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Goldsmith |
Hoosiers: (Jerry Goldsmith) One of the definitive
sports movies in the history of Hollywood,
Hoosiers is an
essential piece of Americana filmmaking. Directed by David Anspaugh (who
would continue on to direct another similarly themed concept in 1993's
Rudy), the film captures a piece of Indiana life with an
authenticity that few have ever accomplished. A disgraced, out of town
basketball coach, performed brilliantly by Gene Hackman, arrives to
guide an underdog high school basketball team, the Hickory Huskers, to
an improbable state title. It is, like
Rudy, the ultimate message
about motivation, faith, self-confidence, and achievement against the
odds. The small-town spirit depicted by Anspaugh is almost religious in
its powerful appeal, and the film's heart and loyalty to character depth
required a score that could help motivate those characters onto their
path to rewarding success. Jerry Goldsmith was emerging from arguably
the most successful period of his career in 1986, with several of his
most dynamic scores produced in the prior ten years. He had branched out
from his usual science fiction, horror, and war drama assignments to
compose for children's films, fantasy, and animation. Also a pioneer in
the integration of synthesized elements into a symphony orchestra,
Goldsmith was becoming fond of utilizing electronics as a fifth member
of the ensembles for his works at the time. In fact, by 1986, he had
completed the electronically rich
Legend, and while that score
would be partially replaced in the final theatrical cut, it proved to
film music collectors that his techniques of applying his Yamaha
keyboards and other electronic instruments to an orchestral canvas were
truly mastered. Goldsmith loved scoring the adversity of sports dramas,
and when approaching
Hoosiers, he had the additional challenge of
augmenting the autumnal setting of Indiana in the 1950's. With a fully
symphonic score expected by his fans, it was a complete shock when
Goldsmith's end product for
Hoosiers was a piece of music
dominated by electronics. The fit didn't seem natural when mentioned by
the word of mouth, and yet, when all was said and done, the composer
somehow managed, just like the Huskers, to pull off the impossible.
Goldsmith single-handedly proved the legitimacy of employing electronics
in period dramas by composing and mixing one of greatest hybrid scores
of all time for
Hoosiers.
So natural is the music for this film that the listener is
completely enveloped into the world of 1950's Indiana during the
heartfelt scene of travel at the start of the film without realizing
that the score is, despite its organic elements, electronically defined.
That opening title cue, adapted into a similar end credits variation
tacked on as the last five minutes at the conclusion of the score's
original LP and CD albums, offers the score's main, pure melody of
historic beauty. This cue, "Main Title - Welcome to Hickory,"
single-handedly launched the film and score from their opening minutes
all the way to multiple Academy Award nominations. This theme of
redemption and regional simplicity ties together all the character and
location elements in the story, and some film music veterans have gone
so far as to argue that the opening five minutes featuring this theme
(and cleverly previewing the later victory theme as an interlude and
conclusion) in
Hoosiers, with only the score heard in association
with the visuals, is one the most impressively understated moments of
music and film congruence ever. It's hard to disagree, though people who
are fixated on the tender moments of the
Hoosiers score forget
that Goldsmith's innovative sounds during the climatic scenes on the
basketball court are another remarkable treasure. It's not often that
even the greatest composers accomplished what Goldsmith did for the game
scenes in
Hoosiers. He took the sound of a basketball bouncing
off of a hardwood floor and mutated it into several variations,
depending on how distant the ball was from the listener. He then
utilized the main, up front bouncing ball for the majority of his beats
in the score (supplied in his perfectly appropriate 7/8 rhythms) and
accentuated other moments dictating percussive beats with the other
bouncing variations, some in drum pad style. The result is a powerful
and bass-rich score that sounds strangely effective even though most
casual movie-goers likely didn't clearly make the bouncing ball
connection. Along with other tingling synthetic elements, including some
straight forward keyboarding on his Yamahas, these sounds are
accompanied by a full orchestra. The strings are consistently utilized
in every cue, woodwinds carry the most personable moments, and solo
brass accents are woven into the percussive textures without resorting
to obvious thematic duties outside of the score's famous trumpet solos.
Rhythmic propulsion is expertly applied, with tempi carefully tailored,
much like
Rudy, to how well the team is performing during game
sequences.
The score for
Hoosiers is extremely melodic, almost
to a fault. You can understand by the victory scene at the end of the
finals sequence why Goldsmith spent so much time developing his themes
until that one, massively heroic statement of emotion. While the
aforementioned, primary theme captures the spirit and charm of the team,
its individuals, and community in Indiana, Goldsmith's arguably more
memorable ideas exist in a packaged related to the game of basketball.
He does separate the game-related melodies with specific intent; in the
concert arrangement of the "Theme From Hoosiers" (which is performed
electronically only by Goldsmith on the albums and could have served as
a demo for the assignment), the composer divides the piece between its
driving, inspirational half for the game and its intimate half of
introspection that eventually flourishes as a representation of triumph.
Boiling them down to their most simplistic descriptors, the idea in the
first two minutes of this suite is the "game theme" and the following
two minutes offer the "victory theme" (intermingling at times with the
Hickory theme, as at 2:27). The main game theme is largely static in its
applications, with cues like "You Did Good," "Get the Ball" and the
first two-thirds of "Finals" exploring its potential with all the
driving intensity that Hackman's character inspires in his players. An
intriguing Western, Aaron Copland-styled subtheme inhabits a variant of
this idea in "The Pivot" and "Free Shot," though the game theme is still
the backbone of the former cue. Less transparent is the victory theme,
which understandably experiences the most growth throughout the picture.
This is the idea that delicately opens the film, bracketing "Main Title
- Welcome to Hickory" with a ghostly, solo synthesizer foreshadowing of
what is to come. Its intermingling with the Hickory theme's lovely
trumpet and electronic flute performances is joined by a friendly,
two-note rising motif that accentuates each shift in harmonic
progression (this high range effect gorgeously concludes the end credits
version of the cue). These lighter themes are eventually passed to the
violins in this early cue, with Goldsmith's trademark rambling of soft
keyboarding flowing with elegance underneath. Those who appreciate the
composer's mid-range, tingling synthesizer effects will enjoy their
contributions to this score. The victory theme, like Hackman and his
players, gains confident throughout the score until its cymbal-crashing
explosion at 8:45 into "The Finals" introduces the Hickory theme in full
orchestral glory. Several secondary themes and motifs round out the
work, including a few somber ideas for scenes of conflict and
conversation in "Town Meeting" and "Someone I Know."
It's interesting to note that the victory scene concluding
Hoosiers, in which Goldsmith's score once again holds the
soundscape alone for a time for poignant effect, is one of the only
moments in the score during which the full orchestral ensemble performs
without any electronics, a redemptive, organic way to conclude such a
personal story. The performances of both the victory and Hickory halves
of Goldsmith's main identity for
Hoosiers convey the ultimate in
major-key excellence, warming the listener's heart and begging for
repeat listens. The secondary themes (outside of the obvious game
variety) do slow the score's inevitable sense of propulsion, though many
of the sequences employing them yield to lovely performances of the
Hickory portion of the main theme. For instance, hidden about two
minutes into "Town Meeting" is a beautiful electronic performance of the
idea (which at this point is something of a perseverance theme), and the
electronic keyboarding in "Chester" is equally charming. The lighter
portions of the score illustrate another interesting aspect of
Goldsmith's recording, its masterful variation in wet and dry mixing of
different elements. Just before the aforementioned electronic woodwind
effect in "Town Meeting," a real woodwind is very dryly presented. The
subsequent synthetic variant is extremely distant and echoing. This
technique of alternating atmospheres exists from the opening cue, and it
establishes the electronics as a dream-like element of yearning (causing
some to term the score "optimistically dreamy"). If the orchestra always
bursts forth at moments when the players actually achieve their goals,
then the synthetics represent their intangible aspirations. As the coach
enters town at the start, nothing better reflects his personal demons
and hopes than the slightly nebulous atmosphere created by these
tingling and echoing electronics. Still, intimacy is key to the success
of
Hoosiers. The fact that Goldsmith was able to capture this
spirit of closeness in the Hickory theme is no surprise, but the
engaging personality of the game theme is indeed a significant
achievement. Every moment of this score envelopes the listener equally,
just as the film remarkably makes you care about this small town
basketball team. In his long, illustrious career, Goldsmith's most
personally affecting scores are often his less heralded in the
mainstream. Whether it's
A Patch of Blue for the Silver Age or
The Russia House for the Digital Age, Goldsmith's most touching
work isn't always his flashiest. While a different animal in terms of
its higher activity levels than those other scores,
Hoosiers
clearly occupies this definitive position for the composer in the Bronze
Age.
The awarding of the original score Oscar for 1986 to
Herbie Hancock for
'Round Midnight is considered one of the
greatest of the many injustices that have befallen nominees for that
category. Ennio Morricone and, to a lesser extent, James Horner were
worthy of recognition that year, though Goldsmith's
Hoosiers
stands in a class of its own because of its immense, counterintuitive
impact on the picture. There will always be debates about the merits of
Hoosiers when compared to the better known
Rudy, though
while the later score equally captured the spirit of competition on the
field of play, the former better addresses the soul of the narrative in
its entirety. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is
Rudy you hear
playing at American football games and
Hoosiers offered at their
basketball counterparts, and despite better recognition for
Rudy
in the mainstream, the application of Goldsmith's work for
Hoosiers to the whole film (and a superior one at that), not just
the game and practice sequences, makes the 1986 entry the better
achievement. Tragically,
Hoosiers has never been released on a
regular commercial CD in America. It existed most famously on CD under
its international name of
Best Shot (after all, who outside of
America actually knows what a Hoosier is?) on a European (and British
distributed) branch of the Polydor label called "That's Entertainment
Records," and it has always been available at a slightly higher price as
an import in America. A cassette was ironically released in America with
the same contents and the correct
Hoosiers name. Similarly, an
identical CD album with the
Hoosiers name came out of Japan in
the mid-1990's. The pressings of these albums ranged from 1987 to 1995,
so many copies of all versions are floating around the market, largely
satisfying heightened demand for the score. The editing of the
rearrangement for that album is not the best, with the end credits
existing after a sharp edit and several cues badly out of order and
artificially pieced together. This is the way Goldsmith intended the
album to be presented for the original LP release, and his assembly of
"The Finals" was reportedly a great labor of love for him. Even though
the sound quality of the recording of the orchestra sounded slightly
dated in its editing from the digital masters, the electronics of the
score are so dynamic that you will not notice that age to any great
extent. The ensemble was recorded in Hungary, a tremendous irony when
you think about it, and there was protest from America's musicians
unions at the time. The performances are not always perfect, with notable,
distracting flubs from the trumpet at 0:40 and 1:00 into "Main Title -
Welcome to Hickory" a minor tragedy for such a great cue.
The only way to hear "Main Title - Welcome to Hickory"
on album, however, trumpet flubs and all, is on a spectacular expanded
edition of
Hoosiers made available by Intrada Records near the
end of 2012. This long awaited album was the result of years of effort
by the label, and it presents the entirety of the score in chronological
film order (with the exception of a recreation of Goldsmith's later cues
into "The Finals" and the omission of a few repeated takes in the film).
The additional cues are well worth the initial $20 price of the album,
the pairing of "Main Title - Welcome to Hickory" and "Chester" yielding
five minutes of absolutely essential music. The new secondary themes of
serious character support in "No More Basketball" and "Someone I Know"
give the score an added dimension, and many of these cues feature
performances of the heartwarming Hickory theme (including "Empty
Inside"). Better variation on the game theme is also presented on this
hour-long album, "First Workout" slowly building steam and introducing
the electronic beats. That game theme is mutated into a unique form in
"Get It Up," and the victory theme is given another orchestra-only burst
in "Free Shot." For fans of the Copeland-like game motif, "Last Foul"
expands its usage. The only somewhat unnecessary additional cue is "The
Gym," the moment of awe for sustained violin note and fragments of theme
for nearly three minutes as the team does a walk-through on the finals
court in preparation for the big game. Interestingly, Intrada does not
provide any alternate takes or bonus cues for its presentation of
Hoosiers, though the listening experience of the complete score
alone easily carries the product. Taken from the digital masters for the
recording, the sound quality of the 2012 album is noticeably improved,
especially in the absolutely crystal clear tone of the electronics. In
this form, the score sounds as good as
Rudy, if not better in
some ways. There remains an odd background drone in the bass during the
eerie electronic flute performance of the main theme in "Town Meeting,"
however. Overall, however, Intrada has done tremendous justice to the
score with their limited product; between
Hoosiers and
The
Shadow, Goldsmith enthusiasts of the younger generations owe Intrada
significant gratitude in 2012.
Hoosiers remains one of
Goldsmith's crowning achievements, a testament to the notion that you
can take the intellectually wrong instruments for the job and make them
work brilliantly. Not only should
Hoosiers be the staple of any
Goldsmith collection, it should be a top priority for all film score
enthusiasts, especially on the expanded 2012 album. Few scores demand
the level of respect that is due this infectiously lovely and
enthusiastically inspiring classic.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.29
(in 116 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.31
(in 149,940 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The inserts of the Polydor albums include no extra information about the
score or film. That of the 2012 Intrada album features extensive information about
the film but no cue-by-cue analysis of the score.