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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
All the Pretty Horses: (Marty Stuart/Kristin Wilkinson/Larry Paxton) After a year of relatively uneventful and mainstream film scores, All the Pretty Horses stands out with obvious distinction. It has been a while since the film score community was hit with a full blooded Western, and it has been a very long time since a group of Country music artists were the ones to accomplish that feat. The score for this Billy Bob Thornton south-of-the-border Western/Drama/Romance is so unlike anything else over the past few years that its simple novelty warrants it extra attention. It should come as no surprise that the score was nominated for a Golden Globe award; the composers are all well established in the Country music scene. Marty Stuart, of course, is the Grammy-winning songwriter, performer, and theatrical composer who is best known for his album Hillbilly Rock in 1989. No less capable are the other artists who co-composed All the Pretty Horses. Both Kristin Wilkinson and Larry Paxton are experienced songwriters and performers with famous orchestral and Country performing groups. All of them have arranged and composed music for many of the Country scene's top recording artists. But, you ask, how do they produce a major film score? Well, I had the same reservations, as I always do, about well-known artists from non-classical (and especially Country) genres of music stepping onto the scoring stage. What I failed to realize --even though I knew much about the Cormac McCarthy's book and story of All the Pretty Horses-- is that the hiring of Stuart, Wilkinson, and Paxton (among others) to compose the score for the film adaptation was not only a gutsy move, but a successful one. The finished musical product for the film is a refreshing and enjoyable one. It hails back, without directly ripping off, Western motifs from scores of long ago. There are styles of Dimitri Tiomkin's Gunfight at the OK Corral mingled with Lee Holdridge's Old Gringo, and many of the spicy moments of ethnic flavor bring back memories of the old Ennio Morricone Westerns for which his career was once famous. Certain rhythms mimic the prancing beats of the reknown Elmer Bernstein Western themes as well. Whether it was simply the dancing of the tamborine or the excess of guitars, there is something about All the Pretty Horses that stikes a positive chord in light of the mentioned classic Westerns. Its only weakness, I would argue, is its poor handling of the more sinister moments of the story; it doesn't evoke enough feeling of fear or uncertainty when needed. Part of the score's appeal is obviously its genre. It's been so long since we heard a really good, new Western score that All the Pretty Horses knocks you on your side simply from its loyalty to its genre. The title themes of the score, performed in the end by Stuart himself, are exhilerating compositions for guitars and a well balanced orchestra. They are simple themes, drawing on simple Country Western chord motifs, but their elegance in their full performances compensates for such simplicity (and even, to an extent, cliche percussion). The songwriting tendencies of the composers are easily heard in the free-flowing and memorable themes. While the themes only occupy about 8 to 10 minutes of the entire score, they dominate its every aspect. The remaining 30 minutes of score were best described by an industry insider as "cinematic country minimalism." The traditional guitar, along with its accoustical bass and percussion are almost always present during the score, and the orchestra weaves in and out with richly mixed strings when needed. While there are extended sequences of slightly audible, rather unexciting moments beginning at track five, there are also singular tracks of Mexican flavor that are very tastefully performed by trumpets (unlike the stereotypical, drunken trumpets that often blast away when portraying Mexicans... Alex North comes to mind). The "Strawberry Tango" track is a playful twist on that ethnic half of the score. The final track has hidden music after a silence; rumour has it that this was originally going to be a separate track at the end called "El Buxbombed." Perhaps the most admirable and impressive attribute of the music for All the Pretty Horses is its consistency. A number of the tracks in the middle of the album were composed by other artists, and yet you'd never know it from the maintenance of consistency throughout. Only the electronic choir in track seventeen stands out (though welcome) as different. In these regards, the collective effort of Marty Stuart, Kristin Wilkinson, and Larry Paxton --who not only composed the score, but performed it as well-- is simply remarkable. It is the ultimate team effort, and it worked. I cannot recommend All the Pretty Horses to all traditional film score collectors unconditionally. I believe that no matter your tastes, you will enjoy the title themes performed at the beginning and end of the album, but I would not guarantee that every one of you will like the minimalistic Western music in between. For me, Western scores are a guilty pleasure, and this one is not only elegant in its tribute to classic Western film score motifs, but its instumentation is contemporary enough to distinguish itself as as 21st Century Western. I consider this score to be one of the best of the year, for reasons of its ingenuity, consistency, and personality. There's just something great about hearing a good Western score in the year 2001. ****
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