Hey folks, Harry here. Being a soundtrack nut (I now count over 700 soundtrack cds, which compared to some other collections is a paltry sum, but I'm rather proud of it as it's taken my entire life to amass this collection of my top 700 scores) I am often times angered by 40 minute released scores, when I am fully aware that there is a far larger amount of work that is, as of yet, unreleased. There's still parts to the CONAN THE BARBARIAN score that I hear in the film, but still don't have on the single version of this great score. Sigh... Anyway, Alexandra offered to write about this... aaaahhhhmmmmmm... (shaky pointed finger) BOOTLEG score to HOOK. Now see... this is exactly what I was talking about when I said releasing that Japanese LASERDISC of STAR WARS THE PHANTOM MENACE would create. A desire for a better copy. Film geeks often have an insatiable thirst when it comes to amassing their private collections. And I have never been a fan of incomplete material. For example... Why would anyone buy the first DVD of DOGMA... when we all know that a complete packed to the gills version is coming out a few months later? Why release the pansy version? To milk more money out of the unawares. But here... Well, here there are no plans to release a complete collection of the brilliant John Williams music from HOOK, so... for now, we have only the melodious typings of the angelic Alexandra DuPont to sate our unquenchable appetite....
Some quotation marks below may appear to look like Question Marks. This is all in your head and not a fault of mine or Alexandra. Remember, if you see question marks... the question is your own sanity...
Toujours, Harry. I've a confession to make. Last year, while writing my review of "Star Wars: Episode I" for The DVD Journal [Click Here To Read It!!!] -- still blistering with the white-hot rage of my disappointment -- I tapped out the following sentence about poor John Williams:
"I purchased the 'Phantom Menace' soundtrack the day it came out and listened to it continuously until Tuesday night's screening, trying desperately to convince myself that it didn't sound like John Williams' reactive, meandering score for 'Hook' -- which it often does."
I'm here today to testify, fellow geeks: That sentence (and that sentence alone; I stand by the rest) was a damned ignorant thing to write. For since that fateful day last May, a couple of things have happened:
(1) Like many of you, I've heard a "bootlegged," considerably expanded edition of the "Episode I" score (via the magic of video-game sound files converted to mp3s converted to AIFFs written to CD) -- and now I realize that some wonderful themes and leitmotifs were completely ignored by whoever determined the wretched mix on the single-CD "official" release that so colored my judgment. I mean, REALLY: Bold Williams passages were re-mixed together (or should I say chained together, albatross-like?) with bland underscore; other passages were duplicated needlessly (e.g. the music for the arrival at Coruscant), leaving Qui-Gon's theme and other choice snippets to languish in a source-tape storage cabinet.... I could go on and on, and if someone will point me toward an "Episode I" complete-score petition, I'll gladly sign.
(2) But even better -- even as the world basks in the aural glory of the expanded "Superman" soundtrack, the film-score equivalent of fetish porn -- I've heard a very nearly complete "bootleg" score CD for "Hook." If you're still reading, I'd love to share my rediscovery of one of Williams' best (non-meandering, non-reactive) scores.
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"Hook" the movie is, in my mind, one of Spielberg's worst in terms of execution -- in parts, only "1941" and sections of "The Lost World" are sillier -- but THEMATICALLY it's riveting. It may be the only fairy-tale treatment of a midlife crisis. Going in with the critical assumption that "Peter=Spielberg," the director almost seems to be deconstructing himself, taking his lead character from the regrets of lost youth through a pathetic attempt to recapture it to an "enlightened" state of fatherhood. How odd that Robin Williams cavorting about on wires with pointy ears and a shaved chest would serve as a bridging work between two phases of Spielberg's career; note how many of Spielberg's films since "Hook" have been paternal civics lessons ("Schindler's List" in particular).
But in the case of "Hook," John Williams delivered the film's themes better with his music than Spielberg did with his camera. And the expanded bootleg really bears that out -- much better than the (admittedly generous) 1991 OST on Epic Records.
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The real champion of this two-CD, 144-minute, 35-track bootleg (not to be confused with the inferior, 140-minute "Hook" CDR that's ALSO floating around out there) is someone going by the moniker "King Mark." This marvelous obsessive has (over)analyzed the "Hook" boot at the excellent This Place, identifying no fewer than 20 separate themes, or "leitmotifs," in the score -- everything from the "Baseball Game Theme" to the "Banquet Theme." "King Mark" notes, correctly, that "there are tricky variations and brief quotes to bridge other themes. There is virtually no non-thematic underscore in Hook." He also notes that there's a "slight grunt" of about 12 minutes of music that didn't make the bootleg pressing. There are, however, multiple alternate takes, which are fascinating to behold.
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I'm no music critic, but I'll do my best to convey the "Hook" score's import below. Personally, I see it moving through five phases.
Phase One begins right after the theme-announcing "Prologue" and the lame contemporary soft-rock "Banning Back Home" -- with the intense longing of "Granny Wendy," "The Nursery," "Wendy Tells Bedtime Stories," and "The Watch." It's soft and sad music laced with passages of pompous menace as past adventures haunt the characters' memories. I strongly suggest not listening to this music after breaking up with someone, as you will immediately well up with aching regret.
Phase Two -- consisting of "The Dog Barks Hook," "Hook-Napped," "The Police Leave," "Wendy Tells Peter the Truth," and "Tinkerbell Arrives - Flight to Neverland" -- represents the past's overthrow of Peter's sensibilities, capped by his "midlife crisis" journey to Neverland. Highlights include the "Pirates of the Carribean"-style chorus, the gorgeous chaos of Tinkerbell's theme (shades of Holst, if you ask me), and the triumphant Peter Pan theme as he's carried to Neverland.
Phase Three is dominated by bombastic pirate music and the soaring strains associated with the Lost Boys. When combined with the noisy silliness of Speilberg's visuals, the music's effect was overwhelming, shrill and off-putting; taken alone, the music's pure tonic. I'm particularly fond of the bootleg's expansion on the pirate music, in such cues as "Pirates!" and "Hook's Madness." It's some of Williams' boldest work, his silly riff on Max Steiner or Korngold, and he sounds like he had a hell of a good time putting it together.
And that's just Disc One. Disc Two is even better, kicking off Phase Four by re-introducing the themes of regret from the first section and mixing them with the triumphant Neverland themes. "Remembering Childhood/You Are The Pan," one of my favorite bits from the original score CD and one of my favorite Williams compositions ever, is presented here with additional material: It's a long, aching, gentle passage that abruptly explodes into triumph as Peter learns to fly again. The Phase Four music soars and transcends, hints at a bit of sexiness in "Tinkerbell Big!" and them moves into some furious John Williams Action Music for "Final Battle" and "Death of the Lost Boy" -- you know, the sort of music Lucas mangled while re-editing the final reel of "Episode I," but better.
Phase Five -- consisting of a single track, "Return Home and Finale" --involves Peter's return to London. I wish I had the music vocab to convey precisely HOW Williams takes Phase One's earlier melancholic passages and re-states them hopefully, but suffice to say it rocks, you know, classically speaking. The rest of Disc Two is pure gravy: You finally get to hear the End Titles, some "Exit Music" (!), plus alternate takes of "Wendy Tells Peter the Truth," "Tinkerbell Arrives - Flight to Neverland," and "The Never-Feast." The final passage on the CD features that little girl singing "When You're Alone" (which features lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, who also wrote the lyrics to "Can You Read My Mind?" from "Superman." The little girl sounds much less embarrassed than Margot Kidder). The CD fades quietly into the night with some magical violin/flute passages, and Good Lord I'm in love with it.
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But how in good conscience could I EVER promote the virtues of a bootleg compact disc? Well, at least in part because it might prompt the legitimate license-holders over at Epic to dust off their source tapes and create something "official." There's a very faint glimmer of hope: In a recent online chat promoting the "Superman" score, soundtrack producer par excellence Michael Matessino ("Star Wars Special Edition") said he'd LOVE to restore "Hook." So if anyone wants to start a "complete score campaign" -- heck, if anyone even knows HOW to start one -- do please get busy.
After all, I want to hear that missing 12 minutes....
Obsessed,
