Last night, I watched Legend, one of my all-time favorite fantasy movies which finally came out on DVD. I watched the director's cut, which not only had extra footage but also had the Jerry Goldsmith score that the UK version has had for all these years. I'd never gotten a chance to hear it at all, so it was great finally getting to hear it. It was also cool seeing some of the extra footage. I honestly don't get why most of it was cut, really. What was cut really doesn't make sense, though I know he was trying to shorten it, so I guess the inconsequential stuff had to go. But I think keeping it in definitely made the film flow better. There were bits that seemed completely choppy before that worked much better in the director's cut.
As for the score... well... I've seen the US version so many times with the Tangerine Dream score. I think part of the reason I liked the movie so much was the score. It was different and innovative. The Goldsmith score is great, but it's your standard classical fantasy score. The Tangerine Dream stuff was so different. And it actually fit very well, I thought. It's interesting to see and hear the choices the different composers made. There are scenes where an entirely different mood is being created with the music and it's amazing how both seem to fit the scene for entirely different reasons. It's interesting to see which aspect of the scene each score tries to play up.
I'm probably biased about the Tangerine Dream score. But I like it a lot and I honestly thought it worked extremely well and was something different and new for a fantasy film. Very ethereal and magical but still electronic. It'll be difficult to get me to stop thinking of that score when I'm watching the director's cut. Luckily, the US version is on the other disc.
All in all, I like both versions. I'm sorry the thing ever got cut, since it really shouldn't have been, but I'm glad that led to the creation of the alternate score, because I think it's an impressive piece of music. More impressive is the fact that they scored the thing in 3 weeks.
I'm just happy it came out on DVD at last. I was starting to think it'd never come.