The Shame! The Horror! The Score!
May. 20th, 2005 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsOne of my favorite, if flawed, action-adventure flicks is Speed. Keanu, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper... even Jeff Daniels and Joe Morton made perfect supporting actors. The sequence that leads from the second morning, where Jack discovers that buses are rigged to explode, to his final moment where he saves the girl from the bus, are perfect in timing and execution-- it's the establishment of the villain opening sequence and the "final battle on the subway" that mar the film, first by not bringing it up to speed in a reliable fashion, and finally by not delivering a final moment anywhere near as dramatic as "The Rescue." Everyone who's seen this film remembers when Jack and Annie embraced and leapt off the bus; nobody remembers what happened in the Pershing Square and subway sequences.
One of the reasons why, I believe, the film is so damned successful is the soundtrack. Mark Mancina crafted a perfect score, energetic and threating, relentless and romantic, all at the same time, using little orchestral gimmicks to make sounds like metal, like dopplered automobile horns, like the relentless ticking of a clock, like, well, like speed.
(Another side note is that although Graham Yost is giving the writing credit, the real credit belongs to none other than Joss Whedon of Buffy and Firefly fame, who was called in to fix the script after all three original main actors opted out and the script needed to be re-written to accomodate Keanu and Hopper.)
Anyway, out of curiousity this morning as the Speed OST came around on my MP3 player, I went and looked up the composer, Mark Mancina, and discovered to my horror the first movie for which he ever provided a soundtrack.
Yes, it's true. In the 26th century, even Mark Mancina had no shame. His very first score provided the thematic score and personal flourishes for none of than Bulk Vanderhuge and Spiderskank! Remember that "Sounds like somebody bought a Korg DX-7?" That was Mark Mancina. Poor man, to have such a thing on his record. I can never again listen to Speed without thinking, "It was nice of you to give that dead woman a second chance, sir!"
One of the reasons why, I believe, the film is so damned successful is the soundtrack. Mark Mancina crafted a perfect score, energetic and threating, relentless and romantic, all at the same time, using little orchestral gimmicks to make sounds like metal, like dopplered automobile horns, like the relentless ticking of a clock, like, well, like speed.
(Another side note is that although Graham Yost is giving the writing credit, the real credit belongs to none other than Joss Whedon of Buffy and Firefly fame, who was called in to fix the script after all three original main actors opted out and the script needed to be re-written to accomodate Keanu and Hopper.)
Anyway, out of curiousity this morning as the Speed OST came around on my MP3 player, I went and looked up the composer, Mark Mancina, and discovered to my horror the first movie for which he ever provided a soundtrack.
Yes, it's true. In the 26th century, even Mark Mancina had no shame. His very first score provided the thematic score and personal flourishes for none of than Bulk Vanderhuge and Spiderskank! Remember that "Sounds like somebody bought a Korg DX-7?" That was Mark Mancina. Poor man, to have such a thing on his record. I can never again listen to Speed without thinking, "It was nice of you to give that dead woman a second chance, sir!"
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Date: 2005-05-20 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-20 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-20 04:30 pm (UTC)But then again, I really like Dennis Hopper. I'll watch him eat cereal.
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Date: 2005-05-20 08:08 pm (UTC)