Trevelyan's Mainframe / FILE: Film Score, Éric Serra [Thirty years removed]
- Trevelyan
- Apr 7
- 7 min read
Well, well, well... it seems you've managed to stumble across one of my favorite files in the archive. Credit where credit is due, old boy. Plugins have been scrubbed clean and the mainframe is online.
Let’s forgo the access codes for this one, shall we? Permission to continue is automatically granted. However, don’t always expect the same courtesy moving forward! You happened to catch me at the proper time. Now, this is what we have for our subject, thirty years removed from his work on GOLDENEYE.
Operative: Janus
File: Composer Éric Serra & Original Film Score
Report From: Cuba
Lat: 23.1339 N
Long: 82.3586 W
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TREVELYAN:
Listen here... right, the irony isn't lost on me. This is a serious matter all the same. Just how important are Bond film scores? Humor me here for a moment, allow me to explain in a way you'll understand.
It is of the opinion of this organization that, throughout Bond movie history, the film scores have matter just as much (if not sometimes more) than the actual script lines, plot threads, or even characters themselves. Rightly, the score itself is the movie. The best soundtracks become immediately recognizable signatures of their accompanying scenes. Once a track kicks in, one should be able to recollect every piece of the scene itself, without even having to see it back.
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In many ways, the score takes on the life of the central nervous system to the film's overall body. In this sense, the selection of film composer should be taken very, very seriously. The tone of the film will be strongly guided by the sounds that composer puts together to back it.
For EON Productions' 17th James Bond film, GOLDENEYE, a French composer named Éric Serra was selected to try his hand at a Bond score.
According to our records, Éric Serra was born in the eastern inner suburbs of Paris, an area known as Saint-Mandé, in 1959. His father, Claude, was a famous French musician and songwriter during the late 1905s and 1960s. A fitting role model, wouldn't you say? Sad to say details on Serra's mother are rather sparse, she our file indicates that she passed during her son's formative years.
Beginning to learn to play the guitar at age eleven, it wouldn't be long before Éric became a full-time musician, playing professionally alongside greats like Mory Konte, Didier Lockwood, and Michel Murty by age fifteen.
Then, Éric met Luc Besson.
Besson, a French film director known for such titles as BIG BLUE (1988), LA FEMME NIKITA (1990), LÉON: THE PROFESSIONAL (1994), and THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997), had befriended Serra sometime in 1980. Around this time, Besson asked Serra to compose for his next film, LE DERNIER COMBAT (1983). This would become Éric's very first feature film score. Serra stuck with Besson and has since contributed to nearly every Besson film since. Both have been quoted as to relying on human emotion to move their work forward, helping Serra's sounds blend with Besson's images. The man that gave Serra his first break in films in the early 1980s continues to champion his work and choose him as his composer to this day, collaborating on over thirty projects to date.
Along the way, following his 1994 work with Besson on LÉON: THE PROFESSIONAL, Éric Serra was approached to score the next James Bond adventure that was scheduled to be released during the following holiday season, in 1995. Taking inspiration from his work with Luc Besson, Serra approached the 17th James Bond film much like the film producers did, "out with the old, in with the new".
Serra took the groundwork laid by Monty Norman and John Barry and spun it on its head. Gone were the bombastic orchestral pieces of old. In their place, stood the harsh, dirty, cold sounds of a post-Soviet era film. Sounds of industrial pipes, metal clanging, and sonar-like gonging provided a deep, rich, and iconic sound within his tracks for GOLDENEYE.
Serra's signature synthesized sounds permeated throughout every scene of Pierce Brosnan's first Bond outing. The unique soundscape provided by Serra helped define the film, setting it apart from all those that came before it. Serra's GOLDENEYE score truly set a new standard for the sound of the 'Brosnan Era' of James Bond moving forward.
This was Bond of the 1990s and of the coming millennium, and the sounds had to match.
With that, I suppose I'd be remiss to skip perhaps the only bit of 'Classic Bond' left intact for GOLDENEYE's sound, that being the film's titular song itself.
The film's title sequence song was written by the duo of Irish singer-songwriter and U2 lead, Bono, alongside his bandmate (and fellow Irishman), The Edge. After being penned lyrically, it was then performed by fabulously popular American singer and actress Tina Turner. Talk about a powerhouse combination!
According to this mainframe, many fans consider GOLDENEYE's title song to be one of best entries in the series. It delivers the familiar feel, power, and class of a Dame Shirley Bassey theme within Tina Turner and mixes in the new, cutting, gritty lyrics of Bono & The Edge. All proper ingredients for a smash hit.
GOLDENEYE's title song was released as a single on November 7th, 1995 and went on to reach number 22 in the US Top Charts, number 3 in the European Top 100, and jumped to the Top 10 in countries around the world including (but not limited to) the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, etc.
But, it wasn't always to be so. Despite Serra always being the choice for the film's composer, the title song explored a few different channels before becoming the hit it was.
Originally, EON Productions had their eyes and ears set on Essex's own electronic music band, Depeche Mode. However, scheduling conflicts and inner band turmoil derailed any possible demo, and EON's offer was forced to shift elsewhere. Then the widely popular Swedish Pop band, Ace of Base, was offered a shot at GOLDENEYE. Ace of Base's GOLDENEYE was something quite different. The lyrics, tone, and overall feel were much darker and melancholy, penned and performed solely by the band as a demo. It was ultimately rejected by producers and their American label deemed Ace of Base "too big" for Bond at the time anyway.
No doubt the lyrics and tone of the demo somewhat reflected themes explored within the film. "Tomorrow's foe is now a friend" indeed. Yet, the rebirth of a franchise needed something... bolder. This was Turner's version backed by the lyrics provided by Bono & The Edge. Loud, sexy, and truly Bond through and through. I say the right choice was made. A closed matter.
This wouldn't be the only revision made for the GOLDENEYE soundtrack, however...
In fact, very infamously, Éric Serra's work would meddled with a bit for the theatrical release of the film. Though he was chosen from the outset of the film, a track or two of his were not. More specifically, marching quickly toward the climax of the film is the iconic T-55 tank chase through St. Petersburg (specifically within the Sennaya neighborhood and along the banks of Moyka Canal). Originally, Serra's "A Pleasant Drive in St. Petersburg" track was to be placed here.
Unsatisfied with the naturally 'Bondian' moment of this concept matched with what was deemed an 'un-Bondian' tune was enough for the director and producers to act quickly during the editing process. English composer John Altman would be brought onboard to re-score the tank chase scene with a more classic Bond spin.
What can be heard in the final version of the film is Altman's piece in place of Serra's. In hindsight, this was done in complete contrast to the rest of GOLDENEYE's sound. A brave move indeed. Yet the action carries the music quite well, and the rest (as they say), is history.
Funny little note here about this John Altman fellow; Our mainframe suggests that he was also responsible for arranging and producing the Academy Award-nominated period music for 1997's TITANIC. Ever heard of it?
Don't believe I caught it showing at Our Theatre of Smolensk at the time...
Beside the signature suite that made up GOLDENEYE's main soundtrack, Serra decided to include his very own ode to romance within the ending credits song "The Experience of Love". In my mind, it was the perfect way to close out the explosive opening phase of this new set Bond films.
The shot of helicopters leaving the jungle climbing up into the blue sky while the credits slowly roll onto the screen and this song begins is one of my favorite parts of the film as a whole. Does it ooze 1990s and help to age the film? Absolutely. But, does it perfectly encapsulate the relationship that develops between an isolated Severnaya scientist and a globetrotting superspy? I say yes!
I can't say the same sentiment is felt by all James Bond fans, though. With that said, let's move on.
Many die-hard fans of this film credit the score to be one of their most (or least) favorites. Whether you like it or hate it, Serra's score is one of the most unique parts of GOLDENEYE as a whole. Some of the series' more traditional Bond fans rank GOLDENEYE's soundtrack towards the bottom of their lists, strictly due to how far it deviates from the norm set by previous entries.
Is it far and away a much different sounding film than that of say, a master work of John Barry's ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1969)? Quite so. Though, if it's all the same to you, I say that's because it had to be!
This mainframe suggests that the work Éric Serra, Tina Turner, Bono & The Edge (and John Altman) helped move the series forward after a six-and-a-half year hiatus, a time that the franchise was nearly considered dead. To return in such a fresh, brave new way was the exact realization composer Éric Serra and Bond producers were looking for. Not only was there a new Bond, with new challenges, there was a new sound.
All the while, a newly emerging generation of Bond fans found their sound.
And so that brings us to the end of this file, operative. Though our file may be skewed, this organization doesn't shy from facts. The sounds of GOLDENEYE are all honored equally here.
Were you expecting something else?
-TREVELYAN
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