Opinions on Streitenfeld?

Jonesy-the-Xenomorph

MemberOvomorphMarch 22, 2012972 Views10 Replies

I love the original Alien film for many many reasons, the texture and environment being so believable, the cast being so brilliant, the perhaps over use of smoke/co2 to provide a threatening atmosphere..but for me the reason Alien stands heads and shoulders above even the re-imagined Aliens by Cameron is the score. Goldsmith succeeded in stretching out the tension and anticipation in a movie where no real "action" takes place for around half an hour. Now from the trailer it seems we aren't being thrown in at the deep end so to speak, like in Alien where it starts from when they are woken from stasis. We have no context of the crew before this. In Prometheus, it seems to show a precursor of discovering these figures on ancient civilised planets. However, I'm very hopeful that the score is going to bring alot to this film, as in Alien. Can anyone give me any opinion on the score of Streitenfelds previous work with Ridley? I haven't seen Robin Hood, American gangster (Got a bafta nomination for score) or body of lies. Clearly, this is a different thing. He's yet to try his hand at sci-fi. But anyone who saw these films, I'd like an opinion on how the score fit the scenes or even if it was memorable. Cheers!

ZetaReticuli
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March 22, 2012

You're right jonesy, I hope Marc Streitenfeld gets into real fear mode with this score. I assume Ridley Scott would've had a word in his shell-like to really do what he does to the x times power of fear. RS would no doubt realise that such a huge and ambitious personal project like this will DEMAND to go hand -in-hand with a score of some depth and not some generic, trailer-type music. I really think a Bernard Herrmann type, low-woodwind/resonance type sound combined with some really resonant synth would suit the sequences where they explore the bizarre artifacts and environment.

Axl_F
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March 22, 2012

Goldsmiths score is undoubtedly amazing; however a large part of which constitutes the score of ALIEN is essentially a combination of a few isolated cues from the original score and from a previous score from FRUED, also by Goldsmith, used as a filler. Both producers and Ridley Scott were unimpressed with Goldsmiths original effort at the score that very little of the original intent still remains in the theatrical cut...that's not to say that I think Goldsmith did a "poor" job. It still remains one of the most iconic scores and I doth my hat to Goldsmith for this. It's worth remembering this prior to considering what Streitenfeld comes up with :)

jupez
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March 22, 2012

Marc Streitenfeld's work in the grey was great but other kinda okay, i hoped ridley would have taken harry gregson williams/tyler bates for the job but i think marc will do just fine.

Axl_F
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March 22, 2012

As far as I'm concerned, ALIEN - ALIEN3 had remarkable scores; different in mood, direction and ambience but all equally as powerful...however Goldsmiths original...nothing sreams ALIEN more than a few bars of his original. Glad to hear it in the trailer and fingers crossed for PROMETHEUS!!

Lord Ennio
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March 22, 2012

I miss Jerry Goldsmith. While I liked Streitenfeld's score for Robin Hood, other choices are: James Horner, Alan Silvestri, Howard Shore(LOTR fame), Marco Beltrami, Hans Zimmer, John Debney(Predators), and even Steve Jablonski(maybe).

alteredstate.
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March 22, 2012

Bear McCreary would be a good choice i think to break into films. but marc streitenfeld's work is satisfactory up till this point. I have heard all of his scores so far and although competent there has not been anything from him that's blown me away yet . Hoping there's a first for everything.

ZetaReticuli
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March 22, 2012

Hope MS creates some kind of memorable motif that will stay with us through the night after our first viewings. Just like Goldsmith's eerie two-note motif stayed with me in1979. The entire production seems to have gone all-out to town of the visuals for Prometheus, so it only follows that the music should deliver without flinching too.

Guest
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March 22, 2012

Scott works with Streitenfeld out of familiarity, which can often be a bad thing, but it does hint that he has very specific ideas for how music works in his films, so if Alien or Blade Runner are any example, this one might work out well. I suspect this score will be heavy in sound design, but Streitenfeld does have Goldsmith's material as a guidepost. With any luck, he'll also find some inspiration from Goldenthal's Alien3. It's anyone's guess, and as the previous post mentions, the recently released score to THE GREY may be the warm up to his work for Prometheus. I believe you can find individual cues from that on Youtube. Robin Hood, for as maligned as the film might be, has a pretty good score with some heroic pieces and a very interesting theme for the villain. I'd say give it a listen. Streitenfeld's work seems like he is close to a breakthrough. I hope the trailer sound design offers some clues. I was hoping for Marco Beltrami who used a great deal of inspiration from the Alien films in his fantastic score to The Thing (2011). Axl_F-- Where did you read that criticism of the Alien score? During the trailer release interview, Ridley Scott [i][b]highly[/b][/i] praised Goldsmith and his score.

Jonesy-the-Xenomorph
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March 22, 2012

That's a good point axl. I knew about the borrowing from previous projects by Goldsmith, and I hadn't considered the effects of pressure from producers and Ridley on the score. While I have confidence in Ridley, I think a major concern for a lot of people on this project is the effect of the higher-ups. For example the supposed pg cut and effect on directors recent efforts. I'd love a style or even revival of parts of the original alien score. Lets just hope the people at 20th c fox don't get as much an influence as they sometimes want. Probably just put generic space sound 2 on the keyboard.

Axl_F
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March 22, 2012

I hear you Jonsey. I feel pretty much the same. Score is such an important area of the movie going experience but a lot of folks don't consider it. In the build up to release it's often not mentioned; however as with all of the other aspects of the movie it's really not that predictable. In terms of theme I think it almost has to "pre-date" ALIEN. By that i mean it needs to have an avant garde, almost unworldy edge to it and not a traditional movie score a la Horner in ALIENS. Whilst not a fan of the STAR WARS prequels I felt that John Williams understood how to create musical themes that linked directly to STAR WARS but remained orginal. I think in PROMETHEUS, the score will have strands of ALIEN "DNA" but remain authenic to plot. I see more initial hope and discovery themes followed by the inevitable horror elements. ALIEN started scary, putting the audience on edge, whilst still having reasonably uplifting and sucessful (as in the landing of Nostromo on the planetoid) moments. I think PROMETHUES will be distinctly different, if the themes in the trailer are anything to go by.