OP vs AVTAK Soundtracks

heartbroken_mr_drax

Barry had a change in his soundtracks between MR and AVTAK where they became quite plain sounding, still good however.

Octopussy (which I just bought last week) has some pretty cool tracks in it. Bond Look alike and the music that goes with the bomb countdown, but overall the soundtrack lacks.

AVTAK is alright, when I first saw the film I loved the soundtrack and bought it, but got over it quickly.

What does everyone else think?

Barbel

The latter part of Barry Bond soundtracks coincides with a general change in JB's music, most evident in his other contemporary scores such as Out Of Africa (an award-winning score which more or less defines his mature period) and really begins (Bond-wise, anyway) with Moonraker. His string work comes more to the fore and the earlier jazz-based music fades away (though never entirely disappears- check out Playing By Heart, which though soft by comparison with his sixties music is definitely sultry late-night jazz).

With OP, Barry re-used the monothematic approach he had of necessity used in TMWTGG- ie, the main theme (in this case "All-Time High") appears time and again through the score, albeit with various location-specific cues and the mandatory action cues making it less obvious.

With AVTAK, however, he relied far less on his main theme (using it in effectively slowed-down versions such as "Wine With Stacy") and interpersed it with a new action piece ("Snow Job" aka "Golden Gate Fight") and other stand-alone compositions such as "Airship To Silicon Valley" (perhaps my favourite in that score).

All of which is a long-winded way to say that IMHO the score for AVTAK beats that for OP, although I prefer OP as a movie.

I have to point out that Barry's Oscar-winning Out Of Africa wouldn't have happened without his superb work on MR- which wasn't lost on MR's director Lewis Gilbert when he saw the Streep/Redford movie!

Mister Biswas

I always enjoy reading Barbel's posts. Just knows his stuff.

I would however respecfully disagree with the comment about OP's soundtrack being mono-thematic. TMWTGG uses the main theme throughout, and in different scenes (i.e., romantic version, serious chase scene version, slightly comedic version, etc.).

OP's main All Time High theme, however, is if I remember correctly only used as a romantic music cue (i.e., Octopussy/Bond love scene, Bond/Magda love scene).
Barry employs different music for places such as:

- Kamal Khan leaving the auction;
- Kamal Khan talking to Octopussy for the first time in the film;
- The Bomb theme;
- The Buzzsaw guy attacking Octopussy and Bond at night, and the attack on the Palace by Octopussy's Girls

This is just my way of suggesting that OP's main theme is used in romantic scenes, while Barry employs different themes for action scenes and suspense/intrigue scenes.

In that respect, arguably AVTAK is more monothematic than OP is.

The Cat

Both OP and AVTAK suffer from the same syndrome, which I will explain a bit later. The main themes are used about as frequently - in both cases, "All Time High" (a romantic song) and "A View to a Kill" (a not so romantic song turned into one by orchestration) serve as the basis for the love theme.

These love themes are given various reprises - All Time High is a bit stranger because there is a separate theme for Octopussy, which is a completely different thing altogether, so in a way the attention is shared between those too. A View to a Kill on the other hand only exploits the Duran Duran song - it works nice on the CD ("Wine with Stacey" and "Bond Meets Stacey"), but there are a couple of nice unreleased variations (when Bond tails Tracy from her work to her house).

The real problem with both these scores is the lack of variation. Try listening to "Bond Meets Stacey" and "Wine with Stacey" blindfolded and I guarantee you won't be able to tell the difference (only the reprise of Zorin's motive in the beginning of "Bond Meets Stacey" gives you a crutch). The same goes for the action melodies - there is one in Octopussy (you know the one), one in A View to a Kill (the one with the rock guitar) and the recordings are almost the same.

Now this is all nice and great and that's what we call thematic consciousness. However, the fact that the same action theme is used for vastly different scenes is more of a sign for laziness. In this regard, A View to a Kill fares a bit better because all four reprises of the action melody can be distinguished by a trained ear, also because the guitar parts were improvised for each recording (fun fact: they weren't originally part of the score).

In Octopussy on the other hand, the same orchestral reprise of the James Bond Theme is used about four times, same goes for the action melody. It's almost never fitted to screen and the fact that almost 1/4 of Octopussy is scored with tracked material (e.g. music written for one scene used instead in another one) doesn't really help all that much.

The soundtracks recreate the problem by focusing on the larger, but mostly interchangable set pieces (Gobinda Attacks vs. Monsoon Palace) and omit the shorter, more interesting variatons, such as the only notable reconfiguration of the Octopussy action theme near the end of the picture as a more urgent version is played while Bond sabotages the plane. In A View to a Kill, they naturally left out the shortest, yet most interesting variation of the action theme (listen to it closely to catch a clever Thunderball reference).

All in all, both scores work well in the film, although that's almost a given in any Bond film. The soundtracks are entertaining, short and well-rounded listens, but don't contain some of the more exciting material. I believe Barry's music gradually improved towards the end because of all the additional talent brought into the music department who dared to push the composer to include new things in his scores which eventually culminated in The Living Daylights, which sound fresher and more alive than either Octopussy or A View to a Kill.

Barbel

Mister Biswas wrote:

I always enjoy reading Barbel's posts. Just knows his stuff.

As does The Cat, of course. I knew that some of the OP score had been tracked, but didn't realise it was as much as he says (and he'll be right).

Very true re the two pieces from AVTAK being practically identical- and throw in "That Fatal Kiss" for more confusion ! I do feel that AVTAK is a more varied score than OP, and particularly like the action theme which is more developed than OP's.

TMWTGG is, of course, more monothematic than OP although even that much-maligned score (often considered JB's weakest 007 work) still has a little in the way of variation- "Hip's Trip" and "In Search Of Scaramanga's Island"- and ultimately, as an album anyway, only slightly less varied than OP.

Barbel

The Cat wrote:

I believe Barry's music gradually improved towards the end because of all the additional talent brought into the music department who dared to push the composer to include new things in his scores which eventually culminated in The Living Daylights, which sound fresher and more alive than either Octopussy or A View to a Kill.

Oh, definitely. TLD is the best of those three, perhaps owing to the input of the younger collaborators, maybe because of the new Bond (Barry has often said that he writes what's on the screen) or perhaps owing to JB's own feeling of fin de siecle. The three (three!) main melodies are all strong and used well, and his "Mujahadin And Opium" (yes, I know about the spelling but that's how it's listed) is one of his most outstanding and atmospheric cues. Plus, of course, the use of electronic percussion- just right and not overdone.