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FILMTRACKS.COM
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Review of Forever Young (Jerry Goldsmith)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you can be swept away by a touch of elegance, a dash
of adventure, and a heavy dose of sentimentality from Jerry Goldsmith in
his most predictable romantic form.
Avoid it... if the few moments of soaring adventure resulting from the score's memorable flying theme cannot justify the otherwise significantly mellow and understated majority of running time.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Forever Young: (Jerry Goldsmith) Nostalgically
poetic and coated with about as much sugar as humanly possible,
Forever Young is a fantasy love story that goes so far with its
exploits of romanticism that it even throws in a dose of early J.J.
Abrams science fiction to enhance a 1930's locale and soaring propeller
airplanes. The film was immediately recognized for what it was by
audiences and critic alike: a light-duty escape during which women can
shed a tear while their boyfriends or husbands glance around for the
nearest exit or alcoholic beverage. After his 1930's love interest is
put into a coma by an accident, a test pilot played by Mel Gibson, with
nothing left worth living for, decides to rely upon his best friend, a
scientist played by George Wendt (warning flags should go up right
there), to conjure an unusual solution. Rather than simply killing
himself (where would be the fun in that movie?), the scientist freezes
the pilot in an experimental cryogenics device that had been
successfully tested on a chicken. Circumstances cause the pilot to
remain frozen for over 50 years, mostly undisturbed in his capsule
before a pair of kids accidentally thaws him out while playing in an old
military storage depot. The film then follows the tender relationship
between the pilot and the two boys, as well some sweetness between
Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis, before the inevitable search for the
now-elderly and recovered lover yields predictable results. A film like
Forever Young relies heavily upon its score to create the right
atmosphere for its love story (especially in the innocence of the 1930's
settings), although in this particular case, the filmmakers had the need
for some whimsical flying music as well. Director Steve Miner referred
to composer Jerry Goldsmith, with whom he had worked on the lower budget
Warlock a few years earlier, as a "godsend" to Forever
Young. It is the kind of project very typical of Goldsmith's
emphasis in the early 1990's, with high string love themes in the
concurrent Medicine Man and Mr. Baseball leading to a
similar flow of airy, pleasant emotion in Forever Young. A touch
of elegance, a dash of adventure, and a heavy dose of sentimentality are
the recipe once again, and Forever Young remains one of the
better embraced by the composer's enthusiasts.
For those collectors who have long defended Forever Young as being among their favorites from this period of the composer's output, the main enticement is the love theme for the film. With the same attraction of the stylistically overblown Rent-A-Cop theme and the instrumental ease that prevails in Powder and other soft ventures, the Forever Young love theme has a timeless quality and an innocence of heart that listeners would never really hear again from Goldsmith. This project would arguably be the composer's last attempt (and among few overall) to handle a film with completely innocuous beauty and romantic lyricism at its core, though the love theme is appropriately downplayed in the middle portions of the score. The piano and solo woodwind performances of that theme are surprisingly tepid in their expressions, pretty but not really resounding with the kind of weight that you'd expect for the science-fiction aspect of the tale. If you are seeking Goldsmith's more ambitious and adventuresome music, however, Forever Young holds a significantly more engaging secondary theme that will interest you. The composer's "flight theme" is clearly the highlight of the score, manipulated to address both the awe of flight and the daring piloting sequences that offer the film's only suspense. The expression of this theme in "Test Flight" sets the bar too high for the rest of the score, bursting with full ensemble hits in later Star Trek mode and general excitement maintained by Goldsmith's typical rhythmic propulsion. Driven on the album version of the cue by a Basil Poledouris-like electronic bass pulse, the soaring brass theme for French horns, punctuated by bright hits by the full ensemble, is accompanied by string performances of the melody that faintly (but strangely appropriately) resemble John Williams' love theme for Superman. Solemn brass expressions of this theme are reprised in "The Air Show." As the pilot teaches one of the boys in the future how to fly a plane on his cardboard cutout of a cockpit in "The Tree House," Goldsmith skillfully repeats the "Test Flight" cue as a ghostly version of itself; the piano and woodwind rhythms in this version seemingly foreshadow the water tank sequence of The Shadow. While some of the propulsive exuberance from the opening cue accompanies the flying scenes at the end of the film, the sentimentality of the impending reunion waters down the rhythmic pace-setters with uncertainty on a solo piano. The album version of "Reunited," however, does feature a slight tingling of Goldsmith's electronics that lend a hint of magic to that scene. Outside of the statements of the love and flight themes in Forever Young, however, including the brief flashes of adventure associated with the latter, the score is surprisingly muted and conservative. Goldsmith's treatment of the significant sequences involving the pilot's acclamation to the future and his relationship with the people who house him at that time is disappointingly underplayed. Most of these cues are barely audible in their tonal meandering on strings and piano, and perhaps it's no surprise that a fair number of them were ultimately removed from the picture. On the whole, Forever Young is an above-average Goldsmith work because of its two memorable themes, but don't expect the mass of the underscore in the middle sequences of the story to compete favorably with the highlights. In all its parts, the score resides at the much fluffier end of the fantasy scale for the composer, making it an extremely easy listening experience on album despite its dull portions. The Brad Dechter soprano sax arrangement of the love theme (anchoring the start of the 1992 album) is a mushy extension of John Barry proportions for an otherwise standard Goldsmith idea. That original 1992 album was completely out of print in the 2000's, although it contains a satisfying 35 minutes of Goldsmith's music and the vintage Billie Holiday end credits source song at the conclusion. The composer interestingly chose to tinker a bit with the mix of his album presentation (perhaps exercising ideas he had hoped to insert into the film but was blocked), emphasizing a greater role for his trademark electronics in several cues. The pulsating bass effect in "Test Flight" is the most obvious deviation from the film version, an effective aid in recognizing the gravity of the scene had it been used on screen. When La-La Land Records released an expanded album containing the score in 2011, it reshaped the music heard in the film into a proper presentation and appended several alternate takes, the love theme rearrangement, the Holiday song, and Goldsmith's notable album-version variants. Although it's a bit odd to hear the "Test Flight" and "Reunited" flying sequences without the synthetic accompaniment (or with it diminished), the sound quality of the film versions on this album are noticeably superior, including a tastefully improved touch of reverb. While Forever Young is a bit of a lightweight of a score and the expanded album may not be justifiable for all collectors, those who have long maintained a special place in their hearts for this music will find no fault with the 2011 album's presentation. The score is an endearing entry with a couple of fantastic highlights, but far from the classic that some claim it to be. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
1992 Big Screen Album:
Total Time: 38:20
2011 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 74:24
* previously unreleased
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1992 Big Screen album includes lengthy information about
Goldsmith and a note from the director. The 2011 La-La Land album's insert includes
an extensive analysis of both the score and film.
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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 Forever Young are Copyright © 1992, 2011, Big Screen Records, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/1/98 and last updated 9/26/11. |
