MovieChat Forums > Operation: Daybreak (1976) Discussion > Operation Daybreak Soundtrack :(

Operation Daybreak Soundtrack :(


I recently got an email from David Hentschel and I thought I should share it:-

Steven Thanks for your kind comments - glad you liked the score, and I agree it's a shame that the music will not be released. In answer to your questions, I started writing ideas for the main themes after reading the script. A few weeks later I saw the first rough cut of the movie. After that, I think I had a couple of weeks to finalize the themes. At that point I had all the sections of the music on film in my house, where I planned all the music sections and timings, and worked on the orchestrations. This probably took another couple of weeks - and remember these were pre-video and pre-computer days so it was rather cumbersome. Then into the studio - I recorded most of the electronic parts first, then overlaid the orchestral parts and recorded the orchestra-only cues. Recording was pretty fast as everything was well planned. Probably the whole recording and mixing process was about three weeks. Best David Hentschel

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I like the score- it fitted well I thought despite it's use of electronics.

"Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

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As early synthesizer music, David Hentschel's score may be notable, but I found it particularly inappropriate for this film.

I noticed, however, that nearly all of it seemed to occur during dialog-free linking scenes, so it should be easier to replace it with something more appropriate (e.g. live orchestral music, which I think is used during a handful of other scenes).

Removing the synthesizer music from the film might supply enough reason to release it in an audio format; I'm not meaning to suggest it should be deleted!

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I agree. It just doesn't work and seems like it's trying to ape a John Carpenter themed horror or 70's sci-fi rather than a serious war film.

Still hindsight is a wonderful thing and I guess at the time the makers might have believed it was futuristic and exciting.


www.paynebyname.com

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It simply doesn't work with the film. I'm watching it now - it just doesn't fit. It's like watching a movie & dubbing a soundtrack on it to change the mood in a humorous way. Mind you, the script is *beep* crap too. Truly, an awful film on all levels.

———The spice must flow———

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I watched the film again last week and really like the score-shame that it won`t be released.Maybe Lukas Kendall at Film Score Monthly can perform some miracles!On a similar note I posted on the "Gallipoli" page a few years back about the Jean Michel Jarre tracks and most comments seemed to be favourable to their usage.

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You must be crazy ! as I watched this amazing and true film last night and it had me crying my eyes out.If a comedy is funny, you laugh..but when a film like Operation Daybreak is about war and betrayal. And brutality by the nazies, you are emotional and that is a GOOD film on all levels ...

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Nobody cares what you think.

———The spice must flow———

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Mrs Evans from Cardiff cares very much !

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I myself thought hentschel's work here was absolutely superb, and something different to what we expect in a WW2 set movie. Although it's true to say that music has to match the setting, sometimes going off the wall with a score DOES work.

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I just watched this on the military channel and the inappropriate soundtrack was the first thing I noticed. What the hell were they thinking? It's as if the score dude was being like a kid with a new toy of the time and talked someone into allowing him to do the new electronic/synthesizer crap. Too out of place...way too out of place.

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Here Here! It sucked!!! But I remember back in the 70's when Moog was the rage and it was used in all sorts of inappropriate contexts ... like Wendy Carlos Switched On Bach! UGH!!!!


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The opening and closing of Operation Daybreak is currently posted on YouTube. Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jylVzNRWa6I&list=PLXPo2Yxwmp_7SwfTF2lI6N2RMVY-cg-sc&index=16

You can extract an MP3 from this videoclip. Audio quality is good.

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