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Untamed Heart: (Cliff Eidelman) Among the least
intelligent character romance films of the 1990's is
Untamed
Heart, a venture doomed by an atrociously insipid script and a
complete lack of chemistry between its two leads, Christian Slater and
Marisa Tomei. The two work together at a diner and face predictable
obstacles when a likely affair (though posed as unlikely) ensues.
Complications cause the story to barrel towards its inevitable
bittersweet ending, and critics appropriately mauled the film upon its
release. At the height of his early career in 1993, composer Cliff
Eidelman began his streak of scoring heavy character dramas for
underachieving projects such as this one. The director of
Untamed
Heart, Tony Bill, was impressed with the early works of Eidelman,
claiming that the young composer had almost too much talent to describe,
crowning him as one of the "best of the new." For the morbidly
depressing project, the composer wrote a score that was eventually
overshadowed by the use of a Nat King Cole song, both in place of and
adjacent to the original music. The style of the work is very typical of
Eidelman's use of a small performing group at that time in his career to
build a sufficient emotional base for a film, though not much more.
Ultimately, the score passed by in the film without much attention, and
for even the composer's small group of collectors, it could be hard to
tell while watching it that Eidelman had composed the music. There have
been arguments made that the score was not only underused in the final
edit, but was especially undermixed as well. Luckily, with a budding
partnership between Eidelman and record producer Robert Townson of
Varèse Sarabande (which would lead to several of Eidelman's works
being released on the label over the following decade and beyond), the
score for
Untamed Heart endures on a very short album. The score
does hold two unique personality traits that aren't evident in much of
Eidelman's other projects on album. First, the bittersweet romance of
the film's subject matter allowed the composer to explore a slightly
mystical avenue for the scoring of its opening and closing sequences, as
well as the one, overtly dark stabbing scene of the film.
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For these statements of the primary theme, Eidelman
weaves together subtle cello and oboe performances with a light (and
perhaps synthesized) chorus. The eerie sound results in about five
minutes of mystery to aid the sharply romantic edge of the film, though
these passages were ultimately rejected from use in the project. Neither
Eidelman's proper opening suite or closing credits sequences appeared in
the final cut, making the comments of praise from the director a bit
curious (maybe studio meddling was involved?). In any case, these
deleted cues aren't the best part of the score. The highlight of
Untamed Heart is Eidelman's dabbling with new age sounds on his
keyboards, an approach that quickly stole the heart of the entire score
even though their performances only amount to another five minutes of
combined time. It's a case in which the score's secondary theme, a
lovely, electronically keyboarded idea, is better than the primary one.
Heard in brief pieces in "I'll Give You My Heart" and "You Are My
Peace," the theme's use in the "Hockey Game" cue represents the most
upbeat opportunity for Eidelman in the project. The fully orchestral
accompaniment to Eidelman's simplistic, but satisfyingly rhythmic and
modern keyboarding makes for a three minute cue that blows away the rest
of the score in volume and spirit. This keyboarded theme does appear
again twice in the subsequent tracks, capped off by a tender performance
with flute counterpoint at the very end of the album (in "End Credits"),
but the theme doesn't really receive the development it needs to satisfy
the listener. Perhaps the film didn't offer enough opportunities to
allow Eidelman to do so, but with that new age sound of the synthesizers
dominating the second half of the score, it leaves the first half in the
cold. The album contains only twenty minutes of music that made it into
the film anyway, and a little over 26 minutes total. It's difficult to
recommend
Untamed Heart unless you already own the albums for
Eidelman's
Now and Then and
A Simple Twist of Fate and
found relaxing enjoyment in those scores.
Untamed Heart is a
variation on those Eidelman styles, and will be a welcomed addition to
the collections of his fans. Mainstream audiences seeking the Nat King
Cole song, however, will likely be disappointed by the album.
*** Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
| Bias Check: | For Cliff Eidelman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.29 (in 17 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.2
(in 7,740 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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