Mariana Whitmer wrote a film score guide for The Big Country which we discussed. There are 19 film score guides in this series, and The Magnificent Seven will be the last one published in this series.
Below are some of the interesting observations that I found in her current book. These are just highlights from the book. You’d have to read it for more in-depth information. It is for sale at Amazon. Sometimes local libraries will bring in this book for a charge of a dollar or two.
1. Elmer asked for the opportunity to score The Big Country. Obviously, he didn’t get that movie, but he was inspired by Moross’ “larger-than-life symphonic score.” I love Bernstein, but I’m glad we have Moross’ superb score. 2. He was extremely inspired by Copeland, but he never directly studied under Copeland. He called Copeland his biggest influence. 3. His very early scores like Saturday’s Hero, Boots Malone, and Sudden Fear are discussed. 4. He was definitely inspired by American Folk music. 5. While he used big orchestras at times, he was one of the first composers to use solo or singular instrument. (A singular piano or a few woodwinds redefined the musical palette for film scores.) 6. Before The Mag 7, he scored 4 westerns which the book analyzes. Battles of Chief Pontiac, Drango, The Tin Star, and Saddle the Wind are discussed in this book. He started composing music for wide open spaces in these westerns. 7. Before scoring Mag7, “he used a television series to fine-tune his compositional style.” That TV series was Riverboat. You can really hear his Americana “compositional style” that was fully explored in Mag7 in Riverboat. Just note those syncopated rhythms in Riverboat that became his signature style in Mag7, Sons of Katie Elder, The Commancheros, and other westerns. (I can also hear that style in some of his comedies like Stripes.)
8. The book compares Mag7 to Seven Samurai. “Seven Samurai, a film that was inspired by the Westerns of John Ford, whom Kurosawa felt was the ‘world’s greatest living director,’ proved to be exceptionally popular and critically successful.” (Rashomon became Ritt’s The Outrage and Yomimbo became Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars.) The book compares and contrasts Mag7 with Seven Samurai. 9. Yul Brynner and Anthony Quinn were first approached to do the movie. Brynner was going to direct the movie, but that didn’t happen. Yul took the lead, and Glenn Ford was supposed to be the other lead. Obviously, Ford didn’t do this movie. Steve McQueen wanted to be in it so he staged a car accident to get out of filming more episodes of Wanted: Dead or Alive. 10. The movie was filmed in Mexico which presented its own set of problems especially with Mexican censors. 11. The book briefly describes the director’s (John Sturges) previous westerns and their scores. He used Tiomkin in several westerns. 12. Sturges seemed to love Bernstein’s score, and Bernstein went on to score 5 more Sturges’ movies: By Loved Possessed, A Girl Named Tamiko, The Great Escape, The Hallelujah Trial, and McQ.
Some people don’t like to read lengthy passages, so I’ll add Part 2 in the next post.
Joan, so glad to see this up; I hope it turns out as great as the Moross thread; one of the best ever.
Just to throw a few things out there: Goldsmith said (paraphrasing) that this was the best western score ever written; I'm not really sure I can go that far; I'm not sure there is a "best" of anything. The Big Country comes to mind when talking about best western scores, but The Magnificent Seven is certainly in the top two or three. And it may be the greatest, who knows? And Copland did influence Elmer greatly--but--you can always hear Elmer in there; his voice is very distinctive. A friend once tested me on this, saying that Elmer was ripping Copland off. He played some selections from both composers and asked me to identify them. I got all of them. And I believe in an interview with Elmer, he said he made the score very kinetic because so much of the film was spent in the village. He had to get some juice in it somehow. As for the film, I think it is superb. It is one of my favorites. I think it is better than the original (but not by much). And I think I feel that way because of the language. Because it is in English, it connects immediately with me. And the dialogue it some of the best ever written. It is always sharp and witty. Vin's stories are wonderful. Again paraphrasing: "I knew a fella that jumped off a ten story building; on each floor they could hear him saying, 'So far, so good.'"
mgh, thanks for your always great contributions. I too always thought that even if Elmer was influenced by Copeland, he still had his separate distinctive voice or style. You can hear it emerging in Riverboat and fully realized in The Magnificent Seven. (And yet he could compose such lovely and rather delicate scores like To Kill A Mockingbird and Far From Heaven.)
I also liked the dialogue in the movie, and I struggle with critics only wanting a "shoot em up" western. Introspection or non action scenes seemed like a disease to certain critics. (They probably would have hated the social commentary in Dances With Wolves.)
I remember seeing Jerry Goldsmith on TCM when it honored Bernstein, and he did call Mag7 the best western score. Of course, "best" is relative.
1. I was surprised to read that the movie did not do well domestically but was very profitable overseas. Most reviewers reflected, “the current dislike of the new adult western, which was perceived to be too introspective and philosophical, while lacking in action.” “Contemplative, introspective” westerns were too slow. Critics wanted “classic shoot em up westerns.”(Idiots!) However, when the movie started to play on television, it did become popular in America. 2. Critics did seem to love the music. 3. There is some discussion on the political aspects of this movie. It seemed a little exaggerated in my opinion. Basically, good men go into a poor country to help the Mexican farmers. It was suggested by various people that this movie foreshadows the threat of Communism and the U.S. intervention into South Viet Nam. “..as if the gunfighters’ historically grew up to be Green Berets.” There were various opinions about the political impact of the movie. It also discusses the music and “cowboys” as a marketing tool for Marlboro cigarettes. 4. The score and all of its themes are dissected in detail. Those details take a musical background to really understand. I did learn that there were more themes than I had recognized. Of course, we have the main magnificent theme, love theme and the villain, Calvera, theme. There is also a “Lee” theme, a Bernardo and the young boys’ theme, etc. “Together, the Seven are musically represented as heroes through the main theme, yet Bernstein additionally characterizes their individual personalities with distinctive music.” There are about 50 pages in this book devoted to this in depth analysis. The term “syncopated rhythm” is probably the most used term in describing Bernstein’s style. (John Williams “may” have played the piano in the original recording.) 5. “This score established Bernstein’s preferred method of scoring westerns.” He used this method in all John Wayne movies except for The Shootist. 6. There is some discussion about the use of this music in the sequels and in the TV show The Magnificent Seven. 7. The book ends with a little discussion about the new remake of The Magnificent Seven scored by James Horner and completed by Franglen. The final cue in the remake is called “Seven Riders.” “It was conceived with a syncopated rhythmic ostinato that echoes the original and effectively transition to Bernstein’s main title theme which is heard during the end credits.” I certainly heard a lot of Bernstein’s syncopated rhythms in Horner’s score. In that cue, you can hear Bernstein’s original rhythms in the background. At 1:47 those rhythms really emerge. I think it is a great homage to Bernstein’s original score.
She ends her book with this statement. “Bernstein’s score, however, endures as the leading example of music that aurally identifies the mythical world of the Western, where heroism and the triumph over adversity are represented as the finest of American Values.”
It is probably my favorite film score, and I’m glad I got the book and will read it again in the future. I’m not sure why, but I think I enjoyed the book on The Big Country a bit more, but found both invaluable.
Yes, I think we underestimate Copland's influence in 'defining' the Western sound.
If you look at the big palette of 19th Century music that the West actually HEARD, it's really a mass of disparate elements with no discernible unifying link, Mexican, Native American, popular march tunes, cowboy ballads, European folksongs, Irish jigs, Cajun tunes, Romantic piano pieces, Southern chamber music, hymns, opera, Black Spirituals ... there was no 'style' until the likes of Copland invented it, and made it wonderful, just as, in many ways there was no one style of living. If you watch, say, a Ken Burns docu on the West, or the Civil War etc., you just can't imagine Copland behind any of those authentic images, it's just our retrospective aesthetic.
Elmer's style, and that of Goldsmith, was more diverse in terms of the styles he'd use, guitars here, woodwinds there, full orchestra elsewhere. Moross (whose Big Country is still my fave Western score) relied more on big ensembles, and a consistent feel throughout, as did Previn.
His use of smaller groupings and solo was facilitated by the stereo age. You can't really do that in mono scores, where solo instruments sound thin under dialogue, though Herrmann did it by eschewing the conveyor-belt studio routine for sound.
“Contemplative, introspective” westerns were too slow. Critics wanted “classic shoot em up westerns.”(Idiots!).
The wheel turns. I dunno what you thought of the recent remake with Denzel & Co., but I thought it awful, shoot-em-up nonsense. It'll not affect the legacy!
There is some discussion on the political aspects of this movie. It seemed a little exaggerated in my opinion. Basically, good men go into a poor country to help the Mexican farmers. It was suggested by various people that this movie foreshadows the threat of Communism and the U.S. intervention into South Viet Nam. “..as if the gunfighters’ historically grew up to be Green Berets.” There were various opinions about the political impact of the movie. It also discusses the music and “cowboys” as a marketing tool for Marlboro cigarettes.
The main political thrust is from the Kurosawa, where he's part of a generation of Japanese who were sent on a hideous, unnecessary war, and whose veterans came back to a world they didn't fit in, like the Seven Samurai. Mind you, I got attacked for just mentioning this aspect on a thread, so watch out!
“Contemplative, introspective” westerns were too slow. Critics wanted “classic shoot em up westerns.”(Idiots!).
The wheel turns. I dunno what you thought of the recent remake with Denzel & Co., but I thought it awful, shoot-em-up nonsense. It'll not affect the legacy!
Go on, Joan - The McCrum Kid just drew first on you...
Joan, excellent second part, thanks again for doing this. Is there any mention in the book about the theme's use in The Marlboro Man commercials? This was just a defining musical moment in my childhood, and it was many years before I understood that it came from The Magnificent Seven vs. the other way around. But seems mostly forgotten.
Actually makes me wonder if the familiarity of the music had any effect in the growing popularity of the film.... (I don't really think that, but growing up in the 60's that theme seemed everywhere on TV.)
Very funny, TG. He did draw first. We had a thread on the remake. Most of the people chiming in seemed to like the movie and a few didn’t. Below is what I wrote about my first viewing of the remake.
"Some of the critics gave good reviews to this movie and some gave it average reviews. I found that when critics gave an average review to the movie, they were usually comparing it to the original Mag 7 western and didn’t see the point of a remake.
When I saw the movie tonight, I kind of approached it in the same manner; I kept harkening back to the original movie for comparison until about the first action sequence, which I thought was great. Then I decided to view this movie as its OWN ENTITY that was very loosely based upon The Seven Samurai and the original Magnificent Seven. From that point on, I felt I was watching a very GOOD western, and I enjoy a good western.
I actually wished it had been a bit longer so that more characterization could be developed for certain members of the seven, and I wished for more emotional bonding between the characters. Also, I don’t think enough motive was provided for Red Harvest joining the group. Those are my only complaints.
On the other hand I thought Denzel, Pratt and Hawkes were very good in their roles. The settings, cinematography, and action sequences were excellent! I didn’t want to miss a minute of the movie.
I’m going to see it again so that I can concentrate a bit more on the music, which overall, seemed to work. Yep, I did hear lots of Hornerisms. I loved the fact that he used Bernstein’s signature rhythms behind his main theme, but I really couldn’t hear some of his more emotional themes very well due to a lot of very loud gun and rifle noises.
I was very engaged in to this western, and I think it stood well upon its own merits."
Now back to the book. Sean asked about the Marlboro theme. The book discusses this theme. She states that music was always used in advertisements; however, Marlboro was the FIRST product to use a theme from a movie, and that theme was from The Magnificent Seven. They sort of pushed the idea that it was “manly” to smoke and manliness in America was personified by the American Cowboy and the Americana music from Bernstein.
Is there any mention in the book about the theme's use in The Marlboro Man commercials? This was just a defining musical moment in my childhood, and it was many years before I understood that it came from The Magnificent Seven vs. the other way around. But seems mostly forgotten.
Actually makes me wonder if the familiarity of the music had any effect in the growing popularity of the film.... (I don't really think that, but growing up in the 60's that theme seemed everywhere on TV.)
From what I've heard, Marlboro had 1% of the cigarette market while they were running ads like this:
Within one year of starting up this campaign, they were the fourth largest brand in the country.
And within four years of starting the "western lifestyle" campaign, Marlboro was the number one cigarette brand in the U.S., a position that it still holds today, with 41% of the market.
Of course, all of this cannot be attributed to the use of Bernstein's music. But it's a big part of the total "lifestyle" package that Marlboro is selling.
I disliked the remake (because it really was a remake) because it was utterly fake and exploitative.
It began with a terribly contrived 'update to make it relevant' scenario with a cruel capitalist trying to shut down a community and church for environmentalist impact. But just something that was neither feasible nor thought out. In fact it was:
Then we had two hours of shoot-em-up vicarious bull, with characters not developed, including a mad mountain-man who was to provide comedy empathy, but didn't.
Joan and Bob, thanks for all the extra info on The Marlboro Man connection - fascinating to me (turns out I have a thing for mid-century advertising).
The use of it made me dismiss the score for far too long (personal associations best left for a psychoanalysis thread ). Even now I tend to go to other scores - The Scalphunters, The Shootist, or other John Wayne scores - when I want a hit of Bernstein Goes West. Probably an ongoing bias, because there is no question this is the magnum opus of his Western scores.
Sean, you are welcome and thanks to Bob too for his valuable insights. I do think The Magnificent Seven is his magnum opus for westerns. I think the score is much more than just the familiar main theme. It contains many more themes than just the main one. My other favorite and similar score by Bernstein is The Comancheros.
Here is more information from the book. As I said, McQueen really wanted to be in this movie. “James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, and Charles Bronson were all relatively unknown at the time, yet they also benefitted from the visibility this film offered.” Horst Buchholz as Chico made his American debut as Chico and “enjoyed a prolific acting career.” I wish the book had told more stories about how they all got along during the filming. Guess I wanted more gossip.
Your post made me curious, Joan, so I looked on Amazon and found The Making of The Magnificent Seven by Brian Hannen. Reviews are pretty mixed, but anyway, in case you're not aware.
). Even now I tend to go to other scores - The Scalphunters, The Shootist, or other John Wayne scores - when I want a hit of Bernstein Goes West. Probably an ongoing bias, because there is no question this is the magnum opus of his Western scores. 