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Masada: (Jerry Goldsmith) At the height of the
appeal of network television mini-series,
Masada was a massive
extravaganza of the highest order. Resurrecting the concept of the
biblical epic from Hollywood's Golden Age, the six and a half hour 1981
event used its significant production budget to secure popular and
veteran names in its cast and crew, led by Peter O'Toole in a powerful
primary role. Although based on an Ernest K. Gann novel, the adaptation
of
Masada took some liberties with the facts surrounding the
Roman siege of the famed Jewish fortress in the first century following
Christ's death. Despite the convenient invention of several characters
and sub-plots, the series (originally spread over four nights during its
airing) does remain true to the most important circumstances, including
brutality on the part of the Jews and sympathetic aspects within the
Roman armies. Outstanding photography and lavish art direction helped
the series earn strong critical response and high ratings, though poor
preservation of the film has limited its appeal several decades later.
One element of
Masada that was equally praised but has also
demanded only minimal attention in the year to follow is Jerry
Goldsmith's expansive music. The composer had earned his ticket to the
industry with extensive work for television while in his twenties,
carrying over that success to several Emmy-winning scores for a variety
of genres on television in the early 1970's. In fact, Goldsmith outright
dominated the Emmy scene during that time. As he entered an extremely
fruitful period of the late 70's and early 1980's during which he was
regularly nominated for Academy Awards (and winning once) for his
superior motion picture output, though, the scoring of full mini-series
for the medium became rare. Ultimately,
Masada revealed itself as
Goldsmith's final such endeavor, an assignment as close to his heart as
the impressive
QB VII had been several years earlier and one that
would earn him his only Emmy award of the 1980's (for the second
"episode" of the series). The composer's success with so many of his
scores for television epics owes much to his belief that there was no
difference in approaching a television and feature film score. He
limited himself to writing music for the first two "episodes," handing
over the latter two to veteran television composer Morton Stevens, who
had earned even greater Emmy recognition through the years than
Goldsmith (for "Gunsmoke" and "Hawaii Five-O," primarily). He was
nominated against Goldsmith for his music for the fourth
Masada
episode, though none of that material was shared on the album release
with the more famous composer's music.
Goldsmith tackled
Masada as though it were one
really immense motion picture for the big screen, allowing him to follow
The Wind and the Lion with another opportunity to transport
himself back to the days of the grand epics that he was too late in his
arrival on the Hollywood scene to be a part of. The full range of
emotions experienced by both sides of the Roman/Jewish conflict in
Masada is expertly captured by Goldsmith, resulting in a varied,
highly engaging work that is grippingly emotive in most of its major
sequences. He logically writes a score of two themes and their
inherently disparate styles of ambition and tragedy. The Romans are
treated to a spirited march that pulls some inspiration from Goldsmith's
patriotic military scores, though with just enough edge of the Old World
to contain the score in the fantastic, larger-than-life atmosphere. This
Roman theme, heard extensively in "Main Title" and "The Road to Masada,"
is the kind of broad, stomping identity one would expect for marching
armies, though the theme's bridge sequence transitions from brass to
strings for a surprisingly fluid and elegant secondary representation.
In these regards, the format is not much different from
The Wind and
the Lion, though the ensemble relies far more heavily on
non-percussive elements. Only a faint hint of a harpsichord (perhaps
synthetic?) strays from the typical orchestral sounds in these
performances. The secondary theme for the Jews in Masada is thoroughly
explored in "The Slaves" and opens both that cue and "The Old City,"
among others. There is languishing of biblical proportion in the
unmistakably melodramatic string movements of this theme, utilizing just
enough progressions that play to the stereotypes of the culture and time
without making the overall sound too foreign. The two themes don't
mingle in satisfactory ways in their presentation on album, though
Goldsmith's standard five-minute concert suite arrangement of
Masada is more impressively representative of the score than
anything on its own album. The only weakness of
Masada is its
rather limp suspense and action material compared to contemporary
efforts like
Night Crossing. Goldsmith doesn't handle the
sequences of tension or sustained explosive statements for the full
ensemble with the kind of interesting rhythmic consistency in
Masada, leading to music in "Night Raid" that is comparatively
disappointing. Still, for its other two, primary identities,
Masada is a very strong score, one that deserves appreciation as
part of any Goldsmith collection. The sole release of the score on a CD
album came in 1990, when Varèse Sarabande pressed only the 37
minutes of Goldsmith's music that had existed on the LP. The album is
out of print and rare, suffering from archival sound quality in places.
Expanded and remastered treatment is definitely deserved here.
****
| Bias Check: | For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.22 (in 111 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.37
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The insert includes information about the score and film.
