It didn't add anything to this film and actually made it worse, IMO. Too upbeat. It could have been the score for a Dirty Harry movie. As a matter of fact, the whole tone of this movie was as wrong as the music. You got the impression he didn't miss anyone or anything. Boris Sagal made wretched movies anyway so what should you expect?
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I agree, the score sucked. If Star Wars had a lame score like this movie, it would have just been another B movie sc-fi flick, and wouldn't have been so successful.
shareI always loved the score and went to see it a second time with a portable tape recorder to record it because there was no soundtrack LP. I understand though why some people find it jarring; it's very much of it's time. The previous year Isaac Hayes'score for Shaft had made a great impression and was part of an era of experimental electronic sounds, wah-wah guitars, and early synthesizers. Much of this sounds gimmicky now. And yes, the tone seems off. It also does seem like an action movie score, but I think that The Omega Man was conceived as a kind of action movie. Still it's eerie and moody and full of surprises listened to on its own.
This score has a big following among many film score enthusiasts. (Surprised?) The fact that it had never been released as a soundtrack so upset a British film score society that they paid for the soundtrack rights and put out a CD just for members, something they do regularly. This interested people to put it into general circulation for a while. I believe it's out of print now but you can usually find it at Amazon for thirty to fifty dollars.
Yes, it's been out of print for some time. There are usually copies available on Amazon and eBay, though. I believe I got mine on eBay for about $30.
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Some years ago, Film Score Monthly released the score in a limited 3,000 copy run, as they do with many of their soundtrack CD's. Keeping the number under 3,000 allowed them pay a lower rate for the various rights associated with publishing the original score.
The CD proved so popular however, that it quickly sold out. FSM then took the unusual step (for them) of paying for the more expensive rights required to publish more than 3000 copies.
The new CD was released as "The Omega Man 2.0" and can be purchased here for $19.99.
http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=10751
I think the score is great and works extremely well in the film.
Listen to the track "Zachary Makes His Move" (available for preview at the website). It's a great exercise in utilizing variations on several musical themes to build tension.
I think some people are perhaps put off by the fact that, in some ways, the score evokes an "adult" taste in "easy listening" music from the 60's. This is foreshadowed right from the start when Neville plays a lush version of "A Summer Place" on his 8-track player at the start of the film. The motif continues throughout the film as many of the tracks suggest a sort of grim "easy listening music," a contradiction in terms - but perfect for a story in which an adult from the 60's is literally waging a one-man war against a nightmarish "counter culture."
The music is also deliberately "light" in odd places as a juxtaposition to dead world that Neville inhabits. I think the light touches are meant to evoke children (or, rather, the lack thereof). Children are the future and when there are none, there is no future (thus the importance of finding children later in the film).
In the same way, the score is sometimes used as a grim joke. This is most obvious in Neville's shoot out with the family after his jeep has turned over near the end of the film. Why is there a "calliope" playing a staccato, gasping carousel version of the main theme at this point? Because the shoot out is happening in front of a toy store - another black humor nod to a world where all but a few of the children died years ago.
Very informative post, thanks!
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I loved it. It was sad and ominous with a tinge of yesterdays sorrow less existence.
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I believe it was Film Score Monthly that released the soundtrack. Screen Archives, to my knowledge, does not put out records themselves.
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I think you're right, so I've changed my earlier post. I'm not quite sure what the relationship is between Screen Archives and Film Score Monthly. Are they independent or is one the subsidiary of the other?
I find this score pretty fascinating, in a way it mirrors the film itself.
There are sections that are both energetic and subtle, intelligent and exciting. The score can be creative and darkly humorous and really set an interesting tone. Then there are those tracks that I think are just bad, reaching too far, light in the wrong way at the wrong time. The ending sticks out, of course. There can be an uplifting nature to Neville's demise, but that's just completely off imo.
The film itself is equally bipolar. There are some good, effective shots that do well in conveying Neville's loneliness and isolation... and there's mediocre and clumsy stuff that would fit in any B sci-fi movie. The dialogue between Neville and Matthias is sophisticated and thought-provoking, some of it maybe even brilliant. Then there's the Neville-Lisa dialogue that's cringe-inducingly bad.
So yeah, the film and the score deserve each other.
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I LOVE this music score, and it's among my very favorite soundtracks of all movies. I was so thrilled when Film Score Monthly released their CD(s), as detailed above. I know many people hate it, but it has also indeed become very popular and liked. It has gotten some serious, well-deserved appreciation and vindication.
shareMe, too. Ron Grainer of The Prisoner fame was tasked with finding a musical style that matched the extremely grotesque visuals - and he succeeded. The score is cultic, action-packed, uncanny and romantic as each scene calls for. The music is heartbreakingly beautiful when the black girl goes clothes shopping for the last time, phobic when Neville's home is under attack, appropriately Medieval-Inquisitorial when Neville-cum-paper hat is wheeled out for burning at the stake. Three cheers for Ron Grainer's innovative, avante-guard score!
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