My Favorite Themes - Part XIII

Score:The Final Conflict by Jerry Goldsmith

About the film: A now-grown Damien Thorn (Sam Neill) fears the Second Coming, arranges for the murder of several infants and comes under attack from a group of priests. (In a talkback about the remake of The Omen, Ain’t It Cool News poster Alonzo Boden’s description of this plot thread compared it to a Road Runner cartoon. Looking at the end result, you can’t argue too strongly.) Spectacular murders commingle with rather dry stretches involving prophecies and disciples. Neill and director Graham Baker try to make this interesting, but it’s an uphill climb.

Title: “The Second Coming”. This theme for the monks’ plan to vanquish the Anti-Christ is based in low horns, making it a noble-sounding melody. However, it can provide some stunning choirgasms, as in “The Second Coming” and “The Final Conflict”. (Interestingly, this melody sounds a lot like a sub-theme later used in The Challenge.)

Other themes of interest: This score is markedly different from the composer’s previous Omen works (no “Ave Satani” here, folks). Instead, there’s a powerful main theme for horns and choir. It even becomes something of an adventure cue in “The Hunt”. There’s also a lesser heard theme in “The Ambassador” and “Trial Run”. (Structurally, the latter cue bears a striking resemblance to the main titles of the following year’s The Secret of N.I.M.H. and I could swear that a downscaled version of the main theme was borrowed for The Vanishing.)

Availability: From what I’ve heard, there was a shorter version of this score released with poor sound. Be sure to pick up the ‘Deluxe Edition’ (with the yellow cover) to get the full experience of this, one of Goldsmith’s finest. Incidentally, both versions were released by the indefatigable Varese Sarabande.