(2015-12-12, 02:17 PM)FrankT Wrote: Perhaps we could make a new sound mix incorporating Jerry Goldsmith's original musical score? It goes beyond the purpose of the regrade itself, but it'd be a nice touch.
I would love to see that, too. I would love to see the music be performed live to the film.
But, there is one thing to consider.
When Goldsmith wrote and recorded his music, he was working off an edit of the film that was different from the theatrical cut. After the music recording sessions ended, the filmmakers re-edited the film. As a result, the music didn’t fit the new edits, so, instead of allowing Goldsmith to re-write music for the new edits, the filmmakers re-cut and re-arranged the music that was already recorded.
In fact, in the scene at the infirmary where Dallas and Ash observe the comatose Kane with the face-hugger alien, I’ve noticed several edits to the music that were made just as one shot changes to another shot. These music cuts occur in the following:
• From the shot of Ash pressing buttons to open a wide glass door to accept a comatose Kane to the shot of a group of crew members—Ripley, Parker, Lambert, and Brett—looking on through the glass pane.
• From the shot of comatose Kane, laying on a table, being loaded into a compartment to the shot of Ash and Dallas, in near silhouette, looking on at the wide compartment where Kane lays—it’s in that shot where Ash instructs Dallas to remove his breathing mask.
These edits would suggest that the scene was originally longer. One would need to know, at least, every note of that music cue-from beginning to end-to notice. Apparently, when preparing the final cut of the film, a new music track was not prepared to accommodate the new edits of this scene. It was a quick hack job. If you watch the film with the isolated music score track on, either on the 1999 DVD or the Blu Ray, you’ll notice that most of the music cues do not fit the scenes that were placed under. In that isolated music track, the music cue for that said scene is presented in its entirety--no edits.
So, my thinking is that to do the music justice, you would have to have the working edit of the film that Goldsmith used to write his music.
For that 2003 theatrical re-release of the film, what Scott and Fox should have done was devote their resources to restoring that working cut instead of doing a faux “director’s cut.” By presenting the working cut, Goldsmith’s music score can be heard in its entirety and to examine what impact the composer would have achieved with each scene.