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FILMTRACKS.COM
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Review of The Cassandra Crossing (Jerry Goldsmith)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on the 2008 Prometheus album only if you are an
established enthusiast of Jerry Goldsmith's brutally raw, propulsive
action and pretty character themes of the late 1970's.
Avoid it... if you expect any truly satisfying presentation of this merely average score to exist, its film recording relegated to muted mono sound and its stereo album sometimes significantly different in tone.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Cassandra Crossing: (Jerry Goldsmith) With
aspirations of performing as well as the ensemble cast disaster-oriented
films from the early 1970's, The Cassandra Crossing was itself a
disaster in the making. It postulated that a plague is inadvertently
spread by terrorists in Geneva that storm the lab to destroy that very
weapon. The lone escaping criminal boards a train to Stockholm and
proceeds to infect that voyage of a thousand people, causing the
militaries of the western powers to conjure ways to quarantine or even
destroy the whole train. The passengers learn of the dilemma just as the
government scientists start to speculate that the plague actually isn't
that lethal, but then the plot becomes a race against time as the train
had already been diverted to cross a derelict bridge that was destined
to collapse. Some of the passengers try and succeed in separating the
train in two, but the front half plunges over the collapsing structure.
While the movie made the use of breakthrough photography from
helicopters, the actual bridge collapse used a model that was
unrealistic and laugh-worth, yielding one of the worst such scenes in
cinematic history. On the upside, some of the grisly deaths shown on the
train in that sequence did earn the film a harsher rating. Critics booed
the film at screenings and called out the wretched casting errors across
the board, though The Cassandra Crossing still managed to turn a
profit. The 1976 movie employed action scoring expert Jerry Goldsmith,
who was embarking on a period at the height of his career in which such
thrillers were commonplace. His large orchestral scores for these films
often carried a redemptive, lyrical theme to counterbalance the
composer's jagged meters and raw symphonic force. In many ways, The
Cassandra Crossing is very comfortable in this realm of work, and it
has the added benefit of utilizing the composer's emerging synthetic
layering amongst the orchestral tones and a touch of European accent
from soloists. Because the film was presented in mono sound, the score's
final mix was executed as such, so the entire situation has suffered
from muffled ambient quality since the start. In retrospect, this
circumstance is frustrating given the battle over surround sound formats
that started at that time.
A fair amount of Goldsmith's music for The Cassandra Crossing was excised from the film, and no music was utilized for the actual train crash sequence, the train-related sound effects and crunching metal failing to provide enough suspense alone. The constructs and demeanor of the score fall on the spectrum between Goldsmith's Ransom and The Salamander, and in many regards, this work is better evolved in every way in The Salamander. The mix of the mono film presentation is starkly different from the alternative for the stereo album release, the harpsichord more prominent in the film's music, for instance, but dialed back to the point of ineffectuality on album. Generally, it's a very propulsive score as one would expect for the subject matter, with various rhythmic devices for the suspense and action scenes. This mode matures in the two set action pieces that highlight the score, "Helicopter Rescue" and "The Climber," with help of an ascending tension phrase. That distinct tension motif culminates with repetitive statements in "Kaplan's Death" but has no chance to resolve or climax in the final scene. Material dedicated to the Kaplan character tries to state a purpose but doesn't really thrive late in the score. Instead, Goldsmith relies very heavily upon his main theme and a secondary stinger device for danger. The latter tool of alert is interesting in that is originally associated with the threat of the plague but eventually represents general danger with the train and the bridge itself, last heard as the bridge's doomed sections are seen awaiting the train's arrival. For this motif, Goldsmith employs a crashing piano and squishy synthetic echoing technique in a very unpleasant manner, the idea adopting some of the slurred brass techniques of The Shadow later for the bridge. Before then, it stews throughout "The Train Station/Dying Man/Mckenzie Arrives/Sick Man" with electronic ambience, and only those synths conveying their squishy characteristics occupy "Searching the Train." The motif simmers in "Safe Living," plods softly early in "Helicopter Rescue," and finds its purpose in the harder crashing of "The Train," "It's God Will," and "Kaplan's Death." It opens the "End Titles" location shot with its thumping percussion underlayment as one last reminder that the danger resides in the government powers rather than the plague or the bridge specifically. While the danger stinger is a memorable device in the score for The Cassandra Crossing, Goldsmith's main theme is more a more defining force. Its lyrical renditions have a pleasant European character with a touch of the composer's usual light drama appeal, but it eventually heavily informs the action later in the picture. It develops during all of "Main Title" with foreboding and interjects awkwardly in the middle of "Break-In" on an electric guitar and then frantic strings. The theme returns to whimsical lament in "Husband & Wife" through "Are You Alright?" and fights the ambient fear in "Searching the Train" before over-the-top melodrama flails with the theme at "Disease Spreads." Somber string and synthetic keyboarding at the outset of "Safe Living" yield to pretty, trademark Goldsmith woodwind performances throughout the first half of the cue. A secondary suspense variant of the idea develops in "I Can't Go," and it struggles against the danger motif in "It's God Will." The theme finally punctuates the helicopter vista shot during "End Titles" with a grand finale crescendo, and Goldsmith adapted it in the pop realm to dramatic effect in "It's All A Game (Instrumental)," mislabeled as "Main Title" on the original LP; the actual title sequence was quite different. While lyrics were written for this piece, no sung recording of it has been released. Instead, a Dave Jordan song written for performance by model and actress Ann Turkel (only in this film because her squeeze, actor Richard Harris, led the cast), "I'm Still on My Way" is the atrocious inclusion meant to emulate the pop insertions within the famous John Williams disaster scores of earlier in the decade. It's an awful, tepid song with no connection to Goldsmith's music. The composer's remix of the score for the original LP release included all the important material in stereo and obviously threw in the Jordan song as necessary. That presentation was pressed to CD in 1990, but only in 2008 did the Prometheus label do its best with the mono sources on the film version of the entire score as heard in the film. This product overemphasized the "I'm Still on My Way" song, contained confusing track listing errors, and is a high collectible since selling out, but it remains the only dedicated offering of the more brutal film version of the score. A re-recording of a suite from this score in 2013 with The Salamander is highly recommended as an alternative, as the original recordings for The Cassandra Crossing are sufficiently gripping in their action portions but merely average in thematic development and ambient quality. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
1990 RCA Album:
Total Time: 34:19
* Composed by Dave Jordan and performed by Ann Turkel 2008 Prometheus Album: Total Time: 107:43
* Composed by Dave Jordan and/or performed by Ann Turkel ** Not used in the film
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1990 RCA album contains no extra information about the score or film. That of the 2008 Prometheus album offers information about both.
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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 The Cassandra Crossing are Copyright © 1990, 2008, RCA Records, Prometheus Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/18/24 (and not updated significantly since). |
