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•	2004 Varèse

•	1999 Rykodisc

•	2013 Kritzerland

•	2004 Varèse

•	1999 Rykodisc

For The Missouri Breaks specifically, Williams abandoned the orchestrally vibrant approach of his earlier Westerns and adapted the style of more modern bluesy works like Conrack and The Sugarland Express into a score almost as curious as the film's two leads. The score is, in short, a hip 1970's bastardization of the Western genre, infusing pop rhythms and instrumentation into a genre that very well could have done without it. In the context of the film, the score is spotted very sparsely, the land itself provided no authority and the emotional gravity of disturbing scenes, "The Drowning of Tod" in particular, supplied either silence or strangely shallow ambience. In many ways, Williams writes the score's non-love theme moments from the perspective of Brando's wacky character, which isn't entirely surprising given his performance on several instruments throughout the film. (He complains at one point about a horse urinating loudly during one of his harmonica performances.) Some avid Williams enthusiasts will argue that the reason The Missouri Breaks sounds so awkward today is because the score is extremely dated in style, hopelessly tied to its era. In the 1970's, you could get away with a combination of wild harmonica and honky-tonk piano with electric bass, electric harpsichord, and other modern elements. Now, it seems so cheesy that The Missouri Breaks is a potentially unlistenable experience, and it damn-near ruins the film. The eccentric score opens with a blues and jazz theme that defies Williams' career and features a very small ensemble of expected Western instruments in conjunction with a modern band. A handful of supplemental players, mainly tied to timpani, harp, and piano, occasionally contribute. There is swagger and attitude hinted in some of the thumping rhythmic passages of the main theme, but these elements unfortunately diminish when additional layers are added to the recording. A secondary love theme receives lengthy treatment in the score, and it is an extremely poppish affair consistent with Williams' songwriting at the time. Its performances on solo guitar and harmonica survive the test of time much better than the electric harpsichord and chimes, both of which are difficult to tolerate.

Even more awkward are the many explosions of honky-tonk action cues in The Missouri Breaks, beginning with "Arrival of the Rustlers" and exploding with full comical force in "The Train Robbery." There's no doubt that these cues were meant as a tongue-in-cheek accompaniment to the ridiculously bumbling actions of Nicholson's gang of thieves, but, for some reason, Williams' take on this style doesn't feature the same listenability as Jerry Goldsmith's many similar ventures into the same realm at the time. Even less interesting are the darker tones for deep bass harmonica and other menacing sounds that Williams conjures for Brando's character. There are singular moments of intriguing instrumental use by Williams, especially involving deep range piano accents during the few suspenseful moments, but for the most part, the pop rhythms, both subdued and with their frantic banjo accompaniment, define the score. Overall, you can completely understand what Williams was trying to accomplish with his humor in The Missouri Breaks, but the result accentuates the film's faults and remains too dysfunctional and dated to withstand the test of time. As typical for the era, Williams re-recorded a selection of highlights from this score with a more acoustically pleasing tone for the original LP album release. This music and three notable cues from the film version sessions were released in 1999 by Rykodisc, and of the label's often great re-issues of classic 1960's and 1970's scores in the late 1990's, this one ranked among the weakest. A 2004 re-issue from Varèse Sarabande added no new content. In 2013, Kritzerland offered a 2-CD set of The Missouri Breaks with the original re-recording on one CD and the full film version, including several Brando-inspired source cues as a bonus, on the other. While this album presentation treats the score about as well as could be achieved, the film version (much of it unused) is even more abrasive and mean-spirited than the re-recording, reducing the humor as to make the listening experience measurably less attractive. The label also pressed only 1,200 copies of the product, causing a quick sellout; this is not the first time that label has frustrated collectors with an inadequate pressing. In the end, this disservice will not prove as impactful with The Missouri Breaks, as it remains one of Williams most challenging and, at times, repulsive scores, one inextricable from an era of musical experimentation best forgotten.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.68 (in 91 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.54 (in 363,495 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.