4. Legend - Composer: Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream? I hear you ask. I thought Jerry Goldsmith composed the music for
Legend? Well he did, but test audiences weren't too happy with his score and German band Tangerine Dream was brought in to produce a new score. It took them three weeks. Sound terrible? We'll you'll be surprised to know that the Tangerine Dream score for
Legend is absolutely magnificent! So magnificent it is much, much better than the film itself. Don't get me wrong, I love the film it in own quaint little way. It looks stunning. It has goblins and unicorns and engaging leads in a very young Tom Cruise's Jack and Mia Sara's Lili. But most of all, it has Tim Curry playing the devil. And he is both terrifying and powerful and fantastic to watch. I mean, look at the image above. Isn't that how a true fantasy villain should look like? What I love about the score is that it captures every sequence perfectly. It is light and jaunty with the fairies, tribal and guttural with the goblins and damn right dark and forbidding where the Lord of Darkness is on screen. Before Howard Shore composed the music for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, this was my favourite fantasy soundtrack. It might be simpler in style than Shore's epic works, but it had just the same majesty and wonder in its music that means it can be listened to entirely without the film on the screen. Just watched this clip and you'll see what I mean. The beauty and charm of the dance turning into something forbidding as the Lord of Darkness appears... Flawless! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4-JnB3QQs4