Spider-Man 2 with Danny Elfman's Original Score (Part VI)

This is one of the sequences that caused the imbroglio during the post-production of the film. It was rumoured that Sam Raimi didn't attend the recording sessions and wasn't happy with Danny Elfman's music for these scenes. They were temp-tracked with the "Hellraiser II" score and Raimi wanted Elfman to write something extremely similar to Christopher Young's music which he refused to do. To make it short: tension grew and it ended up with Elfman leaving the film and with Raimi asking Young to rewrite several scenes, in this case, copying his own score for Hellraiser II.

What Elfman wrote here is very indicative of who Doctor Octavius is: a man of science with noble intentions who is trapped by his megalomaniac projects. In the first statements of his main theme, the harmonics chosen give a sense of mystery and achievement as Octavius is living the moment he has been waiting for years. It's mainly here that we can notice that Doc Ock's main theme is a diminished version of Spider-Man's theme, meaning that at that moment of the film, he's a potential modern hero of his own.
As soon as the experiment goes wrong, Elfman installs the orchestration that will be used for the character: mainly a "monster" approach, something between Frankenstein and Jekyll & Hyde, always carrying both nemesis and trauma.

The Hospital scene is one of Raimi's few good decisions about the music. By leaving these images on their own, the scene is way more impressive and effective. Ironically, this is the only moment in the score where Elfman went for an over-the-top writing, underlining every single aspects of the frame which is what Raimi was looking for most of the time. The final cut reintegrates Elfman's music when Doc Ock wakes up.

More to come...

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Spider-Man
• Spiderman
• Danny
• Elfman
• Sam
• Raimi
• Film
• Music

[Webhead731]

I love Elfman's stuff. Batman and Spider-Man have scores you just can't mess with. You can't put their music on another movie and have it sound right.

[LeadCeno]

I'm not exactly sure I can place the name to the track, but Batman - Finale sounded nothing like anything in the Hellraiser movies, IMO.

[ericmcfadden]

anyone notice how much hans zimmer seemed to emulate danny elfman when composing for the lion king?

[WindOfSolitude]

honestly, since I never saw hellraiser, I like the music from the film better. it was more scarier and filled with wonder in my opinion.

[arnebarnard]

@AngelofMusic04

You forgot Hellbound Main Title + A Little Fixing Up = Batman Main Titles....

[BROKENHOUSEFILMS]

actually, i liked the hellraiser tune better with this scene

but I would pick Elfman over Young anyday

[Deavi783]

This is better. I find the Hellraiser score distracting.

[kalel32688]

Why isn't this on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack?

[BekahSparrow]

I'm comparing both scores, and this one is much better. But I suppose none of you needed to be told that. lol

[AngelofMusic04]

The opening of the Batman finale (when Gordon first turns on the Bat Signal) sounds like a sped-up and more triumphant version of :40 - :44 of "Dead or Living?".

[orster2076]

OMG! at 7:29!