MovieChat Forums > Dragonslayer (1981) Discussion > Does anyone else HATE the score to this ...

Does anyone else HATE the score to this film?


The music provided by Alex North is, in my opinion, some of the worst music to accompany a film I have heard in quite some time. It's loud, abrasive, and inappropriate in several scenes. The end credits kicked in and I couldn't get to my DVD controls fast enough to put an end to it. I think this movie would have been a far more enjoyable experience without this unbearably irritating, nerve-grating music dragging it down. Well, that's just my opinion.

Agree or disagree??

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If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

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Hello Double Faced Janus,

I don't know if I actually hate the score, but I certainly did find it irritating at times. I recently re-watched "Ladyhawke" and I found that film-score to be even more unnerving!

I'll agree that the right score for the right picture can help make the film memorable. I'm convinced Jerry Goldsmith's score for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" helped make that movie become more than what it would have been with some other composer holding the reigns . . .

Now if only "Dragonslayer" and "Ladyhawke" could have been similiarly blessed . . .

Best Wishes, ~ MC2
"The reservist formerly known as JO2"

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I have never seen Ladyhawke, but I do recall a past discussion where it's awful music was the topic. Not every lick of North's music was bad, but the overall score had enough problems to be a huge distraction for me, the absolute worst being the way the film wraps up. It was terrible sounding music that left an overall bad taste in the viewer's mouth when walking away from the experience. You are right that Goldsmith's music helped keep Star Trek The Motion Picture in our minds. I wonder what he would have done if he were attached to Dragonslayer? Or Jamer Horner early in his career? Who else would have been a good choice from the early 1980s for a fantasy film like this?

In the end, I think I would have preferred Dragonslayer to have simply not had a score as opposed to the one it got, but that's just me.

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If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

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I agree. The "Dragonslayer" score definately left something to be desired.

As far as early 80s composers go, who could have given "Dragonslayer" a more appropriate score, I think you're right on the money with Mr. Goldsmith and Mr. Horner as potential canidates. Based on his score for "Conan the Barbarian", particulary for the Thulsa Doom orgy chamber seige, Basil Poledouris would have been a nice choice. John Barry, right after his disturbing score for "The Black Hole", would have been magificient too.

As far as "Ladyhawke" goes, I liked the movie, but so help me . . . that score was right up there with fingernails on a chalkboard! I'll never understand why Richard Donner went the route he did with that one . . .

All My Best, ~ MC2
"The reservist formerly known as JO2"

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What about Trevor Jones, the man behind the music for, "The Dark Crystal"? I think he would have been a good choice.

"Never mind walking a mile in my shoes. Try thinking a day in my head."

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I agree, cant understand what Alex North or the producers were thinking.

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It was unique -- and that's OK.

Better North's score than something vapid and forgettable.

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I wouldn't say I hate it, but I definitly didn't like it. A better score would havve certainly made the movie better. (It wasn't bad, but it wan't a favorite of mine either)

Death will come on swift wings...to whomsoever opens this chest!
-Dr. Allen Chamberlain

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I agree, absolutely awful.

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I love the score, although I find the forest trek music an awkward way to end the film. Alex North wrote different music for the ending (you can hear the second half of it fade in during the credits). I guess the producers wanted something "happier" and tracking the forest music.

The deep brass and dark chords really set the tone of this medieval world. Ulrich's resurrection on the water and the clouds gathering at the peak are incredible highlights. The Love theme is beautiful too.

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Actually the end title music is "Space Station Docking", taken from Alex North's rejected score for Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. I don't know why they chose to use that to be used in this type of film as it feels a little odd and out of place.

"I'm the nicest gddamn dame that ever lived."-Bette Davis

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I'm very fond of this particular score by Alex North. I think he actually got the overall bleakness of the world DRAGONSLAYER tries to evoke. And it's fair to say that his music does not emphasize heroism at any time.
Pretty dark stuff when you think of live action Disney films like THE BLACK HOLE or CONDORMAN for example. Even TRON with it's electronic/orchestral score is a full fledged story about love, heroism and that sort of stuff.
You do get a sense that DRAGONSLAYER doesn't even want to tackle this issues.

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It was nominated for Best Original Score at the Oscars - and deservedly so.
It wasn't trying to be the epic sweeping score; mostly it was dissonant. The film's theme is about the dying away of magic and the old world, to be replaced by the new (modern christianity). I thought the film did it's job well with the score, with the lack of a central heroic theme.

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I cannot understand an Academy Award nomination for this mess. Regardless, it doesn't change my opinion in the least, as I think the music is an impediment to watching and enjoying the film.

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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

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I guess there's no accounting for taste but...

Are you guys KIDDING me?

Alex North was a brilliant composer and Dragonslayer is one of his best scores. The notion of using 20th century techniques like polytonality and dissonance for a period film like this is a stroke of brilliance. I can't imagine how much less effective this film would have been with a more traditional consonant score. This film needed weight and menace, and North's score delivered that in spades.

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Alex North wrote different music for the ending (you can hear the second half of it fade in during the credits). I guess the producers wanted something "happier" and tracking the forest music.

and

Actually the end title music is "Space Station Docking", taken from Alex North's rejected score for Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. I don't know why they chose to use that to be used in this type of film as it feels a little odd and out of place. >>> Interesting. Based on this and the earlier comment from another user who posted before you, I guess I can't blame North for the awful closing credits. It would seem that this was a decision not in his hands.

Alex North was a brilliant composer and Dragonslayer is one of his best scores. The notion of using 20th century techniques like polytonality and dissonance for a period film like this is a stroke of brilliance. I can't imagine how much less effective this film would have been with a more traditional consonant score. This film needed weight and menace, and North's score delivered that in spades. >>> I won't argue with you in regards to the rest of North's career, but his work in Dragonslayer was overall pretty ineffective. As I said, not bad all the way through, but nothing that actually enhanced the film in any way. The film is hardly perfect piece of work, but the score was a tool that should only have served to enhance it. Instead, it distracted and got in the way of the experience. I don't see any weight or menace added, except in small does here or there, doses that would have been much greater had a better score been created.

The movie felt ruff around the edges anyhow, and the music only served to enhance this unpolished effect.

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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

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I hated this score so much that I bought the CD of it.

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Glutton for punishment, eh?

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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

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Parts of it are okay; the dragon's theme is good, and the music for the duel between Ulrich and the dragon was well done and fitting. The end credits were shockingly out of place, though, and the repeated use of the chime/picolo combo or whatever it was just grated on my nerves.

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