Barry

The original King Kong was released in 1933 and the movie became a classic. The special effects were groundbreaking at the time and remain very effective. The stop motion animation gives the original King Kong a fairytale charm that still plays. In 1976, Dino De Laurtentis produced a remake starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange. The 1976 version of King Kong used an actor in an ape suit and some full-scale mechanical effects instead of stop motion animation and the result was a clumsy monstrosity that actually looked worse than the 1933 version. However, the music score by John Barry was terrific.


Purple Rain (1984)
Directed by: Albert Magnoli
Music by: Prince

By any metric of judging a dramatic feature film, Purple Rain is a lousy movie. The acting is terrible, the storytelling is clumsy, and it is consistently sexist and occasionally misogynistic. Like a lot of rock star movie vehicles, Purple Rain is about constructing and enhancing the star’s public persona and the narcissism is off-putting. But Purple Rain has some incredible musical performances, especially in its last twenty minutes, and the film is a testament to Prince’s musicianship and his mastery as a stage performer.


Spawn (1997)
Directed by: Mark A.Z. Dippé
Music by: Graeme Revell, Various Artists

One of the most popular comic books of the 1990s was Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. The title character was an anti-hero with powers from Hell who battled an assortment of demons, street thugs, and corrupt politicians. The series was initially adapted for HBO as an adult-oriented animated series that was ahead of its time. In 1997 Spawn was made into a live action movie but the results were a compromised mess. The subject matter necessitated darkness and violence but the movie was forced to achieve a PG-13 rating and a lot of the digital effects were lousy even for 1997. However, the movie featured an effective music score by Graeme Revell that unfortunately has never been released. The soundtrack album was a series of collaborations between metal and industrial bands of the mid-1990s like Marilyn Manson and the Sneaker Pimps, Korn and The Dust Brothers, and Slayer and Atari Teenage Riot. This same technique was previously used on the soundtrack to the 1993 movie Judgement Night, an otherwise forgettable action picture that featured collaborations between rock and hip hop artists including Pearl Jam and Cypress Hill and Slayer and Ice-T.


Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Directed by: Robert Wise
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith

Star Trek’s transition from television to the silver screen got off to a rocky start. 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a clumsy adaptation of the television show that was overlong, pretentious, and emotionally stilted. The movie is made watchable by Jerry Goldsmith’s music. The score filled in the sense of wonder and adventure that is otherwise missing from the movie. It also introduced the melody that would become the theme of The Next Generation television series. Goldsmith would later score 1989’s Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (which his music could not save) as well as all four Next Generation feature films.


Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)
Directed by: George Lucas
Music by: John Williams

The magnum opus of John Williams’ career is his music from the Star Wars films. Williams’ scores from the original trilogy are among the greatest and most memorable film music ever created and a key part of what made them so phenomenally successful. Williams returned to the series for George Lucas’ ill-received prequel trilogy. 1999’s The Phantom Menace was the greatest disappointment of the triad but 2002’s Attack of the Clones is the worst with its incoherent story, lousy acting, and a music score that was butchered in the editing room. Since Star Wars has moved on from Lucas’ control there has been a deliberate effort to distance the franchise from the prequel trilogy but the music of these films remains a bright spot in the franchise and the themes that Williams created for these movies offer an aural idea of what the prequels could have been.


Sucker Punch (2011)
Directed by: Zach Snyder
Music by: Various Artists

Zach Snyder’s film Sucker Punch was a disaster that was frequently cited as one of the worst movies of 2011. But the soundtrack to Sucker Punch was generally well received and it is much more interesting than the movie it was created for. The album included a series of covers, with several performed by the cast, that benefited from a phantasmagoric sound.


The Wolfman (2010)
Directed by: Joe Johnston
Music by: Danny Elfman

Joe Johnston’s remake of the classic Universal monster picture The Wolfman was besieged by production problems and was ultimately a disaster. An extensive reshoot was carried out during post-production and while retooling the film it was decided to jettison the score composed by Danny Elfman. But when time and money ran out Elfman’s score was retained and it has since been used in movie trailers for films such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and 12 Years a Slave.


The Words (2012)
Directed by: Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal
Music by: Marcello Zarvos

The Words was a forgettable drama about a struggling writer who finds someone else’s completed manuscript and publishes it as his own work. Released in 2012, The Words opened and quickly vanished from theaters without much notice but the film included an effective musical score by Marcello Zarvos.

Movies the Oscars Missed

The Academy Awards will air tonight, concluding the Hollywood awards season. It's well documented that the titles that emerge as finalists in these awards programs owe as much to Hollywood studio PR departments as they do to their own cinematic merits, sometimes more so. As a result, some excellent films get no recognition at all. Here are a few of the 2016 titles that were missed by this year's awards season.

Eye in the Sky
My pick for the best film of 2016, Eye in the Sky is a drama about drone warfare. In addition to getting ignored by the awards circuit and the critical establishment, Eye in the Sky also deserved recognition for its screenplay and editing and for its performances, especially by Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, and Jeremy Northam.


Gleason
Another of my top ten picks of 2016, Gleason is a heartbreaking documentary about former NFL player Steve Gleason and his struggle with ALS.


Deepwater Horizon
Peter Berg’s harrowing drama about the 2010 oilrig disaster is worthy of comparison to movies like Gravity and The Raid.


Patriot’s Day
2016’s second collaboration between director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg was Patriot’s Day, an intense dramatization of the Boston Marathon bombing.


American Honey
This story of destitute youth traveling the country hustling magazine subscriptions was a gritty but lively road film that captured a side of American life rarely seen in motion pictures. 


Captain Fantastic
Admittedly, this film got some awards circuit recognition for Viggo Mortensen's performance but not nearly enough. Captain Fantastic is a funny and offbeat family drama that presents interesting and complicated questions about how we live our lives. It also includes a notable supporting performances by George McKay.


Denial
The true story of the legal battle between historian Deborah E. Lipstadt and Holocaust denier David Irving was a timely movie and it had impressive performances by Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall.


Edge of Seventeen
John Hughes' movies didn't generate award buzz back in the 1980s so it's not surprising that Edge of Seventeen didn't either. One of the criminally underseen pictures of 2016, Edge of Seventeen is a story of teenage angst with excellent performances by Hailee Steinfeld and Woody Harrelson.


Love & Friendship
Walt Stillman’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s novella “Lady Susan” was a smart romantic comedy with great performances by Kate Beckinsale and Tom Bennett.


A Monster Calls
J.A. Bayona’s film was a fantasy drama about grief and loss that was in some ways better and more complex than Manchester by the Sea.


Tallulah
A drama about a vagrant young woman who abducts a toddler from her neglectful mother. The film is a complex morality play with great performances by Ellen Page, Allison Janney, and Tammy Blanchard.  


Imperium
A story of an FBI agent going undercover in the white supremacist subculture. The film is a smart true crime story that creates an effective atmosphere of paranoia and fear.


You can find full documentation of my picks of the best films of 2016 here.

'13th' Screening at Winona State on Feb. 13th

The documentary film 13th will be shown at Winona State University on Monday, February 13th, 2017 at 7pm in the Science Laboratory Center room 120. A panel discussion will follow.

 According to the press release:

13th is a 2016 American documentary by director Ava DuVernay. Centered on race in the United States criminal justice system, the film is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed slavery (unless as punishment for a crime). DuVernay's documentary argues that slavery is being effectively perpetuated through mass incarceration. In this thought-provoking documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom and provides an in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation’s history of racial inequalities.

13th was recently named one of the ten best films of 2016 by Sounds of Cinema.




This event is sponsored by the Winona State University Inclusion and Diversity office, the K.E.A.P. Diversity Resource Center, and Minnesota State College - Southeast Technical.

Best and Worst Films of 2016

Today's episode of Sounds of Cinema featured my picks of the ten best and worst films of 2016.

Best Films of 2016:

1. Eye in the Sky


2. Hell or High Water


3. Moonlight


4. Gleason


5. Deepwater Horizon 


6. Look Who's Back


7. La La Land


8. 13th


9. Silence 


10. Deadpool 


Worst Films of 2016:

1. Bad Santa 2
2. London Has Fallen
3. Assassin's Creed
4. God's Not Dead 2
5. Collateral Beauty 
6. Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party
7. Mother's Day
8. Cabin Fever 
9. Dirty Grandpa
10. Florence Foster Jenkins

Update: You can find more, including rationales for each title and lists of honorable mentions and trends of 2016, here.

Best and Worst Films of 2016 Coming on January 29

The Sounds of Cinema 2016 Year End Wrap Up will air on Sunday, January 29th. The episode will feature my picks of the ten best and worst pictures of the past year.

You can find an archive of previous year end wrap ups here. Until then, here are other critics' picks of the best and worst films of 2016:

The A.V. Club: The 20 Best Films of 2016
The A.V. Club: The 20 Worst Films of 2016 

Film Comment: The Best Films of 2016

IndieWire: The 50 Best Films of 2016

Mark Kermode: Best Films of 2016: Part 1 and Part 2
Mark Kermode: Worst Films of 2016: Part 1 and Part 2

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: 20 Best Movies of 2016
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: 10 Worst Movies of 2016

Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter: 10 Best Films of 2016

rogerebert.com: The Ten Best Films of 2016

Rotten Tomatoes: Top 100 Movies of 2016

What the Flick?: Best Films of the Year
What the Flick?: Worst Films of the Year

Sounds of Cinema can be heard Sundays at 9am on 89.5 KQAL FM in Winona, MN and at 11am on 89.7 KMSU FM in Mankato, MN and online at each station's website.

Joanne Bland at Winona State University

Joanne Bland will speak at Winona State University on Monday, January 23, 2017 to present "Hollywood's Myths and Realities of the Civil Rights Movement."

According to her website:

During her lifetime [Joanne Bland] has been a witness and participant in some of our nation’s most consequential civil rights battles. She began her civil rights activism in the early 60s. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) activists organized Bland and other area children and teenagers to participate in the civil rights movement. In the front lines of the struggle, the young Bland marched on "Bloody Sunday" and "Turn Around Tuesday," and the first leg of the successful March from Selma to Montgomery, witnessing brutal beatings of fellow marchers by police. By the time she was 11 years old Bland had been arrested documented 13 times. Ms. Bland’s early involvement in the struggle against “Jim Crow,” American apartheid, has been the foundation for her civil and human rights work throughout her life.

A much sought after speaker with a compelling personal story of civil rights activism, Ms. Bland has presented at conferences and workshops from the Smithsonian in Washington, DC to the states Maine, Wisconsin, Vermont, Minnesota, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa, Mississippi, Washington, Oregon and, of course, throughout Alabama. Currently, Mrs. Bland is owner and operator of Journeys For The Soul, a touring agency that specializes in Civil Rights tours with a major focus on Selma, Alabama.

The event will take place from 7:00pm – 8:30pm in East Hall of Kryzsko Commons on the Winona State University campus. Admission is free and open to the public.

The event is co-sponsored by: Winona State University Inclusion and Diversity Office, KEAP Diversity Resource Center and Minnesota State College – Southeast. 

Thoughts on Hollywood Political Speeches

The most talked about moment at this year’s Golden Globe Awards ceremony was not La La Land’s record number of wins nor was it the red carpet fashions or Jimmy Fallon’s performance as the host. Rather, what everyone was talking about the next morning and for several more days was the acceptance speech made by actress Meryl Streep while receiving a lifetime achievement award in which she turned her focus to politics and in particular the impending presidency of Donald Trump.



Streep’s speech was met with a standing ovation in the hall but her remarks had a polarizing reception on social media and in the realm of talking head television. Most reactions adhered to political and ideological divides. From Streep’s detractors came the predictable rejoinders, telling her to stay in her lane and calling Streep an out-of-touch Hollywood elite who was condescending to middle America. The irony is that Streep’s speech was actually far more nuanced and conciliatory than most Hollywood political screeds. Although she was certainly critical of the President-Elect, the bulk of Streep’s comments were a call for empathy and emphasized the entertainment industry’s role in promoting mutual understanding.

Streep’s choice to politicize her speech was not unusual. There is a tradition of filmmakers using the award stage as a political soapbox and that has caused some of the most (and only) memorable events of these shows often because they are a raw and authentic moment in an otherwise polished production and expose political rifts in the crowd.

One of the best examples of that occurred at the 1978 Academy Awards. While accepting the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Julia, Vanessa Redgrave took the opportunity to defend the documentary The Palestinian, which she had produced. The Palestinian was the target of protest by the Jewish Defense League, and a member of that organization had bombed a theater screening the film. Redgrave struck out against what she called “Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression.”



Later in the show, Network screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky responded to Redgrave. Before presenting the writing awards, Chayefsky said, “I’m sick and tired of people exploiting the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own personal propaganda. I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation, and a simple ‘Thank you’ would have sufficed.”



The Redgrave-Chayefsky exchange embodied what would become an ongoing debate among audiences and filmmakers as to whether it’s appropriate to co-opt a Hollywood awards show to make a political statement. It would seem that the Redgrave contingent has mostly won that argument and it has since become an expectation that someone will say something political. In 1993 Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon broke from the script to protest the detention of Haitians at Guantanamo Bay and Richard Gere spoke about the political status of Tibet. While accepting their Oscar for the anti-whaling documentary The Cove, the filmmakers unfurled a banner with texting instructions. Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black used his Academy Awards speech to advocate for gay rights, John Irving spoke favorably of Planned Parenthood, and Leonardo DiCaprio used his Oscar win to warn the audience about climate change. The most controversial speech of recent years was Michael Moore’s denunciation of President George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq after winning the 2003 Best Documentary Oscar for Bowling for Columbine.



In addition to award show soapboxing, there is also the more recent phenomenon of online videos in which movie stars encourage people to vote, usually in a particular way. Musicians and comedians and filmmakers are commentators on cable news and featured speakers at political rallies and there is a long custom of celebrities attaching themselves to public causes and to political campaigns, using their star power to direct attention to issues and candidates that they support.

Hollywood figures making political comments is not abnormal. It is a fixture of our culture. But the real question posed by events like Meryl Streep’s speech is whether it is appropriate for filmmakers and movie stars to use an event like the Golden Globes or the Academy Awards as a political soapbox. And furthermore, is it helpful to their cause?

It is silly to argue that cinema and art should somehow be free of politics. All art is political at some level, even if it is unstated or unintended. That doesn’t mean the content of every movie is necessarily partisan. But to tell a story is to say, “This is how life is” and motion pictures are created by filmmakers who are trying to express an idea about the world. That’s true of all films from agitprop documentaries and hot topic dramas to slasher films and screwball comedies. And in a divisively partisan time purchasing a theater ticket can be a political act as it was for American Sniper and Fahrenheit 9/11.

When filmmakers are honored for a picture that had an explicit political idea it naturally follows that they would comment upon it in their speech. When Michael Moore was given the Oscar for Bowling for Columbine, he was being awarded for a film about the violence of American culture and he spoke about as much in his remarks. Dustin Lance Black wrote a movie about a gay rights leader and so he used his moment on stage to raise the issue. And when Meryl Streep was honored for a career of playing a wide variety of characters, she spoke about the power of empathy.

However, the entertainment industry does have a perception problem. Hollywood has always been viewed with some degree of suspicion by the socially conservative forces in society and there is no denying that the creative community—which is distinct from the industrial complex that actually runs Hollywood—does have at least a superficially liberal attitude. The audience’s misgivings about Hollywood are compounded by the social and economic forces at work in today’s society. We live in an age where lower and middle class Americans feel alienated from their social institutions. The public doesn’t believe they are being listened to all the while they are immersed in a telecommunications culture in which they are forced to listen to other people talk about the issues of the day on television, radio, podcasts, and online videos. This creates an impression that they are excluded from the discussion and are spectators in their own democracy. And then these same people tune into the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes and see an entertainer, of all people, lecture them about the state of the world. Instead of inspiring hope or constructive action, the sight of a well-groomed and highly paid entertainer waxing political nourishes that gnawing feeling of marginalization which turns into resentment.

This is illustrated quite effectively in the 2009 film PoliWood, which is a documentary about the intersection of entertainment, politics, and media (which I editorialized about here). In one scene, a group of Hollywood celebrities, most of them liberal-leaning, meet with conservative voters at the 2008 Republican National Convention. The convention-goers vent their anger and frustration with the Hollywood crowd and several of them express feelings of condescension. That footage was a scrying pool that foreshadowed the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and the candidacy of Donald Trump.



Politically charged awards speeches, however well intended, frequently backfire. We have to ask if the comments by Vanessa Redgrave, Leonardo DiCaprio, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, and many others did anything for the issue that they claim to care so much about. More likely, these comments were ultimately self-serving as are so many expressions of political opinion whether they are made by a Hollywood superstar on the Oscar stage or on a lonely teenager’s Facebook page.

For its part, the public needs to get smarter about its outrage. When an out-of-touch millionaire actor makes a political statement it is regarded as an outrageous act of narcissism but when an equally out-of-touch millionaire industrialist does the same—or uses his or her fortune to lobby the government against the interests of the public—it is taken for granted. Even if you don’t agree with the political opinions of Tim Robbins, Michael Moore, and Meryl Streep, the resolution of that contradiction will go a long way toward redirecting our anger to where it belongs.

And Hollywood cannot afford to be this tone deaf. The most basic skill of any entertainer is understanding the audience. No one is going to take your cry for social justice seriously if it is made apropos of nothing while wearing a thousand-dollar dress at a million-dollar gala. In all likelihood, most viewers will forget about an actor’s award win by the end of the week. But they might remember how that performer furthered their feelings of alienation and decide to skip the debut of his or her next movie.

Instead of exploiting an awards show to make a clumsy and ill received political gesture, filmmakers should concentrate on putting forth their ideas through the medium that’s suited for it: the movies. After all, that’s what these award shows are supposed to be celebrating.