When I was asked to watch Chinatown for last week's #filmswap (our new title), I immediately felt dumbstruck about what I'd have to say about it. I felt like I was in a lurch because, honestly, trying to explore something new about this film is like trying to uncover something new about the Mona Lisa. It's all been done.
But when I heard Uan Rasey's lone trumpet start playing over the beautifully sepia-toned opening credits, I knew what I wanted to talk about.
With such a memorable opening tune (which can be heard below), it's hard to believe Chinatown almost didn't have the score that it did. After the film's original score, composed by Phillip Lambro, was rejected, Jerry Goldsmith was brought aboard to fill in that gap. In less than ten days, Goldsmith not only managed to complete the score, but somehow made a work that was so emotionally in-touch with its source material, you'd never have known that he was, paraphrasing David Fincher's baseball analogy on the DVD commentary, a last minute ringer.
What makes the soundtrack work so well for me is just how scaled back it is. Goldsmith's work is used so sparingly, and it does exactly what a score should do - accompany and highlight the action without becoming a willful distraction. It seems like a simple enough task, but I've found myself taken right out of the action in some films just because the score was so... wrong.
More importantly, however, is just how appropriately the score fits the film. The world of Chinatown is grim and ruthless, stained with the blood of those who least deserve the fate they've been handed. The score manages to bring some emotional warmth and humanity to Polanski and Towne's creation, perhaps instilling in the viewer some hope that there is still some heart remaining in the corrupt streets of Los Angeles, circa 1937.
The soundtrack CD to Chinatown is out of print, but can be heard in its entirety below.
Phillip Lambro's unused score was released on CD in November 2012, and is available to purchase here, in a limited pressing of 1000 copies. Lambro's opening credits track is available to sample.
Follow Eric on Twitter: @fivedollardare
But when I heard Uan Rasey's lone trumpet start playing over the beautifully sepia-toned opening credits, I knew what I wanted to talk about.
With such a memorable opening tune (which can be heard below), it's hard to believe Chinatown almost didn't have the score that it did. After the film's original score, composed by Phillip Lambro, was rejected, Jerry Goldsmith was brought aboard to fill in that gap. In less than ten days, Goldsmith not only managed to complete the score, but somehow made a work that was so emotionally in-touch with its source material, you'd never have known that he was, paraphrasing David Fincher's baseball analogy on the DVD commentary, a last minute ringer.
What makes the soundtrack work so well for me is just how scaled back it is. Goldsmith's work is used so sparingly, and it does exactly what a score should do - accompany and highlight the action without becoming a willful distraction. It seems like a simple enough task, but I've found myself taken right out of the action in some films just because the score was so... wrong.
More importantly, however, is just how appropriately the score fits the film. The world of Chinatown is grim and ruthless, stained with the blood of those who least deserve the fate they've been handed. The score manages to bring some emotional warmth and humanity to Polanski and Towne's creation, perhaps instilling in the viewer some hope that there is still some heart remaining in the corrupt streets of Los Angeles, circa 1937.
The soundtrack CD to Chinatown is out of print, but can be heard in its entirety below.
"[The trumpet] is one of those things you would think... you know, it would be too strident in some kind of way. But it's so mournful, it has such a wonderfully lonely quality."Additional reading: Terry Teachout wrote a fantastic piece in the Wall Street Journal on Chinatown's score, discussing its inception and looking at its ever-lasting appeal.
- David Fincher on the 2009 Chinatown DVD commentary
Phillip Lambro's unused score was released on CD in November 2012, and is available to purchase here, in a limited pressing of 1000 copies. Lambro's opening credits track is available to sample.
Follow Eric on Twitter: @fivedollardare
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