Wednesday 14 July 2010

Soundtrack Retrospective: "Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth was made round so that we would not see too far down the road."

This month’s film is Sydney Pollack’s ‘Out Of Africa’ (1985).

The original trailer, surprisingly, doesn’t use the score that became almost more famous than the film. In fact, it doesn’t really do it justice as all:



The music is, of course, by the incomparable John Barry, veteran of memorable movies scores:
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One of the best scenes, and the most remembered of any in the film, is the flight in the biplane, with the beauty of the scenery combining with the score to provide an unforgettable experience:



Not as often heard as the haunting main theme is the very ‘80s soft-rock ballad ‘The Music Of Goodbye’ by Al Jarreau (fresh from ‘Moonlighting’ success) and Melissa Manchester:

4 comments:

microdave said...

The last video seems to be corrupted - both on here and direct on YouTube.

But the Flying over Africa clip was wonderful, something I would love to do.
Although not, perhaps, at 30ft over thousands of Flamingos - one of them going through the propeller would be bad news!

JuliaM said...

Damn, it was fine a few days ago! Thanks for the warning. I've replaced it with a working version.

microdave said...

Thanks, that's more betterer (as we say round here!).

The De Havilland DH60 biplane was a real time traveller, as it wasn't made until 1930, 15 years after the film was set!

And that wasn't the real G-AAMT, which crashed only 2 months after being delivered.

The pilot dicing with flamingos was one Wing Commander Sir Henry Arthur Dalrymple-White, 2nd Baronet, DFC, a veteran of the Second World War who resided in Kenya. He would have been 68 in that film, and continued flying 'till he was 80.

Just thought you might like to know....

JuliaM said...

"The pilot dicing with flamingos was one Wing Commander Sir Henry Arthur Dalrymple-White, 2nd Baronet, DFC, a veteran of the Second World War who resided in Kenya. He would have been 68 in that film, and continued flying 'till he was 80."

That's very fitting, and very in keeping with the spirit of the film.