Recently I rewatched the movie Gallipoli. I remembered it as well done and heartbreaking. It still is but I didn’t remember the horrible synth music used throughout and particularly in the climax. Apparently those bits of music were from Jean Michel Jarre. Maybe you like that kind of music. I don’t. But I don’t think too many would argue it now feels right in an emotional period piece.
I can’t help but think that most movies that will have the same issues were made in the 80s. 80s synth hasn’t aged well in movie scores.
After reading the title and before the mouse over I said, “Gallipoli”. That was some crap sounds. The soundtrack is what I remember first when I think about the movie.
Not a re-watch for me, but having recently watched Witness for the first time, I found the synth-based soundtrack utterly out of place and distracting.
Many early 70s movies used sudden loud horns in the soundtrack to signify something shocking just happened on screen. This is really jarring and takes me right out of the movie.
A prime example is Planet of the Apes.
Yes. Vangelis was appropriate for Blade Runner, not so much The Bounty. But what popped into my head upon reading the thread title was For Your Eyes Only. Re-score it without the wakka-chicka and it’s a fine movie, but the disco guitars pull me out of the film.
Inappropriate synthesizer? Let’s see. There was Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight. Which was still not half as annoying as the soundtrack for Ladyhawke.
Synthesizer in the 80s, funk in the 70s, jazz in the 60s. Soundtracks date a movie faster than the haircuts.
Somehow, pseudo-classical music, played by a full orchestra, doesn’t age quite as badly. Whatever my complaints about Lucas and Spielberg, at least their movies sound good.
The first two films mentioned in this thread — Gallipoli and Witness — are by the same director, Peter Weir, with music by the same composer, Maurice Jarre (father of Jean-Michel Jarre). I agree the synth sound is annoying, particularly in Witness, where its artificiality clashes with the bucolic Pennsylvania Amish landscapes (though perhaps unintentionally it does remind us that the Amish also live “in the present” — meaning, at the time, the 1980s).
I do like some of the compositions themselves, like “Building the Barn” in Witness. I bought an LP around 1990 of Michel Jarre’s film compositions; it included this, but played by a real string orchestra.
That’s another Maurice Jarre score. [ETA: Just missed JKellyMap’s comment to this effect.]
I just re-listened to 4-5 tracks from the soundtrack, and I’m OK with it. It certainly doesn’t call attention to itself. YMMV - apparently lots of folks’ does.
A funny little coincidence: Two nights ago, I caught the last part of the film Glory on TV (it was Veteran’s Day), and commented to my wife that the music (at least in that scene) was overbearing. When I saw this threads’s title, I considered mentioning this. Just now I looked up Maurice Jarre’s biography — and guess who composed the music for Glory? Jarre’s adopted son Kevin.
Correction: Kevin Jarre wrote the screenplay for Glory. The music was by the prolific and generally talented James Horner (though I stick by my complaint about that scene — the long, final battle).
I love the soundtrack from Ladyhawke. Absolutely LOVE it. I wore that cassette tape out, and still play the CD while driving from time to time. **Ladyhawke **was one of my favorite '80s movies, and the soundtrack was a large part of my enjoyment.
