Birdman of Alcatraz

Guest · **Posted:** Thu Dec 07, 2006 5:42 am

[quote="kipling71
"Birdman" is quickly moving to the top of my list of favorite Elmer scores - and it's pretty crowded up there. It's been a great year for score releases but this one really stands out.

[/quote]

Agreed. Among Elmer's intimate dramatic scores this one is close to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (and not just chronologically

). Something I have come to realize, only recently, is that the spade work for these classic scores was being done by the composer in many of his sequences for the Eames films. The scores in those documentaries are like a living journal foreshadowing the greatness to come. I gave a couple of adolescents a lift home from the library, one day. The Eames anthology was playing in the car. One piped up, "Hey, that sounds like TO KILL A MOCKINBIRD", with which he had a passing acquaintance from an English class. I happily told him the composer's name was Elmer Bernstein.

b.

ajhintrada · **Posted:** Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:03 am

kipling71 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 26, 2011 12:56 am

Wow. Old thread. I found it while searching to see if anyone had ever mentioned what was the status of Bernstein's scores for the documentaries of Charles and Ray Eames. Bernstein released one volume on his own label which, so I understood at the time, didn't exactly set any sales records. Maybe the climate has changed by this time, what with the great man dying and all? Limit any subsequent volumes to a thousand copies and watch 'em fly out the door!

Unfortunately, if Kritzerland couldn't shift a thousand "Fear Strikes Out" / "Tin Star" CDs, why would anyone take a flyer on these things? Darn. Some great stuff in those Eames films.

haineshisway · **Joined:** Tue Aug 10, 2010 10:52 pm **Posts:** 109

Startracks · **Joined:** Mon May 19, 2008 3:31 am **Posts:** 323

Douglass Fake · **Joined:** Sat Nov 19, 2005 3:48 pm **Posts:** 2773

Old topic but good one. I always thought - and this is a big plus - that the picture did a splendid job in not initially making Stroud (or Lancaster as him) particularly sympathetic, a somewhat daring move at the time. The narrator states Stroud's crime in matter of fact style, soon Lancaster/Stroud even kills a guard with no visible remorse... in fact it isn't until his interest in birds flowers that the man seems to have much of a conscience. I don't know much about the real Stroud but if he was in reality a hardened criminal, Lancaster with his portrayal does a great job of convincing me.

And Elmer was at the top of his game.
--Doug

Christian Kühn · **Posted:** Tue Jun 28, 2011 9:28 am

Please stop, Startracks. No one wants to read another of your tirades!

CK

kipling71 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 28, 2011 10:28 am

Startracks · **Joined:** Mon May 19, 2008 3:31 am **Posts:** 323

Mark Olivarez · **Joined:** Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:06 am **Posts:** 273

Startracks · **Joined:** Mon May 19, 2008 3:31 am **Posts:** 323

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Birdman of Alcatraz

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