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Review of Breakheart Pass (Jerry Goldsmith)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if ten minutes of an outstanding Jerry Goldsmith Western
theme is worth the cost of acquiring a rare album for an otherwise
surprisingly generic suspense score.
Avoid it... if you have never been able to appreciate Goldsmith's similarly prominent Western themes in his many other efforts in the genre, because Breakheart Pass really offers nothing else of interest.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Breakheart Pass: (Jerry Goldsmith) It's amazing
that studios continued milking the genre of the Western well into the
1970's despite audience disinterest in dusty tales from the old West.
They did everything they could to alter the equation, sometimes yielding
frightfully bizarre and comedic results. One more conventional
experiment was Tom Gries' 1975 adaptation of an Alistair MacLean story,
Breakheart Pass, that transitioned cult movie icon Charles
Bronson from his Death Wish fame into a saddle, though he still
played predictably into the role of reluctant killer for the betterment
of humankind. This time, he's a secret service agent embroiled in a
complicated plot involving weapons on a train, raiding parties
interested in that and other loot, and double crossing agents of the law
and the train that make Bronson's life difficult at every turn. Throw
Bronson's real-life wife Jill Ireland into a helpless role and round out
the supporting cast with a strong collection of veteran actors and
Breakheart Pass is decent entertainment. It's especially
appealing to fans of old railroad pictures, for the filming of the
production in Idaho resulted in some spectacular locations in which to
shoot dangerous fistfights and battles without the assistance of special
effects. One crew member who always seemed inspired by trains was Jerry
Goldsmith, whose music for Westerns persisted into the dying days of the
genre. His career had already been littered with many Western scores,
some of which considered classics while others never gaining much
traction. Usually present in these scores is a strong theme, and the
composer doesn't disappoint in Breakheart Pass. In fact, so
attractive is Goldsmith's primary idea for this score that everything
else he provides for the picture sounds completely generic by
comparison. It's a classic case in which an extremely memorable theme
has to carry the entire load of a score, and the success or failure of
the soundtrack depends on how frequently and creatively the composer
adapts that idea into the non-title portions of the work. Unfortunately,
Breakheart Pass only rarely lets rip with full statements of
Goldsmith's fantastic theme, but those highlights make the endeavor
worthwhile. On screen, some editing rearrangement of the score by the
director solved this issue to a degree. It's always difficult to rate a
score like this, because its highlights are so outstanding and the rest
of it so mundane and mediocre.
The first and last cues of Breakheart Pass, both featuring Goldsmith's concert arrangement of the infectiously bold and almost hip title theme, along with "Here They Come" and brief moments from other cues, form 10 minutes of material that is absolutely necessary in any Goldsmith collection. It's a Western theme along the same exciting route as Wild Rovers and Take a Hard Ride, serving up a rowdy acoustic guitar rhythm and lofty brass performances of a surprisingly romantic progression. The secondary phrase of the theme is as pretty as anything Goldsmith ever wrote for the genre, and the composer thankfully translates this sequence into solo woodwind performances at least twice in the work. The theme is full of energy and features outstanding performance emphasis, especially in the trumpets, begging for repeat enjoyment. The rest of the score references this theme but never states it in full with enough consistency to make the entire soundtrack worth a lengthy album appreciation. The story involves a significant amount of conversation and sneaky suspense, and Goldsmith thus responds with generic, pulsating material rooted in the lower regions of the ensemble. A rhythmic train motif, using percussion to imitate the engine, is underutilized. A synthetic theme for the villain (and Native Americans, oddly) barely registers. The sensitive moments are handled with quiet fragments of the title theme. The fight sequences never explode with the kind of consistency that Goldsmith has applied elsewhere, leaving fifteen-second bursts of greatness that never connect into a satisfying whole. The best aspect of Breakheart Pass, interestingly, is the superior sound quality of the Los Angeles recording. When the guitars suddenly erupt in the title theme performances, an added dose of reverb creates a generous soundscape that brass utilizes throughout these tracks. It took quite a long time for a good album of Breakheart Pass to chug along. Bootlegs with flat, distant sound negating the naturally strong recording existed in several formats since 1997, featuring a nearly complete 45 minutes of material. In 2006, La-La Land Records officially released that music (plus two short source cues, the latter of which being handy if you have access to an apartment or dorm intercom system after midnight) in crystal clear sound, albeit in limited form that went out of print. When Kritzerland released a similar presentation in 2013, adding one key cue, the woefully short-printed run of 1,000 copies sold out within days. Don't hesitate to find either limited CD if ten very strong minutes of a classic Goldsmith theme is worth your money. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
1997 Bootleg:
Total Time: 45:32
2006 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 46:33
2016 Kritzerland Album: Total Time: 55:03
NOTES & QUOTES:
The bootleg variations did not contain any official packaging, usually
consisting of a single-page slip cover. The inserts of the 2006 La-La Land and
2013 Kritzerland albums include information about the score and film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Breakheart Pass are Copyright © 1997, 2006, 2013, (Bootleg), La-La Land Records, Kritzerland Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/22/09 and last updated 6/25/16. |
