MovieChat Forums > Legend (1986) Discussion > Goldsmith score vs. Tangerine Dream

Goldsmith score vs. Tangerine Dream

posted 12 years ago by pmssissy
31 replies | jump to latest

So tonight I caught Legend on tv and was ridiculously excited. I fricken LOVE this movie. Right off the bat I noticed something was off about the music. So I checked out the trivia section and it said...

"Composer Jerry Goldsmith's original score was removed by the studio after the first round of test screenings. In an effort to appeal to "the kids", executives commissioned Tangerine Dream to create a replacement. Until 2002, Goldsmith's original score was heard only with the film's European release."

Apparently, I was watching the European release with Jerry Goldsmith's original score. This was a VAST difference from the Tangerine Dream score that I was so used to. I literally wore out that VHS. I never really noticed how music can drastically change the feeling of a movie.

I felt as though Goldsmith's score was stale, and lacked the emotion I yearned during the dramatic parts. For example, when Jack tries to apologize to the unicorn for screwing things up.

I know Tangerine Dream is waaaay 80's but their music was perfect for the film.

Does anyone else agree with me?

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] Loveunderlaw 11 years ago

T.D. kicks Goldsmith's rump all over the screen on this one! I'm so glad he didn't do the music for the American version :)

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[–] ManThing32 10 years ago

Tangerine dream's score made this movie.

[–] killakippa 10 years ago

I mean hellooo exactly! It WAS the movie!

How can anybody objectively say that the 'Diving for Lili's Ring' scene was improved by Goldsmith?! I'm watching that scene listening to Goldsmith's score and if you close your eyes you could substitute that scene with any movie scene in the last 30 years, it might as well be music for Pocahontas comes to Honkey Town for all I care! The entire Kafkaesque dynamic of that scene in the original is completely washed out by Goldsmith. You call him a composer here I call him a destroyer!

I guess that generic studio music offers comfort for some people. But it is very generic crap by Goldsmith standards. I've listened to enough of his work to know his brilliant stuff from his I have a mortgage payments due crap.

Twitter @killakippa

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] heraclius-695-743304 10 years ago

Having grown up with the Tangerine Dream score, I think it's impossible to exactly predict how I'd react if I'd been exposed to the Goldsmith score first. That said, what I've heard of the Goldsmith score is pretty good, but forgettable--I say that as someone who considers Goldsmith to be a supremely talented composer, who enjoys much of his other work.

[–] sesquick-seabag 10 years ago

There's something about TD's sounds that made the movie's dreamlike faerie setting feel alive. Goldsmith's very traditional film score simply doesn't have the same effect. Maybe it really does depend which version you saw first, but the first time I saw the European version with Goldsmith's music I was completely thrown out of it when Lily started singing that "My True Love's Eyes" song - gone was the ethereal, magical sound of the TD cue, to be replaced by what sounded not unlike an old-fashioned Disney song. Also, I'd say TD had the better theme for the unicorns; Goldsmith's choral motif was well composed, but too heavy-sounding and didn't portray the sublime, heavenly power of the mythical creatures as vividly as TD's theme. Another example of where TD's music benefits the film more is the dance scene where their cue again sounds graceful, light and enchanting, whereas Goldsmith's is dense, heavy/brassy, and very overtly classical in its theme and arrangement, which again took away from the magic.

[–] JTurner82 9 years ago

Goldsmith's score is far more appropriate for this movie than Tangerine Dream. The American cut turned a flawed but intriguing movie into a totally messy, disjointed, badly edited mess. Tangerine's style of music was also very ill-fitting for this movie.

I have seen both versions and I stubbornly insist the Director's Cut is the better version overall. The music is just so much nicer in this version. One watch of the Tangerine Dream version and I couldn't watch it anymore. The Jerry Goldsmith score smashes it.

[–] nicholasjameslynch 9 years ago

100% I love the Tangerine Dream Version. It's actually one of my favourite films. However with the Jerry Goldsmiths score, it is stale and seems out of place with the film. Some may argue that it's because I'm used to the Tangerine Dream version, but that is the better version IMO. If I see it's on TV and its the Goldsmith version, I actually turn it off.