Soundtrack Holy Grails.
Ask any longtime fan of film music, he/she/they/insert pronoun of choice has a list of soundtrack albums that they wish would see the light of day.
It’s unlikely that future fans will be demanding an expanded release of Tom Holkenborg’s music for Zack Snyder’s Justice League (the soundtrack album comes in at 234 minutes, which is a major commitment for your ears.).
Now the soundtrack album for 1986’s American Anthem as I discovered when my little sister bought it for me, only included two Alan Silvestri tracks, none of them being of his rousing orchestral music which was top of the very short list of things I liked about the movie both times I watched it (once on video, the other time at the drive-in under its overseas title of Take It Easy as the supporting feature to Dirty Dancing as my birthday movie that year).
I know the supporting feature isn’t supposed to be better than the main attraction, but damn is that a quality drop. American Anthem was Albert Magnoli’s first film since his previous vehicle for someone with no business acting; Prince’s first — and sadly not last — movie Purple Rain.
This movie cast Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Mitch Gaylord as an gymnast who gives up gymnastics because of an unhappy family life.
“Arthur’s Theme” had nothing to do with getting caught between the moon and New York City, but for the wheelchair-bound musician brother of Julie, our hero’s love interest/motivation to get back into gymnastics.
“Julie’s Theme” is what Julie performs her routine to in-reverse. They’re okay-ish synth pieces that go with the songs on the album from the likes of 1980s soundtrack regular John Parr and Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor.
Meanwhile what would have been this film’s equivalent of “Portals” if the climax where our hero scores at 10 and makes it on to the U.S. Olympics gymnastics team had the same stakes and emotional heft as the climax of Avengers: Endgame. In other words, if the other filmmakers had done their job properly.
Miniseries can be fertile ground for composers. Michael Small did well twice in this arena; with 1993’s Alex Haley’s Queen, a sort-of sequel to Roots but focusing on Alex Haley’s mother’s side. For some reason, neither Halle Berry as the titular Queen nor Michael Small got any of the miniseries’ 13 Emmy nominations. This was Berry’s first jaunt in this field, but not Small’s.
But he previously scored 1983’s Chiefs (or if you saw it on British TV, Once Upon A Murder) giving this tale of a small Southern US town (where its three police chiefs over many decades try to stop a serial killer) a main theme invokes its setting of the American South while remaining stately.
Staying with miniseries here, but an even older one: I could still do with a faithful release of Dominic Frontiere’s music from 1977’s Washington: Behind Closed Doors.
The soundtrack album that ABC Records put out was an album rerecording with an eye to the disco audience. Here’s the main theme has heard by viewers.
And here’s the version what record buyers (Including me in the 1990s) heard.
I think my point’s been made (although there are people who were happy with it). I’d like think someone wrote to Points Of View and/or The Radio Times complaining about the album.
