MovieChat Forums > Legend (1986) Discussion > It´s all about the music! Tangerine vs. ...

It´s all about the music! Tangerine vs. Goldsmith.

posted 15 years ago by pradastreet
62 replies | jump to latest

For the record, according to the production, Legend had two cuts because the movie had rights in more than one producer. And the screening had not been very successful, making R. Scott cut the film and put another score in Berlin to the US. version.
Both cuts of Legend, making almost 2 entirely different movies, had their faults and their highs. The music is probably what made the most controversial discussions about the fans of the movie. It´s a personal thing. Some people, or I believe most people, prefer the Goldsmith classical score. Some not. I´m one of those who thinks that Tangerine Dream added more to the touch of Legend´s wonder. It´s very hard to put in words but it worth a try.
Legend is a hybrid movie. The setting, scenarios and the whole world in Legend looks and feels totally hermetic. I mean, for example Lord of the Rings takes place in some forgotten Europe. I think Legend was suppose to take place in our thoughts, making the narrative more claustrophobic and thick with lots of gritty elements in the art direction really revealing us that we are inside of a dream. Tangerine Dream´s score, the US. version mind you, captures this hybrid and hermetic feeling more than the classical open-world Goldsmith´s score.
Tangerine Dream music score starts with a celtic flute like an echoed wind in hollow oak, making it´s way in a change of keys in the very beginning of the open titles just as the bear reaches for the beehive, like a low key, almost like the humming of the trees, going a little dark on the felling of the score for a bit, showing the orions that the magical forest has also survival elements. Later, we hear a four-stroke key every time the goblins appear, vaguely sounds like the J.F. Sebastian´s apartment in Blade Runner, when surrounded by various android-goblins.
That´s just a couple of artistic elements that we can see in Tangerine Dream´s bold and free-thinking score. To capture the obscurity and hermetic feel of Legend. Making a more significant signature, Tangerine Dream used a more mystic feel, like it´s not meant to be music at all.
And the whole score was made in 4 weeks no less.

[–] Sargonarhes 10 years ago

I'm torn on this. I'm a big fan of both Tangerine Dream and Jerry Goldsmith. I have both soundtracks. Have many soundtracks of each of them, including many of former Tangerine Dream member Christopher Franke.

[–] Howard_Hand 10 years ago

Goldsmith, easily.

[–] DracTarashV 10 years ago

I'm a big fan of the great Jerry Goldsmith, but Tangerine Dream's spellbinding score evokes images of forests, beasts, fantasy, and the world of fairy-tales overall. They did an amazing job on this, period.

Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!

[–] m0uth 10 years ago

Jerry gets my vote. I like TD's score as I'm a fan of well made electronic film soundtracks, but Jerry's soundtrack is more dynamic with the film content, richer and fuller, and, dare I say, more experimental and wider (genre wise) in nature.

It mostly comes down to which version you grew up with, I understand that. I grew up with neither, and watched both versions recently back to back, and also the director's commentary in entirety, so for me it was strictly "in the now" moment.

I have to defend Jerry's music during the "apology to unicorn" scene. Those who prefer the TD score seem to pick this scene in particular as the superior to Jerry's. I have to disagree strongly. Jerry's music here (as also mentioned by Ridley) sounds threatening, and you get the feeling that the unicorn has a very defensive/aggressive stance towards Jack, and that he should proceed with respect until it comes to a warming coda after his apology and the unicorn backs down a bit. TD's version is just a pretty new-age track that shows absolutely zero feeling of Jack trespassing and entering unicorn's personal space, it only plays to his apologetic feeling of regret and sadness. This score removed the godlike fantasy element of unicorns (and any threat they might pose), and turned them simply into mourning horses with a horn stuck to their heads.

[–] Sugarminx 10 years ago

Good grief! I can not believe how many people like the TD score.

To me it's a steaming pile of....

Ah well, no accounting for taste I suppose.

Goldsmith's score for Legend is one of my favourite pieces of music, never mind film scores.

It is a thing of absolute beauty. I've said this before on the eternal subject of TD vs JG, but you could put the Goldsmith piece on without the movie and a story would still be told. It is evocative, atmospheric and manages to create a world filled with wonder and magic all on its own (sans moving pictures).

The TD music is just a muddled pile of notes thrown together willy, nilly with some hideous 80s synthesiser tacked on in order to date it. Yech.

Ok, so maybe not quite that bad.

And the whole score was made in 4 weeks no less

Imagine my surprise 

So put some spice in my sauce, honey in my tea, an ace up my sleeve and a slinkyplanb

[–] seashellz 10 years ago

somehow electronic music and pop songs don't fit the Mediaeval tone of the film-just like Ladyhawke- a 9 star movie that was ruined by its mostly disco soundtrack-by an old fart who thought thats what 'the kids listened to these days'

[–] Dukat-4 10 years ago

Re. the music, I very much prefer Goldsmith. He worked on the movie even before shooting, to compare the music used for the singing, so his score is much more integral.

That said, the history of the two cuts is thus:

It was financed by a joint cooperation of Universal (US) and 20th Century Fox (UK). Universal took up 60% of the budget, retained most creative rights and the US distribution rights, UK CentFox the distribution for the rest of the world.

UK CentFox accepted the version Scott delivered as is, and this was released outside of the USA.

This version was disliked by Sid Sheinberg personally, one of the head honchos of Universal at the time (and the personal contact at Universal to Steven Spielberg), so a real big wig in Hollywood. It was Sheinberg's insistence that the music be changed and the fairy tale elements of the script being toned down. Scott, being a relative newcomer in the business, could not work against that.

Pretty much the same happened to "Brazil", the Terry Gilliam movie. Similar financing and distribution scheme, and Sheinberg himself rejected Gilliam's cut. As opposed to Scott, Gilliam however was older and more experienced, and managed to get his cut released also in the USA (with very slight changes to the European version). Sheinberg personally oversaw the editing of a TV version of "Brazil". It's very interesting and enlightening to watch this cut -- it's a totally different movie that removes pretty much everything that made "Brazil" special, and turned it into simplified commercialized drivel. It's known as the "Sheinberg Cut" and the "Lover Conquers All" version. It was released on a three disc DVD release by Criterion at some time.

[–] beavinator 9 years ago

I vote Tangerine Dream. Admittedly my opinion is likely colored strongly by nostalgia as I grew up with the US version and only just watched the director's cut for the first time yesterday. I enjoyed Jerry Goldsmith's score. It was a very well-crafted film score. But as such, moving in such "generic" ways as a film score is "supposed" to move, I found the end result was that it kept reminding me I was watching a film. Whereas I feel the Tangerine Dream score serves very well to keep me firmly rooted in fantasy...because it's so unique, it pairs well with the unique visuals and other aspects of the film to create an atmosphere that just sucks me in and holds me there. While watching the director's cut, I found my thoughts mostly focusing on what went into the making of each scene from a filmmaking standpoint. While re-watching the US version I found myself mostly focused on the story and the wonder of it all. Again, could be mainly nostalgia, but that's what I took from the experience of watching both versions back-to-back.

One side note: I'm not sure why so many people refer to the Tangerine Dream score as a "rock & roll score". Sure, Tangerine Dream themselves are ostensibly a "rock" band. But there's nothing remotely "rock & roll" about the score they did for this film, with the possible exception of "Is Your Love Strong Enough" which is soft rock at best...

[–] redmiatazoomzoom 9 years ago

It's just another cheezy 80's fantasy film with the Tangerine Dream soundtrack.

Goldsmith's score (coupled with the extra director's cut scenes) transforms it into a masterpiece.

It's quite possible I may never follow up with anything I post.