Quoted from dannunz:Are all the alians movies good?
One of the little known controversies around the original 1979 movie at the time was the unauthorized use of a portion of the first movement of American Composer Howard Hanson's 1930 Symphony No. 2, called the "Romantic" for the closing credits. When I first saw the movie in 1979, I instantly recognized it as his music score and thought it fit the ending of the movie perfectly as it is one of my favorite American compositions. The version used in the movie comes from the superlative 1967 British National Philharmonic Orchestra recording conducted by Charles Gerhardt. As I understand it, a last minute decision was made by Ridley Scott to not use Jerry Goldsmith's original score but to change it to the "Romantic" but without the permission of the composer, Howard Hanson, who was still living at the time. From what I have read, Mr. Hanson was very upset when he learned they had used his composition, but he decided not to pursue any legal redress, perhaps because he was 80 years old at the time. The ending credits do give credit to the score as the "Romantic." I am glad they made the change to the "Romantic" but it is a little sad they did not get the Composer's approval to do so.
Litchfield Park, AZ
