..well the 80's to be precise. Saturday morning TV was full of cartoons. Some havn't aged well others have. Sabre Rider was a adaption of a Japanese OAV series. They changed all the dialogue, added extra scenes and scrapped other elements and we had Sabre Rider And The Star Sheriffs, another addition to the line ( Bravestarr and Galaxy Rangers beat it) of space cowboy/western cartoons. I vaguely remember this. Never to watch it as a kid more just the image of it popped up somewhere. What prompted this post was the discovery of the first DVD ina local second hand shop for the grand price of 100 pence, a bargain you will agree. Well about a year ago I came across the original soundtrack to it by the very talented Dale Schacker and couldn't believe it.
You see, Dale was given compelte freedom of artistic license to do whatever the hell he wanted with the score. He created a huge, sprawling work. Synth and pop elements are present as is a lot of "real" electric guitar. The music itself has the recurring country/western feel as well as a hugely dramatic nature that stands out amongst many other similar animations. Here we have the full OST. Including all the different world versions of the main theme and the many variations and edits/remix's of some tracks. It concludes with a interesting at times boring at others interview with Mr Schacker. I can't get enough of this at the moment.
Following on from my recent charity shop, VHS buy of the 1989 movie adaptation of The Punisher it got me thinking about how much better this version is. I used to rent this from the video shop all the time when I was a kid nearly every weekend. It was The Punisher and The Goonies in rotation. Now, this is a controversial topic almost. A lot of people would argue the toss over this one with me. But I stand firm in my beliefs that the 1989 version with Dolph Lundgren and Louis Gossett Jr ( my second favourite black man) is far better. The 2004 version starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta(?) lacked the gritty violence of both the comics and the 89 version. Fair enough, his costume was more faithfull to the original and it referenced the comics a lot more, but the addition of the three neighbours spoiled it somewhat for me. The Punisher was far to human or at least showed his emotions far to much. Something that Frank Castle always had under control. Now the 1989 version didn't have the costume, but Dolph Lundgren's face is lit to look like the skull. His stubble and the two black eyes are the skull. Plus he had no reservation about using guns and violence, something that they toned down so much in 2004. Dolph blows people away left, right and center. Point blank range with shotguns, impaling them with harpoon guns. Its all in there. He looks like he lives in the sewer, he lacks all the fancy gadgets they introduced in 2004. 1989 Trailer.....
2004 Trailer....
Thomas Jane does a decent enough job of embodying Frank Castle but the addition of John Travolta ruined it for me. The dropping of the mafia ( despite the Saints being some kind of crime family) and the bright weather took away any atmosphere the film created. Now the Dolph version of Frank is so much better. He hardly talks, he has a very dry wit that is sparringly used and he has tons of guns..exactly what the Punisher is meant to have. The supporting cast are decent enough, the gangsters are nasty enough and Dolph's Castle is a lot more believable than Jane's. I rest my case. Well thats it really, just a little rant after I watched both last night. What a pointless post eh? Fook.
