Game Of Death/Night Games

Composer: John Barry
Lable (Release Year): Silva Screen (1993)
Availability: ****
Rating: *****

Bruce Lee had only filmed a small portion of Game of Death before his tragic death. However, the film is finished by using a very unconvincing double and segments of other Bruce Lee movies. Bruce Lee's original concept for the movie is twisted and the movie is horrible. Nonetheless, it is nice that we have a chance to see the 10-15 minutes segment that Bruce Lee had filmed. Although the movie cannot be compared to Enter The Dragon, John Barry's score is no less effective than Lalo Schifrin's. The main theme is very catchy. It has a semi-James Bond theme feel. It contains two dominant motifs. The first one sounds very much like the music for a ski chasing scene in a James Bond film and it usually performed with horns. The second one is a fast paced strings motif with a sense of danger. The motifs play over an up beat rhythm and synthesizer effects. The Main Title is absolutely enjoyable and is definitely one of my favorite theme. The rest of the action cues are basically the variations of the main title. However, since the main title has so many different themes and motifs, it is more than enough to just play around with the main title in the score. (You can also hear some famous James Bond motifs from time to time).Barry also composed a love theme. It has a little jazzy feel and is beautiful (I think you know how beautiful John Barry's love themes are). It is also presented as the song "Will This be the Song I'll be Singing Tommorrow". According to the notes, that is "probably the only occasion on which he has written both music and lyrics for a film song". Although Game of Death does not have the exotic flavor that Enter The Dragon has, some tracks sound a little like the latter, for example, "Stick Fight With Santo". In general, Game of Death is a tongue-in-cheek action score that is full of catchy motifs.

This album also features the score from the movie Night Games. Just by looking at the track titles, you can already tell Night Games is a total shift. It may resembles Body Heat. "The Lesbian Tango" and "Phantom of Orgasm" are yet two other beautiful tracks from Barry. In "Phantom of Orgasm", Barry introduced a new theme that sounds very much like the theme from The Scarlet Letter. You probably have a clear idea what the score sounds like except it may sound a little darker than you thought.

This album is definitely worth having. 68 minutes of classic John Barry. There is no doubt that you need to get this if you are a fan of John Barry's action scores.



    Track Listing:

    Game Of Death

  1. Main Title/Set Fight With Chuck Norris (3:45)
  2. Will This Be The Song I'll Be Singing Tommorrow (Instrumental) (2:25)
  3. Three Motocycles/Stick Fight With Santo (4:02)
  4. Billy's Funeral Dirge (3:02)
  5. Garden Fight (2:51)
  6. Billy And Ann's Love Theme (2:41)
  7. The Big Motorcycle Fight (5:49)
  8. Goodbye Dr. Land (2:00)
  9. Colleen Camp - Will This Be The Song I'll Be Singing Tommorrow (2:25)
  10. Game Of Death - End Title (2:48)
  11. Stick Fight (With sound effects)/Main Title (Reprise) (6:17)

    Night Games

  12. Descent Into Decadence (6:03)
  13. The Lesbian Tango (2:59)
  14. The Wet Spot (3:37)
  15. Water Sports/The Dominatrix's Waltz (7:43)
  16. Phantom Of The Orgasm (8:28)
  17. Afterplay (1:11)
    Total Time: 68:06



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