I like it especially too Loren. A rare western from Maestro Williams, I most appreciate the times of spare, humble, and jockular pieces. Not so much the love theme/romance music. Good job by Kritzerland too, with the re-recording for contrast. Treasure!
It's good when a score that you love gets a better treatment on disc than what it had before but it's perhaps even better when a new release of a score not dear to you makes you truly appreciate it for the first time. That's exactly what happened with me and "The Missouri Breaks" thanks to Kritzerland! Although I prefer the LP presentation on disc 2 (terrifically well remastered, BTW!) - after all, the original album was made with listenability in mind and JW always did that masterfully - this release has made me warm up to a score which I had played no more than a couple of times in its original LP incarnation. Maybe I needed a trigger and this CD was just that. Either way, thank you, Bruce Kimmel, for making me see what a solid, fun and at times really exciting score this is!...
The Missouri Breaks is arguably the worst film to feature a John Williams score ... at least up to that point in his 17 years as a film composer. Though it starred Oscar-winning actors Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson, it was a misfire from the start, with Brando going off the rails in terms of acting choices, and Nicholson looking unfit for a Western. John Williams took on the challenge of using music to keep the film on track, but Williams himself takes some eccentric choices. The primary derivation Williams took was using a very small ensemble for his score instead of an orchestra filled with dozens of musicians. The score is dominated by harmonica and guitar, with a love theme that desperately needed strings. The film has gained a cult following. Does the score deserve the same? Host Jeff Commings believes it’s on par with the other 1967 scores by Williams: decent but forgettable. Take a listen to the music and judge for yourself.
The Missouri Breaks is arguably the worst film to feature a John Williams score ... at least up to that point in his 17 years as a film composer. Though it starred Oscar-winning actors Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson, it was a misfire from the start, with Brando going off the rails in terms of acting choices, and Nicholson looking unfit for a Western. John Williams took on the challenge of using music to keep the film on track, but Williams himself takes some eccentric choices. The primary derivation Williams took was using a very small ensemble for his score instead of an orchestra filled with dozens of musicians. The score is dominated by harmonica and guitar, with a love theme that desperately needed strings. The film has gained a cult following. Does the score deserve the same? Host Jeff Commings believes it’s on par with the other 1967 scores by Williams: decent but forgettable. Take a listen to the music and judge for yourself.
That's a pretty incendiary review. "Decent but forgettable"? BS Also, MISSOURI BREAKS is far from the worst film ever scored by Williams. JOHN GOLDFARB, PLEASE COME HOME HEARTBEEPS DIAMOND HEAD EARTHQUAKE and several others, especially from his earliest films (DADDY-O, anyone?), are much worse.
This came in the post the other day, after nine years in the limbo that is my mind. What a GREAT release! I immediately put on CD2 - the album - because that's what I was familiar with from the LP, and I wanted to reacqaint myself with it. I hadn't heard it in probably forty years but "thought" that I remembered it well. As it happens, it turned out to have a lot more hoedown fiddlin' banjos and moothie on it than I had recalled. Still love it.
But the real revelation is CD1, the film tracks. It's all been said before, but I reiterate - it's a LOT different from the LP tracks. I like how "Bizarre Wake" (on the LP) turns out to have been eliminated from the actual film (although it's on the "new" CD) and yet forms the backbone of many other tracks. And there's a LOT of great JW experimentation in the film tracks, full of odd percussion effects and - I think - a wind machine (?)
I really loved the film too when I saw it years ago. Then I read that I shouldn't like it because it isn't any good.
BUY THIS CD TODAY! I WAS ALREADY NINE YEARS LATE OFF THE MARK!
Yes, this is another one of those scores wherein the LP we all grew up with is a very different beast to the actual score in the film. Gone is the polish and sheen he applied to the LP re-recording. Although both are still small ensemble and nothing like his other western opus' that had come before. I always loved the album track, titled Remembrances, which is a sad, soft guitar lament. I would listen to it on repeat, in my bedroom, back in my younger days.*
Here's the same but very different score version of it..
I can always hear his RAIDERS March hidden within the Love Theme. Not same/same, but the make-up of the themes are quite similar to me. James Horner was a BIG FAN of this soundtrack, using some of it in his 48HRS score.
*I remember my mum sending a mate who had called around up to my room and he walked in, picked up the LP sleeve and commented on how you could tell it was John Williams, cos he was showing off his guitar skills (this was a time when the ONLY John Williams normal people knew was the Sky guitarist).
