Singer and song from First Contact movie
- Thread starter z06kos
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The song was "Moonlight Becomes You" (originally written for the 1942 film Road to Morocco), and was performed by Julie Morgan.
Great, great scene. I'd always liked it for the refreshing change in tone from the dark, creepy scenes that preceded it, but after I'd watched FC a few times I realized the the "Moonlight Becomes You" lyrics have a clever double meaning. Think about it: the holodeck is nothing but light, so walking in the holodeck light is a little like walking in the moonlight! I love little details like that. It just goes to show what a well-made movie FC is.
As Uncle Sigmund once said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
The truth of the matter is "Moonlight Becomes You" was a popular song from the same time period as the Dixon Hill novels (late '30s, early '40s), and more importantly, it was a song Paramount owns the rights to, so Frakes got to use it either for free, or a for much smaller fee than if he'd used a song that was owned by a rival studio.
Sadly, there's probably more meaning behind Puff Daddy's song "It's All About the Benjamins" than "Moonlight Becomes You."
Check this out for the track. Also on ITUNES...it's 80% down the page. If u search for Bing Crosby, it'll come up too...
http://www.myflashfetish.com/mp3search/?query=Moonlight+Becomes+You
http://www.myflashfetish.com/mp3search/?query=Moonlight+Becomes+You
cardinal biggles said:
As Uncle Sigmund once said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
The truth of the matter is "Moonlight Becomes You" was a popular song from the same time period as the Dixon Hill novels (late '30s, early '40s), and more importantly, it was a song Paramount owns the rights to, so Frakes got to use it either for free, or a for much smaller fee than if he'd used a song that was owned by a rival studio.
Sadly, there's probably more meaning behind Puff Daddy's song "It's All About the Benjamins" than "Moonlight Becomes You."
At the same time, though you have "Magic Carpet Ride" being used during the Warp Flight (amazing Cochrane would like a song that was made almost a century before he was born, by the original artists no less. Quite remarkable for even a classic Rock song) which has plenty of hidden meanings.
Given that, I'd say it isn't all that unlikely Frakes or whoever picked the music for FC choose "Moonlight Becomes You" for some hidden meaning. It was just fortuante it was a song owned by Paramount.
Little things like those couple of popular music choices (also extending a litle bit into Nemesis) shows a nice bit of synergy in Trek.
It's remarkable, although a surprising number of songs that are at least reasonably familiar are as old to us as ``Magic Carpet Ride'' would be to Cochrane. For example, popular songs of 1910 included ``I'm Henery The Eighth'', ``Let Me Call You Sweetheart'', ``Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life'', ``Come Josephine In My Flying Machine'', ``Mother Machree'', and ``Tramp! Tramp! Tramp''. Some of these are really known nowadays because of covers by Herman's Hermits or Spike Jones or through inclusion in cartoons or The Muppet Show, but that'll apply to any song. Other songs of similar vintage include ``Alexander's Ragtime Band'', ``Oh, You Beautiful Doll'', ``Take Me Out To The Ball Game'', and ``Casey Jones''.
So, some pop music of the 1960s will be known in the 2060s; just which is open to question. (I'd bet heavily on the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Beach Boys are looking like pretty good bets. Bubble Puppy is less so.)
But do we still listen to those songs as performed by their original artists?
It was a really cute moment, for sure, but sometimes Trek, or any movies set in the future, get "too" cute with stuff like that.
It was a really cute moment, for sure, but sometimes Trek, or any movies set in the future, get "too" cute with stuff like that.
Not in this case, but that's just because sound recordings in those days were very shaky and unreliable things; many of the songs started out as sheet music or as music-hall songs, so you could ask fairly whether anyone ever heard the original artists.
Once you start getting into good recordings and particularly radio and music transmission of music, though ... is it hard to find Hagy Carmichael? George Gershwin? Jelly Roll Morton? Louis Armstrong? Cole Porter? Jimmy Durante? Oscar Hammerstein? Irving Berlin? Yeah, you have to go to the specialty sections in the music store, but you can get them promptly nevertheless.
But more expensive royaties.
"well-made" is a poor way to describe FC. It has so many problems.
That's interesting--I didn't know the backstory. Still, I imagine Paramount owns the rights to a number of period songs, so maybe Frakes or whoever still had to pick it out from among other options?
Even if it wasn't intentional, it still works well. I always chuckle to myself when I see that scene.
Like what? It did have some gigantic plot holes, but I couldn't care less about that kind of thing. The character-driven drama was there in a big way, and that's what matters in Star Trek.
Like waht, okay ... you asked:
The only saving grace, Jerry & Joel Goldsmith's fantastically dark score. Which only proves that if Joel took his father's way of scoring, he'd probably be doing more Hollywood features.
These are only ones that I came up with off the top of my head just now, i'm sure more will come to light.
- To begin with, the entire movie's plot is cenetered around a temporal implausibility: if you go back (the borg) and destroy your enemy before they become so, they they will have never been so and you'd never have had a reason to go back in the first place.
- All the characters were reduced to mere shells of what they were in the series. Riker accomplishes nothing in this film; Picard becomes some kind of war fighting Patton, despite his intelligence and the way he handled himself in "I, Borg"; Data goes no where -- he does not advance any further; Beverly is like that black kid in "South Park" -- just there sometimes; Troi does nothing; Geordi does nothing. None of the characters go anywhere.
- The entire movie was poorly constructed but this might have been because several changes were made:
1. The new Enterprise was meant to be larger than the D.
2. It was originally supposed to be jus the Borg, as in the TNG series, but Paramount fealt it needed a villain, so they had to re-write it to squeeze a poorly constructed one in.
3. Going back to help Cochran is like some shitty fan film.
4. The dialogue was mostly bad.
5. No character development, which could have been forgiven had the film been written better.
- The new ship is ugly.
- The new uniforms are ugly.
- Picard and his book smart, classic music listening, instrument playing, acheaological studiying brain is reduced to Rambo mentallity; and Rambo was better! And one liners and fake emotions.
- Worf was also reduced to his basic Klingon stereotypes of honor and anger and blood.
- Geordi already stated he didn't want new eyes in the series, so why get ones that are obviously so.
- Why do the Borg send one ship for an invasion? The Federation already proved it can defeat that, and in one episode of Voyager, when the Borg invaded a world for the first time, they send multiple cubes and the queen's ship!
- To partially quote Spcok, "only human arrogance". Why is the human race and Earth so important? time and time again Trek -- though it's various spin offs -- has shown many races are vastly suerior. Shy why keep concentrating your effort in a technologically lacking race in another quadrant.
- The Borg are no longer what they were in the series and are now like random bad guys you see get shot up.
- The nanoprobes thing goes completely against the facts presented in TNG episodes.
- Going back to the temporal impossibility of the plot, why are the Borg even trying to assimilated and take over the Enterprise E and stop Cochran? While those eventa happen in the present tense, back in the future history has long since recorded the Brog FAILED, so why don't the Borg send another ship to take out the Enterprise E in the past? they already know their plan didn't go the way they wanted it to.
- It wasn't character driven, but the first real time a Trek film had pandered to the Hollywood mentallity of bad guys and killing. Rather poor if you ask me.
- Suddenly ythe Borg have an area of the ship that is of key vital importance? What a McGuffin!
- Why the friggin Borg? Berman knew there weren't going to be as many movies, why did he waste this and not create a film that further some or all of the characters along, as "Generations" did with Picard & Data.
The only saving grace, Jerry & Joel Goldsmith's fantastically dark score. Which only proves that if Joel took his father's way of scoring, he'd probably be doing more Hollywood features.
These are only ones that I came up with off the top of my head just now, i'm sure more will come to light.
Yes, exactly. All the implausible plotting is a McGuffin, especially the temporal shenanigans. But guess what? That's all sci-fi is: one big McGuffin. Technobabble is of almost no interest in itself (unless you're a hopless fanboy.) It exists only to put characters in interesting situations. I couldn't care less whether the Borg takeover plot is "realistic" or whether the seizure of engineering is too convenient; those plot points are only significant insofar as they set the stage for character drama.
I am sympathetic to your argument that FC--and the TNG movies in general--didn't advance the characters. I would have prefered movies that didn't rely on scary evil-doers to bring the conflict, and didn't cast the tea-swilling, Shakespeare-quoting Picard as an action hero. TNG's greatness was in its character pieces, not its kewl FX or fight sequences--but they left much of that greatness behind when they went to action-laden movies.
However, if you acknowledge from the start that the movies will never be as good as the series and pitch your expectations accordingly, FC looks pretty good. You are right that most of the characters stayed frozen in time for most of the TNG movies, never developing beyond what we saw in the series. FC, however, does develop Picard's character in a big way, and that makes the movie. In this case "development" doesn't mean Picard becomes a better person, but a worse person. He becomes selfish and vengeful--two traits he never displayed in the series, where he was the moral center. In FC he gets de-centered: you can't rely on him to always make the right call, to always take the side of right (and Stewart's incredible performance in the conference room scene makes this new character depth absolutely believable.) Now, I agree it could have been better. We could have had even more focus on character without all the action hero nonsense--but toppling Picard from his pedestal was a step forward for the series. It was something truly new, and after seven years of television, that's quite an accomplishment.
On the whole, the TNG movies were wasted opportunities. If commercial pressures could have been held off, if the franchise had had more visionary leadership, we might have had movies worthy of the series. But taken for what it is--an action flick--FC is excellent.
That's excusing it, when the film could have just have easily been written by one of the writers on hte show who did good work.
Taken for what it is, it's really nothing. I could sit here and name 10 science fiction films which are more fun to watch, including "The Chronicles of Riddick".
Which scene is that? I don't remember anything incredible coming from him in the Ready Room.
I hope you don't mean that mildly acted, poorly done, forced "anger" scene where he breaks the display case holding replicas of the previous Enterprises.
Taken for what it is, it's really nothing. I could sit here and name 10 science fiction films which are more fun to watch, including "The Chronicles of Riddick".
Which scene is that? I don't remember anything incredible coming from him in the Ready Room.
I hope you don't mean that mildly acted, poorly done, forced "anger" scene where he breaks the display case holding replicas of the previous Enterprises.
Of course. How could I forget that great talent of our time, Vin Diesel? You doubtless enjoy other sci-fi masterpieces such as Battlefield Earth and Jurassic Park III. I can picture you now, sitting at home--alone--watching Howard the Duck, exclaiming "genius, GENIUS!" every time that guy in a duck suit delivers a line. I can't argue with such superior taste. Just remember this as you take in the classics of genre cinema: too many cheetos make you sick and bathing every Sunday is a good rule of thumb. Enjoy!
doubleohfive
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At the time, Ron Moore still had a lot of street cred (moreso than Brannon Braga at least) and honestly, they'd both written some of the best episodes of TNG.
This is a very bizarre critique.
