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A Far Off Place
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Composed, Produced, and Conducted by:
Orchestrated by:
Frank Bennett
Brad Dechter
Tom Pasatieri
Joel Rosenbaum
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LABELS & RELEASE DATES
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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The 1993 album was a regular U.S. release, but it fell out of print as of
2000. The 2014 Intrada album is a limited product with unknown quantities produced and sold
initially for $20.
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AWARDS
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None.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... only for James Horner's lyrical primary theme if you're a
sucker for the grand romanticism that results from the composer's
typical expressions on broad strings.
Avoid it... if ten minutes of that pleasant, sometimes impressive
lyricism does not merit an entire score of poorly developed
instrumentation for the locale and lackadaisical action motifs.
BUY IT
 | | Horner |
A Far Off Place: (James Horner) While produced by
Steven Spielberg's affiliated Amblin Entertainment and Walt Disney
Pictures, A Far Off Place was not your usual fluffy children's
diversion in 1993. Nor was it any great success with audiences for
perhaps that very reason. Many films have been made about unlikely
groups of children persevering in adverse conditions, but A Far Off
Place takes the genre's inherent series of cliches to all new
heights. A South African white girl, American white boy, and young
African bushman are forced to trek 2000 kilometers across the Kalahari
Desert in Africa after the girl's parents (whom the boy was visiting for
the summer) are brutally murdered on their farm by ivory poachers.
Instead of traveling to Cape Town or any number of small villages within
reasonable range, the film illogically takes them on this long,
unrealistic trek and has to rely upon the stereotypical antagonists (in
this case, the poachers tracking them in helicopters and attempting to
machine gun them down) in order to compensate for their inability to
sustain the film with the vistas and character interactions alone. With
such a violent storyline, including some graphic slaughter scenes
involving elephants, there isn't much for children to enjoy in A Far
Off Place. And for adults, the potentially interesting relationship
between the youths is sadly underdeveloped (despite a performance by
Reese Witherspoon), leaving the film a useless mess. Composer James
Horner maintained a consistent working relationship with Spielberg's
production company in the early 1990's, leading to his involvement in
several of these rather odd children's films. With the wealth of grand
locations and other magnificent visual elements in A Far Off
Place, the equation would seem to have been set for Horner to pull
out an adventure score of significant proportions. While he does venture
into the realm of large-scale action and thematic grandeur to
acknowledge those expectations, he does so with hesitation and a lack of
instrumental imagination that causes his score for the project to linger
in the muddy depths of mediocrity. In 1993 and 1994, Horner had a
tendency to provide scores for questionable pictures that exhibit the
composer in auto-pilot mode, and A Far Off Place unfortunately
exhibits the sounds of a man earning a paycheck rather than injecting
much passion into the equation. Maybe more could not have been expected
of a man cranking out ten major studio film scores per year.
That lack of engagement in A Far Off Place
reflects challenges similar to those heard in Clear and Present
Danger and The Pelican Brief, works both related to this one
in their suspense and action roots. All of them are restrained by the
composer's seemingly lazy inability to kick his music into a higher gear
and provide the kind of originality that was heard from him before and
after this period. While its primary theme is more unique than many
during this time, A Far Off Place continues many of the same
orchestral ideas that Horner has relied upon time and time again to
produce a merely sufficient and functional score for his assigned films.
This particular theme, divided into two equally attractive parts, is
lyrical and romantic, appropriate for the setting, and containing the
kind of deep string-based heart that suits a children's film well. Its
appearances in the opening and closing cues, as well as "The Elephants"
and "Gemsbock Gift," are easy highlights of the work. In the score's
slower adaptations of this theme for broad strings and woodwinds, Horner
takes no instrumental chances. To represent the landscape, Horner throws
in the shakuhachi flute (which is unrelated to this locale, of course),
some African drums and rattles, and other light percussion. In this
department, Horner misses the target, wasting an opportunity to extend
beyond his usual collection of sounds to produce something as vivid as,
for instance, Jerry Goldsmith's The Ghost and the Darkness. The
instrumental creativity of a score like Vibes is completely
absent. Moments of fright and action revert to familiar snare rhythms
and the crashing of piano and chimes. The rumbling piano is joined by
harsh brass and generic drum rhythms in cues such as "Attacked from the
Air," and in this and many of the other action sequences, A Far Off
Place suffers from an inability to maintain a mood for any great
length of time. This is a shame, because as he does in many of his
animated children's film scores, Horner introduces many intriguing
ideas; in this project, though, he fails to deliver extended development
of any of his concepts outside of the primary theme. Like the film,
there's a slightly schizophrenic aspect to the score in that you can
enjoy a truly uplifting string rhythm in "Gemsbock Gift" and then be
struck down by the opening clangs of the following cue, "The Swamp,"
which ends on a huge, discordant chord for the entire orchestra. Either
album from Intrada Records will suffice, though the 2014 edition can be
difficult to endure at its greater length. Ultimately, only a very
strong main theme with an extended performance in the final cue raises
A Far Off Place to average status. *** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.16
(in 103 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.26
(in 193,147 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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| 1993 Album: Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 40:14 |
• 1. Main Title (5:17)
• 2. The Slaughter (4:35)
• 3. The Elephants (5:06)
• 4. Attacked From the Air (3:43)
• 5. Gemsbock Gift (2:14)
• 6. The Swamp (3:46)
• 7. "Sandstorm!" (6:58)
• 8. Death in the Mine (2:48)
• 9. Epilogue/End Credits (5:40)
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| 2014 Album Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 75:29 |
• 1. Main Title (5:17)
• 2. Nonnie's Rescue (0:38)
• 3. Cat Food Pate (0:59)
• 4. Night Departure (2:47)
• 5. Entering the Cave (2:31)
• 6. The Slaughter (3:02)
• 7. Nonnie Finds the Parents (1:01)
• 8. Revenge (1:36)
• 9. Nonnie Escapes* (3:18)
• 10. Impossible Plan (1:18)
• 11. First Night Out* (0:52)
• 12. The Elephants (5:04)
• 13. The Baobob Tree (1:15)
• 14. Attacked From the Air (3:43)
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• 15. Plane Aftermath (0:56)
• 16. Inner Feelings (1:38)
• 17. Digging For Water (2:49)
• 18. Xhabbo the Poet (2:02)
• 19. Gemsbok Hunt (1:21)
• 20. Gemsbok Gift (2:12)
• 21. The Most Beautiful Gemsbok (1:25)
• 22. Memories (1:41)
• 23. The Swamp (3:46)
• 24. Scorpion (5:17)
• 25. Sandstorm! (6:49)
• 26. Reunion With Mopani (1:56)
• 27. Ricketts' Death in the Mine (2:47)
• 28. Epilogue/End Credits (5:32)
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* not featured in the film |
The inserts of both albums contain information about the score and film,
including the following note from executive producer Douglass Fake in the 1993
product:
"The stunning visuals of A Far Off Place cried for a major score
of symphonic proportions James Horner responded with a monumental work,
centered around a rich and sweeping primary theme and including some
fierce action material. The resulting score to A Far Off Place is
rich, serious, sometimes powerful and relentless, sometimes tender,
always magnificent.
Horner was keenly aware of the strong dramatic story line that prevailed
amidst the inherent visual images and adventure that unfolded across the
Kalahari Desert. His score reflects the tragedy setting the drama into
motion, those dangers such a perilous trek would involve and the respect
and friendship that blossoms amongst the three youths In pursuit of both
safety and justice.
The picture opens on a peaceful scene of elephants at water, the score
introduced by flute and percussion. Poachers appear with rifles,
chainsaws. Horner scores this idyllic moment turned violent with a
brutal eruption of percussion, piano, low brass and strings. Trumpets
against stark piano and chime chords followed by a swelling of strings,
soon lead to the first statement of the theme as the "Main Title"
appears on screen. Horner returns to quote portions of this theme
several times, in a gentle varient to underscore the growing
relationships during "Gemsbock Gift" with a bolder stroke for "The
Elephants."
The action sequences are scored in a harsh, often very powerful and
dramatic manner. In "The Slaughter" that sets the story into motion,
and the following act of retaliation by Nonnie, the scoring is hard,
tense, and exciting. In "Attacked from the Air" the score conveys both
the action on screen with serious brass and percussion material over
racing piano, and the strong drama of Nonnie finding out whom was
responsible for the death of her parents.
In "The Swamp", a highlight of the score, Horner brings to play
powerful material for the entire orchestra as Harry and the dog both
struggle to survive, all culminating in a spectacular chord,
simultaneously major and minor. Harry is snatched out of death's jaws,
the dog leaps to safety alongside him, and in a splendid musical moment
trumpets burst forth with a resolution to this chord in the major.
With a happy finale to the adventure, the main theme emerges in a full
and complete statement, a rich and sweeping cessation to the story,
asoaring and expressive finale to the score."
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