Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #947
Written 8/29/97, Revised 4/2/09
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Buy it... if you appreciate Lee Holdridge's extremely romantic tendencies
and seek a multi-cultural score of gorgeous beauty that stands alongside The
Mists of Avalon as his best career achievements.
Avoid it... if you cannot tolerate a healthy dose of melancholy passion,
even if it's beautifully rendered for a large orchestral ensemble and acoustic
guitar.
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| Holdridge |
Old Gringo: (Lee Holdridge) Known best as the last major
acting performance on the big screen by Gregory Peck, the 1989 Luis Puenzo film
Old Gringo is a doomed tale of adventure and romance in a Mexican hacienda
during the time of Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution. With its serious
drama darkened by a dismal plot and excruciatingly unforgiving ending, the film
was met with an awkward combination of horror and distant admiration, diminishing
Columbia Pictures chances at reaching Oscar gold despite all of the attention due
to Peck's notable and affable performance (which includes, of course, a necessary
courtroom scene). The morbidly depressing nature of the film is scored
brilliantly by composer Lee Holdridge, and some critics consider the work to be
among the best (if not the single most engaging) film score of his career. An
obvious choice for the project, Holdridge grew out of musical roots in Costa
Rica, conducting the country's foremost symphony orchestra and eventually
training in the United States. Whether intentional or not, the international
flavor of his works would go on to resonate in several of his scores, including
his eventual best-seller, The Mists of Avalon. At the time of Old
Gringo, Holdridge had completed several scores for films that didn't achieve
as much success as expected, with the popular exception of Splash.
Primarily a television series and mini-series composer, his assignments rarely
offered him a chance to return to those Hispanic roots on a large scale. Old
Gringo gave him that opportunity at long last, and he certainly made the most
of it. Employing a symphony orchestra rich with woodwinds and acoustic guitars,
Old Gringo would be a perfect collaboration between Hispanic flavor and an
American sense of pastoral melody on a grand scale, reflecting the love triangle
in the film with awesome results. Dramatically rich, the three themes for Jane
Fonda, Jimmy Smits, and Peck's characters weave in and out of each other with
ease through the lush, almost perpetually harmonic performances in the score.
Most famous is the "Finale" suite heard over the end titles, a recording which
remains the crown jewel of Holdridge's career and a piece heard every once in a
while at live ceremonies.
The most important element working for Holdridge in
Old
Gringo is warmth, a concept surprisingly lacking in the character interaction
on screen despite the story's inherent passion. The absolutely saturating
romantic personality of the score is typical of Holdridge's career, though the
scope of the melodrama is especially pronounced in this effort. With grand
strings performing the theme for the American school teacher (Fonda), Holdridge
uses the woodwinds delicately for the Peck character's cynical but tender journey
to his end and the acoustic guitars for the army general's heritage, as well as
the setting of the film. Although it's most tempting to seek comfort in the
string and woodwind performances, the guitar is truly the heart of the score,
making the most impact on the mix of the recording in context. Generally, for
film music collectors familiar with Holdridge's works of the Digital Age (and
The Mists of Avalon more specifically), you will hear the same dramatic,
harmonic grandeur in many parts of
Old Gringo, but perhaps with more
consistency. A handful of large-scale action cues prevails in the major key,
offering some stellar brass performances in the two cues for major battle
sequences. Included on the album is the orchestral performance of "Las Tres
Pelonas," which was a favorite of General Villa himself. A true sign of
Holdridge's majesty in terms of broad instrumentation is heard at the end of the
victorious cue for the raid on the bell tower, which culminates into a fully
orchestral statement of resonance complete with a large tolling bell. In the end,
however, as the film wraps up its depressing and melodramatic conclusion, the
finale cue graces the film with an outstanding combined performance of the
guitar, harp, and full orchestra in the undeniably memorable end title suite.
Nothing previous to this cue will matter, because the awesome majesty of this
five-minute piece will knock you off your feet. A consistently pleasant listening
experience throughout its length, the album is significantly easier to digest
than the film itself, proving that Holdridge captured the spirit of the
adventurous story rather than allowing its grim proceedings to tarnish the sonic
representation of the locale. The sound quality of the Los Angeles recording is
decent, though a little too rooted in the treble region. It's an easy
recommendation on album and yet another outstanding score from 1989, arguably one
of the strongest years in the history of film music.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
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 7,826 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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