Good topic! I like most western scores, but I *love* the dark, gritty western scores (including most spaghetti westerns). I tend to get tired of the happy-go-lucky bouncy Americana ones inspired by Aaron Copland ballets like Billy the Kid. So unfortunately that rules out 90% of my beloved Elmer Bernstein's western output in making my "love" list.
Let me first recommend Jerry Goldsmith! Wild Rovers and Stagecoach are more in the "bouncy Americana" vein; here are the ones you should prioritize: 1. Hour of the Gun (VERY gritty and bleak for the most part -- I am confident you'll love it -- recently got an awesomely performed and great-sounding complete Tadlow re-recording on Prometheus) 2. 100 Rifles (maybe his best and grittiest; I hope it gets a better sounding reissue soon) 3. Take A Hard Ride (lots of Morricone influence but darker, OOP and expensive so ditto the above) 4. Rio Conchos (both the original recording remastered by Kritzerland and the Intrada re-recording with the LSO are awesome) 5. Lonely Are the Brave (gritty at times, more melancholy at others, but definitely not bouncy!) 6. Rio Lobo (perhaps more melancholy at times, but excellent and exciting enough to include on this list) 7. Bandolero! (very gritty at times, despite the cheerful whistled main title...which shouldn't cause a problem for a spaghetti western fan) 8. Breakheart Pass (great theme, very gritty underscore) 9. Bad Girls (this one's half and half -- more typical Americana passages are mixed in with some awesome gritty action like "Ambushed")
In addition to these I'd *highly* recommend Goldsmith's Breakout and High Velocity (and to a slightly lesser extent Caboblanco), which are not westerns strictly-speaking, but are very gritty and Hispanic in flavor so if you like 100 Rifles you'll like them. I also like The Ballad of Cable Hogue, One Little Indian, and The Red Pony but they aren't really gritty...you can sample the latter through a lovely suite included at the end of the complete Hour of the Gun re-recording. I hope Goldsmith's first two western film scores, Black Patch and Face of a Fugitive, get released as a re-recording because they have some excellent gritty passages!
Then there's Jerry Fielding. I'd start with Lawman personally (though The Wild Bunch is more famous and FSM did an amazing edition of it as their final release). It's sadly OOP on CD but since it's an MGM film a download can be had for cheap.
Bruce Broughton -- Silverado is a lot of bouncy Americana, Tombstone is DARK AND AWESOME (I also recommend Shadow Conspiracy which he wrote for the same director in a similar vein, though it's not a western).
Alfred Newman -- How the West Was Won is an AWESOME dark western theme, but the score as a whole doesn't have that feeling, so if you want consistently dark, I'd go for the excellent FSM album of The Bravados (co-composed with Hugo Friedhofer, though strangely credited to Lionel Newman) to try first:
Speaking of Hugo Friedhofer, his solo score (except for one cue written by Newman) to Broken Arrow is excellent and pretty dark:
One score I must recommend even though much of it isn't in the dark/gritty vein: Basil Poledouris's Quigley Down Under, because it has the most awesome and unique DARK WESTERN ACTION theme ever:
Yeah, I'm not usually a huge Tiomkin fan but that one is excellent and Tadlow did an amazing sounding full re-recording of it for the Prometheus label. While it does get intense it didn't come to mind with "gritty" as much (it's got too many "heroic" sounding parts, plus "The Green Leaves of Summer"...) so that's probably why I left it off...
I second Tombstone - it's overall quite a dark score, with occasional flashes of Broughton's big-themed heart. Man I loved the tough music coming out of the opening narration when I saw it in the theater, when the gang approaches the wedding. Tough stuff, and very much in the same idiom as Beltrami.
When I wrote old, I guess I meant the original release, and not the LLL re-issue.
The Glenn Ford film means nothing to me (never seen it or heard the score).
1957 film: Both film and score are far superior to the laughably bad 2007 remake. Beltrami's score is enjoyable ... Duning's score is a masterpiece. There's no comparison in the visuals ... Crowe does a reasonable version of Ford's role ... but Bale is a complete waste of space (you can feel the emotions of Van Heflin ... with Bale you have to try not laugh) and the action hero ending makes this remake one of the worst I've been unfortunate to watch.
Then again, I recently watched the remake of True Grit ...
I definitely far prefer the True Grit remake to the original, both for having a much better Mattie and also...I'm really not a big John Wayne fan.
3:10 to Yuma I like both films a lot. I grew up with the original and the remake is very different and too Hollywood in a number of ways (way exaggerated big as explosions, over the top action) but it also had an undeniable artistry and power IMO. Beltrami's score was magnificent though not really what I expected. But for the topic of this thread as I previously noted, George Duning's wonderful score for the original doesn't really fit the "dark gritty" description...maybe "dark melancholy"
By the way, one thing I REALLY was wishing all the way through the 3:10 to Yuma remake was a small call-out to the original classic...specifically I wanted Russell Crowe to just whistle a few notes of George Duning's theme as if it were a tune he'd heard once. Would've been really cool and wouldn't have been out of place at all.
Come to think of it I usually dislike remakes but these two western remakes are IMO some of the best. They don't take anything away from their predecessors and they stand on their own merits.
Ditto on that, though much of the score is in less of a familiar 'Western-sounding' vein as compared with Yuma. But brilliant and powerful in the amazingly moving film. Which reminds me I need to see The Homesman...
Just listening to my Beltrami "3:10 to Yuma" CD, and noticing how strikingly similar it is overall to the Spaghetti Western style.
That dark, gritty, dramatic, brooding, suspense sound.... Lovely.
I've got a decent-sized collection of Spaghetti Western CDs, so not looking for suggestions there.
But I would like to know if there are any other Western scores with a similar sound outside of that Italian genre?
You probably include Two Mules For Sister Sara in your Italian Western category (I know I do, if only in an honorary way) but there's some fairly gritty stuff in there, from memory. Ditto High Plains Drifter and Hang 'em High.
Otherwise, definitely Fielding's Law Man and Chato's Land, the former bearing one of the best main titles ever.
Otherwise, definitely Fielding's Law Man and Chato's Land, the former bearing one of the best main titles ever.
THESE were the ones I was trying to think of! Lawman is a favorite, ever since I first saw it on TV 15 or more years ago. It's available digitally right now, and here's hoping it gets released again. (Chato's land is excellent, too, but Lawman is the tops.)
Totally agree, Fielding's western music is as gritty as you can get. Chato's Land and Lawman are my favorites, too. I'd love to see a proper release of Mr. Horn.
A very impressive entry in the western genre is Chris Lennertz's Gun, it has an overall dark tone to it, along with very strong themes and massive action cues. Unfortunately, it is only available as a promo.
Joe Kraemer's The Way of the Gun provides a darker, grittier spaghetti western sound for Christopher McQuarrie's neo-western. I love The Way of the Gun too. Another one that could be considered a neo-western is Daniel Pemberton's The Counselor, it reminds me in some way, of Kraemer's effort. Plenty of dark and brooding tracks, with lots of hispanic instrumentation (guitars, percussions) and a great main theme. But it may be dismissed as too "modern" sounding... But I couldn't resist to mention this one
For something a little different from the norm, but still dark and gritty (and excellent), I'd like to highly recommend Kasper Winding's percussive score to The Salvation -- underrated movie (seen by few in the U.S. I guess) and superb score. I've never heard of the composer before but I hope someone releases this score on CD (I think it's only available digitally).
Maybe Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman's Ravenous score? For some reason it comes to mind to recommend here, although it may be too out there...
It's like a trippy nightmare western in my mind. Might not be how others hear it. So unusual and full of creative madness, might not fit into the "western" genre enough to be a good recommendation but thought I'd throw it out there.
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