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| Goldsmith |
The Lonely Guy: (Jerry Goldsmith) It took several
cinematic attempts for comedian Steve Martin to translate his stage
success into box office grosses, and 1984's
The Lonely Guy was
one stumbling block along that journey. The accomplished television and
stage star had the misfortune of starring in a few total duds before
finding his stride on the big screen, and in
The Lonely Guy he
conveys the role of a prototypical "lonely guy" in the big city, a
hopeless bachelor who suffers terrible luck with women. He's one of
countless such men in the population, and
The Lonely Guy
comedically pilfers all the stereotypes of such nice but unlaid
malcontents across New York City. Martin's character, after several
failed relationships, eventually writes a book about and for lonely guys
everywhere, propelling him to stardom that, ironically, brings him
plenty of sudden attention from the ladies. It's a throw-away movie with
a few moderately humorous gags but ultimately fails as a romantic comedy
because of its insufferable generalizations and insistence upon
remaining far more charming than its vulgar competition. More
importantly for film score collectors, though,
The Lonely Guy
represented composer Jerry Goldsmith's first foray into the realm of
silly comedy since the 1960's. While he soon tackled the genre in the
latter half of the 1980's with both zeal and success, the assignment to
this 1984 film was a massive and sudden departure for a man who had
written some the most serious and orchestrally powerful film scores of
the previous ten years. Perhaps more than most other projects,
The
Lonely Guy frustrated Goldsmith during the recording process, his
short score experiencing several re-writes at the behest of the
filmmakers and the composer's own dissatisfaction with the product. The
actual unique score material appearing in the movie only amounts to just
over twenty minutes in length, but that didn't stop Goldsmith from
tinkering extensively with the few prominent cues he did manage to get
into the film.
Not surprisingly,
The Lonely Guy made use of
several song placements, and these formed the basis for the LP record
album release that existed at the time of the film's release. Alongside
album arrangements of two Goldsmith cues on that brief presentation was
"Love Comes Without Warning," the pop song he wrote for the main titles
of the movie and performed by the band America. Nearly everything
contained in Goldsmith's score is structurally related to that "Love
Comes Without Warning" song. Its performance by America is so disparate
(and badly dated now) in style from the composer's own instrumentals
that some listeners may not pick up on all the melodic connections. The
tone of Goldsmith's score is chipper and upbeat in most cues, utilizing
a moderate orchestra but relying very heavily on his developing
electronics at the time. The synthetic harpsichord and other keyboarded
tones are joined by his standard drum kit, a few sound effects like a
barking dog and siren interspersed but not always making the picture.
The synthetics in
The Lonely Guy are recognizable to Goldsmith's
palette but nowhere near as refined as they would be in
The
'Burbs, serving more of a testing ground for
Gremlins but
less comfortable against the symphonic portions. There are passages of
romantic string, woodwind, and pop-oriented keyboarding that are as
pleasant as any character theme provided by Goldsmith for his slew of
1990's scores of similar stature, but don't expect any of these moments
to last long. The song is constructed from three melodies that Goldsmith
applies in various guides in nearly every cue of the score. The A phrase
is a whimsical and melancholy identity that is the easiest to digest for
its somber but pretty applications throughout the work. It blurts
through several comedic incarnations during "In Dedication," "House
Hunt," and "Joggers Do It" but gains smoother textures by "No Number"
and later on. The song's bridge section is a sappier extension of this
main character theme, adapted at the ends of "I Understand" and "The
Magazines" in the score for the ultimate expressions of desperate want
and longing.
Much flashier is Goldsmith's accelerated, rhythmic B
phrase from the main song, which resembles a preview of his backing for
the
Gremlins theme and occasionally earns some propulsive
keyboarded base presence a la
Explorers. Even this optimistic
expression of every lonely guy's hope of getting laid ultimately cannot
escape its destiny as a romantic string theme from Goldsmith in later
passages, becoming buoyant by "The Book." It also supplies the most
openly orchestral moment of drama in "So Empty." The action material in
The Lonely Guy is totally flimsy, the duo of "The Wedding" and
"Abandon Ship" testing your patience in its intrusive pop infusions over
the composer's own mannerisms. In the end, it's a score of moderate
intellectual interest for Goldsmith collectors but not worth much
pursuit. At best, five to ten minutes of the more palatable romantic
material could be culled for a smooth experience. The work was never
released on its own until a 2018 album from Intrada that contained both
the songs and score from the picture. Don't expect much from the songs,
and the score presentation is mainly bolstered by a large quantity of
alternate takes that the label included to illuminate Goldsmith's
struggles on the recording stage to find the right tone for numerous
passages. The "In Dedication" cue that parodies Richard Strauss' "Also
Sprach Zarathustra" and
2001: A Space Odyssey for the caveman
opening of the film received no less than eight variations, and
ironically the original options were the best at accomplishing the task.
(As fate would have it, the humorous musical poke was entirely dialed
out of the film anyway.) The same could be said of the other cues with
many revisions; Goldsmith's initial renditions were typically the best.
Intrada's limited (and inevitably sold-out) album includes instrumental
takes on the song and the original two album arrangements from 1984. The
quality of the recording is fine, on par with other Goldsmith scores of
the era. It's a curious product that will fill a rare hole in an avid
Goldsmith collector's discography from the composer's 1980's years, but
it's simply not worth obtaining on the merits of the music alone.
Goldsmith achieved far greater heights in the genre not long after.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.27
(in 122 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.3
(in 150,403 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes detailed information about the score and film.
