CineFile Video

The Kingdom

Lars von Trier’s Danish television miniseries reaches the “Twin Peaks”-like peak of weirdness, standing out as possibly one of the most warped things to have ever been broadcast on network television anywhere. 99% of all the action takes place in the neurosurgical ward of Denmark’s biggest hospital, and while the overall tone of the series is quite disturbing, the mood at the head of each episode is momentarily broken by the opening credits sequence and its accompanying militaristic theme song —

“The Kingdom” opening credits theme (MP3)

Alien

Jerry Goldsmith’s spidery, frigid orchestral score for “Alien” is the perfect compliment to what’s rightly considered one of the most powerful films in both the sci-fi and horror genres — but it’s difficult to piece together just what music cues from the “Alien” soundtrack LP actually appear in the film itself. On the subject, Wikipedia sez:

“Director Ridley Scott and editor Terry Rawlings became quite attached to several of the cues they used for the temporary track while cutting the movie. As a result they moved around much of Goldsmith’s score and had many sequences rescored. (Interviews on the ‘Quadrilogy’ DVD release of this film document the viewpoints of Goldsmith, Rawlings and Scott in regard to this situation and why it occurred.) Two cues from Goldsmith’s earlier score for ‘Freud’ appear in the film, and a section of Howard Hanson’s second symphony, ‘The Romantic,’ replaced the end credits. As a result, Goldsmith’s original soundtrack LP represented more the original score he wrote than what ended up appearing in the film.”

In any case, the one mystery credit, when it comes to the music of “Alien”, is who scored the film’s theatrical trailer? Judging by Goldsmith’s work elsewhere on sci-fi films like “Logan’s Run” and “Outland”, it’s quite possible he did it, but there seems to be little info available on the subject.

“Alien” theatrical trailer (MP3)

Murphy’s Law

I always love it when a singer or band mentions their own name in song lyrics — Bo Diddley is the king of this practice — but it’s an extra special treat to hear a movie theme song that repeatedly uses its own name. In this case, we have the end credits theme to the ‘85 Charles Bronson crime drama “Murphy’s Law”, in which once again, Bronson plays, um — Bronson. Here, the theme of the film is sung by Bronson’s co-star Kathleen Wilhoite. These lyrics have to be heard to be believed, but yet, the logic of them seems typical for a Golan-Globus production.

“Murphy’s Law” theme song (MP3)

Death Promise

What is there to say about ’70s kung fu cinema that hasn’t already been said — except that it’s nearly impossible to stop watching any picture that opens with a piece of audio like this! As they say in the song itself, “That’s a promise! That’s a promise…”

“Death Promise” opening theme (MP3)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Movie Music Archives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.