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Review of The Flight of the Phoenix (Frank DeVol)

1999 FSM

2021 Intrada

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... on especially the expanded, dedicated 2021 album for one of Frank DeVol's more expansive, diverse, and rewarding scores.

Avoid it... if you have difficulty relating to works that allow their themes to go adrift as they attempt to address too many characters and concepts.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The Flight of the Phoenix: (Frank DeVol) Many adversities involving a group of survivors in hostile natural environments have been explored on film, but the 1965 epic ensemble cast triumph The Flight of the Phoenix added the twist of forcing its characters to rebuild an airplane to escape a North African desert. When their cargo plane goes down in a sandstorm, the men have to battle each other and the Saharan elements until they can devise a way to adapt surviving pieces of their plane into an all-new aircraft that can carry them to safety. The brilliantly varied cast thrust into the collaborative effort overcomes distrust of one another to get their plane aloft, though the stunt pilot tasked with doing just that lost his life when the craft didn't perform as expected. While composer Frank DeVol collaborated with director Robert Aldrich on over a dozen films, including The Dirty Dozen, it is his dramatic work for The Flight of the Phoenix for which the composer is best remembered. DeVol was known as an unheralded workhorse in the industry; while other composers of his generation received far more recognition, he had invented a technique that allowed him to crank out an impressive number of minutes of music per workday, allowing him tremendous quantity of music served even if the quality was highly variable. For The Flight of the Phoenix, DeVol supplied an orchestral score of a scope appropriate for the vastness of the desert, but he also conjured a plethora of source pieces for the radio music heard by the stranded men, along with material suitable for the Arabian-oriented hallucinations they experience. The composer was also not afraid to adapt other sources of music, some mainstream-oriented while others traditional, directly into his score. The resulting music for The Flight of the Phoenix is somewhat stereotypical in how it addresses the location via Middle Eastern chord progressions, begging for comparisons at its most melodic portions to Maurice Jarre's just previous classic, Lawrence of Arabia. But there's a lot more happening in this score than just that flourishing nod to the locale, with Mediterranean and British musical techniques and instrumentation figuring into the equation as well. The core of the work remains suspenseful in tone, but most listeners gravitate towards DeVol's full ensemble highlights from the opening and closing scenes involving flight.

While some listeners may fixate on DeVol's grand exposition in the opening and closing moments of The Flight of the Phoenix, the score consistently provides a wealth of ominous, engaging, and ultimately rewarding cues in between. The conflicts among the characters, as well as the sorrows of death and alienation, are accentuated by occasionally militaristic yet appropriately exotic tempos. Smaller motifs for individual characters are employed, but not with obvious effect. The piano and harp for the German character is often underplayed, and the military march for the sergeant, a tune based upon a traditional British melody, is somewhat distracting. The somber theme for the lead pilot is highlighted by "Towns is Back" and receives dedicated evolution through the work. A source song for the ill-fated Gabriele character breaks the tone of the score with some Connie Francis vocals; that song was borrowed from pop culture and received significant attention at the time. The score kicks up its intensity with "The Propeller;" while still using the bass strings to remind us of the precarious and ominous situation, DeVol provides the first glimmer of hope. When that hope is realized and the plane takes flight, DeVol's score soars with fully orchestral tonality and an easily accessible, straight forward sense of satisfaction. Interestingly, the concept of flight receives no theme itself from DeVol, these highlights content to explore exciting but melodically anonymous structures. The striking technique used by the composer for the opening titles, accompanying the freeze frames of each character during their credit with hyperactive percussion only, precluded much development of themes there. The overarching idea for the desert is the main attraction in the end, closing out the score with lush relief in "Ole Swimmin' Hole." In 1999, Film Score Monthly released 40 minutes of the score alongside Patton on an album widely considered at the time to be the best entry in the label's young Silver Age Classics series. While Patton was the main feature on the disc, the product was more often cited as a success in retrospect because of the presence of the long-awaited The Flight of the Phoenix on album. A dedicated, 2-CD set for the DeVol score was finally provided by Intrada Records in 2021, the full film score and countless source and alternate tracks offered in remastered stereo but still archival sound quality. While the full presentation does drag in its midsection, the alternates contain fascinating variants on major cues. For enthusiasts of the film, DeVol's contribution remains an engagingly diverse highlight.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

1999 Film Score Monthly Album:
Total Time: 76:24

Patton: (35:53) • 1. Main Title (3:08) • 2. The Battle Ground (2:14) • 3. The Cemetery (2:42) • 4. First Battle (2:49) • 5. The Funeral (1:53) • 6. The Hospital (3:36) • 7. The Prayer (1:09) • 8. No Assignment (2:21) • 9. Entr'acte (1:52) • 10. Attack (3:14) • 11. German Advance (2:31) • 12. An Eloquent Man (1:42) • 13. The Pay-Off (2:24) • 14. A Change in the Weather (1:24) • 15. Pensive Patton/End Titles (2:33)

The Flight of the Phoenix: (40:31) • 16. Airborne (0:55) • 17. Main Title (4:58) • 18. Windy/Heartbreak (2:41) • 19. Brave Sergeant (1:43) • 20. Harris Leaves (2:19) • 21. Senza Fine (2:14) • 22. Gabriele's Death (1:34) • 23. Water (1:38) • 24. Let's Get Back to Work (1:38) • 25. Caravan (2:55) • 26. Naughty Boy (2:29) • 27. Model Planes (2:54) • 28. The Difference (1:54) • 29. The Propeller (2:44) • 30. The Big Pull (1:36) • 31. Rest Stop/Ground Run (3:12) • 32. Going Up (1:41) • 33. Swimming Hole/Finale (1:11)

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2021 Intrada Album:
Total Time: 99:24

CD 1: (64:05) • 1. Airborne (0:58) • 2. Second Warning (0:25) • 3. Rough Trip (2:15) • 4. The Flight of the Phoenix Main Title (3:27) • 5. Desolate Desert (1:32) • 6. Guilty (0:28) • 7. Windy (0:59) • 8. Senza Fine (2:24) • 9. Heart Breaker (1:45) • 10. Funny Man (0:39) • 11. Brave Sergeant (1:45) • 12. Cobb's Fight (0:50) • 13. Harris Leaves (2:20) • 14. Cobb's Demise (1:00) • 15. Bird Bait (1:20) • 16. Towns is Back (0:47) • 17. Towns' Anger (2:32) • 18. Harris is Back (1:41) • 19. Harris is Found (2:31) • 20. Deceased Spouse (1:09) • 21. Gabriele's Death (1:36) • 22. Water Pincher (1:37) • 23. Let's Get Back to Work (1:39) • 24. The Shove (1:23) • 25. Caravan (2:56) • 26. Naughty Boy (2:29) • 27. Sick Camel (2:09) • 28. Dog Tags (0:27) • 29. Stupid (1:01) • 30. Bossman (1:03) • 31. Model Planes (2:55) • 32. The Difference (1:54) • 33. The Exhaust (1:19) • 34. The Prop (1:25) • 35. The Big Pull (1:43) • 36. Rest Stop (2:04) • 37. The Ground Run (1:05) • 38. Going Up (1:43) • 39. Ole Swimmin' Hole (Original Version) (2:26)

CD 2: (35:19) • 1. The Flight of the Phoenix Main Title (Alternate) (3:29) • 2. Desolate Desert (1:32) • 3. Senza Fine (Alternate Vocal) (5:22) • 4. Harris Leaves (Alternate) (2:17) • 5. Harris is Back (Alternate) (1:41) • 6. Ole Swimmin' Hole (Revised Version) (1:13) • 7. Ole Swimmin' Hole (Film Version) (2:30) • 8. Tasso's Bouzouki 1 (2:18) • 9. Tasso's Bouzouki 2 (1:39) • 10. Arabian Tune 1 (0:20) • 11. Arabian Tune 4 (0:26) • 12. Arabian Tune 5 (0:41) • 13. Arabian Tune 6 (0:32) • 14. Arabian Tune 7 (0:28) • 15. Arabian Tune 8 (0:30) • 16. Arabian Tune 9 (0:33) • 17. Arabian Tune 10 (0:53) • 18. Arabian Tune A (1:11) • 19. Arabian Tune B (0:54) • 20. Arabian Tune C (0:42) • 21. Belly Dancer Theme 1 (0:24) • 22. Belly Dancer Theme 2 (0:49) • 23. Desert Dance (1:17) • 24. Greek Tune B (1:07) • 25. Barrie Chase Dance (Pre-Record) (2:16)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The 1999 Film Score Monthly album includes extremely detailed notes about the films and scores relevant to that product. The same can be said of the 2021 Intrada album's insert, which contains the label's usual depth of notation about the film and score.

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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 Flight of the Phoenix are Copyright © 1999, 2021, Film Score Monthly, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 3/30/99 and last updated 5/25/21.