: (Jerry Goldsmith/Bill Payne) A largely
forgotten film about American segregation from director Jonathan Kaplan,
is a modern period study of a Dallas housewife (a
demanding leading performance from Michelle Pfeiffer) and her contact
with a travelling black family on a bus trip to Washington D.C. in the
early 1960's. With the woman motivated by her idolization of Jacqueline
Kennedy and embarking on a forbidden journey to the funeral of John F.
Kennedy, she is forced to deal with her relationship with the black man
and his daughter as they make their way. Both the police and the woman's
husband initiate a search for the awkward threesome, and the film
focuses on how these primary characters overcome their racial
differences to continue seeking their dreams. The movie was a production
disaster, Denzel Washington departing just as filming started and the
studio struggling through bankruptcy at the time. The project represents
one of composer Jerry Goldsmith's lesser known points of interest;
coming in the middle of an extremely hectic pair of years for the
composer (1992 and 1993),
is understandably lost
amongst Goldsmith's other, flashier achievements of the time. Tired of
writing dense scores for action movies, the composer sought more
intimate and dramatic assignments that allowed him to explore his
lyrical side, and Kaplan's project gave him that chance. His
contribution to the film amounted to less than an hour, but much of that
music was removed from the final version of the movie as the studio
sought to appease Pfeiffer's unease with it prior to release. (She was
also a producer for the project.) Over the objections of Kaplan, a
substantial amount of that Goldsmith material was replaced by solo piano
music composed by keyboardist Bill Payne, a founding member of the
1970's band "Little Feat." Payne's bluesy contribution to
is painfully stark by contrast to Goldsmith's lushly sensitive
orchestral work, and it remains easily identifiable in the film to the
trained ears of displeased Goldsmith collectors. Most of the composer's
major cues in the movie were replaced by variants of the same blues
performance by Payne. For many years, this music was available as a
piece called Theme From Love Field" by various artists on genre
compilations, and this was the only representation on album for Payne's
work for the project.
The senseless rejection of the bulk of Goldsmith's
music for
Love Field did not permanently sour the relationship
between Goldsmith and Kaplan, however, for the composer and director
would team up once again for the flavorful
Bad Girls not long
after. Regardless of Payne's unfortunate involvement, the soundtrack for
Love Field is still best remembered by film music collectors for
the pretty and occasionally snazzy blues-influenced primary theme
afforded the story and its location by Goldsmith. In between this tender
theme featured best at the start and finish of the score, the tragic and
suspenseful middle portions of
Love Field have much more in
common with
The Vanishing, a striking shift in personality that
strips away the initial flavor. Goldsmith had a knack for writing classy
themes of blue or jazz inclination in the late 1980's and early 1990's
(aside from his occasional forays into light rock and other more
blatantly urban tones along the lines of
Rent-A-Cop), and
Love
Field contains one of the more heartfelt and relaxing incarnations
of those endeavors. Heard mostly in the opening and concluding cues of
the score but appearing in snippets throughout, this theme offers all
the innocence of a breezy Goldsmith children's identity with the
distinctive zip and enthusiasm of Southern blues attitude. A touch of
Thomas Newman's
Fried Green Tomatoes is to be heard in this tone,
though perhaps more easily accessible in this form. Led by surprisingly
crisp piano performances by design and mix, this main theme rolls with
elegance as easy-going strings, pleasant woodwinds, and occasional
minimal brass or synthetic counterpoint flow in the background. A
certain amount of Goldsmith's usual tingling sound effects and creative
percussion accompany these thematic performances, though their
personality never expands to the seriousness of similarly-conceived
ideas in
The Russia House and does not degenerate into the silly
explosions of madness from the piano heard in
I.Q. or equivalent
comedy ventures. Seemingly intentional reverb of generous levels is
applied to the piano and synthetics, lending the ambience of a live
performance. Goldsmith's melodic sensibilities are at their best in
Love Field, with at least ten minutes of his heartening main
theme belonging in any collection of the composer's most wholesome
works. Secondary melodic motifs for the black family of the story
struggle to compete, rarely asserting themselves effectively.
The middle portions of the score dwell in a darker
place, exploring the composer's suspense mode in lighter shades. Because
of the serious subject matter of the story, much of the music outside of
the opening and closing portions is turbulent and sometimes downright
unpleasant. A recurring ominous, militaristic progression is a complete
contrast from the blues heard in the bookending character cues. Heavy,
electronic banging is interspersed between delicate moments when the
main theme begins to take hold but inevitably falters, as in "We're Not
Alone." The active and suspenseful moments of this score are a bit
disjointed, harsh electronics and unsynchronized strings reminiscent of
parts of
Basic Instinct, though there are some passages of
accessible rhythmic force. A cue such as "The Motel" is pulled directly
from the predictable mould of Goldsmith's large-scale drum-pounding and
brass-blasting thrillers of the 1990's. The tension built into the cue
for President Kennedy's assassination is a different animal, handled by
Goldsmith with proper restraint and disbelief. In between these notable
cues of greater length are a variety of relatively short but inviting
woodwind and string moments of tender care. The best of these apply the
composer's trademark synthetic motion-setting devices, though plucked
strings and piano also shine. On album,
Love Field received a
29-minute presentation from Varèse Sarabande with only selections
from Goldsmith's score, and while the brevity of that product yields a
somewhat unsatisfying experience, it still contained ten to fifteen
minutes of redemptive Goldsmith light drama with the enticing touch of
blues. A limited 2021 expansion by Varèse offers upwards of the
full hour of Goldsmith's score (with no alternate cues) and 17 minutes
of Payne's contributions. The latter compositions are basically adequate
to the task, and there's nothing inherently wrong with their solemn,
occasionally spirited blues performances, but they lack the emotional
connection of Goldsmith's portion. The fuller treatment of the Goldsmith
score offers several additional renditions of note for the main theme,
highlighted by the soft flute performances of "Pretending" and the
upbeat, dreamy "The Locket" near the end. The vital "The Accident" cue
contains one of the composer's better suspense moments of the era. Sound
quality on the 2021 product emphasizes the outstanding, wet mix that
highlighted the composer's late 1990's scores, bringing an almost
magical quality to
Love Field. The narrative of the fuller score
is strong enough to merit scorn for the studio's replacement of much of
it, even if the breezy blues and light drama from Goldsmith remain at
odds with his synthetically gloomy suspense material. Don't expect any
of it to make sense in the film.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on the 1993 Album: ***
- Music as Heard on the 2021 Album: ****
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26
(in 124 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.29
(in 153,456 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
