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The 'Burbs: (Jerry Goldsmith) If a person were to
rank the quality of director Joe Dante's satirical comedy films, the
pair of
Gremlins entries would likely top the list. At the other
end of the spectrum is
The 'Burbs. While the film struck the
right set of chords for a handful of critics, it was otherwise lambasted
for simply being "not funny" and the project fell into the pits of
obscurity quickly. Taking jabs at nearly every element of American
suburbia, the film follows the at-home vacation of Tom Hanks' character
and his reactions to the absurd neighborhood in which he lives.
Caricatures of the general types of people you find in real life, the
personalities and dwellings of the neighbors in
The 'Burbs are
themselves the punch-line. All sorts of eccentricities are on display,
as are the battles between neighbors, both real and imaginary. Dana
Olsen's screenplay is a puzzle that's not really meant to be understood
or solved, relying on the viewer's ability to underanalyze the film in
order to enjoy its pithy discourse. While reviews of the film pounded on
that script and the movie as a whole when it debuted in 1988, even
mainstream writers recognized that composer Jerry Goldsmith's score was
one of (if not the only) bright spot for the picture. Goldsmith and
Dante had already collaborated on five films at that point, beginning
with Dante's supervision of much of
Twilight Zone: The Movie and
including the immensely popular
Gremlins. While their projects in
between
Gremlins and
The 'Burbs had been of a more
serious, action-oriented kind, the comedy fire had already been started.
The 'Burbs kindled that fire into a roaring blaze, setting a
standard so high that even Goldsmith would have a difficult time
reprising it in his subsequent works for Dante (from
Gremlins 2 a
few years later through
Looney Tunes: Back in Action in 2003).
The success of Goldsmith's score resides in the fact that composer
didn't even try to approach the project with serious intent. The people
on screen are all ridiculous stereotypes, so instead of attempting to
straighten them out with dramatic musical representations, Goldsmith
went in the opposite direction; he made them even more ridiculous. Every
single moment in his score for
The 'Burbs is a satire of some
kind, even resorting to sensitivity during scenes that usually demand
suspense.
Before proceeding, though, it's important to mention
that
The 'Burbs was created at the very height of Goldsmith's
experimentation with electronics and sound effects in his music, and
while some fans of the composer might argue in favor of
Gremlins
2, Goldsmith never achieved the same hopelessly optimistic wackiness
from
The 'Burbs again. If you don't enjoy the sounds of shooting
guns, barking dogs, and shattering glass in your music, then stop
reading now. If you don't want to hear a parody of classic Goldsmith
themes of eras past, including the echoing brass motif from
Patton, then stop reading now. If you can't handle a score that
jumps from gothic organs to Western rhythms in an instant without
warning, then definitely stop reading now. Goldsmith's choice to score
each character on the street with not only a different theme, but an
identity embodied by an entirely different genre altogether is the key
to success in
The 'Burbs. Apart from the film, the music is very
badly schizophrenic, a basic requirement of the story. Even Goldsmith's
usual sounds of the era, thematic constructs that he would develop
throughout the early 1990's, are exaggerated to parody levels. The theme
for the neighborhood overall would on paper be appropriate for half a
dozen light dramas that Goldsmith would later pen, but with his
ridiculous instrumentation, yipping dog sounds, and overly-enthusiastic
performance of a dynamic ensemble, he twists it into the realm of the
bizarre. A seductive female voice and exotic jungle-like drums over pipe
organ in "A Nightmare in the 'Burbs," among a few other cues (the track
titles in this review refer to the 1988 release that features Robert
Townson's cue titles rather than Goldsmith's), is unlike anything the
composer would write elsewhere. Wild viola work in that cue resembles
Danny Elfman's more spirited ideas. A string motif in the previous cue,
"Neighborhood Watch," combines a waltz-like rhythm that is interrupted
on beat by the squeaking of a baby toy (a pull-duck, maybe?). The end
title exhibits the various genres and their lovable themes in snapshot
succession, leaving your head spinning in the fantasy world that Dante
intended to create in our own back yards. Only one serious cue exists in
the film, and Goldsmith provides "Storytelling" with a caring string and
woodwind piece while a grisly ghost story is being told on screen, a
smartly counterintuitive move that serves to only increase the
suspicions of the viewer.
Most film music critics, while praising
The
'Burbs as an above-average effort, have historically sold this score
short. Perhaps this is because the work is simply too silly to
withstand, or maybe such opinions are influenced by the music's scarcity
on album. But
The 'Burbs represents the pinnacle of Goldsmith's
comedy talents, and as such it belongs among the top ten classics in the
composer's lengthy career. If this score doesn't bring a smirk to your
face, then you should immediately seek either happy pills or the happy
plant. The joy that Goldsmith must have had in conjuring up this work is
self-evident, and on album it is the exact opposite of the intense labor
that you hear out of something like
Basic Instinct. The album
originally existed only as the 10th entry in Varèse Sarabande's
first club series, and it was long considered among the three most
valuable of that group. Bootlegged forms of
The 'Burbs began
floating around the secondary market in the early 2000's, but with
minimal extra material (consisting mostly of short snippets of themes
performed in full on the club album) and very substandard sound quality.
Varèse revisited the score again in 2007, including it as part of
its second generation of club titles and expanding its running time
considerably. The "Deluxe Edition" is populated mostly with short,
redundant performances of ideas featured on the concise 1988 album,
though longer cues like "Devil Worship" and "The Wig" are outstanding
additions. The sound quality on both limited club titles is superb, with
the soundscape sculptured so carefully in the mixing process that
various elements within the sound effects and orchestral ensemble bounce
with skill between the left and right sides. The entire grouping of
sound effects that opens the "New Neighbors" cue enters the scene in
only the right channel and slowly progresses back to center as the
strings build up to one of the expansive electric guitar, bass string,
and pipe organ motifs. Additionally,
The 'Burbs is a friendly
score to fans of bass-heavy orchestral music. On either of the sold-out
Varèse albums, the cues are presented in film order and the score
therefore does switch genres and themes seemingly at will. Such is the
way of a Dante film, though, so be aware and be prepared. What you might
be unable to prepare yourself for is the price tag of an original copy
of
The 'Burbs, even though it really is worth the search. If
you're simply trying to convince your roommates that film music is cool,
however, it may not be the right choice. Playing portions of it over a
building-wide intercom will not only get you punished, but would likely
punch your ticket to an asylum... a sign of a perfect satirical score.
***** Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
| Bias Check: | For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.26 (in 113 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.32
(in 133,461 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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