Over this weekend, I posted a survey on X, formerly Twitter, about what was the worst James Bond film score.
The choices:
--Dr. No (Monty Norman): The score is rough. The film relies heavily on the John Barry arrangement of The James Bond Theme (done at the last minute). Film editor Peter Hunt inserted the Barry version throughout the movie.
--Never Say Never Again (Michel Legrand): Sean Connery returned to playing James Bond in a movie outside of the Eon series. Connery approached Michel Legrand. The composer was very talented but Bond movies seemed outside his comfort zone. This was an example of how Connery was more than just a star on Never Say Never Again. Whatever you think of the score, it was an attempt to be original.
--Licence to Kill (Michael Kamen): This composer was a popular choice to provide music for 1980s action movies. After John Barry's final Bond film (The Living Daylights), Kamen drew the assignment for Licence to Kill, an attempt to catch up to the Lethal Weapon movies. Kamen's score evokes those movies. But, hey, we got a gunbarrel with an electric guitar for the first time since 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me.
--No Time to Die (Hans Zimmer): Zimmer was a replacement for Dan Romer, the movie's first composer. Zimmer repeatedly said that Steve Mazzaro was his co-composer for No Time to Die. Zimmer even said this when he and Mazzaro were on the red carpet of No Time to Die's premiere. But the movie's publicity effort ignored that. Besides Mazzaro, there were other co-composers listed in the movie's end titles. The result was a typical Hans Zimmer & Co. product (Zimmer typically has a lot of help on his scores).
Anything else? Yes, Eric Serra was hired to score 1995's Goldeneye. It was an attempt to update the James Bond music sound. Goldeneye revived the Bond film series. But Eon apparently had second thoughts about Serra's score. A key sequence (involving Bond in a tank chasing a villain) took out Serra's music for a more traditional sound.
The verdict:
NO TIME TO DIE
Zimmer, despite all the help he got from his acolytes, provided a score that swiped from John Barry's On Her Majesty's Secret Service score. It includes the Barry-Hal David song performed by Louis Armstrong. But the score also includes instrumentals from Barry and David Arnold. Example: the OHMSS main theme plays during a meeting between Bond and M.
I don't know what Dan Romer provided before he was fired. But I'd guess it was more original than what we got in the most recent Bond movie.
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