Ron Goodwin

Mike J.

The Battle of Britain film CD containing the Walton score was released by Rykodisc. # 10747.

It was easy to find a copy eg. Virgin/HMV stores, although this was 3-4 years ago.

Some prints of the film have Goodwin end title music and some have Waltons end title music. For some reason the Region 1 DVD has the Walton end music and his ‘Battle in the Air’, the rest is by Goodwin but only Walton is mentioned with a credit at the start of the film.

I told Robert Rudhall about this and I believe he has communicated the error to the people putting together the Region 2 disc so hopefully all be put right next March.

That’s what I heard as well. And also that Goodwin was brought in a mere three weeks before the film was due to be premiered!

To ‘Tally-Ho!’ into the Goodwin Vs Walton debate,I have to say I’m firmly on the Goodwin side.I bought the BofB soundtrack from Amazon a couple of years back and it has the Goodwin score along with the unused Walton stuff.To my mind (or should that be ears?) Walton’s score wasn’t flexible enough and some of the pieces are a little bit too ‘playful’.Goodwin’s music is more ‘punchy’ and dramatic whilst also being pretty catchy and it is also more varied and flexable,enabling it to be used throughout the film.Doing the same with Walton’s music would’ve been a bit repetitive and wouldn’t have had the same impact.
To my mind,Goodwin’s music is part of what makes the film such a classic,with pieces like the Luftwaffe theme (Aces High) being particular high points,and who can forget the RAF theme cutting in as droves of Hienkels smack into the North Sea?I’m not at all sure that Walton’s music would’ve made that scene as memorable.
The one piece of Walton’s which I’m glad they kept is ‘Battle in the Air’,the piece played over the top of the final dogfight scenes.
As I’ve heard it,the makers of the film were going to drop Walton’s music entirely,but Lawrence Olivier (a friend of Walton) threatened to withdraw his involvement in the film if atleast one or two bits of Walton’s were not used.They made a wise choice over which piece to include! 🙂

I’ll have a look tonight.

If it’s not available it could just happen to fall into the CD writer on my PC ……..

Moggy

I have that very CD (the one with the Buchon formation on the back?) and am probably biased towards Goodwin’s score because I’ve heard it more often.

Having said that, though, I think the CD shall be slapped in the player tonight whilst I dash through the Luftwaffe hordes while playing Secret Weapons Over Normandy (again), just to hear Walton’s score.

Originally posted by DazDaMan
Nor did they bother to use his Battle of Britain score at the end of the movie, using, I think, Walton’s score instead! 🙁

Have you heard the William Walton score? All the unheard stuff is available on a CD with the actual score and some ‘playable on PC’ video content.

In my opinion the film would have been much better if the producers hadn’t wimped out and hired Goodwin at the last minute. (Even though I love Goodwin’s Luftwaffe theme)

Moggy

Nor did they bother to use his Battle of Britain score at the end of the movie, using, I think, Walton’s score instead! 🙁

His music will certainly live on but his memory will not, at least not with MGM. They did not bother to give him a music composers credit on the Region 1 DVD BoB release 😡