Alan Silvestri
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Having just reviewed his latest, THE ELECTRIC STATE, here (disappointing), but being blown away by his gorgeous HERE last year, I thought we should do a Silvestri thread.
As I made clear in the “Origin Story” thread, THE ABYSS is one of the three scores I credit with my film music interest. And I was massive fan all through the 90s and early 2000s. Even interviewed him once. Top 10 composer until relatively recently, just outside now. But in the last 20 years, the highlights have been missing. HERE was an exception to the rule. An odd, fine track here and there, but overall underwhelming. Pretty much the same career trajectory as James Newton Howard and Danny Elfman — also two massive favourites that have fallen a bit due to this reason.
BUT….there’s plenty from his past to cherish. It goes without saying that THE ABYSS is my favourite of his. What’s yours?
ABYSS is a favorite of mine, too. Also BACK TO THE FUTURE, DELTA FORCE (friends and I were into these action movies in the 80s a lot ;-), ROGER RABBIT or the CHiPS tv stuff. So mostly older ones but tere are lots of others I like. His AVENGERS theme is also good later one. He never reached nowhere near a favorite level like GOldsmith or Williams did.
Of “recent” Silvestri, I find his score to Allied quite good in all its simplicity, sugar coated love theme on autopilot included. This, together with the minimalistic tension music and slow buildup makes the music able to keep my interest for the album’s running time. I’m also a sucker for good big band re-recordings, and the tracks here are above decent. Haven’t yet seen the film – any good?
Silvestri often has great main themes and often nice single big band tracks like in Back to the Future, Mouse Hunt, Death Becomes Her or Allied.
I thing Silvestri is a little lazy when it comes to development and variations of his themes. Mabe a reason why he, unlike Elfman and Newton Howard, went for concerto composition. Or did he?
My favourite Silvestri score albums are Endgame and Contact.
Apart from that I find listening to a complete Silvestri soundtrack album a little tiring.But many of his tracks I would easily put on a best film music ever sampler.
What about the Night at the Museum scores? I’ve read good things about those, but never managed to get into them.
Same. Great main theme. And pretty good western pastiche tracks.
The OST of the first has over 30 tracks, most of them under one minute long. A little repetetive, like most Silvestri scores. But for me probably top 5 Silvestri. At least top 10.What about the Night at the Museum scores? I’ve read good things about those, but never managed to get into them.
I love how the main theme seems to sing out “Night at the Museeeeeeeeeum”.
Top 5:
1. THE ABYSS
2. Cast Away
3. Flight of the Navigator
4. Contact
5. Forrest GumpWait, what? No BACK TO THE FUTURE? That’s right. Absolutely adore the films. Seminal part of my childhood. Own the DVD box, seen them countless times. But the scores never did much for me, outside the theme. The third is an okay western score, but the first two (and especially number two) is a whimsical, aggravating mess for the most part.
Surprising release from Music Box Records today — a premiere release of his obscure 1984 score to PAR OÙ T’ES RENTRÉ… ON T’A PAS VU SORTIR. I’ve been periodically investigating this score whenever some YouTube clips have been up, but felt like I needed to wait until a proper release was here. And now it is! Hoping for lotsa Synclavier goodness.
https://www.musicbox-records.com/en/cd-soundtracks/15580-par-ou-tes-rentre-on-ta-pas-vu-sortir.html
My favorite score of his for many years remains Romancing the Stone. A beautiful romantic score, which combines electronic and orchestral parts in a great way.
I really liked Par Où T’es Rentré On T’a Pas Vu Sortir. The track Les Filles À La Piscine is just fire! I thought I was familiar with all his synth scores… I was pleasantly surprised by the score.Silvestri’s score for the new Shane Black film PLAY DIRTY is getting some buzz on film music forums, I see. Well, I’m listening to it now, and it isn’t THAT interesting. Some good tracks, some that seem clearly modelled on PREDATOR (which isn’t so strange, since Black was involved both as script doctor and actor in that film….what’s more strange is that he didn’t go for Silvestri on his actual PREDATOR film from 2018). A lot of those start/stop effects that Silvestri often employs. But some funky and jazzy cues, and some romantic and broad. Nowhere near the level of his wonderful score for HERE last year (which was his TRUE comeback score), but okay.
It would be easy to now list a lot of favorites, but I choose two that I especially love:
JUDGE DREAD and MOUSE HUNT.
JUDGE DREAD is a varied, rich action score with muscular themes, suspense cues, and just an all out tour de force… Silvestri here steps into Goldsmith/Poledouris territory, and he keeps up with them. I was surprised how much I enjoy the score, given that I didn’t care all that much for the movie iteelf. It’s become one of my favorites.
And MOUSE HUNT is just a delight, like Peter and The Wolf as a film score. The theme is infectious, and the music is in such wonderful spirit, as if a modern composer scores a classic keystone cops/Laurel&Hardy movie, which is basically what it was.
Those two are definitely favorites of mine.
I’m right now listening to the new PLAY DIRTY score, which is off to a promising start.
JUDGE DREDD is excellent, MOUSE HUNT a little….well, mickey-mousey for my taste.
PLAY DIRTY starts off with a fine main theme, but eventually wanders into boring suspense noodling with the occasional jazz lick. Nah, not gonna be part of my iTunes collection. Once again, it proves how out of tune I am with the majority of film music fans on various messageboards.
Well, I’m listening to it now, and it isn’t THAT interesting. Some good tracks, some that seem clearly modelled on PREDATOR
Sounds to me like typical Silvestri. So far more or less all of his scores lose breath on album half way through. His lack of theme development and variations. That doesn’t bother me in the movie. But I always thought, that might be one of the reasons, why Silvestri unlike John Williams or James Newton Howard or James Horner never wrote music for the concert hall. Btw. one thing that puts Silvestri for me at the side of Elmer Bernstein. Super strong themes, little variation and an affinity to big band jazz.
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