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The Ghost and the Darkness: (Jerry Goldsmith) The
concept was very promising; late in the 19th Century, the British,
French, and Germans were racing to build railroads across Africa to
facilitate the ivory trade. The British were faced with one last bridge
to build over the Tsavo River, requiring an engineering marvel and a
brigade of slaves. Unfortunately, while the river and infighting amongst
the salves (due to religious differences) provided enough of a daunting
challenge to sustain the film, the purpose for the existence of
The
Ghost and the Darkness is to tell the true story of the relentless
lion attacks on the camp that claimed over a hundred lives. Writer
William Goldman is often blamed for the extremely poor critical and
popular showing for
The Ghost and the Darkness, conjuring some of
the lamest lines of 1996 on the big screen and killing off all the best
characters, though equal blame needs to be assigned to shoddy special
effects (the lions themselves are ridiculously fake), uninspired acting
by the two leads, and dumb, first-person style direction. Once again,
one of the few people who took the production to heart was composer
Jerry Goldsmith, who was attracted to the exotic, cross-cultural aspect
of the story when he accepted the assignment. In the mid-1990's,
Goldsmith had become engaged primarily with smaller projects, films like
Angie,
Fierce Creatures, or
Dennis the Menace that
lacked the epic depth that his followers had become accustomed to during
earlier phases of his lengthy career. The days of unique and
personality-rich scores such as
The Russia House,
Basic
Instinct,
Medicine Man, and
Total Recall had seemed a
thing of the past, and his action scores of the following era had
included substandard titles like
Executive Decision and
Chain
Reaction. When 1996 rolled around and Goldsmith took the film score
community by storm with his impressive tandem of
Star Trek: First
Contact and
The Ghost and the Darkness, fans were
understandably pleased. The latter score is easily the superior of the
two, despite fans' sentimental attachment to the composer's
Star
Trek-related works.
Goldsmith stated at the time that the script and
location of
The Ghost and the Darkness was so enticing that it
energized him to produce an epic score, one of his most challenging and
memorable adventure works of the decade. To hear the same kind of
enthusiastic Goldsmith ethnicity from the African continent, you have to
go all the way back to 1975's
The Wind and the Lion. Since that
time, Goldsmith became the expert at the collaboration between
electronic sound effects and a strong orchestral presence. Not only is
this melding excellently handled in
The Ghost and the Darkness,
but Goldsmith undertakes the additional task of adding two entirely
different ethnic flavors into the mix. The film utilizes three prominent
themes and a number of secondary motifs, and the ethnicity often bleeds
from one theme into another. The title theme is a very workmanlike and
bold brass fanfare for the process of building the bridge, a theme that
exists throughout the score. Since the true-life lead character of the
film hails from Ireland, Goldsmith uses a continuously rambling rhythmic
motif suggesting that origin under the remaining orchestral and African
elements that perform the actual theme over that progression. This Irish
touch injects the score with its keen sense of work ethic, driving the
more dramatic scenes of a thousand extras with a reminder of the forces
that command them. Overshadowing the Western influence inherent in the
orchestra is the staggering African style, one which Goldsmith
introduces to us only this one time in his career. It includes native
Hindu and African chants by both adults and children in conjunction with
an extremely eclectic set of real percussion (not dominated by drum
pads, as
Medicine Man had been) that includes rattling and struck
elements along with an enriching variety of drums. While these vocals
and percussion are a powerful indicator of location, Goldsmith's brass
is always of equal intensity, maintaining the National Philharmonic of
London as the pace setter of the film's action. The commanding presence
of the brass section, mixed to heighten their ferocity in
The Ghost
and the Darkness, is especially successful during attack sequences
that can blow you out of your seat.
The lions actually receive two separate ideas, one for
their mystique (and that of the landscape) and one for their actual
killing sprees. The latter sequences are given a primordial, rising
brass figure first heard in "Lions Attack" and featuring overbearing
instrumentation that is very reminiscent of the Mongolian cues in
The
Shadow (but with vocals). The theme for the mystique of the land and
its animals is best heard at the start of "Lions Reign" and is,
especially in conjunction with the vocals, an extremely heroic statement
of defiance. That same cue continues with a suspense motif seemingly out
of
Under Fire. The final major theme, and the most readily
enjoyable one on album, is the one for the engineer's family. This idea
is heard only in the early "Catch a Train" and the lovely finale piece,
"Welcome to Tsavo." Goldsmith incorporates the Irish rhythmic motif
under this theme to remind us of the cultural connection. On the whole,
The Ghost and the Darkness is rich with a laundry list of motifs
for various situations. One of the better singular cues is
"Preparations," with a typical Goldsmith rhythm of determination led by
brass over some of the score's most distinctive choral accompaniment. In
the end, however, most will recall the title theme heard in the first
two tracks on the score's album. Goldsmith's technique of opening with
the Irish motif and rolling it along with the addition of pieces of the
ensemble for an entire minute before stating the overlying theme is very
attractive. While it may seem strange to say this about a horror film,
the most important aspect of Goldsmith's work for
The Ghost and the
Darkness is that it is fun. That's a generic thing to say, though
with the adventure cues greatly outnumbering the horror variety, the
score is extremely entertaining on album. That product contains roughly
40 minutes of Goldsmith's cues (lengthier bootlegs do trade on the
secondary market) and concludes with native African performances by "The
Worldbeaters" and renown regional singer and composer Nusrat Fateh Ali
Khan. For Goldsmith collectors, only the first twelve score tracks will
be of interest, and they offer more than enough memorable melodies and
instrumental and vocal textures to maintain your interest for several
repeat listens. Brass fans, this one's for you.
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| 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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Notes about the production from both Jerry Goldsmith and Michael Douglas can be
found on the inside of the back cover, though the contour of the plastic case makes it
difficult to read.
