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Wyatt Earp: (James Newton Howard) In the early 1990's, the
idea of the massively proportioned Western film had been reintroduced with the
success of
Dances With Wolves on big screens and
Lonesome Dove on
television, and most of the major studios started production on their own Western
pictures with similar aspirations. After the continued critical and popular
success of
Unforgiven and
Tombstone, Warner Brothers'
Wyatt
Earp came at a time in 1994 when the genre had reached its saturated point
and you started seeing spin-offs, spoofs, and inferior alternatives like
Bad
Girls and
The Quick and the Dead begin to steal the sense of dramatic
weight from the genre. The Lawrence Kasdan/Kevin Costner film made the crucial
mistake of taking itself too seriously, and in so doing tried the patience of its
audiences with its significant and often boring, elongated scenes of character
development and overwrought drama. Despite having all of the necessary Western
elements in place, including a magnificent cast of well-known, supporting actors
and actresses, the film's script was its own worst enemy. A financial disaster
for the studio, the one aspect of the film that could not be criticized was its
score by James Newton Howard. Kasdan, who had been extremely impressed with
Howard's score for his previous film,
Grand Canyon, went so far as to
state that Howard contributed more of himself to that picture than any of the
other production team members. The composer was also in the middle of an
artistically fruitful series of scores for Costner, despite the fact that most of
their collaborations existed for films of dubious merit. As a musical journey,
the score for
Wyatt Earp isn't quite as elaborate and broadly dramatic as
James Horner's concurrently popular
Legends of the Fall, but it nearly
reaches the same territory in its expansive emotional development. Howard
employed a traditional, large-scale orchestral ensemble for
Wyatt Earp and
inserted only a few elements of genre personality (including accordions, fiddles,
and harmonicas) and ethnic spirit (a recorder for the Irish references), thus
keeping the score as classically inclined as the script. This choice by Howard
yielded a very consistent sound that stands as the score's greatest strength.
In the decades to follow, Howard certainly became known for his
versatility with orchestral and choral ensembles, but in 1994, the
Waterworld composer was still proving that his transition from the rock
genre to the orchestral scoring business was viable. More than any other score,
Wyatt Earp really helped that effort, because the work stands strongly
with Bruce Broughton and Basil Poledouris' modern Western genre music as a
distinct and memorable entry. Howard's noble title theme for
Wyatt Earp
may not be the most elegantly sweeping of Western themes, but it suffices in
establishing the mood of the era (as well as inspiring several imitations of the
theme that other composers would attempt in later scores). Even more powerful,
however, are Howard's secondary thematic constructs, highlighted by the title
character's romance and wedding cues. Several woodwind and solo string melodies
accentuate the hardships of the characters, and this, maybe, is where the
protracted script actually assisted Howard in providing substantial development
to his many ideas. The action sequences are backed by driving snare and other
percussion, beginning with the wild "Wagon Chase" and culminating in a climactic
cue for the "O.K. Corral" battle. A certain amount of heroism is also infused
into the score; one blatant performance of this victorious attitude can be heard
in "Dodge City," a cue that very much resembles the lively title theme from
Waterworld. There isn't an abundance of old-style or folk-inspired Western
cliches at work in this score, with "Dodge City" being among a few that begin to
exhibit this flair. The great deal of consistently strong material on the album
is indicative of the length of the film as well. As the movie can be boring to
many, there are a handful of underscore cues recorded for conversational scenes
that may not be of interest to the listener either. And yet, each cue, regardless
of volume, is solid in its orchestral integrity, and
Wyatt Earp therefore
stands as a worthy Western score in modern times. Only the Irish-tilted
"Railroad" breaks the score's steady sound for the entirety of the album. The
sound quality is dynamic, though the moments of high romance don't provide as
much resonance as those in
Legends of the Fall. Howard's music for
Wyatt Earp was an important step along his journey to become one of
Hollywood's premiere composers, and it remains among the most compelling scores
of the 1990's Western genre.
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The insert includes a note from director Lawrence Kasdan and extensive cast
photography.
