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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you can't get enough of Elmer Bernstein's consistent orchestral Western parody music of the 1980's. Avoid it... if you are only a casual Bernstein collector. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Indeed, Bernstein tackles Stars and Bars exactly as you'd expect him to: with rolling Western comedy rhythms and parody insertions of classical themes interspersed with flighty interludes of romantic, tender ondes martenot performances. Bernstein's nod to the South in his Western theme is a slight twist of the blues at the end of his robust titles. Otherwise, he treats the English art expert as though he's gone from London straight to the Wild West of a hundred years prior. Some British pomp in his character is addressed, especially in the orchestrations of the 19th cue on album. Overplaying the situation seems to be the call of the day for Bernstein, with outbursts of frivolous Western rhythms serving as the score's highlights. His creativity expands to a classical rip in a few cues and a statement of "When You Wish Upon a Star" in the eleventh cue. He also experiments with a somewhat strange synthesized sound in the 13th cue, producing a result not dissimilar to some of James Horner's synthetic scores of the period. The most enjoyable deviation is in the 15th cue, in which Bernstein kicks some militaristic comedy into the score, including an exact replica of his underlying title theme rhythm from Airplane!. Slower sequences utilize either a prancing piano to accent slight comedy, or the ondes martenot in some of the least inspiring performances of a love theme by the theremin-related instrument in any of Bernstein's scores of the era. He does take the ondes martenot to it's very lowest performance ranges in the 16th cue, much more clearly mirroring a theremin. Sadly, the title is the score's highlight and it appears only in full at the outset and finale of the album. That album happened to be one of Varèse Sarabande's most rare entries in its original run of Club titles in the late 1980's and early 1990's (and it referred to the film as "Stars 'N' Bars"). Only 1,000 copies of the album were produced, with no track titles and no information about the circumstances of Bernstein's departure from the project. The item remained a top collectible for Bernstein collectors despite its near total anonymity. If you missed the boat on Stars and Bars at the time, don't fret; it's about as enjoyable as any of Bernstein's other wacky comedy efforts of the 80's. ***
No track titles listed on packaging
The insert includes a filmography for Bernstein, but no extra information about the score or film. All copies are numbered. The album's title is "Stars 'N' Bars" instead of the film's actual title. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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