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| Bernstein |
The Comancheros: (Elmer Bernstein) Remembered
mostly as yet another decent entry in John Wayne's career during the
height of the Western genre,
The Comancheros is perhaps more
important to note as the final film of
Casablanca director
Michael Curtiz's long career. In and of itself, there are few attributes
of 1961's
The Comancheros that blazed new territory. The script
was a character study common to the genre, Wayne's performance was
predictable, and the Utah locations had been seen in countless Westerns
to date. But the film accomplished its goals well, proving to be above
average in nearly every aspect. The debut in a long collaboration with
the films of John Wayne,
The Comancheros also represented the
first major Western score for Elmer Bernstein after the highly popular
and industry-defining
The Magnificent Seven in 1960. Bernstein's
continuing journey in the West features the very much of the same
enthusiasm and raw sense of Americana that can be heard in
The
Magnificent Seven, among other Westerns in his career. Even beyond
that previous effort, though,
The Comancheros includes a wider
range of moods and sub-themes, as well as a further exploration of folk
music inherited from Bernstein's root interest in music. The composer is
quick to acknowledge Aaron Copland once again as a primary source of
inspiration, and while he continues to meet expectations with his
expansive and frenetic interpretations of that sound, Bernstein also
allows more folk rhythms to intrude on his writing here, foreshadowing
the kind of Western sounds that Basil Poledouris would make a career out
of several decades later. None of this should serve to discount the
energetic and rolling title theme to
The Comancheros, however,
which was heroic in the same innocent and fantastic super-hero sort of
way that defined the Westerns of this and the previous decade. Although
some strict fans of more recent film scores might find the theme to be
silly, if not ridiculous, it's important to recognize that these themes,
in their joyful and yet powerful tendencies, played an enormous role in
the glorification of heroes such as John Wayne. They were expected, and
Bernstein delivered.
To Bernstein's credit,
The Comancheros excels
beyond simply the main theme, however, because of its array of
interesting and well-developed sub-themes. The title theme itself is
adapted well to represent the contemplative emotions of Wayne's lead,
with several yearning, yet pleasant string variations on that typically
bold, brassy theme. Two more brutal rhythmic themes would erupt for both
the Comanche warriors in "Attack" and the gang of smugglers and thieves
themselves in "Comancheros." The Hispanic elements of
The Magnificent
Seven are replaced in
The Comancheros by more stereotypical
Native American elements. Upon a quick listen, the Indian music might
seem to represent everything that we would expect from it... beating,
rhythmic drums pounding. And yet Bernstein's incorporation of more
ambitious percussion and other instruments into those cues adds a
refreshing new twist to the old, well-beaten stereotype. Even more
impressive are the cues that don't really fall into either of the heroic
or stereotyped categories. Bernstein's cues for contemplation, memories,
and even suspense round out the score very well; the lighter harmonic
representation for conversational scenes ensures the listenability of
The Comancheros, occupying significant time in the first half of
the score with mellow woodwinds. Of course, if you're into the thrill of
the big themes with the Duke on horseback, the score has plenty of fully
symphonic bursts to keep you adequately pumped about the genre. The
stereo-mixed album, the ninth installment in Film Score Monthly's series
of Silver Age Classics CDs, is presented in superior form. Unlike a few
of the previous albums in the series that had issues of arrangement,
especially with unused cues or source music, the album for
The
Comancheros begins with twenty solid score tracks, followed by two
unused songs and a mono mix of the main title theme. The songs are an
interesting listen; aside from the obviously racist implications of the
Indian calls in the unused title song, the film was released at a time
when idea of using a title song for Westerns, albeit essential in the
1950's, was beginning to fade out. Selections of the music conducted by
Bernstein were previously available on a Varèse Sarabande album
from years past, but you can't fully appreciate
The Comancheros
without hearing the secondary motifs in full development. For Bernstein
fans, if you enjoy his Western scores of the early and mid-60's, and
especially
The Sons of Katie Elder, then don't let this one pass
you by.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Elmer Bernstein reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.25
(in 18 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.15
(in 10,256 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The album contains the usual excellent quality of pictorial and textual information
established in other albums of FSM's series, with extremely detailed notes about the films
and scores.
