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Review of The Legend of Bagger Vance (Rachel Portman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you seek the ultimate maturation of Rachel Portman's
elegant and graceful romantic writing, highlighted by the quantity of
themes, the scope of instrumentation, and the intangible sense of
mystical spirit.
Avoid it... if you've never understood what all the fuss is about regarding Portman's transparent and simplistic style for the dramatic genre.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Legend of Bagger Vance: (Rachel Portman)
Director Robert Redford has always had a soft spot for vintage sports
movies, and in 2000 he attempted to use the story of a resurrected
golfer of the 1920's much in the same fashion as The Natural had
done for the sport of baseball earlier in his career. Dreamworks' The
Legend of Bagger Vance was supposed to balance that fine line
between box office hit and arthouse favorite, with a spectacular visual
representation of the era hosting a reverent style of character study, a
sporty underdog element, and the always thoughtful analytical
comparisons between a game and real life. Bankable young stars Matt
Damon, Charlize Theron, and Will Smith acted under the narration of Jack
Lemmon, and while Redford attempted to use Smith's wise character of
Bagger Vance to help reignite the soul of the talented, but war weary
golfer Rannulph Junuh (played by Damon), critics regularly pounced on
the predictably two-dimensional aspects of those characters. Because of
the failed adaptation of Steven Pressfield's novel, audiences missed the
point of The Legend of Bagger Vance, leaving it as a beautiful
but rather pointless sports story. Composer Rachel Portman was seemingly
a perfect fit for the film; her career was still at the height of its
award-winning popularity in 2000, and her style of composition was
synonymous with dramatic romanticism in a timeless fashion that only her
whimsical piano, string, and woodwind-dominated ensembles could provide.
She was the modern incarnation of John Barry, and as both a female
artist and a composer of simple, beautiful themes, she was the darling
of the industry. It would be difficult to imagine that her Oscar
nominated score for The Cider House Rules (which many had
predicted would win the award) wasn't used as a temp track in The
Legend of Bagger Vance, for the latter score is a flourishing
extension of the previous score's style. As Portman stated at the time,
Redford "was keen to get me involved as early as possible and was
closely involved in helping me find the right direction in the score.
The inspiration for the music came from the themes and characters in the
film. It is a story about a hero who has lost his will to succeed, and
his spiritual journey."
Because her score so closely resembles the elegant romanticism of her previous dramatic efforts (like The Cider House Rules and Only You, among others), the large segment of the film music community hostile to her compositional style has always written The Legend of Bagger Vance off as a mediocre to average score at best. But there are several aspects of The Legend of Bagger Vance that set it apart from those previous efforts. First, it would prove to be the last of Portman's sweeping, romantic scores for many years, largely concluding her string of success in the genre. Secondly, the score would serve as the ultimate maturation of the structures heard through her those famous romantic scores, diverging from her monothematic tendencies as well as her limited instrumental palette. Finally, a combination of the film's cult following in subsequent years and the fact the album was pressed by the Chapter III Records label just as it was going out of business caused the limited press run of the album to be in extremely high demand. As a side note, the score was additionally the final one to be recorded in England's famed CTS Studios before the landmark's demise to make way for the construction of Wembley Stadium. The first two defining aspects of the score introduced above go hand-in-hand. It's fitting that Portman's last large-scale venture into this style of writing be her best, and it's unlikely (though certainly possible) that she'll be able to provide a better packaging of that era's beauty in another score. Her ensemble is expanded to include notable roles for both brass and, in a very unusual move for her, choir. The number of themes in The Legend of Bagger Vance is no less than five, and while four of them share similarities in the basic chord progressions familiar to her career, each flows with its own share of full attention from the ensemble. A final theme, meant to represent the comical side of the story, emulates the kind of marching scherzo dating back to The Adventures of Pinocchio and The Road to Wellville, with lively roles for tuba and French horn. The scope of The Legend of Bagger Vance is thus far more broad than Portman's previous efforts in the genre, ensuring its quietly graceful superiority. While the score may reach into the well of romanticism with a far larger hand, Portman stays true to the respectful dignity and almost mystical spiritualism of the film's story. It's a score rich in the heart and soul of the film's sensitive touch, turning normal conversational cues into eerily magical explorations of harmony. No other score in Portman's career, with the exception of parts of Only You, exudes the same balance of restraint and electricity. It's an inspirational score more than anything, foregoing the usual, overt sports appeal that Jerry Goldsmith so brilliantly utilized and opting instead for a soul-searching expression of the each character. What's remarkable about her success in this case is that most of the elements are the same; the piano, for instance, establishes rhythms joined eventually by strings and woodwinds in the same fashion as always. But in cues like "Junuh Sees the Field" and "Junuh Comes Out of the Woods," Portman slowly increases the tempo in proportion to the number of players performing the motif, eventually leading to gorgeous choral accompaniment in both cues. She had experimented with wild tempo variations previously, but never with the subtle touch she exhibits here. The individual themes don't particularly need to be differentiated. The title theme in the opening and closing score tracks on album, as well as "Hole in One," is led by solo trumpet (perhaps an inspiration from William Ross' Tin Cup golf movie score) and eventually receives the bloated string layers from The Cider House Rules in their fullest grandeur. Others, such as the similarly layered subtheme for Vance in "Bagger Offers to Caddy for Jonuh," are equally attractive in their upbeat attitude of survival and success. Overall, The Legend of Bagger Vance seemingly floats in mid air. Portman's whimsical meanderings, with her delicate piano solos, flighty strings, and inspiring chorus, offer a continuously rewarding listening experience. Outside of the scherzo's appearances late in three cues and a victorious snare-led variant of Vance's theme in "Bagger Leaves," this is a consistent score that effortlessly conveys a positive feeling of soaring freedom. It is an appropriately spiritual collection of cues that can tell a great story in and of themselves, regardless of Redford's use of the music, and this is a quality of an expert composition. The album release by Chapter III Records contains about forty consecutive minutes of score and three appropriate period songs at the beginning and end. The label had only been releasing film scores since late 1998, and after a series of substandard score releases through the subsequent 18 months, the label released two outstanding albums in 2000: an expanded release of David Arnold's impressive Tomorrow Never Dies and, in its final days, The Legend of Bagger Vance. The Portman score's album wouldn't receive a full-length factory pressing and/or distribution, causing it to sell out quickly from stores and driving its price on the secondary market to astronomical amounts. Many years later, The Legend of Bagger Vance still fetches frightening sums in used sales, speaking to both the cult popularity of the film and, more extensively, the quality of Portman's score and the loyalty of her collectors. Make no mistake about it: if you have never cared for Portman's romantically melodic and admittedly simplistic scores prior to this one, then you'll likely be left wondering what all the fuss is about. For such listeners, it'll be a pedestrian experience. For Portman's collectors, however, there hasn't been a score in her career that has been better matched with its film. Unfortunately for those listeners, the film's lack of immediate success sunk the score's chances at an Oscar nomination, and her career has not since flourished with music of equivalent sensitivity and grace. *****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 47:48
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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