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| Barry |
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| Talgorn |
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Born Free: (John Barry) With all the glory of almost every possible
score-related award under his belt for his creation,
Born Free confirmed
that John Barry was headed in a mainstream direction that
wasn't
restricted to the snazzy 007 series. In 1964, Barry's fully orchestral score for
the safari tale of lion cubs gained him a collection Golden Globe and Academy
Awards for both the score and song. The film, though practically ruined by the
odd insertion of stock wildlife footage and inconsistent color in neighboring
scenes, was made famous by simply its music. Twenty years before Barry would
score
Out of Africa,
Born Free has more in common with
Zulu
than anything more recent. Even though the song was that which propelled the
music from
Born Free to so many awards, Barry's score --like those for
many Disney films-- is still of good quality.
Having just completed
Thunderball with the same set of collaborators, the
grand success of
Born Free's music was more of a mistake than the intent.
Arguments over the level of scope for the score, as well as the vocals that
would accompany Barry's theme for the song were still under debate when the
song, performed by Roger Williams, launched itself to the top spot on the
American music charts. So popular was Barry's theme that it was eventually
performed by over 600 artists around the globe and adopted as one African
nation's national anthem. With that success, Barry's score seems rather mellow
in comparison. While still retaining a theme of noble stature for the lions and
the landscape, Barry chose to avoid the grandiose string style that he would
eventually become even more famous for (against the wishes of the director). The
end result of
Born Free is a more playful endeavor. As usual, though,
Barry's more simplistic habits of composition cause the main theme to be
inserted in practically even place possible, with slight variations between
performances. Only in a few places does he unleash a mass of thematic romp with
all the players, though, as he did with
Zulu. The elephant stampede
track, and its use of brass to mimic the animals, is of special note.
Like many films at the time, a separate recording was made
specifically for the LP album release. Barry was never happy about the
performance of the music in the film (performances that included a
considerable number of errors by the players), but the album was of superior
quality. The recording was made in vibrant stereo, as many of Barry's scores
were, and with some remastering, the LP sounds just as dynamic today as a
modern recording. The fate of the original film recording is unknown (the
tapes may be lost forever), but the album masters survive, and in 2004, Film
Score Monthly released 40 minutes of the score from those album masters as
part of the label's Silver Age Classics series (but not a limited run production in this case). Interestingly, Barry had
recorded nearly an hour of music for the 95-minute film, so there is
material from the film that has never made it in original form onto an
album. The FSM album does have the Oscar-winning song performed vocally by
Matt Monro (the original version-- and while dated, especially with those
dainty flutes fluttering in the background, it's a good tune), and their
album package is strong as usual.
There does remain an alternate source of music for
Born
Free, however, from the year 2000. A re-recorded album that year was a
continuation of the collaboration between conductor Frederic Talgorn and the
Royal Scottish National Orchestra (following the "Hollywood '99" theme of
compilation a few months previously). The performances in this
interpretation are steady and enjoyable, though Talgorn is one step behind
conductor Nic Raine and the City of Prague Philharmonic is capturing the
essence of John Barry's works (the latter group re-recorded both
Zulu
and
Raise the Titanic at roughly the same time with great success).
The Varèse Sarabande label, under the guidance of executive producer
Robert Townson, has pressed re-recordings of other best-selling Barry works,
including
Body Heat,
Out of Africa, and
Somewhere in
Time. It's easy to understand why
Born Free was chosen as the
next installment, given the success of the song and score back in the
1960's. But many fans would likely rather have heard a re-recording of
another Academy Award winner for Barry in the 1960s,
The Lion in
Winter (something which the City of Prague Philharmonic did eventually
do). While the Varèse Sarabande album does not feature the song in
its pop form, it does have nearly the entire hour-long score represented.
Thus, if you're a true John Barry collector, then you'd be best served by
purchasing both the Varèse Sarabande and Film Score Monthly albums.
2000 Varèse Album: ***
2004 FSM Album: ***
Overall: ***
| Bias Check: | For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.87 (in 23 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.71
(in 20,820 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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