Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Recycling music from one film in another. Huh?

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-19-2002, 09:46 PM:

Hehe. We have all seen lots of movie trailers that have grabbed music from other movies. James Horner's score for "Glory" has been used over and over again on trailers. Such is a common practice now.

But have you ever seen a film that recycled other film music within the movie itself? I saw that, I think for the first time, tonight while flipping through the channels on my satellite dish. HBO was showing "Exit Wounds," a film I had never bothered to see. I leave the room for a minute to get something in the kitchen and I hear music from the film "Heat" playing. Did my channel just change or something? No. "Exit Wounds" was recycling this music during a fight scene between DMX and Steven Segall. Not only that, but this music was the main theme of the "Heat" trailer and punctuated the downtown L.A. bank robbery/street shootout scene from that film.

What the hell was Warner Bros. thinking? Did they think no one will notice. Oh well. Since the movie has already gone through theatrical release, pay per view, DVD, and now cable, I guess they got away with the stunt.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-19-2002, 09:59 PM:

Die Hard used music from Aliens at the very end when the Twinkie cop shoots a terrorist.

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 03-19-2002, 11:02 PM:

It's funny that you would use James Horner as an example of heisted music from one film to another. James Horner almost ALWAYS heists his own compositions from one film to another, changing a few beats hear and there, and most of his compositions come from classics hundreds of years old, and rarely performed or used.

I believe rap artists do the same thing, calling it Sampling. While I love james horners music, as he has a knack for constantly improving even his own music. I had hoped that he was going to score the new Trek Movie, but instead it will be jerry goldsmith. hes ok, but kind of weak as a composer, no balls to it.

Dave

Posted by Jacob Huber (Member # 1138) on 03-19-2002, 11:27 PM:

I notice this a lot in trailers. Most recent examples are Windtalkers using the main battle them from Gladiator and MIB 2 using what sounds to be a rip off of the Beetlejuice theme.

Posted by Christopher Duvall (Member # 284) on 03-20-2002, 02:17 AM:

Danny Elfman did the score to both Beetlejuice and MIB. He has a very unique flamboyent style of composing and certain themes ALWAYS show themselves in most of his scores. Even his rock band Oingo Boingo had those themes as well because he composed all of the bands stuff. I personally like his music even if he tends to rip himself off from time to time. The MIB theme is an original one created by Elfman.

Posted by Owen Shave (Member # 1156) on 03-20-2002, 07:11 AM:

ok, I'm not 100% certain but isn't the score on the latest Spider-man trailer the same music that was used for the Spy Game trailer? it's probably been used before on other stuff too.
Oh yeah and I think Spider-man is another Danny Elfman score, but i'm pretty sure he didn't do Spy Game, so what gives?
Owen

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 03-20-2002, 08:05 AM:

I remember some of the music used in "Hoffa" was used in other things; a few trailers I think.

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 03-20-2002, 09:02 AM:

So, granted, music used in trailers can come from just about any other movie but when such music is used in other feature films... that's rare. I've noticed it for comic effect a few times. (Music from Star Wars was in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The movie Spies Like Us had something which sounded an awful lot like the theme from Lawrence of Arabia.) But using music in that way with a straight face is indeed rare.

What bothers me is how, sometimes, an old popular song (which hasn't been on the radio in a long, long time) suddenly shows up in three movies within a few months of each other. It makes you wonder who decided that the song should be popular again... and how do they convince movie producers to play along?

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 03-20-2002, 09:51 AM:

quote:
ok, I'm not 100% certain but isn't the score on the latest Spider-man trailer the same music that was used for the Spy Game trailer? it's probably been used before on other stuff too.
Oh yeah and I think Spider-man is another Danny Elfman score, but i'm pretty sure he didn't do Spy Game, so what gives?
Owen

The spiderman trailer i have seen heists the music from The Planet of the Apes (tim burton)trailer. Don't know if it's a Danny Elfman piece or not.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 03-20-2002, 11:17 AM:

Much of the music from the IRON CHEF TV show is from BACKDRAFT.

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 03-20-2002, 05:25 PM:

I haven't seen the spiderman trailer in a while, but If I remember correctly, there is music from three different movies blended in together. This would have been done by the ad agency responsible for cutting the film, and not the film producers. My guess, is that no film score is ready. If elfman is doing the score, it will not be ready until about three days before film printing. He is famous for monkeying with his tunes endlessly to get them as perfect as possible.

I had the pleasure of meeting Danny Elfman many years ago, back in 1985 if I recall, he was touring with Oingo and I was running entry security at one of the venues. He truly is an interesting person. In person, he is as calm as a cat, on stage, he is as volitile as a volcano. Genuis either way.

Dave

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-20-2002, 06:19 PM:

On the "Die Hard"/"Aliens" item, I don't "Die Hard" actually lifted any music from "Aliens" on that one mentioned scene near the end. I know the passage being described sounds similar in tone to some of James Horner's "Aliens" score, but it is not the same piece of music. Overall, I find Micheal Kamen's music scores to often be a bit over the top yet plain at the same time, and sometimes his work does smack of being derivate.

The Twinkie Cop shooting the terrorist music was reused on a featurette about "The Abyss". Some of the promotional material on "Die Hard" recycled music from "Predator" --and some of the "Predator" promotional stuff recycled "Aliens" music.

The climax music from "Aliens" (the jet flying away from the nuke explosion / the queen Alien getting dropped into space) has been recycled on many many movie trailers. That passage, along with a certain bit of music from "Welcome to the Paradise" and the "Charging Fort Wagner" music from "Glory" have to be among the most overused pieces of movie trailer music around. I could also get into how Adobe's font "Trajan" is overused on movie titles --but that is conversation I would wind up having with only myself. Hehe.

To get back to the real problem, I thought it was just weird for "Exit Wounds" to explicity lift actual movie score music from "Heat" and place that music directly into the film itself. Heisted music in a trailer is one thing, but that deal is just plain odd.

The only legitimate way I can see how a movie can reuse another film's music directly within the show is for it to be some kind of a spoof, send up or cultural reference. I know Joe Redifer hates "Close Encounters" --but that film lifts the "Do You Wish Upon A Star" Disney theme pretty well. I chuckled at the Bond film "Moonraker" when the combination for a door's security key pad sounded out that "Close Encounters" theme. "Austin Powers" tries has hard as possible to recall the "Goldfinger" theme without getting into copyright trouble in the process. I guess "Goldmember" just went too far.

Posted by Dwayne Caldwell (Member # 417) on 03-21-2002, 03:23 AM:

Time to go into

mode:

The music used at the end of Die Hard when Karl is shot by Officer Pal IS the same music as that of Track 9 (title Resolution and Hyperspace on the original Varese Sarabande release) from the Aliens soundtrack. Note for note. The first 58 seconds of the track was used in Die Hard but never used in the actual Aliens movie, even though it was composed by Horner for that film. That is the music Brad is talking about. So to do a comparsion you'd have to listen to the actual Aliens score then watch that scene from Die Hard. Also don't forget, platters ARE better.

------------------
The man with the magic hands.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-21-2002, 02:14 PM:

Ok, Dwayne is correct as always about his soundtracks. Sorry about that Bobby, I guess it's having that Aliens soundtrack all these years that confused me.