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Review of Lionheart (Jerry Goldsmith)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you seek one of Jerry Goldsmith's most definitive
action and romance scores, a hidden gem of immense symphonic power that
would inform many of the composer's best action works of the subsequent
decade.
Avoid it... on either of the incomplete 1987 albums, for the score's quality easily supports the longer presentations on the 1994 compilation and superior 2021 set, both of which in high demand from Goldsmith collectors.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Lionheart: (Jerry Goldsmith) The career of Frank
Schaffner began to unwind in the late 1970's, with several disappointing
feature films following a series of powerful depictions of serious
topics in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Not long before his death in
1989, the director made Lionheart, a loose retelling of a
somewhat true, 13th Century story of a group of children who decided to
join King Richard in the Crusades and elude slave traders on their
journey to the Holy Land. In real life, they were almost all captured
and entered slavery anyway, though Lionheart glosses over many of
the troubles inherent to their historical hardships and shifts the tale
into the realm of romantic fantasy. The young leads of this movie manage
to free a circus of children from bondage and fend off a local "black
prince" seeking to capture them for profit, all the while teenage
romance blossoms. Schaffner's kid-friendly tactic didn't work, however,
and the film disappeared almost immediately from theaters before a
short-lived run on cable television a few years later. The production is
only remembered by enthusiasts of the director and collectors of
composer Jerry Goldsmith's music. The two had collaborated on several
classic films over the course of Schaffner's career, yielding a handful
of Academy Award nominations for Goldsmith as a result of the
partnership. After several years working independently, the two teamed
up one last time for Lionheart, leading to one of Goldsmith's
longest scores (90 minutes) to that point in his career, though
surprisingly much of it was dialed out in the final picture. The
composer very much enjoyed working with Schaffner because of the
director's immense musical knowledge; the communication between the two
was as fluid as that between Goldsmith and Joe Dante, and the results
were arguably even better. At a time when Goldsmith's career was flying
high and Oscar nominations were a regular occurrence, Lionheart
represented an assignment delivered upon out of friendship rather than
delusions of grandeur, and like the obscure film Link from the
previous year, the plethora of Goldsmith loyalists are largely
responsible for any remembrance of Lionheart whatsoever.
It doesn't hurt the case of Lionheart that the composer wrote one of the most ambitious action scores of his career, a daunting orchestral juggernaut complete with Wagnerian motifs and some of the boldest tones that Goldsmith ever recorded. Many of the composer's most appreciated action powerhouses of the 1990's owe their stylistic development to Lionheart, especially First Knight, not surprisingly, and the work stands as a defining achievement despite its obscurity. It is precisely the sound of Lionheart that Goldsmith was attempting to emulate during the period of his career in the 1990's when so many of his works were perceived to sound like the composer was comfortably treading water on auto-pilot. After all, once you've nailed the action and adventure genre with broad, muscular music of intense satisfaction, then why try to reinvent that sound? More importantly, Lionheart stands as a bridge between the electronic and symphonic styles of Goldsmith's early 1980's tendencies and the truly matured, vibrant blend that he would achieve with Total Recall and subsequent successes in the genre. The electronics in this score, derivative of the rather harsh, faux-brass tones heard in Under Fire, Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, and, to a lesser extent, Legend, take a purely background role compared to the strong emphasis on brass in the orchestral ensemble. Only in a few of the Paris-related cues of almost filler character does Goldsmith allow the synthetics to carry the melodies for extended periods of time. The other-worldly tones of the electronics sometimes intermingle in duties with oboe solos that carry the tender portions, though the composer never shies away from applying the synth layers to augment the mystical and mysterious elements, sometimes quite overtly. Due to extreme budgetary constraints on the production, Goldsmith had to record the score in Hungary rather than London, and while that cost-cutting move sometimes exposes itself in the composer's recordings of the era, the performances of Lionheart are solid enough to suffice, even if the brass sounds rather muted at times. The composition isn't one of the composer's most complex, its lengthy romantic structures not particularly taxing for any ensemble. Not only does Lionheart contain a multitude of easily identifiable themes, but each one is above average for the composer. The primary identity exists for Robert, the boy leading the children on their journey; his anthem has the characteristics of a mature hymn above an often accelerated and heroic rhythm that reminds of both the composer's Western scores of a previous generation and a major-key regurgitation of the relentless pulsations in Capricorn One. The first three notes of the idea are hinted at the outset of the unused "The Castle (Main Title)," but stoic brass and soft woodwinds illuminate the melody in the first half of "The Ceremony." The theme increases its doses of bravado as the character matures; a secondary phrase in this theme, extended out to full performances in the memorable "King Richard/End Title," is redemptive in its shifting to lofty string shades, mingling with the love theme for Lionheart. This sensitively alluring idea, heard most prominently in "Robert and Blanche," retains the epic quality and optimistic nobility of Robert's theme (as well as a reliance on an opening three-note phrase that connects the two ideas' basic personality) while still offering a lush alternative to the larger than life identity of the score as a whole. The theme becomes a beacon of hope in the score's middle passages, gently expressed on woodwinds and strings in "The Future" and "Gates of Paris." The bulk of the melody's romantic duties carries over to "The Dress" and "The Lake," combining the eerie synthetic and string whispers of Under Fire with slight fantasy from Legend. Goldsmith saves a few momentous performances of the idea for "King Richard" at the end. The third major theme exists for Gabriel Byrne's villain in Lionheart, the dark prince who pursues the children for the purposes of selling them as slaves. Explored in its full form in "Children in Bondage" and culminating in its stomping victory posture in the latter half of "The Wrong Flag," this intriguing idea is placed over a militaristic rhythmic procession that suggests the inevitable brutality of the period. Its rigid structure, slightly disembodied character, and melodic progressions remind significantly of John Barry's brutal military music for films like The Last Valley and The Lion in Winter. The repetition of phrases in the idea gives it a determined, almost robotic demeanor, especially when synthetic layers build upon its depth. The long thematic lines of Lionheart, along with its swaying romanticism and repetition of phrases in many of its melodies, may remind listeners of Barry's expansive tones of the era as well, perhaps a nod to that composer's dominant and successful influence on defining the scope of landscape and romance-oriented concepts at the time. In addition to the three major themes of Lionheart, Goldsmith supplies a number of secondary motifs, and these identities also sometimes defy the composer's own playbook. The three-note figures that define the Robert theme from the first cues are highly flexible in structure and eventually yield to a heroic four-note variant that is revealed to exist for King Richard. This motif bursts forth briefly in "The Castle (Main Title)" but builds momentum in the synthetic, Hoosiers-like dream sequence of "The Lake" before transferring to Explorers-like symphonic exuberance in "King Richard" at the end. The three note phrases shared between these themes allows for extremely creative implementation by various players throughout the score, thus serving as the glue that holds Lionheart together as such a consistent work, and it invariably connects this score to the highly related First Knight. Other secondary motifs include a more exotic, almost Arabian tilt to the children's group as a whole, interjecting its descending phrasing into "Robert and Blanche" and offering playful and/or dejected renditions for the group's antics thereafter. A spritely theme akin to Basil Poledouris folk mannerisms is revealed in "Mathilda" for the secondary female love interest of the tale, and her theme is the basis for several upbeat interludes of humor in subsequent cues. Perhaps most impressive about Lionheart is that the score has no weak element, no single obnoxious cue in its 83 minutes that has survived on album. Even the less engaging moments in the work maintain the same level of thematic and instrumental mastery, all of which leading to the stunning, summarizing "King Richard/End Title" suite, easily among the best eight minutes of Goldsmith's career. With electronics largely dropped in this cue, making it an alluring choice for concert performances than never stuck later in his concert repertoire, prominent chimes and xylophone are comfortable elements of Goldsmith's style. A generous role for snare and timpani will appeal to enthusiasts of martial tones while the whimsical sound of Goldsmith's highest violin themes brings in the opposite end of the spectrum. Intelligent counterpoint in the form of the main three-note phrasing will satisfy those seeking depth. A digital recording allows Lionheart to be as dynamic in its soundscape on album as any Goldsmith score until his reverb-happy period of the late 1990's. The score was an object of much attention from Varèse Sarabande at the time of the film's debut. The label released two concurrent CDs in 1987 to coincide with their LP record issues of the score. Nearly the entire score (over 80 minutes of it) was provided over two separate products that were simultaneously released as "Volume 1" and "Volume 2," likely to accommodate LP running times. The bulk of important material was included on the first volume, but the second one, despite containing some filler material, features its own unique highlights in the form of variations on the three main themes. A third CD, released in 1994 and titled "The Epic Symphonic Score," took the entire first volume and added half of the second, omitting much of the less engaging, Paris-related material and bringing the combined running time up to 62 minutes. Despite reissues of the first two albums from Varèse's European distributor, Colosseum, from 1992 to 1994, all three volumes went out of print but remained in demand, often selling for over $50 apiece. Always deserving a limited, deluxe, 2-CD treatment despite the film's failure, Lionheart finally enjoyed such attention in 2021, Varèse returning to provide all available music from the score in a long-overdue chronological ordering that was absent on earlier products. The label was unable to uncover additional tracks in the same master quality as the previously offered music, but it did find and include two additional unused cues from a lesser source. This pair of cues represented the formal introduction of the villain material in "Bondage" and "The Black Prince," and while most of its four combined minutes is dedicated to bleak renditions of that theme, the first of the two cues offers a pretty harp, oboe, and synthesizer performance of the love theme. The sound quality of these two cues is noticeably poorer, and the label decided to divide the music across the two CDs in such a way as to include the two new cues at the end of the first CD while maintaining narrative ordering. As such, the two CDs aren't remotely balanced in length, but the tactic still makes good logical sense. On the whole, the sound quality of the previously released cues isn't radically improved, but the album is still highly recommended despite production problems that didn't stop it from quickly selling out of its 2,000-copy run. More so than perhaps any other music from the latter half of Goldsmith's illustrious career, Lionheart truly defines the overused term, "hidden gem."
TRACK LISTINGS:
1987 Volume 1 Album:
Total Time: 42:13
1987 Volume 2 Album: Total Time: 40:12
1994 Combination Album: Total Time: 62:11
2021 Deluxe Album: Total Time: 82:58
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts of all the albums contain notes about the score and film. The
packaging of the two 1987 albums is sparse while the notation in the 2021 album
is particularly extensive.
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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 Lionheart are Copyright © 1987, 1994, 2021, Varèse Sarabande (Volume 1), Varèse Sarabande (Volume 2), Varèse Sarabande (Combination), Varèse Sarabande (Deluxe) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/17/09 and last updated 7/11/21. |
