 |
|
| Goldsmith |
|
|
Not Without My Daughter: (Jerry Goldsmith)
Unintentionally, the MGM film
Not Without My Daughter turned out
to be a heavily anti-Muslim statement released just days before the
United States and its allies invaded Iraq the first time in 1991. An
intensely personal drama, the film tells the true story of Betty
Mahmoody, an average American woman who married an Iranian man employed
at the local hospital in the States. Set in 1984, the husband takes his
wife (and their young daughter) on a two-week vacation to Iran, where he
suddenly beats her and announces that they will never be returning to
the United States. Trapped in a foreign culture that minimizes womens'
rights, the mother is forced to smuggle herself and her daughter out of
Iran and into Turkey with the help of an underground network of Western
sympathizers. The storyline is compelling and made for fine drama, but
the film had two major problems working against it during its initial
release. First, its depiction of Muslims is truly disturbing, portraying
them as crazed fundamentalists and the true enemies of 'infidels.'
Secondly, the film, as mentioned before, opened nationally on January
11, 1991, only a few days before President Bush's deadline for war in
the Middle East. Perhaps because of the timing of the project, the film
failed miserably in the theatres. But it was still the source of
controversy from Muslim-advocacy groups who claimed that the film's use
of non-English language without subtitles, vicious and dirty Iranian
characters, and unyielding malice shown towards a white woman are all
gross misrepresentations of real Iranian sentiment, even during the
heaviest religious rule of Iran in the 1980's. At any rate, with so many
aspects of the production coming under attack for being 'propaganda,'
it's interesting to wonder where Jerry Goldsmith's score falls into this
debate. This would be the only collaboration between Goldsmith and
director Brian Gilbert, and the project followed an outstanding year of
output in 1990 for the legendary composer. His score for
Not Without
My Daughter, if you want to throw it into the aforementioned debate,
does reinforce the reasons for protests against the film. The music can
indeed be reduced to a good-versus-evil kind of descriptor, because
Goldsmith makes no attempt whatsoever, like the film, to musically
portray the Iranian culture in a positive (or even interesting) light.
The moment the story hits the ground in Iran, Goldsmith hits the
electronic distortion (a la
Legend) and machine drums and doesn't
look back until the conclusion of the mother and daughter's
escape.
As a political statement, the score therefore suffers
from the same criticism leveled at the film. It's clearly a black and
white score with little middle ground, and this clear distinction is
embodied by the two themes that Goldsmith devises for the score and
orchestrates in vastly different ways. First, the sensitive string and
piano theme for the mother and daughter inhabit the opening and closing
portions of the film. It's not one of Goldsmith's ultra-pretty,
small-scale themes (like the one from
Love Field, for instance),
but could be classified at the same memorability level as, perhaps,
Angie. The theme is mutated significantly in troublesome
fragments throughout the middle portion of the score as the mother's
realization of entrapment is reflected thematically. The second theme
represents the culture of Iran, or maybe the husband more specifically.
Its instrumentation consists of harsh electronics in the absence of
brass in the performing ensemble. At some points, an electronic rhythm
is established at such a great pace that James Horner's
Commando
comes to mind ("School's Out"), with tom-toms and faked exotic
percussion all utilized to their fullest volume. In the darkest moments,
the mutated sound of a water droplet at extremely low pitch ranges
matches the psychological fear on screen. Throughout its length, the
score alternates between hints of the sensitive primary idea for strings
and this Iranian theme of despair for synthesizers. Goldsmith curiously
chose not to utilize instruments native to Iran, though the electronics
in their place do function as an alienating factor. As a listening
experience, the primary "home" theme makes an attractive string
appearance in the final cue (with the standard light tingling of
Goldsmith's electronics), and that finale cue has a strong
representation of both halves of the score over the end credits. For
many listeners, this final six-minute cue will be the only necessary
inclusion in a collection, even if it's weighty with Goldsmith entries.
Some questionable mixing exists throughout, especially when the strings
yield to a piano mixed at far too low a gain in that last cue. An album
was released by Edel and Silva Screen in Europe and Intrada in America
in 1991 (with identical contents). A 2008 pressing of the complete score
by La-La Land Records was limited to 3,000 copies and adds five minutes
of material as well as a few unrelated source pieces. A twenty minute
suite of the recording with woodwinds taking the place of the
synthesizers (an alternate recording mix of major cues) is interesting,
but not worth the price of the album. Only the true Goldsmith completist
will have much interest in any of the adequate albums of this
underwhelming 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 133,462 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
