Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you've always shared Basil Poledouris' love of spirited folk rhythms, for his final score is a tribute to his minor-key themes performed with great energy by acoustic guitar, mandolin, accordion, and fiddle. Avoid it... if you prefer Poledouris' muscular, fully symphonic Western style, a mode not available for this cheeky but often intimate score of sincere character. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Legend of Butch & Sundance: (Basil Poledouris) Thirty-five years had passed since George Roy Hill's 1969 popular favorite Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid put Paul Newman and Robert Redford firmly into the roles of the famous bank robbers, and another filmmaker was finally ready to take another stab at the concept. A regular assistant to Steven Spielberg, veteran television director Sergio Mimica-Gezzan shot another loose adaptation of the characters for a 2004 pilot on NBC that went largely unnoticed. Similar liberties were taken to ensure that the concept would be a lively entry in the romantic comedy genre, and anyone hoping for a realistic portrayal of the historical characters will continue to be horrified. Despite a good deal of positive spirit, the pilot tanked and nothing more became of it on NBC or elsewhere. The production became the extremely unlikely final assignment of veteran composer Basil Poledouris' career before he lost his battle with cancer in 2006. The path that Poledouris took from the height of his career many years prior to The Legend of Butch & Sundance was one of tough personal choices. Aside from his long illness in the 2000's, he had completely shifted his priorities in life, refusing major assignments and instead only picking and choosing smaller films that he could pour his heart into. At the same time, he was in the process of setting up a state-of-the-art studio in Rome and moving away from his family to Seattle, a shift that shook the film music community at the time. Some say that Poledouris became eccentric in both his personal and professional lives in the 2000's, and that shift caused his only assignments of that decade to be bizarre at best. Standing alone in the last four years of his life was The Legend of Butch & Sundance, a production that did not believe it could afford Poledouris at the time but was more than thrilled when the composer sought it out. In retrospect, this choice by the composer was as compelling an exit as one could imagine, though perhaps a soaring orchestral score for a topic on the high seas would have been its equal. The composer was so fond of folk rhythms and the instrumentation native to the intimate Western genre that this score (after a failed bid to be part of Kevin Costner's Open Range) was a perfect close to his career. More than a dozen years earlier, his epic music for Lonesome Dove had, after all, brought him his only major awards recognition. Because of the limited budget for The Legend of Butch & Sundance, Poledouris made use of a handful of soloists spanning traditional symphonic tones and those native to the folk genre. To augment these players, he used his best sampled versions of orchestral sounds in order to provide some meaty backing to the more vibrant portions. The resulting sound is remarkably similar to the tone of Marty Stuart's soothing All the Pretty Horses, but without the heavy bass mix. Despite the many action sequences in The Legend of Butch & Sundance, Poledouris really only brings the totality of these ensemble performers together in "Butch and Sundance: Main Title," a piece with all the minor-key pizzazz that Poledouris' most rowdy Western rhythms can bring. The somewhat weak faux brass samples in this cue are countered by the wild attitude of the acoustic guitar, mandolin, accordion, cello, and violin in the composer's spirited and distinctive movements. These instruments perform two recurring themes in the score, neither earth-shattering but both quite effective. The title theme from the first cue extends in its rhythmic form into the impressive "Riding Contest (Butch Meets Sundance)" and several subsequent cues that each rotate the soloists in the forefront of the ensemble. The three robbery sequences in the score use prolonged chords as Robert Rodriguez might for confrontational melodrama, though the general tone of even the most frenetic action cues remains light-hearted enough to maintain the film's overarching airiness. A tender love theme on solo cello and seemingly synthetic flute is the counterbalance in "What Could Happen?" and "The Man I Love," and while this theme is certainly pretty, it isn't as evocative as some of Poledouris' others. Later in the score, Poledouris shifts the folk atmosphere south of the border, playing to Mexican stereotypes that are affable though a bit predictable. Dull xylophone and slapping snare define the score all the way through its "Finale." The last few cues are a bit cerebral and therefore underplayed, but one last fiddle, accordion, and mandolin revisitation of the title theme and its snappy rhythm is closed with the synthetic gong effect that he uses throughout the work to give its minimal power some depth. For any Poledouris collector, The Legend of Butch & Sundance will be a pleasant close to an accomplished career, with fans of his trademark folk material served especially well. Limited to 1,500 copies, the score's only CD release from MovieScore Media (the 4th of its Discovery Collection) sold out quickly, testimony to the composer's lasting impact on so many film music collections. **** Track Listings:
Total Time: 51:20
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