MovieChat Forums > Coma (1978) Discussion > The Soundtrack

The Soundtrack

posted 16 years ago by kayekaye-1
13 replies | jump to latest

Cacophonous, crashing, clanging, cliched mess. Really intrusive and laughably, horribly like that from some kind of a parody of the genre. Also, the scenes and set pieces - especially those showing Susan's discoveries in the facility - had all suspense removed, nothing coming as a surprise, because of the sound editor's way of using the said sawing violins and screeching brass as a clumsy signal that was about as subtle as an axe. Enough to almost ruin the film entirely - such a shame.

When morning comes twice a day or not at all

[–] monty39 16 years ago

Jerry Goldsmith's score to this film is *brilliant*, one of his chilliest and most jarring musical scores ever.

[–] HeartMonger 16 years ago

Goldsmith's score to this film is one of his best ever. monty39 said it best, and I will too. Coma also happens to be one of my absolute favorite scores of his of all time. as monty39 said, one of his chilling and beautifully haunting scores he ever did.

Young man is angry! Girl is afraid! He wants to get high, she wants to get paid! City's Burning!

[–] john-wheat 16 years ago

Yeah this score is outstanding. To me, the film wouldn't have been half as good as it was without it. I purchased the CD copy of the score from Film Score Monthly and I'm about to where it out.

[–] digiscript34 16 years ago

I think the O.P. was referring to the overall sound mix within the film and I'd agree to a certain extent. Keep in mind this is a film done in the late 70s with a monaural soundtrack so I myself don't expect the same amount of brillience and clarity that I'd expect from a movie made this year.

But that in itsself didn't compromise the overall impact Coma had on its audiences in its original theatrical release. At least not for me, I enjoyed thoroughly, then and now as I occasionally view my own edit that I did for broadcast recently.

[–] kayekaye-1 16 years ago

OP explains: The score was not that great IMHO but the sound mix was terrible: the editing both within and in introducing the scenes/action, and also the clumsy use of volume changes. This latter technique was first done in Bonnie and Clyde (1968) to emphasize the violent scenes, and was subsequently seized upon and done to death throughout the 70s.

When morning comes twice a day or not at all

[–] megArnold 16 years ago

It's SO good that we live in the 21st century, where we know EVERYTHING!

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Endut_Hoch_Hech 16 years ago

I love the fact that the soundtrack album has both the brilliantly chilling, metallic sounding score and the howlingly dated "Disco Love Theme from Coma". Boy, that Jerry Goldsmith could write in any genre...

Thomas, if you is a mouse catcher, I is Lana Turner - which I ain't...

[–] mguevarra61-1 15 years ago

Mr. Goldsmith's score is brilliant. The tension never lets up. Can you just imagine how complex Mr. Goldsmith's sheet music is for this film score?

[–] yatzo376 12 years ago

It was a fantastic score.

Classic for that era.

You don't find complex orchestral scores with real musicians that often these days.

[–] londomollari 11 years ago

As a fan of the score, I got a real surprise tonight when listening to a bad copy of the soundtrack for the western Black Patch (1957). This was Goldsmith's first film score and the music has never been officially released.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that parts of that score were re-used for Coma! Black Patch has the same chilling pianos, strings and percussion which sounded so modern and frightening in 1978 way back in 1957. So, some of Coma's standout tracks existed 30 years before!

[–] mrshaffer2003 10 years ago

I love how the soundtrack plays the romantic music while they're away for the weekend, and then it goes completely silent when they pass by the road that leads to the Jefferson Institute.

[–] Stratego (30578) a year ago

The soundtrack was not good, especially the corny music during the romantic scenes and the very end.