: (Jerry Goldsmith) The
concept was very promising; late in the 19th Century, the British,
French, and Germans were racing to build railroads across Africa to
facilitate the ivory trade. The British were faced with one last bridge
to build over the Tsavo River, requiring an engineering marvel and a
brigade of slaves. Unfortunately, while the river and infighting amongst
the slaves (due to religious differences) provided enough of a daunting
challenge to sustain the film, the purpose for the existence of
is to tell the true story of the relentless
lion attacks on the camp that claimed, by some potentially exaggerated
accounts, over a hundred lives. Writer William Goldman is often blamed
for the extremely poor critical and popular showing for
, conjuring some of the lamest lines of 1996 on the big
screen and killing off all the best characters, though equal blame needs
to be assigned to shoddy special effects (the lions themselves are
ridiculously fake), uninspired acting by the two leads (a pre-bloat Val
Kilmer and post-sex thrillers Michael Douglass), and dumb, first-person
style direction. Once again, one of the few people who seemingly took
the production to heart was composer Jerry Goldsmith, who was attracted
to the exotic, cross-cultural aspect of the story when he accepted the
assignment. In the mid-1990's, Goldsmith had become engaged primarily
with smaller projects, films like
that lacked the epic depth that his
followers had become accustomed to during earlier phases of his lengthy
career. The days of unique and personality-rich scores such as
had seemed a thing of the past, and his action
scores of the following era had included substandard titles like
. When 1996 rolled
around and Goldsmith took the film score community by storm with his
impressive tandem of
, fans were understandably pleased. The latter score
is easily the superior of the two efforts, despite fans' sentimental
attachment to the composer's
Goldsmith stated at the time that the script and location
of
The Ghost and the Darkness was so enticing that it energized
him to produce an epic score, one of his most challenging and memorable
adventure works of his career. To hear the same kind of enthusiastic
Goldsmith ethnicity from the African continent, you have to go all the
way back to 1975's
The Wind and the Lion, and for equal vocal
experimentation and raw brutality for the primordial wild, perhaps
1968's
Planet of the Apes. Since that time, Goldsmith became the
expert at the collaboration between electronic sound effects and a
strong orchestral presence. Not only is this melding excellently handled
in
The Ghost and the Darkness, but Goldsmith undertakes the
additional task of adding two entirely different ethnic flavors into the
mix. The film utilizes three prominent themes and a number of secondary
motifs, and the ethnicity often bleeds from one theme into another as
the Imperial and African forces unite to tackle nature and the lions.
The primary theme is a very workmanlike and bold brass fanfare for the
process of building the bridge, an idea that exists throughout the score
but is focused on its first third given that the bridge's construction
is completed by the cue "The Claws." Since the true-life lead character
of the film hails from Ireland, Goldsmith uses a continuously rambling
rhythmic motif suggesting that origin under the remaining orchestral and
African elements that perform the actual theme over that progression.
This flute-led Irish touch injects the score with its keen sense of work
ethic, driving the more dramatic scenes of a thousand extras with a
reminder of the forces that command them. Overshadowing the Western
influence inherent in the orchestra is the staggering African style, one
which Goldsmith fully introduces to listeners only this one time in his
career. It includes native Hindu and African chants by both adults and
children in conjunction with an extremely eclectic set of real
percussion (not dominated by drum pads, as
Medicine Man had been)
that includes rattling and struck elements along with an enriching
variety of drums. Clapping to the main Irish rhythm offers a convincing
tone of solidarity at the end of "First Time." An excess of slapped
metallic sounds suggest the chains of slavery, while other usage was
meant by Goldsmith to emulate the sounds of panicking animals during the
actual attack sequences.
While the vocals and percussion are a powerful
indicator of location in
The Ghost and the Darkness, Goldsmith's
brass is always of equal intensity, maintaining the National
Philharmonic of London as the pace setter of the film's action. The
commanding presence of the brass section, mixed to heighten their
ferocity in
The Ghost and the Darkness, is especially successful
during attack sequences that can blow you out of your seat. Their
propensity to snarl in nasty inflection or wail to resemble a crying
elephant is countered by expected, more romantic fanfare applications.
The lions actually receive two separate motifs, one for their mystique
(and that of the landscape) and one for their actual killing sprees. The
latter sequences are given a primordial, rising brass figure first heard
in "Lions Attack" and featuring overbearing instrumentation that is very
reminiscent of the Mongolian cues in
The Shadow, but with vocals.
This two-note motif is reminiscent of the equivalent in
Jaws, and
its rather shameless plundering in obvious fashion in this score is one
of its few lingering disappointments. The studio reportedly forced
Goldsmith to increase this motif's placements in later sessions. The
theme for the mystique of the land and its animals is best heard at the
start of "Lions Reign" and is, especially in conjunction with the
vocals, an extremely heroic statement of defiance. That same cue
continues with the score's suspense motif, a progression for synthesizer
and sitar seemingly out of
Under Fire. The final major theme, and
the most readily enjoyable one on album, is the one for the engineer's
family. This idea is heard in the early "Train to Catch," "John's
Nightmare," and the lovely finale piece, "Welcome to Tsavo." Goldsmith
incorporates the Irish rhythmic motif under this theme to remind of the
cultural connection. On the whole,
The Ghost and the Darkness is
rich with a laundry list of motifs for specific situations as well. One
of the better singular cues is "Preparations," with a typical Goldsmith
rhythm of determination led by brass over some of the score's most
distinctive choral accompaniment. This material, representing Douglass'
character, culminates in heroic enunciation for slow tempi in
"Remington's Death." Among the softer touches in the score is an
other-worldly element that, in its synthetic renderings, sometimes
reminds of the Borg atmosphere in
Star Trek: First Contact,
though a violin suspense motif, heard best late in "The Lions Reign,"
hails back to
Alien.
In the end, however, despite all the immensely creative
instrumental and vocal thrashing for the horror portions of
The Ghost
and the Darkness, most listeners will recall the grand tonal
rhythmic and thematic passages arranged specifically for the initial
album release by Goldsmith. His technique of opening a cue with the
Irish rhythmic motif and rolling it along with the addition of pieces of
the ensemble for an entire minute before stating the overlying theme is
very attractive. While it may seem strange to say this about a horror
film, the most important aspect of Goldsmith's work for
The Ghost and
the Darkness is that it is plain, accessible fun. That's a generic
thing to say, sure, but with the epic adventure cues substantial in
multitude and length compared to the horror variety, the score remains
extremely entertaining on album despite its genre. The original 1996
product contained roughly 40 minutes of Goldsmith's cues and concluded
with native African performances by "The Worldbeaters" and famed
regional singer and composer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The composer created
a specific mix for this presentation of his material, toning back the
synthesizers, percussion, and vocals, and it wasn't long before
lengthier bootlegs of the film mixes started trading on the secondary
market. In 2015, Intrada Records offered expanded album treatment to
The Ghost and the Darkness as impressive as their work on
The
Shadow a few years earlier, their 2-CD set of the 1996 score a
revelation for enthusiasts who have yet to appreciate the dominantly
raw, primal mixes of the score as heard in the film. Goldsmith tinkered
with the mix extensively in the post-production of this score, and his
revisions, newly revealed on the 2015 album in extensive alternate
tracks, sometimes completely change the tone of particular cues. As
such, the Intrada set exposes an all-new listening experience for the
score (while containing, courteously, the original 1996 album mixes as
well) that will thrill any Goldsmith collector. The sound quality of the
set, like that of
The Shadow, absolutely demands lossless
appreciation due to its broad, aggressive use of the entire sonic
spectrum. Over the years, respect for
The Ghost and the Darkness
has increased as the marriage between its horror and romanticism has
been fleshed out with the greater perspective of time and the 2015
album. The quantity of melodic identities and stunning creativity of the
instrumental and vocal colors, along with, of course, an array of
immense brass performances, qualifies the score as an epic classic and,
perhaps, the last truly great achievement of Goldsmith's career.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Written for the Film: *****
- Music as Heard on the 1996 Album: ****
- Music as Heard on the 2015 Album: *****
- Overall: *****
| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26
(in 125 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.29
(in 153,510 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
