Interview with Composer Ron Goodwin about „Where Eagles Dare“ (1987)

“Almost like a real web site”

IN7OMM.COM
• Search | Contact
• News | e-News |
• Rumour Mill | Stories
• Foreign Language
• in70mm.com auf Deutsch

WHAT'S ON IN 7OMM?

7OMM FESTIVAL
• Todd-AO Festival
• KRRR! 7OMM Seminar
• GIFF 70, Gentofte
• Oslo 7OMM Festival
• Widescreen Weekend

TODD-AO
• Premiere | Films
• People | Equipment
• Library | Cinemas
• Todd-AO Projector
• Distortion Correcting

PANAVISION
• Ultra Panavision 70
• Super Panavision 70

VISION, SCOPE & RAMA
1926 Natural Vision
1929 Grandeur
1930 Magnifilm
1930 Realife
1930 Vitascope
1952 Cinerama
1953 CinemaScope
1955 Todd-AO
1955 Circle Vision 360
1956 CinemaScope 55
1957 Ultra Panavision 70
1958 Cinemiracle
1958 Kinopanorama
1959 Super Panavision 70
1959 Super Technirama 70
1960 Smell-O-Vision
1961 Sovscope 70
1962 Cinerama 360
1962 MCS-70
1963 70mm Blow Up
1963 Circarama
1963 Circlorama
1966 Dimension 150
1966 Stereo-70
1967 DEFA 70
1967 Pik-A-Movie
1970 IMAX / Omnimax
1974 Cinema 180
1974 SENSURROUND
1976 Dolby Stereo
1984 Showscan
1984 Swissorama
1986 iWERKS
1989 ARRI 765
1990 CDS
1994 DTS / Datasat
2001 Super Dimension 70
2018 Magellan 65

• Various Large format | 70mm to 3-strip | 3-strip to 70mm | Specialty Large Format | Special Effects in 65mm | ARC-120 | Super Dimension 70 | Early Large Format
• 7OMM Premiere in Chronological Order

7OMM FILM & CINEMA
• Australia | Brazil
• Canada | Denmark
• England | France
• Germany | Iran
• Mexico | Norway
• Sweden | Turkey
• USA

LIBRARY
• 7OMM Projectors
• People | Eulogy
• 65mm/70mm Workshop
• The 7OMM Newsletter
• Back issue | PDF
• Academy of the WSW

7OMM NEWS
• 2026 | 2025 | 2024
• 2023 | 2022 | 2021
• 2020 | 2019 | 2018
• 2017 | 2016 | 2015
• 2014 | 2013 | 2012
• 2011 | 2010 | 2009
• 2008 | 2007 | 2006
• 2005 | 2004 | 2003
• 2002 | 2001 | 2000
• 1999 | 1998 | 1997
• 1996 | 1995 | 1994

in70mm.com Mission:
• To record the history of the large format movies and the 70mm cinemas as remembered by the people who worked with the films. Both during making and during running the films in projection rooms and as the audience, looking at the curved screen.
• in70mm.com, a unique internet based magazine, with articles about 70mm cinemas, 70mm people, 70mm films, 70mm sound, 70mm film credits, 70mm history and 70mm technology. Readers and fans of 70mm are always welcome to contribute.

• Disclaimer | Updates
• Support us
• Testimonials
• Table of Content

Interview with Composer Ron Goodwin about „Where Eagles Dare“ (1987)	Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter
Written by: Matthias Büdinger and Udo Heimansberg. Copyright 1987, reprinted by permission from the authors	Date: 05.10.2023
Ron Goodwin's signature, Odense, Denmark, 1991. Ron Goodwin: That film to me was a kind of a „Boys story“. If you stop and think about that film, they needed lorry loads of explosions and equipment. You didn’t really want to give the audience time to stop and think because they would have thought this ridiculous. So the music had to keep the interest going in a way. I just did a concert in Sweden with the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra. They translated the titles of all these films in Swedish and they sounded most peculiar. It’s really strange to hear the films you have done what they were called in a foreign country. When „Where Eagles Dare“ was translated you would think it was a totally different film. When It didn’t actually mean „Where Eagles Dare“ it meant something like „The Eagles Nest“. What was that called in Germany? Udo Heimansberg: „Agenten sterben einsam“ which literally means „Spies die lonely“! RG: I like it better than „Where Eagles Dare“! UH: I still wonder, what this title meant! RG: I never knew really. I suppose because it was in the mountains and that would be only a place where eagles would go. They went to this daring thing. But it’s a bit obscure! At the end of the film an awful lot of that was not going to have music in it. I don’t know if you remember the scene where they were driving to the airport to get there in time. That was all supposed to be no music but when they saw the first dup of the picture somebody in America decided they wanted music in there. But the producer said: „We can’t afford to pay for any more recording sessions. Can you find music from what you’ve already recorded?“ I always cringe a bit when I see that section of the film because all we did really was to repeat the same music over and over going which got monotonous. UH: At the end there is a lot of shooting and explosions… RG: They wanted it all filled with music in the background. They are always terrified that they going to have any silence in the film which is stupid because silence can be very effective. Sometimes silence is much much more effective than music!	More in 70mm reading: Broadsword Ruft Danny Boy An Evening with Derren Nesbitt Exhibitor's Campaign Book from MGM "Where Eagles Dare", 1968 "Where Eagles Dare" - 40th Anniversary 1969 - 2009 “Broadsword Calling Danny Boy” Widescreen Weekend Report 2009 Todd-AO at the Savoy, Düsseldorf, Germany Ken Annakin in70mm.com's Library Presented on the big screen in 7OMM Peripheral Vision, Scopes, Dimensions and Panoramas




• Go to Interview with Composer Ron Goodwin about „Where Eagles Dare“
Go: back - top - back issues - news index Updated 21-01-24