FSM # 20: Final scores – best and worst?
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Michael Kamen died way too soon, at only 55 in 2003. He’s a bit hit and miss, but I’ve always liked him. Probably “Waiting Room No. 3”, if I were to place him in my system. His last, full score was BACK TO GAYA (2004), but I was never a big fan of that. Although I like OPEN RANGE (2003) quite a bit, I think his last truly GREAT score was his work on BAND OF BROTHERS (2001), with the soulful Americana theme and some episode scores. We need a proper soundtrack release of that series already!
Michael Kamen died way too soon, at only 55 in 2003. He’s a bit hit and miss, but I’ve always liked him.
Same here. He started out great, my first encounter was THE DEAD ZONE, which I thought was great. He then did a lot of action scores in the 80s and 90s which I — at the time — considered boring. However, I have come to re-evaluate a lot of them since and my esteem for Michael Kamen has only risen. For example, the LETHAL WEAPON scores are really excellent. And he did some truly wonderful work with scores like THE WINTER GUEST, MR. HOLLAND’S OPUS, and many others.
Also, he seemed to have been an all around great, likeable guy, heard only good things about him. So he’s deeply missed.BAND OF BROTHERS (2001), with the soulful Americana theme and some episode scores. We need a proper soundtrack release of that series already!
What’s wrong with the album that exists? Or do we have a rare occasion even you like to have more? 😉
What’s wrong with the album that exists? Or do we have a rare occasion even you like to have more?
Sorry, I got all mixed up. Yes, the album we have is fine the way it is. For some reason, I mixed it up with FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON. That’s the one where we need a proper score album.
Yes, it has Kamen’s theme, but that’s it. It’s a songtrack. Can’t remember dialogue, though (were you thinking of APOLLO 13?), but maybe it did. Either way, we need a score album with both Kamen’s and the other high profile composers’ episode work.
Can’t remember dialogue, though (were you thinking of APOLLO 13?), but maybe it did.
I remember some intro dialogue over the theme. But maybe I confuse it with some intro of the show I saw some time.
Michael Small died in 2003, same year as the other Michael we just talked about. I’m not aware of anything he did after the wonderful MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON in 1990 (please remaster this already!). So that would automatically be my pick for last greatest, even though it was 13 years before his death. His final work appears to be a TV series called A NERO WOLFE MYSTERY (2001-2002).
Michel Colombier, who died in 2004, was one of the proponents of the “consistent versatility” I spoke about in another thread. He could do everything – orchestral, jazz, electronic etc., with equal ease. I think the last film he did, in terms of original music, was a TV movie called DEACONS FOR DEFENSE (2003), which I’ve neither seen nor heard. The year before, he did the infamous Guy Ritchie film SWEPT AWAY. But what was his last great score? NEW JACK CITY all the way back in 1991?
I would have loved to hear more of Colombier. Some of his 80s stuff is phenomenal. A score compilation would have been ace. John Eklund from Sweden is a Colombier-specialist. I have tried getting him to register here but no luck..
Michel Legrand died in 2019, and I even did a tribute podcast episode about his work at the time. J’AI PERDU ALBERT (2019) was his final film score, released posthumously. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018) was great, but it was a “ressurected” old film and score, so it doesn’t count. But I really like his score for LA RANCON DE LA GLOIRE (2014), which I consider his last great score, pretty close to his death.
Nino Rota died in 1979, and that same year (in fact just two days after he died), his last score for Jan Troell’s HURRICANE was released. I’m not familiar with that. I suppose you can consider DEATH ON THE NILE (1978) his last great score?
Richard Robbins died way too early, in 2012, age 71. I’ve always been a fan of his, and the Merchant/Ivory films, in particular. His last score was indeed Ivory’s THE WHITE COUNTESS in 2005, which I haven’t seen, nor heard its score. I do sometimes wonder what a continued collaboration with Ivory would have led to, like on the super popular CALL ME BY YOUR NAME in 2017, which was written by Ivory. I think the last great score he did was THE GOLDEN BOWL in 2000.
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