 |
| Holdridge |
Buffalo Girls/Gunfighter's Moon: (Lee Holdridge)
Among one of the more well known television mini-series of composer Lee
Holdridge's career is
Buffalo Girls, a 1995 Western production of
immense size by CBS Entertainment for debut on its network. Larry
McMurtry's novel was brought to life by an all-star cast including
Anjelica Huston, Melanie Griffith, Reba McEntire, Gabriel Byrne, and
Western perennials Sam Elliott and Jack Palance, and along with
considerable money spent on its technical aspects,
Buffalo Girls
received countless Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. The story takes
place in the waning days of the Wild West, as lead lady and mule skinner
Calamity Jane crosses the path of Bill Hickok and travels to London as
part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show to reclaim her daughter. Numerous
subplots abound, and all are given the kind of lengthy treatment that
only a mini-series can provide. Without a doubt, CBS knew the potential
of the series come time for awards, and before the film was even shown
on the network, they pressed a promotional album of Lee Holdridge's
score. With an abundance of energy and enthusiasm, Holdridge provides a
score highly derivative of old Western cliches (especially borrowing a
bit here and there from Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith), but like
John Debney (another modern master of adapting temp tracks and imitation
music), Holdridge does an exemplary job of breathing new life into the
older ideas. He doesn't attempt to tackle every character and location
with unique ideas, although he does lose the Western styles for a more
faux-classically inclined cue or two in London. His instrumentation does
most of the work, with a harmonica and acoustic guitar that expand
greatly on the short performances of those elements heard in
The
Giant of Thunder Mountain. Some comedy is thrown in, with a honky
tonk cue that is masterfully overtaken by an orchestral crescendo in
"Buffalo Girls Finale." A notable use of a woodwind (perhaps
synthesized?) in "Sad Migration" echoes an eerie wolf call.
As with
The Tuskegee Airmen of the same year,
Buffalo Girls is blessed with a stronger than usual recording
quality, allowing the vibrant rhythms of brass and strings to convey the
bouncing and swinging Western title theme with striking clarity. As
evident in other Holdridge scores, it seems that his Western-oriented
themes seem to take significant inspiration from Goldsmith's
The Wild
Rovers, whether intentional or not. Later in 1995,
Buffalo
Girls was pressed on CD once again, but this time as part ("Volume
5") of Holdridge's series of personal promotional releases from Prometheus Records. The
content included the same 40+ minutes in 23 tracks that were released on the
original CBS promo. But on Holdridge's release, he appended his score
for another 1995 film,
Gunfighter's Moon, onto the end. The
little known theatrical release of
Gunfighter's Moon was one of
two directorial efforts by screenwriter Larry Ferguson (
Alien 3,
The Hunt for Red October,
Highlander). In the film, Lance
Henriksen plays an aged gunslinger in the Old West who is forced to
choose whether or not to help the husband of his former lover or ride
back out of town to continue his life of isolation. This production was
far smaller than
Buffalo Girls, and therefore only allowed a
moderate orchestra to be recorded. Thus, it offers a glimpse at
Holdridge's abilities on the synthesizer. Some cues are carried by
electronic rhythms (and deep synth chorus) that exist about halfway
between Hans Zimmer's brooding bass and Basil Poledouris' tingling
treble sounds. In between flimsy orchestral Western-stereotypical
action, the cue for "The Noose" is a fascinating exhibit of whispering,
breathing sound effects and other creepy elements. A heroic conclusion
to
Gunfighter's Moon states the film's theme (which sounds
awfully similar to that of
Buffalo Girls, incidentally) with as
much orchestral force as the ensemble can muster. On the whole,
Gunfighter's Moon is obviously not as strong as the other score
on Holdridge's 5th promo, but it easily more intriguing. Together, they
make the combined CD one not be missed for collectors of the composer.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Buffalo Girls: ****
- Gunfighter's Moon: ***
- Prometheus Promo Overall: ****
| Bias Check: |
For Lee Holdridge reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.77
(in 14 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.34
(in 7,592 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
Neither insert includes extra information about the score or film.
