The only thing they missed was the sound track. They were still using that boilerplate background music. You will notice it in the scene where they are shoveling the sand as fast as they could. Luke says; "the Man wants speed...let's give him speed....YAHHH! BREAK IT OFF!" (I couldn't resist quoting the line sorry) Anyway the music they were using was right out of "The Adventures of Superman" back ground music. The zylaphone gives it away.
Then ...the very next year I went downtown to see Easyriders. I think that was playing at the Oriental. That was the first movie that used current top tunes in the background. They finally got it right.
I too have to disagree with you about COOL HAND LUKE's music, notorious918. The
Mission: Impossible theme must be composer Lalo Schifrin's most famous creation, but to me COOL HAND LUKE remains his greatest score -- both musically and in dramatic effectiveness.
Earlier posters here already have discussed how the piece about which you complained (titled "Tar Sequence" on the soundtrack album) ended up being licensed for ABC-TV newscasts around the USA. But however much it reminds you of music from the
Adventures of Superman series, it was original to COOL HAND LUKE. (And since I had bought the LUKE soundtrack LP the first time I saw the record in a store, I recognized that music when Chicago's ABC station began using it.)
I too am from Chicago, no-918, and also saw COOL HAND LUKE at the Woods Theatre in November 1967 -- on its opening day, although I was only 13. However, EASY RIDER didn't open until 1969 (and it played at the Esquire, not the Oriental). And here's where I disagree with you about film music even further.
You preferred EASY RIDER's use of rock songs ("current top tunes in the background") probably because they were closer to your personal taste in music; maybe some of them were pre-existing songs you already listened to. But when filmmakers place existing songs in a movie, the songs can deflect viewers' attention, to some degree, away from the story; definitely so, when the songs are given such loud and foreground position as in EASY RIDER. Such a use of songs also "dates" a movie for future audiences, tying it to the year it was made -- which admittedly isn't crippling for EASY RIDER, since that entire story (nd picture) is a 1969 time capsule.
By contrast, though, COOL HAND LUKE is a 1960s movie that remains popular and meaningful to viewers almost 50 years later, partly because its orchestral musical score unobtrusively addresses the story and its characters' emotions, rather than trying to exploit pop-music trends of the day. Instead of being the landmark it still is, today the picture would be
silly if its presentation of 1947 had been accompanied by then-current "top tunes" of the period when it was made.
Today I couldn't name one rock song heard in EASY RIDER -- but I have never forgotten the main theme from COOL HAND LUKE performed on those two acoustic guitars. And while EASY RIDER's soundtrack album probably sold more copies than did the one for LUKE, I'd bet that more people today could correctly identify the LUKE theme if you played it for them. That's because the music brings the power of the movie back for them ... even if they were born long after COOL HAND LUKE was produced.
Most great films deserve a more appreciative audience than they get.
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nimstic
8 years ago
Agreed that Cool Hand Luke had a phenomenal, often simple but very powerful background score. Some scenes were powerful on their own, but some couldn't do without the score such as the tarring scene, first and second breaks in particular. Very good points there, many do not even care to consider the timeline when judging anything about a masterpiece like this.
That said, I would also argue for Easy Rider. It has been only 12 years since I last watched Easy Rider but I know "Born to be Wild" is going to be on my mind for a long while. I'm surprised you do not find it memorable, many I know do but then again, it depends on one's personal music taste as you've rightly said.
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christomacin (4529)
3 years ago
Today I couldn't name one rock song heard in EASY RIDER
You forgot "Born to Be Wild"? I don't think so.
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