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Review of The Homecoming: A Christmas Story/Rascals and Robbers (Jerry Goldsmith/James Horner)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if pleasant and predictable extensions of familiar
trademarks from Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner are interesting enough
to warrant curiosity in this compilation of two of their obscure
television works.
Avoid it... if you have no need to hear stripped-down siblings to half a dozen larger scores from each composer.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Homecoming: A Christmas Story/Rascals and Robbers:
The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn: (Jerry
Goldsmith/James Horner) While known for their diverse, award-winning
careers writing music for feature films, Jerry Goldsmith and James
Horner both experienced periods during which they relied upon television
productions to maintain their income. For Horner, this stretch was
understandably a vital part of his early years, but for Goldsmith, there
were a few years in the early 1970's when the composer had written music
for films that had failed at the box office. Despite his previous awards
nominations and association with major projects, Goldsmith was left
toiling away in the television genre from 1971 to 1973, producing music
often as effective as his feature film scores, but obviously in more
obscurity. In late 1971, he helped kick off the popular series "The
Waltons" by scoring "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story," the film that
performed well enough for CBS to spin it off into the family's well
known 9-year run. Goldsmith's music for that film would be adapted by
the composer into the subsequent series, though a return to an emphasis
on major feature assignments caused "The Waltons" to use rearranged
Goldsmith ideas by Arthur Morton and Alexander Courage after just a
couple of years. The music for the concept was always folksy, responding
to the rural but character-based aspect of the overarching plot. The
redemptive tale of a large family's bond in a 1933 countryside setting
was the topic at hand, and the film separated itself from the succeeding
series with the Emmy-nominated performance of Patricia Neal as the
mother of the Walton clan, returning from a long absence on screen due
to a stroke. There was nothing particularly original about the story
outside of the multitude of cute interactions between the many children.
The score's ensemble for "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story" was minimal
in size but countered with its focus on colorful specialty
instruments.
Goldsmith's small orchestral group, consisting of 25 strings and woodwind players, provides a background for the representations of rural living: guitars, banjo, recorder, harmonica, harp, and accordion. Key to their success is Goldsmith's primary theme, a bubbly, likable folk tune over the composer's recognizable rhythmic movements. This personality resembles his 1960's Western works closely, particularly Wild Rovers, especially in its lyrical presentations of long-lined themes. There are no unpleasant cues in this short but smooth listening experience, "The Christmas" best combining all of the specialty instruments into one cue. While none of the master tapes of music from "The Waltons" has survived, Film Score Monthly managed to restore the remaining elements from "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story," and sound quality is normal for that period. Taking up the majority of the CD release of the Goldsmith score is Horner's "Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn," another CBS movie that followed in 1982. Stylistically a good companion piece to Goldsmith's "The Homecoming," Horner's "Rascals and Robbers" features much of the same small-scale Americana spirit, though with a much brighter personality. This production did not fare as well for CBS as the one that Goldsmith had scored, met with muted attention because of its awkward time slot and lack of really interesting characteristics. Its plot is a fairly standard variant on the activities of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, who this time spoil the exploits of swindlers in Missouri through their usual creative ways. Aside from a few notable supporting actors involved, the only footnote worth mentioning truly is Horner's contribution. The composer had been supporting himself with these kinds of obscure television assignments (along with the Roger Corman sci-fi schlock) for a few years, and "Rascals and Robbers" was the project composed just before his breakthrough with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. His recording environments for his early television scores were often daunting, including a few that utilized the basement of a church. For "Rascals and Robbers," Horner was given a slightly larger ensemble and the opportunity to record on a real stage at CBS, and the quality of the restored work on this product is impressively balanced and on par with his better known early 1980's albums. His group of 37 players consists of a regular spread of the orchestral sections but with fewer representatives of each instrument, with harmonica and guitar added for rural color. It's remarkable to hear these early scores by the composer for the first time, because so many of his trademarks from later years are clearly developed within them. Aside from exotic, East Indian distractions in the middle portion of the score, "Rascals and Robbers" is a highly consistent exhibit of Horner's 1980's mannerisms paraded very obvious in constant succession. The two scores foreshadowed the most are, ironically, Star Trek II and Something Wicked This Way Comes. The former manifests itself in the theme that Horner uses to express devious delight for Sawyer and Finn, as well as for Captain Kirk. The precursor to the giddy Starfleet theme is heard dominantly in "Rascals and Robbers," though the majority of wholesome children's genre material is better matched to Something Wicked This Way Comes. Horner collectors will hear half a dozen other trademark techniques on display in the score, and only in the eerie, seemingly synthetic accents to the trio of suspenseful cues at the end is anything truly original heard. There is no doubt that "Rascals and Robbers" will have a predictable impact upon listeners; Horner's detractors will be driven nuts by its lack or originality in retrospect, and his collectors will find it an undemanding and intellectually interesting glimpse into his very early writing. The 2011 FSM album containing both scores (each with their original source-like material and bumpers recorded specifically for commercial breaks) is well produced specifically for Goldsmith and Horner completists who seek to appreciate such music for what it is rather than lament the limitations of the recordings. If anything, the product exhibits talented composers making the best of low budgets and challenging circumstances, with effective and pleasant music that will be familiar to today's audience.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 54:36
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes detailed information about both television movies and
their scores.
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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 Homecoming: A Christmas Story/Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are Copyright © 2011, Film Score Monthly and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/20/11 (and not updated significantly since). |
