Air Force One: "The Hijacking” by Jerry Goldsmith (Transcription and Analysis) 

Fantastic work on this David. I heard many stories about this score from Jerry's old music editor Kenny Hall who said, among many other great trivia, that Jerry had just left on Mediterranean cruise with his family when he got the call to replace Randy Newman, so he made the studio pay for it and re-book him one for a month later after it was delivered :P Insane what he pulled out in so short a time

6:57 When he goes to full power and that extra layer of percussion joins in and the motif just blats, Its just *chef kiss* perfection!!!

One of my favorite movies my dad would let me watch when I was little! The score is an amazing piece of the Goldsmith canon of scores.

Quite possibly the greatest action cue ever written!

This is fanatstic. The horn 3rds that occur at 227 and 283 are the "russian" motif we see when there are shots of "Russian Power".............Tons of jerry's fav (0,1,4)....amazing what you cn do in 12 days !...his opening Fanfare is one of the best tunes he has ever written !

Amazing. Goldsmith seemed to be simplifying his style in the 90s but he knew what the movies needed, and how far to go. The part where the Russian is trying to take off again just goes to the top and then OVER that top, but still is completely appropriate for the movie. I've been a fan of JG since 1977 and am STILL finding new things about his music that impress me.

7:22 - Just want to add the "Radek" motif is added right at the end where the re-take-off is successful, musically signalling a victory for the villain. Great analysis, and worthy. In hindsight the score was one of the things that came together to elevate the material. Very well done.

The main DNA of this cue is really simple there is the Russian motif and the rest is just one or two note riffs, but the genius of JG is where he takes it. Its total suspense. IMO this scene and score is exquisite filmmaking. JG score makes you feel the blood, sweat and tears. I haven't seen a score that did that in decades.

Outstanding. That was a lot of work for both you and JG!

Wow! The best Action Piece of the 90s!!!!!! Yeah

Joel Mcneely contributed about 30 mins of music for this film, Jerry reportedly crossed out a few pages of his score during the recording sessions because there was just too much music, Jerry was all about conveying as much as possible with as few notes as possible, you can see that demonstrated here.

WOW, such a great score to study for tension scores!

Wonderful work, David! Really great to see the breakdown and the scenes sync up. It's fascinating to think through how this work might have evolved. I wonder if he worked on bare motifs before starting the picture, then started slotting them in everywhere they fit, or if much of it was improvised, or how else he might have attached this film on such an insanely short deadline.

Absolutely genius! Thank you for doing this, love seeing Goldsmith's work and I'll take more please!

Just rewatched the film this weekend. Fantastic score that really takes the suspense and adventure to the next level.

Music that sends chills down the spine! I love the cross-cutting between the heroic scrambling of the fighters and the terror of the fruckus on board Air Force One!

Literally the best thing I've ever seen. Thank you! Also, 12 days, wow. Clearly a great example of just experience, training and instinct doing their wonderous parts.

Love this movie and this score. Your analysis is incredible as always. ‘Parachutes’/Main Theme from the same movie next?

THANK YOU for this. One of if JG's best action cues. .. I never figured out why the recording for this score was so crappy, compared to JG scores years earlier, even scores from early 90's had better quality. creaky chairs in the background (Escape from Air Fore one track) page turning... but the score has so much drive and energy it makes up for it!

6:27, I instantly thought to the ending of the first part of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Great analysis, as always!

This was remarkable work for him to put out in that short a time; that is a sign of a lot of talent and experience. The score kind of shows that rushed aspect, though. It is quite well done for what it has to do, but lacks the spark of imagination that inspired his best work (no doubt due to the super-compressed time frame). Still, with your analysis to help, I am really impressed without the amount of thought and effort which clearly went into the score.

167-185 is the best music i've ever heard

One of the most awesome action set pieces out there... It really becomes clear when you see the actual score. Compare this to the generic AI-like shit the likes of Zimmer "produce" in their pathetic little sequencers. Thanks for this great reduction and analysis!

Transcription by ear? Mother of God. Nice job! (I was certain you had "keys to the vault" on some of these obscure scores.)

its fantastic this score!!!! of the maestro goldsmith and great video. i love this score and you channel!!!

Those trio of ascending triads werent just to underpin AF1 liftoff as there was a buuld of tension toward the end of the phrase. Therefore it rather meant 'pull.up now or its all over'.

This was fantastic, I love your channel. I don’t want to get off topic from this score but I’m just dying to see you take a look at Jerry Goldsmith’s wonderful score for POLTERGEIST (the track “twisted abduction” for example). I can’t think of a single score that he’s not impressed me with, as examples here the man is pure genius. I’m crazy for the sounds Jerry picks, I also love the similarities in his scores.

OMG WHAT A WORK OF ART! BOTH THIS SCORE AND YR VID! BRAVO! CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE! IN THE MEAN TIME I'M GONNA LEARN THIS ON MY PIANO! 😍🤩

12 days? 12 DAYS?!

You earned a sub! Now I want to learn to read music to the bucket list.

Great analysis ! Love it. Great accurate score transcription, and ballpark instrumentation guess (in the similar vein as Total Recall). BTW : it is VERY interesting thing to see this cue with rejected Newman’s music. To tell the truth, his music is brilliant on its own, and works perfectly well with the picture. After seeing the movie (or at least portions of it) with rejected score, one can scratch head about decision to ditch Newmann’s brilliant work (also high action pace, packed with great orchestral effects etc) I think Jerry’s music is more motivic, more defined, more „thematic” if it makes sense. More „approachable” by an average film viewer. More exciting... But nevertheless, IMHO Newman’s score also keeps you on the edge.

My favorite Track of the Movie

6:41 F$%^ me that's bopping!

I have always heard three 70’s scores in this cue, The Omen, Cassandra Crossing and Capricorn One. He must have played Peterson some excerpts. Arthur Morton had just retired so Courage became his full time orchestrator. He was Morton’s assistant before that.

You did this by ear??? BRAVO!!!

1:26 Daddy? Alice, GET BACK! DADDY?!

Amazing!

정말 대단합니다. 음악도 리덕션 작업도.

Pity the last 70 seconds can barely be heard in the film because it's amazing (as is the whole track)!

Bar 4/5 chord there is no F# is just A in octaves and bass C#. Bar 2/3 there is no D in the chord. it's just G minor Bb G Bb, with G in bass. This gives it an ominous feeling. If you play it on the piano you'll see what I mean!

Is it possible to do Elliot Goldenthal's "Louis' Revenge" from Interview with the Vampire?

BTW : Jerry never changed meter in “your” bars 41-46. You notated one bar of 3/8 followed by 5 bars of 5/8. Hmmm... How about keeping 7/8 throughout ? Another words in bar 41 you simply stay in 7/8 (3+2+2) and in the next 3 bars the accents are on 2+2+3. No reason to indicate 5/8 :-) Total amount of eight notes in “your” bars 41-46 is 28. That’s simply 4 bars in 7/8. Great analysis with no score though. I’m also obsessed with JG music, and wish his classics would be published. Omni does great job with that, and I’m positive that Tim Rodier will be releasing more entries over time. If you have a minute, listen to “Executive Decision”. Jerry wrote that score right before Air Force One, and it is also about hijacking the plane. Similar vibe...

Holy shit, where did you find the score? I have been looking for years!

5:47 Oof, there's a music edit here that cuts a few measures.

NOOOO! 3:10

Hey Do Music on The Sum of all Fears.

Hey can you do Music on Spider-Man and Punisher Please ?

Can you make more Danny Elfman/Tim Burton videos please ?

You mention Patreon in the video but there's no link to it in the description. What exactly is in the PDFs that we're not seeing in the video?

Brass section: REALLY?

ALERT THE SPARKINATOR! !! 0:23

Planet of the apes would be great

Honestly: find a better way to convey your analysis as a video essay. Get a Røde microphone for your smartphone for like 50 bucks, hit pause on the track every once in a while, tell us what you found out. The views on this are such a shame.