Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,518
Written 12/16/97, Revised 3/5/06
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Buy it... if you are familiar with Lee Holdridge's typically
restrained, but highly respectful style of unassuming orchestral music
for historical documentaries.
Avoid it... if you're accustomed to the more popularly-known
docu-drama music for Jewish suffering with larger, more robust
recordings from A-list composers.
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| Holdridge |
The Long Way Home: (Lee Holdridge) In the genre of
documentaries and historical dramatic fiction, few digital age composers
have quietly assembled as impressive a collection of works as Lee
Holdridge. The composer's collaboration with the Moriah Film division of
Simon Wiesenthal Center would be highlighted by The Long Way Home
in 1997 and continue at least to Unlikely Heroes in 2004. Highly
acclaimed and winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary in its year
of release, The Long Way Home was the launching success in the
studio's regular output of films depicting different aspects of Jewish
history during the tumultuous years between the end of World War II and
the establishment of the state of Israel. In this specific case, The
Long Way Home examines the tragedy that occurred for displaced Jews
after their liberation, with some refugee camp survivors attempting to
reassimilate into the German population, some staying at the camps under
(obviously better) British and American care, and others, of course,
emigrating to various parts of the world. The negotiations between the
British and Palestinians about Jewish settlers to their homeland is also
followed, exposing govermental blunders and mass societal failures along
the way. While not pleasant in subject matter by any means, The Long
Way Home won critics over with its elegant lead narration by Morgan
Freeman and the reading of letters and diaries through the film by other
well known voices. As with any documentary, the musical underscore would
be required to set an evenly distributed background for this dialogue,
and at this, Holdridge easily succeeds. Primarily a composer for
television films, Holdridge has always provided compelling music for the
documentaries to which he has been assigned, and the films about the
Holocaust specifically seem to inspire some of his strongest original
ideas and adaptations.
For
The Long Way Home, Holdridge would
accomplish the same technically eloquent integration of traditional
music that he would achieve in his other Holocaust-related scores. As we
would hear to a greater extent in
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories
of the Kindertransport, Holdridge and regular collaborating
orchestrator Ira Hearchen have a knack for superior adaptations of
traditional Jewish pieces. In this case, performances of "Rad Halilah"
and "Od Yishoma" are sprinkled throughout the score with little
deviation from the underscore (though "Rad Halilah" does provide a
rhythmically upbeat break from Holdridge's heavily dramatic score).
Holdridge's appeal to filmmakers in these genres is his classically
lyrical and enticingly melodic styles of writing, and
The Long Way
Home features one of Holdridge's more powerful themes. Introduced in
the titles and flourishing in "Coming to America" and the finale cues,
the title theme is defiantly performed by brass while remaining rooted
in a largely restrained structure. Holdridge's music evokes appropriate
emotions at every turn, whether performed by the full ensemble or the
numerous woodwind solos in the work. The important aspect of
The Long
Way Home to remember, though, is that like Holdridge's other works
in the genre, he takes no chances. Predictably light-handed on
orchestrations and featuring no stand-out solos, the score is
sufficiently respectful without drawing any attention to itself.
Comparing it to more contemporary scores relating to Jewish affairs,
The Long Way Home has nothing as outwardly appealing in its music
as John Williams'
Munich or, more directly, Ennio Morricone's
Fateless. While significant connections between
The Long Way
Home and
Fateless could be drawn, doing so would diminish
Holdridge's efforts if only because of a difference in ensemble size and
recording quality. Without a doubt,
The Long Way Home is a score
that could have significantly gained from a more vibrant recording of a
larger, more robust symphony. On paper, Holdridge's score is
outstanding, and while it is easy to appreciate in its recorded form,
you can't help but think of how powerful this music could have been with
more money backing its production.
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Bias Check:
For Lee Holdridge reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.77
(in 14 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.34
(in 7,825 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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