Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you appreciate the spirit of Bruce Broughton and Basil Poledouris' music for the Digital Age resurrection of the Western genre, for James Newton Howard offers a worthy entry in this group of big sky adventure works. Avoid it... only if you have clearly defined the Western genre as one that you cannot appreciate under any circumstances, even if it is approached from a direction of standard, romantic melodrama. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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. **** Track Listings:
Total Time: 60:33
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