Monte Walsh CD Review
by Stephen Woolston
Brief foreword by LK: Here at FSM we have never reviewed
one of our own CD productions, at least not in the actual magazine. We
feel it's kind of lame and there's no way to be objective -- it's a conflict
of interest.
This is what I told Stephen Woolston when he submitted the following
Monte Walsh CD review to us. I tried to help him find another magazine
that would run it, but they declined for one reason or another (i.e. already
had a review of the title).
So, because I do appreciate what Stephen wrote and want to find
a home for it -- and I DO want to plug our CD, after all -- here is the
review on this website.
Conveniently, you can also buy
the CD through the website. And hear
sound clips. Hmm, maybe this conflict of interest thing isn't too bad...
(just kidding -- I do have great respect for this barrier between criticism
and hucksterism and we won't cross it in the print FSM)
-Lukas K.
Monte Walsh John Barry
Film Score Monthly Vol. 2 Number 4
Every major film composer has his golden years. John Barry is lucky
enough to have had at least three (the Goldfinger years, the Midnight
Cowboy years and the Frances years) and maybe four if you consider
his current crop a new high. And he's really only had one low -- the dreaded
Game of Death years. Whatever you may think of rest of Barry's work
it's those Midnight Cowboy years that start with Deadfall and
run through The Lion In Winter to Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
that find John Barry on the ultimate high. It was the period of seemingly
inexhaustible melody matched with a new mood of interior sensibility whilst
still finding the arrangements dynamic. Monte Walsh comes right
in the middle of this period. Perhaps it is the weakest score of those
most golden years, but even if that's true it says little to suggest that
Monte Walsh is inferior to such scores as Mary Queen of Scots
and Walkabout. The truth is that even it sits in the lower echelons
of what Barry produced in those years, that's still very high and Monte
Walsh stands well over many other Barry scores that have had deservedly
high reception.
What John Barry and lyricist Hal David bring to Monte Walsh is
an echo of the September-years memories in their Louis Armstrong song "We
Have All The Time In The World." Monte Walsh is a film that
contains the familiar Western icons of mustang stampedes, frivolous high
jinks and a high noon face-off, but it's principal priority is in dealing
with men of dignity who face the passing of their days. Some resign to
the inevitability of domesticity. Others are stripped of their dignity.
And Monte just hopes, but eventually even he must accept the inevitable.
Given that interior melancholia is the defining quality of Barry's music
in this period this then becomes the perfect John Barry and Hal David vehicle,
for although the Don Black collaboration may be the better known, it is
Hal David whose words were most in tune with what Barry was writing in
these years.
Both Barry's melody and David's lyric for The Good Times Are Comin'
remain very closely related to their song of OHMSS, though in the arrangement
there is also a very strong reference to the combination of melancholy
melody with bright rhythm, whose best example would be Barry's same-year
score for Anthony Harvey's They Might Be Giants. As is so typical
of Barry, this is not just a title song but also a love theme, for even
the hardened Monte needs the loving touch of Martine (Jeanne Moreau). Monte's
sadness starts first with the domestication and eventual violent death
of his best friend Chet, but turns to absolute tragedy when, just as he
is reaching the conclusion that he needs the permanent love of Martine,
she has been lost to fatal illness. It is in these moments, first as Monte
walks alone after the wedding of Chet, and then as he finally, speechlessly
holds Martine's hand, that the theme becomes most haunting, in a way that
cannot equally come across in a soundtrack album.
If these all seems rather doomladen, it is in the sweetest way. But
if melancholy melodies were one of Barry's many strengths in those years,
another was a certain zest for life in the music and in the inexhaustible
variations of arrangement. Barryist brass fanfares are to be heard, as
his propensity for driving timpani and chiming marimba and xylophones.
These come forward for the film's upbeat moments of comedy, action and
playful male bonding.
Where Barry's score turns in some offbeat highlights, however, are in
a wonderful array of authentically arranged saloon pieces and in the highly
tense and dramatic showdown sequence. The former cues are unique amongst
all of John Barry's music, for they are a rare complete departure from
a recognisable Barry arrangement and it is for this reason that they so
perfectly showcase the pure genius of Barry's melodies. In the latter case
it is the inevitable comparison to such Bond sequences as the notorious
Gumbold safe-cracking music in OHMSS that will cause particular attraction.
A score that might not quite reach the dizzying heights of a Midnight
Cowboy or a Walkabout then, if for no other reason that it followed
already unsurpassable examples of what Barry was trying to achieve in the
score. It is certainly a score that gives of the John Barry essence, however,
and one that stands so highly above so many other film scores.
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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