WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? (1981)

In WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? (1981) Richard Dreyfuss stars as a sculptor named Ken Harrison who at the beginning of the story is paralyzed in a terrible car accident and ultimately robbed of his ability to move and create art with his hands.  The story proceeds a few months later where Ken's life has been tragically transformed. The score was Arthur B. Rubinstein's first "major" feature film score assignment and directed by his old friend John Badham. Amazingly, Arthur B. was able to ask to score this film after visiting John Badham's office and seeing the script laying on his desk! Badham's answer was simply "well... okay."

The score to the film is arguably the finest work of Arthur B. Rubinstein's career and one of the greatest scores written for a motion picture. It is shocking that it never received an album release until 2009 and is now sadly out of print.

The aesthetic approach of the score is essentially a Neoclassical one. Rubinstein's influence would be Neo-Baroque dance forms, a strong influence on the composer's music in general, with the opening Main Title being a gigue. The result is somewhere between Bach and Stravinsky (in this case his middle period). It's an uplifting and stunning classically inspired work where the music masterfully gives life to the main character and the film.

The opening main theme is first stated on a high lonely french horn solo line. It's followed by an exciting build on a fanfare/gigue in the strings (the score does away with the violins and only calls for violas and cellos). This idea quickly climbs the tessitura of the orchestra in a repeating figure punctuated by snare then finally landing on a bold trumpet (six trumpets, four being piccolo) and full orchestra statement. After an exploration of the fanfare passed through the piano/harpsichord, horns and low woodwinds (only four oboes and four bassoons) the opening main theme is finally reached again after another climb but this time stated brilliantly fortissimo in the trumpet section. A gentle use of the fanfare continues until the main theme is presented again with cello/horn punctuated by pizzicato. These two ideas form the structure of the Main Title:





Early in the film is a four note motif which outlines the harmony of the gigue/fanfare theme. This is an important idea in the score which returns for Ken's paralysis (titled Intensive Care on the album). It's first use is for a scene with Ken and his doctor played by John Cassavetes in another brilliant performance. The gigue neighbor tone figure dances around the four note idea in the beginning and end of the cue.

Sadly a lot of the score was dropped or moved in the final picture but all that is there is incredible. One cue for example that this happened to was the dialysis scene where Ken speaks to a younger girl who is also a patient at the hospital. The cue starts beautifully with a minuet theme with solos for tuba, trumpet, oboe and harpsichord as Ken cheers her up. Many identifiable Arthur B. traits find themselves in this cue like the descending trumpet/bassoon tone pyramids that the composer would return to in WarGames. The tail end of the cue (sadly again dialed out of the film) is a fantastic use of the gigue fanfare on piccolo trumpet/oboe as Ken's blood is pumped through the dialysis machine.

The first cue Rubinstein worked on was the dream ballet sequence where Ken sculpts his girlfriend Patricia as she dances. Arthur B would work with Janet Eilber early on and compose the cue Montage (Sculpting Pat). This cue utilized every thematic music idea in the score.

Here is a quote from Arthur B. Rubinstein from an interview I conducted some years ago: 

"Whose Life is it Anyway? There’s one I’d like to re-record someday. It was a very special score. Here’s the other thing: It was originally supposed to be a black and white picture. My own synthesis of that was what I heard as a black and white score, which to me was low strings. Now, why this is black and white I don’t know, double reed instruments are sort of there, too, not like a clarinet, which is always in the background. The sound of a clarinet is always mellow. I had six trumpets, of which four were piccolo trumpets, two keyboards. I even used cimbalom in that score because I wanted a sound that was very gritty but could still have a romanticism when needed. It was a black and white score and I think it was David Begelman who said something like, “Classics don’t make money. Let’s do it in color.” They shot it in color and it was to be processed in black and white. So the color is a beautiful, sort of strange washed kind of color. The score is very unusual. The first work I did on it was the ballet, before I even started writing the score. We sat, as I recall, for weeks in a dance studio with Jan Eilber—terrific lady, I adore her, dancer, who played [Richard Dreyfuss’] girlfriend and we developed this ballet..."

The finale cue where Clare (Christine Lahti) says goodbye to Ken is sadly not present in the movie. This included a resigned use of the fanfare idea in a slow movement as closure to the score.  The film would have benefited from it's use in the picture along with the wonderful performances from Lahti and Dreyfuss. The End Credits continue the gigue fanfare to a rousing close.

Overall the score is a smart, intelligent, and dynamic work that is very moving and uplifting in this heavy film. Here's a great segment of "Trailers from Hell" with John Badham talking about his film:




And here is the trailer without commentary:




Highly recommended.

-- Brandon F.

THE PHOENIX (ONE OF THEM - 4.02.82)

"Long ago, in a remote corner of the world, ancient astronauts landed from a distant planet with a gift for mankind."

As mentioned before in previous posts THE PHOENIX was a short run show on ABC that was cancelled after five episodes. In the second episode called "One of Them" Bennu discovers a message from Mira and has a confrontation with an old nemesis (even though we only hear the voice of this new enemy). Preminger is still on the hunt for Bennu as well. 

The music is interesting to note as the score has many similarities with the composer's score to BLUE THUNDER (1983). Arthur B would lay the groundwork with synth sounds that he would eventually return to on the John Badham action film. 

Some cues sound as if they were tracked into the episode from other episodes. I'm not sure where they were originally intended to go or if they were recorded for this purpose of tracking them. The first scene shows Bennu on the run from police with search dogs. A synth pulse can be heard under a main idea starting on the same perfect 4th interval as the main theme to the show. The cue ends with a delayed piano sting as Bennu drops his map of Ancient Indian sites in Arizona:





Arthur B creates a tense atmosphere of synth minor 3rds as Delacey visits with her stalker ex-boyfriend who drives a Jeep: 

A Superman moment as Bennu levitates Delacey's car with his powers since there is no jack. 

Preminger believes Bennu is a fake and just uses magic tricks. Here the score is simply a piano version of the middle section of The Phoenix theme. The effect is somewhat sad and creepy, preventing any humor from the scene, especially with the textural synth coda tacked onto the end:

In this cue a synth version of the theme with piano arpeggiation is stated with the middle section before the first phrase again. More BLUE THUNDER synth suspense as Delacey's ex again shows up:

Here is a cue the production team decided to track in several places in the series. I think this scene has more empty space where the score comes through clearly to give an example. In the opening, horns and strings play a native Indian idea followed by a mysterious use of minor 3rds that pass from woodwinds to strings. In the scene Bennu believes he has found an important burial ground and possible clue to why he is on Earth:

"Mira's image deceives. She has been removed from this place. I will find her before you."

When Bennu gets inside the cave he sees an image of Mira that quickly fades and finds only a blue crystal left in her place. The music is interesting as Rubinstein returns to the Love Theme/Noel's Theme from the pilot episode.  This time the theme is bare with only the synth melody with a low pedal bass providing a feeling of loneliness in the cave that is very effective. It is possible that this is now meant to be Mira's Theme:




Overall this episode is a mismatch of styles with tracked cues from the series and only stark 80s synth cues. I will probably discover the other episodes are scored with these same synth cues but I will continue on with anything that is noteworthy to post here. 

-- Brandon F.

THE PHOENIX will return in "A Presence of Evil."

WHERE THE HELL'S THAT GOLD?!!? A.K.A. DYNAMITE AND GOLD (TV MOVIE 1988)

Willie Nelson is on a train that is taking him to his stashed away gold in this TV Western written and directed by Burt Kennedy. Jack Elam plays his sidekick who doesn't want to be shot at while on a train that is carrying dynamite. He reluctantly comes along and the long ride north begins. On the way they meet Delta Burke and her group of "ladies." This is definitely a film you'll have to fast-forward but there is a lot of good music you won't want to miss so stop and listen if you see any traveling shots of the train (that is if you feel compelled to watch more than what is on this blog - not all cues are covered). It's hard to stomach Willie's flat acting which sounds like he's reading cue cards from off-camera but Jack Elam has the best line in the movie: "One time in Denver, I ate in this restaurant. It had a big sign on the wall: 'Watch your hat and coat.' While I was watching them someone stole my steak..."

This has to be the best long lost Western score no one has heard (well, next to Arthur B. Rubinstein's TEXAS GUNS which also hasn't been heard and will be covered in another post). It's no surprise that this style of composing would bring out the best in the composer. The entire score tips it's hat to Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith but yet it still sounds like Arthur B. The main theme first appears in 'Where the Hell's That Gold?!!?' - a catchy song used for the opening credits. It starts with an opening rising motif with percussion and colored with guitar, harmonica and brass. A major key middle section follows before playful piccolo whistling is brought in for the return to the main idea. The song closes on a vamp after the last statement of the opening motif:





I have to skip ahead to one of the finest End Titles of Rubinstein's career which shows off this main theme in all it's glory. Here the song's melody is transformed into a rhythmic pulse of a train including bold brass, high string trills, and percussion with a Spanish flare:

Incredibly Willie Nelson does not sing anywhere in this movie except in a few minor scenes where he is singing to himself or with Elam. This might have been too expensive for the filmmakers but the opening female vocal makes sense. Here's the first instrumental cue containing the main theme:

Most of the film is compiled of just shots of the train with very little sound effects intruding and Rubinstein's score is treated beautifully full in the mix. There are some fun harmonica statements of the theme with Arthur B harmonic twists under sequencing of the opening motif. Ever wonder how film music used to be treated under traveling shots of a train? Here's a great example:




One of the highlights of the score is a rhythmic Mexican theme for the bad guys which is then followed by an exciting statement of the main theme as Willie approaches El Guapo from THREE AMIGOS:





There's a slow harmonica variation of the major key middle section of the main theme acting as a "settling down" theme for the film: 

More wonderful shots of the train with a broader statement of the main theme bookended by some terrific horn calls but ending on an unstable bass pedal:






Rubinstein creates more variation on the main theme for the introduction of the Apaches as they follow the train along it's path. There is some effective transparent snare and low brass ostinato writing common in Arthur B's style on display here:



Another exciting cue is when the opening motif and middle section of the main theme come back with some deceptive harmonic movement as Willie uses a cannon on a group of Apaches trying to attack the train:






So I have to ask... where the Hell's Rubinstein's Emmy for this score?

-- Brandon F.

No CD release. DVD is available.

SHOOTING WAR (Documentary 2000)

SHOOTING WAR is a phenomenal documentary that tells the story about the World War II combat camermen who captured some of the most remarkable and memorable footage of the war. The film was produced by Steven Spielberg and written/directed by Richard Shickle. Tom Hanks (with full Cast Away beard) hosted this hour and a half program which aired on ABC. Reels of footage are covered and much of it stays with you after viewing. The opening shows some of the most unbelievable aerial combat and crash landing footage from the war. Historian Stephen Ambrose bookends the documentary with some comments as well. 

Rubinstein's SHOOTING WAR is like a new war score for a feature film and one of his best works. It's the kind of score we get so few of in this day. Thanks must go to Richard Shickle and Steven Spielberg for knowing who could capture such beauty and tragedy in the music. The main title is thrilling starting with a theme in woodwind intervals and continuing on with a soaring trumpet main theme over a repeating string pattern.  For Hanks narration Rubinstein introduces a hymn-like theme with strings. The themes provide the basic structure of the score:

One of the most exciting cues in the documentary is for footage of planes coming in for crash landings onto aircraft carriers. The music is like an aerial ballet with Rubinstein providing fragments of the main theme along with the opening hymn theme but this time in menacing string and brass octaves. The cue continues with playful variations of the main theme for training footage of the cameramen:




Some warm string writing continues with a slight variation of the opening clarinet intervals: 

This playful variation on the main theme provides a fun background to the boredom the soldiers sometimes experienced in the European front: 




The woodwind intervals return throughout the picture with disturbing suspenseful phrases but not without somber and lyrical moments like this one for the most famous footage of the D-Day invasion:



Arthur B. provides some agitated string, brass and percussion writing on the main theme for the Pacific scenes as well:

Like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, the moving feel of the music is somber and heroic capturing the bravery of these cameramen and soldiers all evident in the footage: 





I can't think of a more deserving score of Arthur B.'s work that should have a soundtrack album release. Highly recommended viewing.

-- Brandon F.     

THE PHOENIX (IN SEARCH OF MIRA - 3.26.82)

THE PHOENIX's second episode aired a year after the pilot episode but this time with a new opening title theme featuring more of the synclavier on the main idea with a consistent pulse from the timpani underneath. This is the same electronic sound that Arthur B. Rubinstein would play for John Badham the following year when the filmmakers were looking for a partly electronic score for BLUE THUNDER. The theme closes with a familiar Arthur B. signature motif in the synth at the end:






A mysterious setting of the main theme starts the episode off as Bennu (Judson Scott) arrives in New Mexico. This cue sounds as if it was tracked in a couple of scenes in the episode: 





There's chase music that kicks off the episode early when some guys in a pickup truck hunt for Bennu. That famous sound effect from every 70s/80s super hero show appears when Bennu blasts the gun out of one of the bad guy's hands using his sun power. Apparently he can now harness enough power from the sun even at night. Interestingly toward the end the score returns to some of the electronic pulsing sounds from the Pilot episode:

The show would bring in a new villain named Justin Preminger (played by Richard Lynch) who would last for the remaining four episodes. In this standout cue, an exciting build of percussion, strings, horns and electronics begin after Preminger comes asking Dr. Ward Frazier (E.G. Marshall) about where to find Bennu. The composer returns to the South American pan flute color as Frazier retrieves a map and a stone possibly from the Peruvian burial ground. There is an interesting mixed-meter synth idea that bookends the following scene. The main theme begins on it's middle B section in the strings (again with pounding timpani and electronics) and continues into the main theme on French Horn in a scene where Bennu begins to recharge his solar power:

One of the best variations of the main theme is a reflective string passage for a conversation between Bennu and Darlene: 

The ancient astronaut is also able to read minds and influence animals. Here Bennu is able to get a dog to bail him out of jail by retrieving his amulet. The cue starts off with the pan flutes as Arthur B. combines a fragment of the Main Theme from the Pilot episode with the new opening theme of the series. Strings whirl around in some nice orchestration under another statement of the B section of the main theme:





The love theme from the Pilot (Noel's Theme) returns for when Bennu says goodbye to Darlene:





I failed to mention last time the brief but great end title cue from the Pilot episode but unfortunately it's covered by the ABC announcer and it's not on YouTube.  


-- Brandon F. 

The Phoenix will return next week in "One of Them."

THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT (TV MOVIE 1989)

Even Arthur B.'s due for a clunker every now and then, right? Well this sure as hell isn't it. In fact, this is one of his finest works, brimming with almost as many leitmotifs as your average STAR WARS film. The score is amazing the first time through, but it only gets better as you become more familiar with the various themes and their charming interconnections. The highlight is the cue that bridges the 7/8 Arabian-flavored action motif with a heroic reading of the love theme; it accompanies the scene where the gorgeous Stephanie Zimbalist uses her high heels as a digging tool to escape from a prison cell.

BROWN SUIT is another fine example of Rubinstein's energy and inventiveness virtually carrying (or, depending on how you look at it, disregarding) portions of a telefilm: look for several static, poorly framed and horribly lit shots of Zimbalist sitting in her boat cabin, thinking for about 90 seconds straight (with occasional voice over narration). That said, this score is so good, it's worth sitting through the whole film just to appreciate the levels on which it functions. Okay, you can fast forward a little if you want, but be careful. There's a ton of music.

Definitely worth watching.

-- Jon Z.

AGATHA CHRISTIE'S THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT is a pure gem of a film score. The first cue in the film (after the opening song) lets you know what kind of score you're in for. Arthur B. builds the excitement up and introduces the 7/8 action motif after Harry Lucas follows Anita into a mansion and discovers her diamonds are missing. He quickly leaves the scene of the crime:






The action motif is quickly reprised in this scene where Anne briefly meets Harry before he flees again. An Arabic snake charming theme is added to the mix and builds to an exciting finish: 

The main theme is a memorable and yearning adventure theme for the main character Anne Beddingfield (Zimbalist). Some of the suspense music is classic mystery sleuth music with parts that would fit in with any Sherlock Holmes or Harry Potter movie. Here the theme sounds like something right out of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK:






Other character's motifs are introduced here with plenty of sneaky woodwinds:

It's incredible how many little motifs sneak in and out. Harry (the man in the brown suit himself) has a cool, short upward woodwind motif and Rubinstein uses it in many wonderful romantic settings: 





Here's an example of how the composer is able to blend just about every idea into one cue with motifs and themes flowing into each other. Arthur B's minor third flourishes are always present. After the commercial break is another softer moment on Anne's Theme:

More interesting variations on Anne's Theme, Chichester's music, Suzy's Theme and Harry Lucas' motif in her cabin as she counts up the suspects:






Last but not least is the best cue in the film where Anne's Theme is combined with the action motif as she escapes from her prison cell. Bells and high strings with woodwinds climb in excitement as Anne digs out with the help of her high heels:





-- Brandon F. 


No soundtrack album available. The film is available on DVD only in this Agatha Christie boxset.

BLUE THUNDER (1983)

BLUE THUNDER is John Badham's super-helicopter thriller, starring Roy Sheider as Frank Murphy, a cop assigned to test-fly the dangerous vehicle for the '84 Olympics. When Murphy suspects that the government plans to use the chopper for evil, he steals it, resulting in some of the most intricate helicopter chases ever captured on film.

BLUE THUNDER is deservedly one of Arthur B.'s best known scores, a unique combination of '80s electronics with acoustic brass, strings and percussion. The main theme is dynamite, an ascending long-line melody usually voiced on a hollow-sounding synclavier patch (at times layered over a sampled rhythm of whirling helicopter blades). As per custom with Rubinstein, the tune takes unexpected harmonic turns that keep you on your toes everytime you hear it. It's not often you get to hear a classically trained film composer write this sort of sophisticated music for the synthesizers that were more often employed on pop-scores by Vince Di Cola and Harold Faltermeyer. BLUE THUNDER is a rare thrill in that it tricks you into thinking you're in for an enjoyably trashy synth score only to reveal the classical intricacies found in Rubinstein's best work. 

As you might suspect in a movie about a helicopter, a good deal of the music is buried under sound effects. The promo soundtrack CD is hard to find but Track 14 (River Chase/Hide and Seek) may very well be the best action cue Rubinstein has ever penned, mixing and matching his main theme with the rest of the score's biting, mechanical sub-motives, and brilliantly blurring the line between electronic and symphonic. Highly recommended.

Definitely worth watching.

-- Al B

We attempted to sync up the picture with the exciting River Chase half of the cue. Here you can see how the music works in the film with only Rubinstein's score isolated: 




There are some standout themes in BLUE THUNDER like the soft piano theme for the quiet moments between Murphy and Kate (on the album as Kate's Theme). This theme has a haunting quality in it's beginning statement but ends with a more hopeful turn in the closing phrase. 

The composer utilized some experimental piano effects for the creation of the score. According to John Badham in the promo CD liner notes, Rubinstein created an unusual piano sound by placing the microphone inside a large empty water bottle underneath a Steinway. 

Track 8, Follow My Leader, is one of my personal favorite cues which plays with fun synth textures and contains an early statement of the action motif later heard in River Chase. Always present are the bouncing minor 3rd intervals expected from the composer. Synths used for the score were the Synclavier II, Jupiter, Prophet and Moog. An original version of Murphy's Theme was composed for the end title and performed with a single piano building with a crescendo in the orchestra (Track 15, Ride With The Angels) but the filmmakers opted for a more pop flavored version which can be heard as Murphy's Law - Theme from Blue Thunder (Track 16). 

BLUE THUNDER stands as one of the best action films of the 1980s and it's theme of secret government surveillance is still a very relevant subject. Today's word of summer blockbusters with nothing coming out but comic book action movies gets old and stale so it's nice to reflect on how action used to be made. It's incredible to think now that John Badham's BLUE THUNDER was released the same year as WARGAMES.  1983 would be a watershed year for both Arthur B and the director. 

-- Brandon F. 


The promotional CD cover for BLUE THUNDER.  Unfortunately as of this post the soundtrack still has not seen an official release from any label.