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Chinatown, what a classic motion picture. I'd say this one may well be the best movie Jerry Goldsmith has scored in his entire career, with only a handful of runners up that might even hope to compete. Anyway, it's one of my favorite movies, even one of my "all time top five", one of those pictures that gets everything -- screenplay, direction, production design, acting, and, of course, music -- right and therefore gets better with each single viewing. Did I mention I like this film?
Regardless, the reason I'm posting this is that Intrada is offering a mint used CD of this score right now for $125.-, and I've seen this CD go elsewhere for around that amount. Gee, what a shame, this CD seems to be really hard to get these days to fetch those prices. I still do have the original LP (in good condition) and the CD, and I bought both of these at regular retail prices. Years ago, I notice. It seems to have become scarce. The score is very brief, every single note and cue sits perfectly.
There are quite a few movies Goldsmith has scored where the music rises way above the actual scenes or material it was written for; Chinatown is not one of those, here the sparse music and the picture compliment each other in a fashion that's rare in todays movies and was rare even back then. It is a very intelligent and tasteful score written for a very good picture. Simple as that. Even few mainstream reviews fail to mention the score.
Perhaps the one reason why this score has not been more continually in release is its brevity; just about twenty-plus something minutes of underscore, and that's all there is in the movie, too (even though the CD is not a chronological cue by cue match, the movie doesn't contain any "more" music). I don't know. And even though it raises the "value" of my own CD (which I'm not about to sell anyway), it's actually a pity such a major Goldsmith work is out of print.
Last edited by Nicolai P. Zwar on Sat Jun 06, 2009 7:42 am, edited 2 times in total.
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