Settling Scores

Over the course of a remarkable 54-year career that encompassed radio, television, and (most memorably) the movies, composer Jerry Goldsmith displayed an uncanny intuition. Instead of underlining what was on the screen or submerging audiences under a wash of music, he devised melodic scores tinged with subtle layers of suspense. "I try for emotional penetration, not for complementing the action," he said once. Alas, Goldsmith, who died in 2004, is not a household name among casual moviegoers. He isn't linked forever to a beloved director, like Bernard Herrmann is to Alfred Hitchcock and Ennio Morricone is to Sergio Leone, nor is he identified with a single genre (his 17 Oscar nominations attest to the breadth of his talent). That said, tonight's unnerving double bill of Poltergeist and Outland at the 12-film "Legendary Composer: Jerry Goldsmith" series illustrates why savvy fantasy fans are such staunch Goldsmith admirers. His seriously artful scores for a slew of genre pictures were instrumental in erasing the aura of cheesy B-movie creepiness that had long surrounded sci-fi and horror films.

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Poltergeist starts at 7 p.m. and Outland starts at 9:10 p.m.
Sept. 28-Oct. 4, 2007