Ron GRAINER
The Omega Man
OST
FILM SCORE MONTHLY [65:41]
Available exclusively from the magazine and website
(www.filmscoremonthly.com)
for $19.95 plus shipping. E-mail:Lukas@filmscoremonthly.com
Most people who know the name associate Ron Grainger with the theme tunes
for Dr Who and Tales of the Unexpected rather than Charlton
Heston science fiction movies. The Omega Man (1971) is the second
adaptation of Richard (Duel, Somewhere in Time) Matheson's minor SF
classic I Am Legend, the first being the Vincent Price star-vehicle,
L' Ultimo uomo della Terra (The Last Man on Earth) (1964), and follows
Heston's success with Planet of the Apes (1968) and Beneath the
Planet of the Apes (1970) as a further venture into socially aware adventure
SF, a part of his career Heston would conclude with Soylent Green
(1973).
The music could not be more different from Jerry Goldsmith's landmark score
for the first Apes film. Play the disc without looking at the track
list or artwork and you might get the unwelcome feeling that the wrong CD
has been put in the jewel-case: the album opens with the theme to a different
film entirely! Max Steiner's A Summer Place (1959). The music is used
as source cue, played on a 8-track cartridge machine in The Omega Man.
Things end in an equally unusual way, with a bonus cut playing beyond the
end of the final track, which I will leave for the curious to discover. Between
is an hour of further music, including versions of the standards 'Round
Midnight and All Through the Night the latter particularly early
70's kitsch cocktail jazz in style.
The title theme is a melancholy orchestral-pop-instrumental, very much of
it's time, and setting the tone somewhere in time and style between Michael
Legrand's The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and Bill Conti's Rocky
(1975). There is the jazz-baroque of the former, the rock-inspired pomp bombast
of the latter. The two elements come together in the upbeat driving theme
with explodes into dynamic life in 'Surprise Party'. You may be reminded
of The Avengers, The Champions, or other crime fighting fantasy stars
of the 60's, before recalling that Grainger also penned the theme for The
Prisoner. The music here will then come as no surprise, the lineage running
back to the John Barry Seven and Barry's hip 60's scores mixing pop, jazz,
folk, eclectic instrumentation - here the same waterchime which appeared
in The Illustrated Man and Colossus: The Forbin Project - and
MOR strings.
The notes by producer Lukas Kendall record that this is "one of those
passionately desired but frustratingly unavailable soundtracks…" Well
now, for the first time ever, it is available. If your taste is for rousing
orchestral scores of the sort that were out of fashion when The Omega
Man was released, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. It is certainly
a score very much of it's time, often understated, inventive, accessible.
The use of electric organ and waterchime, together with much skittish percussion
and occasional electronic effects make this a quirky work, showing influences
from both Bernard Herrmann (the odd instrumental combinations and minimalist
suspense writing) and Jerry Goldsmith (the electronics and taut rhythms).
Some parts work very well, the occasional moment sounds terrible, and other
passages just don't hold much interest detached from the film.
Dated but distinctive, The Omega Man is a notable score, though unless
you are already an aficionado of lightweight fantasy film and TV music from
the period that symphonic scoring forgot, this may not be for you. On the
other hand, if you are a fan of the film, and/or of Grainger's distinctive
melodic style you may well find this a worthwhile purchase. The stereo sound
is very good for a 1971 soundtrack, with just a little distortion on the
organ and other effects on peak transients. As ever, this being a Soundtrack
Monthly release, the booklet is immaculately produced, well written and
illustrated in colour.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
