Welcome back to Scoring for Films, I am Vito Lo Re, and here, to the right hand of the Father, is always Fabrizio Campanelli. So, today we continue our series What's Lies Underneath, with a slightly different angle. Today we're talking about two very famous films: "2001, A Space Odyssey" and "Platoon". from a somewhat different perspective. because these films have some similarities, some parallels, because both had a long and complex history. But above all, since we are talking about film music, both had major problems with the soundtrack; or rather: the soundtrack composer had major problems.

He had a big rejection. So the big rejection is one of those traumatic experiences that every composer goes through at some point in their life. We have talked about it in previous episodes as well: about "The Exorcist". which Lalo Schifrin had written and was thrown away into the studio parking lot. Actually, we should do an episode on how to handle a rejected score. Like a psychotherapy session.

It's never fun. It's never fun, but here we have two very famous rejected scores. Rejected means refused, that is when the production or the director rejects the score and replaces it The editor is sometimes responsible for sensational damages to the score because sometimes he edits some beautiful music, famous music, which in agreement with the director, stinks ito the film that it never leaves. This habit has always existed but has been particularly used since the advent of digital because it allows this operation to be done much faster. The editor, to give the director an idea of what the sound result might be, uses the temporary track, the cursed temp track. The director watches that scene hundreds of times with that music and when the composer arrives, the director has that music in his head.

So, it's 1968 and Stanley Kubrick, is about to make another masterpiece. The film is "2001: A Space Odyssey". You can watch it at any time, even in the future, it will be the film of the future. And it tells the story even before Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Some might object to this statement. And it also shows the Earth as round, eh.

Here too, some might object. So, Kubrick was a great lover of classical music, even though he had not done specific studies. But he had a vast knowledge of recordings. Also because by staying at home so much, as a good misanthrope... you have to do something. There was a sign: "I hate everyone." Knowing so much classical music, he was convinced that writing an original score for a film in the end was superfluous, because he said: "So much music has been written, and so much beautiful music, that you can always find the right music for the scene." In fact, when he was preparing 2001, his first idea was to approach Carl Orff, who is famous for his Carmina Burana and for the famous "O Fortuna." The Carmina Burana, by the way, were used also in "Conan the Barbarian." Yes, they were used in many films.

So, Kubrick asks Orff to compose the soundtrack, but Orff declines. He says, "No, you know, I'm old..." actually he was 70 years old and would die almost at 90. But I think he sensed that Kubrick was a… ...a character not easy to deal with. I'm Orff, I live happily. I live happily, I earn well with the Carmina Burana. Do you want the Carmina Burana?

Pay the synchronization and I'll give them to you, no problem. So, the first musical step for the film goes wrong. Then there's the urban legend that says the Dutch composer Dick Reimackers, who had done some interesting projects at that time, was called after Orff. This is not officially confirmed, it is Reimackers who says so. And we want to believe him but there is no official confirmation. Moreover, Kubrick loved Mahler.

So much so that he was particularly obsessed with the third symphony, and asked Frank Cordell, one of his historical collaborators, to adapt Mahler's third symphony for the film. And Cordell worked on it for more than a year. It was when there was a lot of money in productions.... He worked for more than a year, re-recording, adapting, cutting Mahler's third symphony to fit the film. After a year, Kubrick watches it and says… No, I don't like it. And they throw everything away!

A year of work. So in the end Kubrick says: There's so much classical music and I already know which pieces to put in the film. He, I believe, has in mind this obsessiveness for the absolutization of images. Kubrick is so obsessive in every work, so precise in meticulously building each frame that becomes universal. So in his head there is probably a timelessness. He probably considers the soundtrack as something that contextualizes.

It is something that defines the time in a certain sense, while he probably wants to escape time because the effect we have in 2001 is that it is a timeless film. Also thanks to the very strong contrast between the classical music he uses and the images; thes images made history the collective imagination. But MGM decides instead that they need a composer to write an original soundtrack and so they call Alex North, famous first of all for having written many soundtracks, but also "Unchained Melody". Alex North is contacted, with whom Kubrick had already collaborated on Spartacus, so they were playing it safe. "2001: A Space Odyssey" is the ideal film for a composer, you know why? Because in a film of over two hours there are only 25 minutes of dialogue.

There are what Fabrizio calls "the prairies". That is, large spaces where the composer can do whatever he wants. North reaches Kubrick in London, because Kubrick - among his many quirks - did not fly. When he made Full Metal Jacket it was all filmed in England. The palm trees were brought from Africa. So North arrives in London, he is given a room, a hotel, a piano, everything to work.

He is told, look, however, we have some Temp-Tracks, which will probably stay in the film. Today for us composers it is quite normal to work knowing that there will be what are called "repertoire pieces"; that is, within the soundtrack, there will be a famous song or a piece of classical music, and then, in addition, there is our original music. At the time, North did not take it well, and not because he was particularly eccentric. No, because at that time you took it a bit as an insult. Exactly, because they said: I am the soundtrack composer, why you are going to take other music? Isn't what I do enough for you?

Am I not capable of writing the soundtrack?... So, they watch the rough cut, about an hour of film, Alex North says... Stanley, I got it. I'll take care of it. It is December 24, so right before Christmas, and the first recording session is January 1. North puts his head down and does not take it well physically, among other things.

An incredible amount of stress. It's unbearable in terms of timeline. He is even hospitalized for a sort of stress attack. And keep in mind he was 58 years old, he was not exactly a mummy, Not only rejected scores, but also killer scores. So, they record the first pieces and, to be safe, North says: You know what I'll do? For the introduction, for the first image of the film, I'll do two pieces.

So Kubrick can choose the one he prefers. Kubrick listens and chooses one. North also preferred the same one, so he says: We are starting off on the right foot. On January 1, they start recording; while they are recording, North continues to write... In two weeks he writes 40 minutes of music. In the meantime, he lets Kubrick listen to what he has written, Kubrick gives him - as it's normal - some indications, they make some changes...

everything seems to be going well. At a certain point, something happens that is always a bad sign: you call, they don't answer the phone, and don't call back. Today it's called Ghosting... North calls Kubrick from time to time and never finds him...or he's always in a meeting... they don't put him through.... He calls the production and the producer is always busy...

And those are the moments when a horrible suspicion starts to creep up like a shiver down the spine... Why aren't they answering me? And there's a reason. That is, after having written 40 minutes of music and having edited it into the film, Kubrick says: You know what? I will use zero of this music. The press release states that Kubrick informed North shortly before the film's debut of his decision to not use any of that soundtrack.

In a beautiful NBC report, of which we will put the link in the description - we have Goldsmith revealing the truth... Goldsmith had been a student of Alex North, so there was also a special relationship between them. And he will later conduct the re-release of the soundtrack that will be released by Varese Sarabande. Goldsmith reveals Alex North and his wife go to the premiere, and discover there, to their great shock, that there's Strauss with "Also sprach Zarathustra". We do not know which version is true. So, common sense would say that the first version is more correct.

Perhaps in the second there is also some of the anger that North had felt. But it is also true that Kubrick was a bit of a peculiar guy... Let's say I want to believe the first one, but if I found out the first one wasn't true, it wouldn't seem absurd to me. North had put in the contract that if the score was not used within two years of recording, he would regain the publishing rights. Under pressure from Robert Townsend, the record executive of Varese Sarabande, a new edition of the original score was made with the recording conducted by Goldsmith of the rejected soundtrack. Let's start with the one with "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss Jr.

It's beautiful music, you can hear the influence of "The Blue Danube", but remade, right? It's what I call "vegan carbonara". You can't put in guanciale, so you put tofu. It's not carbonara, maybe it's good, but it's not the same thing. And we find the same thing in Richard Strauss's piece, "Also sprach" Here too we have the tuba, the trombones, the rise... We have a similar scenario, a similar sound world, but it lacks that something that is inimitable.

In fact, poor Alex North, what is he forced to do? To try to satisfy the wishes of a director who has in his hands a very powerful material with music that - contrasted with the future - gives a very powerful whole. And obviously, what does he do? He tries to chase. Never try to chase! Because it will never turn out the same.

So it's one thing to be able to surpass it with something completely different, maybe, with a more personal language, to avoid falling into that inevitable fate of mimicry. Yes, you know, Danny Elfman says that his real job is not writing music, but convincing directors that the music to be used is not the temp-track, but the one he wrote for the film. However, Danny Elfman's style is unmistakable. So he manages to overcome the temp-track. So poor North finds himself having to chase; and when you have to chase, it never ends well. But, speaking of having to chase, there is another even more striking case: Platoon.

So the cursed temp-track strikes again. So, Platoon (1986) is one of Oliver Stone's most important films also - with an important autobiographical part because Stone had been to Vietnam several times The experience had obviously affected him, and in 1968 he wrote a screenplay "Brake" that was never produced but became the backbone of the Platoon screenplay. At first, producers were not very interested in this script: another film about Vietnam in years when Vietnam was still an open wound... When does interest in Platoon come? When Oliver Stone wins the Oscar for the screenplay of "Midnight Express." There are a series of parallels between "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now": they were shot in the exact same locations in the Philippines. Then in "Apocalypse Now" there are the Doors and Oliver Stone had been schoolmates with Jim Morrison.

So much so that they find in the hotel in Morrison's suitcase the screenplay for Platoon because Oliver Stone wanted Jim Morrison to play one of the protagonists. Then Jim Morrison died, so we don't know if he ever read it or not... Another common link: the Sheen family, because in Apocalypse Now there's Martin Sheen the father, and in Platoon there's Charlie Sheen, the son. In one thing they differ: Apocalypse Now was supposed to have, four months of shooting, and there were almost two years of shooting. Platoon was shot in 54 days, so very little. It costed 6 million and earned 140, so a global success.

There's a Johnny Depp, who was practically a kid; it was his first important film. 8 Oscar nominations, 4 statuettes won. And the soundtrack that was initially entrusted to Delerue. To George Delerue, with whom Stone had already worked on "Salvador," the previous film. So even there everything had gone well, they were playing it safe. Delerue arrives on the film.

Strangely enough - you wouldn't believe it - there was a temp-track on the film: Barber's Adagio. Barber's Adagio is certainly one of the most beautiful things written in the 20th century. And already used previously. It was one of the complaints leveled at Oliver Stone. It's already been used in "The Elephant Man." It's already been used elsewhere... Do you want it in your film...

not to use something original?... And above all, why use the same thing in your film that has already become very iconic in other films? Because here it would actually become even more so. Oliver was right. Despite Delerue being an excellent composer, let's just remember the theme from "Le Mépris" which is very famous. It has been used in many soundtracks.

But he really couldn't overcome the limit of Barber's Adagio. Delerue makes many proposals to Stone that are all strictly rejected. So, when time begins to run out, Stone says to him: "Look, my friend... copy." He doesn't say it like that; he says: get as close as possible... And Delerue, like poor North, starts making a "vegan carbonara"! That is, chasing.

And when you chase, things never go too well. With an added complication: if imitating Johann Strauss's music posed more intellectual than legal problems (because it was in the public domain), Barber's Adagio was and still is under copyright. So it's called plagiarism... So Oliver Stone ushers in the era of the sound-alike that we all know in advertising or even in cinema... And Delerue executes... He begins to make music that has the same pattern as the Adagio, the strings rise at the same moments, he makes some similar chromatic passages, but you understand that it is difficult for an operation like that to produce a result...

When a piece is so strong, the ingredients that are its base, that constitute it, are functional to that pattern, to that structure, to that path. And inevitably if you detach, extrapolate, and recombine them, it deflates, because necessarily it doesn't have the same identity, the same strength, it is something that tends to... And so it doesn't work. Moral of the story: poor Delerue doesn't make it, he writes 7 pieces for a total of 25 minutes, so not a very long soundtrack, but only one piece will end up in the film in the suspense scenes it is used... so it is certainly not used to cover the emotional phase, which in a film like that is so important. And now, when we think of Barber's Adagio, we think of Platoon, because that contrast it has in the scenes really...

sacralizes those moments in such a strong way that it becomes the film for which Barber's Adagio will be remembered. They are so closely linked that the same thing happens that happened in "2001: A Space Odyssey" with "Also Sprach Zarathustra", which is a pre-existing piece, obviously, but if you play it to the average person and ask: what is this? They answer "2001: A Space Odyssey"! So now they are indissolubly linked. For the same reason, some people think that Barber wrote it for Platoon. But he actually wrote it several decades earlier.

We'll talk about these killer temp-tracks again in future episodes, These are not the only two victims... There are many and even illustrious ones... which we will see in the next episode, but in the meantime... I tell you that on Wednesday the 3rd at 9 PM there will be our first live session, so mark your schedules, we will also announce the appointment on the community tab of the channel; if you have any question to ask, that is the opportunity to do so. I would say we can really say goodbye to everyone and see you in the next episode, don't miss it, subscribe to the channel and don't forget the bell. Bye!