Goldsmith provides a European demeanor by adding
specialty instrumentation on top of the orchestra, including cimbalom,
harpsichord, electric guitar, saxophone, electric organ, and bass
guitar. These elements give the score a somewhat postmodern Baroque
feeling that defies the time even if contains instruments popular to the
early 1970's. Goldsmith wrote two themes for
The Last Run, one a
dominant, primary melody for Scott's criminal and the other an action
motif with a secondary set of figures for the element of panic. The main
theme is a typically lovely, melancholy character identity of romantic
lament, one of the composer's most attractive ideas of his experimental
years during the early 1970's. The long-lined and elegantly European
theme received a song version that was recorded only for the album and
does not appear in the film; that song is Goldsmith easy listening at
its finest and captures the spirit of the movie while maintaining just
enough connectivity with the score. The theme opens the movie on solo
cimbalom in "Main Title" before shifting to electric guitar over
harpsichord, and a lonely saxophone performance over strings in the
latter half of this cue is a highlight. The electric guitar reprises its
position over harpsichord in "The Last Run," and violins carry the tune
for an extended romantic performance over guitar plucks in that cue. The
solemn cimbalom offers a sad, quiet rendition early in "Claudie's
Stockings" while the harpsichord tentatively extends the idea in
"Claudie Says 'Yes'," where the theme finally enjoys some moderate
warmth in the role of a romance identity, even if fleeting. A
surprisingly upbeat and a bit dreamy rendition closes the movie in the
first half of "End Title," reducing to a softly tragic performance for
the specialty instruments under violins. The movie opts the use silence
for the final killing, sadly, robbing the score of any catharsis. On the
flip side, the harrowing chase theme is a rambling action motif in
persistent and brash rhythmic excitement typical to Goldsmith. The
guitar and harpsichord, joined by cimbalom, dance through the theme in
"Rickard Escapes" while brass stabs accentuate certain notes over
frantic harpsichord rhythms, the combination of sounds a bit
jarring.
A nasty electric guitar is manipulated for suspense in
"Double Cross," and the action theme becomes highly stylish with the pop
elements in "Border Crossing," including very cool percussion by the
end; nice xylophone lines and pounding timpani build anticipation here,
but the actual, subsequent chase is then unscored. The panic-oriented
lines of the chase melody explode with desperation in "The Trap," flutes
providing some remarkable performances of the descending lines. Among
the source cues, the sex scene music in the latter half of "Claudie's
Stockings" is oddly dreamy in its artificially pop-like whimsy. The
other two tracks are quite gorgeous, "Yo Te Amo" a lovely source piece
of soft pop romance that fits the instrumentation of the score well even
if the vocals near the end are a bit cheesy. The Spanish-flavored,
orchestral piece in "Spanish Coast" is exceptionally lush and
attractive, though only the acoustic guitar opening appears in the film.
On the whole, Goldsmith provided the necessary, attractive theme of
intrigue for the lead character, but the remainder of the work is
pedestrian outside of the two pretty source pieces. The contemporary
sound of the electric guitar and bass never really becomes bothersome
outside of a few moments during the action, Goldsmith able to keep the
sound mostly European in a classical sense. The film version of the
score has never been released on album and is presumed to be lost,
though the "Main Titles" cue is isolated in the picture. Generally, the
versions of cues Goldsmith arranged for the album are superior, and the
sound quality is outstanding for the era. In fact, the recording
contains amounts of reverb at times that fans of the composer didn't
hear often until the late 1990's. The album recording was released
commercially on an LP record at the time of the film's debut, and that
presentation has since been provided twice on CD. The 2000 Chapter III
and 2007 Film Score Monthly albums both combine
The Last Run with
other scores on the same product, the FSM one offering Goldsmith's music
for the television production
Crosscurrent, which is
stylistically very similar to
The Last Run. Either album will
provide the recording's quality presence, and Goldsmith collectors will
especially appreciate the flavorful rendering and melodic grace of the
score's main theme and source music.
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