Does anyone else HATE the score to this film?

Perhaps there was some method to the madness, but my ears were too busy bleeding out for me to appreciate it.

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Disagree. I thought the music was very appropriate. Loved the loud, scary and serious music that opens the movie. Loved the intense music that plays as the dragon is terrorizing the virgin sacrifice. Yeah, there are a few cues that were a little over the top. But all in all, it was a great score.

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I must disagree.

Alex North's score stands very well on its own and actually compliments the film in the scenes #1. where it is audible and #2 where it is used as intended.

It is fairly well-known that North's score was shamefully treated by the producers in post-production, being dialed down to inaudibility in many case beneath sound effects and dialogue or else randomly cut-and-pasted from one scene to another without regard to where it was intended.

Part of the reason why so many people feel the music works against the film is because the music is being heard in scenes where it was not intended by the composer. After North wrote and recorded his score, the producers turned around and took music from one scene and replaced it with music written for another. In other instances they repeated bits of cues or pasted them together for no reason. In still others, they cut out the music altogether; North wrote a series of sweeping dramatic cues to represent sequences of the dragon flying which were ultimately cut out.

As for the charge of it being loud, quite the contrary. As with Miklos Rosza's majestic score for Quo Vadis, the producers of Dragonslayer buried the score behind everything else to the point where it barely had any impact even when it was heard. Even the Main Title was remixed and dialed down, leaving it sounding weak and under-powered even in Dolby Surround.

The fault, then, lies not so much with the composer - who earned an Oscar nomination - but with the producers, who tampered with the score, robbing it of it's intended impact..

"If you don't know the answer -change the question."

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I agree. I don't remember the music bothering me the other times I watched this movie. But I just finished watching it for the first time in I don't know how many years. It just plain irritated me. Alex North had no idea what he was doing. Going by that work, he was in the wrong profession.

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

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by TheSolarSailor » Wed May 27 2009 19:06:58 Flag ▼ | Reply |
IMDb member since May 2004
Post Edited: Wed May 27 2009 19:10:54
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??

It is loud and abrasive. But that's actually in keeping with the mood of the film. I think if you were to purchase the score and listen to it exclusively without the visuals, you'll find a story and mood there. You'll find the machinations of politicos living in the dark ages, trying to wend their way around the king to gain favor, riches or power. You'll feel the reptilian presence of the dragon seething in the background.

It's all there dude.

I think what you're disagreeing with is the fact that it is a little jarring, but it's done intentionally so for the reasons I mentioned.

I think it's one of the great scores of all time.

A few others worth noting;
The score to Heavy Metal,
The Sea Hawk,
The Empire Strikes Back
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Empire of the Sun
The Odyssey

And a few others I'm forgetting.

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I didn't care for it when I heard it in the theater in 1981 but it grew on me with subsequent viewings and in 1990, I finally found a soundtrack from Australia on CD. I heard later that it was a bootleg. In 1993, I think, I bought a recording of North's rejected score for 2001, and discovered he used a lot of that in DRAGONSLAYER. The director was going for a medeval, old-world feel with Shakespearian dialogue and a dark, realistic feel and perhaps North was trying to go for that feeling. I do like the score (admittedly some parts more than others) but I have heard some people describe it as sounding like they just recorded the orchestra warming up.

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Alex North was a hugely respected composer. Both John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith where huge admirers of him. There is even a video of Williams on YouTube with him showering North with praise. While he was certainly extraordinary gifted I'm not a fan of his on a pure enjoyment level.

That said I think his score for Dragonslayer was well done for the most part, it really fit the movie and set up a creepy uneasy atmosphere. Except for the end credits that music was just horribly ill fitting. But with it apparently being a studio decision it seems North was not at fault here. Still baffling why anyone thought this would be a good idea.

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