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Review of Fierce Creatures (Jerry Goldsmith)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you're prepared to hear a zany side of Jerry Goldsmith's small scale comedy writing rarely employed with such zeal by the composer during the 1990's.

Avoid it... if you expect any continuity whatsoever with John Du Prez's superior and more explosively wild score for A Fish Called Wanda.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Fierce Creatures: (Jerry Goldsmith) When it was announced that a pseudo-sequel to the modern legend A Fish Called Wanda would be made by the exact same starring and supporting cast, the peasants of the world rejoiced. John Cleese's writing talents are among the best in the world, and both critical and fan response to the first film were overwhelming. With A Fish Called Wanda gaining more cult status with each passing year, Cleese created Fierce Creatures, a film that presents the original actors in nearly identical roles with equally bizarre character flaws. Unfortunately, Cleese's story wasn't as sharp as that of the original, and the sequel slipped into relative obscurity while the original continues to impress. The composer of the first film's score, John Du Prez, had been associated with Cleese since the Monty Python days, and had a knack for scoring dumb, if not cultish comedy films that resulted from that troop's endeavors. Du Prez had provided a perfect musical fit for the earlier film, with snazzy urban rhythms yielding occasionally to cello solos for short scenes of drama and remorse (and one phenomenal orchestral cue for a memorable sex scene). As with A Fish Called Wanda, Cleese and the other producers preferred to keep the playing time of music in the film to a minimum, allowing the cunning dialogue to rightfully hog all of the attention. The same philosophy applies to Fierce Creatures, and Du Prez was originally hired to reprise the thematic feel of the first film. With visions of grandeur and a bit of money to spare, the producers replaced Du Prez with composing legend Jerry Goldsmith, who was more than eager to take a slice from the A Fish Called Wanda pie. Even so, Goldsmith's music had to be minimal in ensemble size and only be featured in about twenty minutes of the final cut. Despite that short running time for the film edit, Goldsmith enthusiastically recorded half an hour of music, all of which appearing on album. Some material was arranged and recorded by Goldsmith specifically to round out that product.

The result of Goldsmith's quick effort is a quirky comedy piece that stands alone in the composer's great career, mirroring the frantic, jazzy styles of early Danny Elfman more than that of any of his other scores. There is really nothing to compare Fierce Creatures to in Goldsmith's accomplishments (except, perhaps, the tango driven 6 Degrees of Separation and the smaller portions of the outrageous comedy style of his little-known I.Q.), for his comedy music usually utilizes an orchestral ensemble of some size. For Fierce Creatures, Goldsmith makes use of mostly a quartet of strings (for Cleese's pompous nature), a jazz band, and especially a piano, with little orchestral accompaniment (a few woodwinds, perhaps) or electronic enhancement. His score tackles the story's central zoo and its human and animal life with a baby elephant walk approach that sends the piano rumbling along a clumsy, but lovable motif for much of the score. The light, spirited rhythms of the percussion are often paralleled by simple themes for the one-dimensional characters. Two or three lesser subthemes, along with the rolling piano motif, provide a more than adequate ambience for the ridiculous happenings on screen, and you have to credit Goldsmith with maintaining a jazzy atmosphere without allowing the score to degenerate into complete silliness. Also of interest are a few similar scoring choices to those that Du Prez used in the first film, from the electric guitar rock for action scenes to the somber string quartet for the ones of misery. There isn't much press about Goldsmith's thought process for Fierce Creatures, so those consistencies between the films may either have been the producers' requests or mere coincidence. The composer's recording of the end credits contains a theme and motif summary that is worthy of any compilation of his works, starting with a slow variant of the elephant walk motif and finishing with it at full speed (with a single, bursting note of punctuation at the end). It's certainly more deceivingly complex than Du Prez's original score, though Goldsmith fans should be aware that Fierce Creatures is about as far from the composer's established styles as he could get.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 29:21

• 1. Willa's Theme (2:10) • 2. First Day (1:17) • 3. Chores (2:17) • 4. To the Zoo (2:07) • 5. The Funeral (2:33) • 6. Trained Seals (1:55) • 7. Under Control (2:30)

• 8. Contact (1:27) • 9. A Good Idea (2:13) • 10. The Grave (2:04) • 11. A Long Story (2:25) • 12. You're Fired (2:07) • 13. End Credits (3:34)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The packaging contains very little information about the score; credits are limited.

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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 Fierce Creatures are Copyright © 1997, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/13/96 and last updated 8/21/08.