French Connection

[SMrtn]

You like Don Ellis? I know I do

Here's the FC soundtrack, which, when I watched the movie a little while ago, surprised the s$#t outta me. Some very innovative and interesting work for a soundtrack.

Great movie too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVQF-Uz2pFQ

(Won't play as an embedded file so you have to do it the old fashioned way and click on the link. Well worth it.)

[OldHorn]

I agree, it is a very creative soundtrack.

My favorite thing about the soundtrack is discovering where Ellis got his inspiration for the main theme. In the scene where the police are dismantling the car, they can't find the drugs. The last thing left on the car were the rocker panels. The police use a reciprocating saw to remove those. Watch this scene and listen to the sound the reciprocating saw makes. It makes a rhythmic motif which is in 7/8. Ellis uses this motif as the basis for his soundtrack.

This is the pivotal scene in the film, the scene where the police figure everything out, and the sound becomes the basis for the soundtrack. How cool is that.

In French Connection 2, Ellis hired Bud Brisbois to play his stratosphere notes in the scene when Gene Hackman's character is going through withdrawal. It sounds like a nightmare, the music fits perfectly to the pain & agony in the film.

[SMrtn]

@OldHorn

You obviously have a deeper knowledge base on it than I do. Interesting stuff.
I'm due for a fourth viewing of the movie, so I'll keep an eye out for the scene with the saw.
I love the gritty nature of the movie. Doyle is eating a slice of limp pizza and drinking instant coffee out in the street, while he waits for his mark to exit an expensive restaurant where he's dining in fine style - crime doesn't pay huh - and the music just fits not only the streets and environment, but the time period it all happens in.

I haven't seen FC2, worth a look? And does Ellis do the soundtrack? I know I could easily look all this up myself, but I would like to hear it from you.

[OldHorn]

Yes, Ellis did the soundtrack on on the sequel.

I spoke to Ellis briefly about the soundtrack, commenting to him how intense the "bottom" of the band was. I don't remember the exact number, but he told me that he hired a lot of double basses for the session. It was the most basses that the engineer had ever seen on a film session.

He scored several other films also, the Seven Ups, a cop film similiar to FC. He also scored Kansas City Bomber. A film about roller derby. He died much too young.

[kehaulani]

Pretty hip.
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[SMrtn]

Yeah, cool soundtrack for sure. That period had some neat urban sounds.