Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you desire a competent companion album for the film, reflecting the same schizophrenic balance between familiar Western stereotypes, contemporary tones, and wildly frenetic comedy that defines the story. Avoid it... if you seek the best incarnation of Marc Shaiman's catchy music for the franchise, in which case the 1994 sequel score's album is a better place to start. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
City Slickers: (Marc Shaiman) Occupying a place on many top 100 lists of the funniest films ever made, Billy Crystal's City Slickers was a monumental fiscal success and spawned an inferior sequel a few years later. The 1991 original is a midlife crisis story in which three New York City friends feeling their age sign up for a dude ranch cattle drive in New Mexico. Along their journey to Colorado, they overcome their initial city slicker limitations and deliver the livestock to the right destination despite the death of their old cowboy guide and several other mishaps. It's a redeeming tale of friendship and family with a priceless series of hilarious conversations and one-liners between the three leads early in the picture. Arguably stealing the show is veteran Western actor Jack Palance, whose resurgence in Hollywood at the time led to an unlikely Academy Award win for City Slickers. The 73-year-old became a pop culture icon upon accepting the Oscar with an arguably foul speech that included one-armed push-ups, references to sex and defecation, and an intimidating demeanor that recalled fond memories of his memorable role in Shane forty years earlier. It remains one of the most controversial and entertaining acceptance speeches in major awards history. Not yet achieving the same level of fame in the early 1990's was composer Marc Shaiman, though he had already been a regular collaborator with Bette Midler and Billy Crystal in the writing and production of song numbers. The always affable Shaiman was just a few years from five Oscar nominations later in the 1990's, and he continued to arrange the AMPAS shows' musical performances throughout the 2000's. His association with Crystal is what brought him the assignment on City Slickers, and he responded with a score every bit as vibrant as the comedy on screen. The film's plot presented Shaiman with a few obstacles, the most severe of which being the need for parody Western music opposite tender melodic material to accompany the main characters' growth. The composer has always been extremely talented at merging and adapting incongruous genres of music, and perhaps no better examples of this capability exist than the main titles sequences for City Slickers and its sequel. As effective as Shaiman was in achieving the right balance of Western flavor, wild orchestral comedy, and wholesome personality for City Slickers, however, the score remains a step or two behind its sibling in the franchise. The word schizophrenic has often been used to describe the flow of Shaiman's approach to City Slickers, and the story necessitated such an approach. The "Main Title" sequence is a haphazard, frantic collection of Western cliches in direct battle with Carl Stalling/Warner Brothers cartoon music, introducing many of the score's secondary Western motifs before making the first full statement of the primary theme of adventure near its conclusion. A sudden gunshot appropriately concludes this performance. Most of the Western motifs recur in short snippets throughout the score before occupying, along with the title theme, the majority of "Mitchy the Kid" at the finale of the picture. The main theme receives fully symphonic, dramatic treatment in "The River," the film's sole serious scene of perseverance. The Western influences in City Slickers do owe a fair amount to Elmer Bernstein and Ennio Morricone, though perhaps not as obviously as in the sequel score. The score's secondary theme is the basis for Shaiman's light rock song "Where Did My Heart Go?" at the end of the album and begins its transformation from contemporary melancholy tone for saxophone in "Career End" (emulating Dave Grusin's 1980's style quite well) to a pleasantly orchestral conclusion in "Birth of a Norman." The Stalling-like material returns in "Walking Funny," extending the train-like percussion sounds from the titles into a hyperactive blend of honky-tonk spirit and slightly hip blues. The latter becomes it own force in "Cowabunga," with Gospel vocals letting rip for obvious laughs. The most balanced cue in City Slickers is "Find Your Smile," which bridges the contemporary and Western genres with performances of both major themes and a few longing harmonica and acoustic guitar interludes for the romantic appeal of the Old West. On the whole, all of these cues have abundant personality and work effectively in context, but they yield a somewhat disjointed presentation on album. The ensemble size, performance enthusiasm, and recording mix of City Slickers is notably inferior to that of City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold, too, with the latter score featuring increasingly robust, fully orchestral passages and a more dynamic soundscape. The short, 37-minute album for the original City Slickers score includes, to its credit, the Jimmy Durante song "Young at Heart" in its midsection. For fans of this entertaining film, the album is an old friend with a title theme that's hard to shake, but for purely listening purposes, seek the sequel score's album first to get a taste of Shaiman's sense of humor and homage to familiar Western styles. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 36:59
All artwork and sound clips from City Slickers are Copyright © 1991, Varèse Sarabande. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/24/10, updated 6/24/10. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2010-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
