Lost Issue: Ancient, Dead Reviews -- Mark of Zorro, etc.
Here's an installment of reviews of older albums. For various reasons
most or all of these never ran in FSM or even here on FSD.
Many famed FSM writers, including Jeff Bond, poured a lot of time and effort
in to these critiques, only to see them languish on a hard drive for years
and years. But now, thanks to modern technology and enormous patience,
here they are, rescued and restored for all to enjoy. And if it's any incentive
to read on, most of them are short and painless, like our pocket reviews.
By the way, we're not sure who wrote all of these -- if you happen
to see an old review that you wrote and it's now credited to FSM,
don't be angry. If you want, write us and we'll credit you on Film Score
Friday.
The Mark of Zorro -- Swordsmen of the Silver Screen ***
VARIOUS
Silva Screen SSD 3010
13 tracks - 54:08
Everything old continues to be new again at Silva Screen, although their
latest two releases (see below) both manage to dish up a little something
extra with the usual leftovers. This celebration of movie swordsmanship
features the chipper Alfred Newman/Hugo Friedhofer overture to The Mark
of Zorro, Korngold's Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, and
Horner's heroic theme for Warwick Davis in Willow. Mario Nascimbene's
prelude from The Swordsman of Siena is disappointingly traditional,
light years from the strange sounds of some of his other sword-and-sandal
epics. Most interesting is Howard Blake's chilly series of waltz themes
for Ridley Scott's first film, The Duellists, music that seems appropriate
to the album's subject matter but wildly out of synch to the caffeine-happy
mood created by most of the other cues. Geoffrey Burgon's intelligent,
dark and busy score to the British Robin Hood film starring Patrick Bergin
was unfortunately eclipsed by the moronic Kevin Kostner version, although
Michael Kamen's warm title theme isn't bad. Also included are the umpteenth
encore appearances of John Barry's Robin and Marian suite and two
cues from Korngold's The Adventures of Robin Hood. -- Jeff Bond
The Crimson Pirate - Swashbucklers of the Silver Screen ***
VARIOUS
Silva Screen SSD 3009
10 tracks - 49:36
Silva's study of men who drink too much coffee continues with swashes
being buckled all over the place: there's Korngold's thrilling Captain
Blood (criminally left off of most Korngold collections released in
recent years), John Williams' main themes from Hook, Herrmann's
sprightly The 7th Voyage of Sinbad main title, Elmer Bernstein's
enjoyably corny The Buccaneer, Korngold's The Sea Hawk and
John Debney's curiously unmemorable Cutthroat Island. The best performance
comes not from Silva standard conductor Paul Batemen, but from William
Alwyn's take on Rosza's wonderful The Seven Voyage of Sinbad, from
Silva's The Epic Film Music of Miklos Rosza. The reason people will probably
buy this album is for John Du Prez's full-blooded, ultra-serious mock pirate
score "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" from Monty Python's The Meaning
of Life, and the performance here seems to recapture that works rich
brio and over-the-top melodrama pretty well. Another added bonus is Max
Steiner's lush The Adventures of Don Juan. --FSM
City of Angels ****
GABRIEL YARED/VARIOUS
Warner Sunset/Reprise 9362-46867-2
14 tracks - 72:15
Hot on the heels of Titanic, this #1-selling soundtrack album
is an engaging and powerful musical accompaniment to Brad Silberling's
otherwise flawed City of Angels, in which LA-based angel Nicolas
Cage falls in love with surgeon Meg Ryan and sacrafices his immortality
for her with tragic consequences. The musical theme is immediately set
with U2's "If God Will Send His Angels," a hit single for the band last
year and probably one of the album's biggest draws. In fact, with the lineup
of various artists presented here it's hardly surprising that Warner Sunset
have a hit on their hands -- Alanis Morrissette's end title contribution
"Uninvited" is her first new material since "Jagged Little Pill" and is
every bit as raw and intense, with the singer battling a full string orchestra
as well as her backing band. Peter Gabriel also provides new material with
the brooding, 8-minute "I Grieve," although as is usually the case this
song-score is only ever "heard" in snippets throughout the film -- only
Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" in its desperate sadness has any kind of role
to play in the narrative.
The real heart of this film has to be found in Gabriel Yared's expansive,
uplifting score, and I'm sure that more than a few Alanis fans will find
themselves converted to film music as a result. There are some absolutely
gorgeous sounds in the 20-minute collection presented here, which is a
good representation of Yared's thematic vision for the film. "An Angel
Falls" introduces the simple but harmonically effective main theme for
string orchestra, but at its climax cuts out and gives way to a delicate
choral requiem passage which underscores one of the film's loveliest ideas
-- that the angels gather by the ocean to hear music in the sunset. This
and other aspects of the score have a distinctly French flavor, with the
choral harmony remembering Durufle's Requiem; only "The Unfeeling Kiss"
with it's double acoustic guitar solo and electric bass comes across as
typically "film music" and only slightly tacky in style (but I blame the
film!). Worth the purchase price alone is the City of Angels suite,
which restates the major established themes in full orchestration and then
leads into a climactic three minutes which is some of the most emotionally
charged music I have ever heard. The soaring melody and choir, the stunning
chords and the absolutely huge crescendo are almost too much too bear,
as if you cannot believe that what you are already hearing can go any further.
It's almost Wagnerian.
The images which accompany Yared's score are undeserving and tend to
underwhelm it. But this album, as a whole, stands alone as a diverse and
appropriately heavenly experience. -- James Torniainen
The Trip to Bountiful ***
J.A.C. REDFORD
Plough Down Sillion Music
10 tracks - 22:02
Composer J.A.C. Redford used to expertly tweak the emotional peaks and
valleys of the great pre-E.R. medical drama St. Elsewhere.
While this score to the 1985 Horton Foote drama opens with a traditional
folk song ("Softly and Tenderly," sung by Cynthia Clawson) and continues
with a brash, New Orleans-style ragtime cue ("Mother Watts' Escape"), Redford's
approach elsewhere isn't too dissimilar from the style he developed on
the television series: emotionally direct music mainly essayed by strings
and piano, with a rhythm section thrown in at one point. Regional effects
from fiddle, harmonica, accordion and steel guitar make their presence
felt throughout the score, reinforcing the down-home feeling of the film's
southern locale. This is a brief album, produced and distributed by the
composer, but it's a pleasant listen and an excellent companion-piece to
the highly-praised film. -- FSM
The Rainmaker ****
ALEX NORTH
RCA Victor 74321489432
11 tracks - 35:24
Although Alex North has perhaps received more attention as a composer
of wide-screen spectaculars like Cleopatra, Spartacus and the rejected
2001 score, his mastery of intimate drama, derived from his early
experience with stage work, has rarely been equaled. Recent releases like
Varèse's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and the Nonesuch
North album featuring The Bad Seed show off North's talent to great
effect, and while this RCA reissue doesn't feature the superb sound quality
of the rerecordings, it too reveals North's genius for underscoring the
interplay between well-drawn dramatic characters. The Rainmaker is
Burt Lancaster, as a blustery con man who summons feeling out of spinsterish
Katherine Hepburn by the sheer force of his personality. North captures
Lancaster's puckish energy with a chipper pizzicato lyricism, while jazzy
soliloquies remind us of the sleazy side of the character. North relies
on folksy, bright melodies to capture the story's rural setting, but his
characteristic, deeply woven high pitched string lines are as sophisticated
and delicate as anything in his better-known and more astringent dramatic
scores like Virginia Woolf. -- FSM
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