Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,386
Written 4/19/97, Revised 3/5/06
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Buy it... if you enjoy Lee Holdridge's usually melodic classical
structures and are well aware of the sonic constraints that often plague
his smaller recordings.
Avoid it... if you seek a score that distinguishes itself in any
manner from Holdridge's other docu-drama works.
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| Holdridge |
One Against the Wind: (Lee Holdridge) A rather
anonymous entry in Lee Holdridge's significant collection of docu-drama
scores is One Against the Wind, a Hallmark Hall of Fame
television movie that received a handful of Emmy and Golden Globe
nominations after its release in 1991. Notably one of the first projects
ever to be filmed in Luxembourg, Larry Elikann's film tells the true
story of Countess Mary Linden, a British aristocrat and former Red Cross
nurse living in Paris at the time of its fall in World War II. Despite
the Nazi occupation, she assisted in smuggling downed Allied pilots out
of the country. Weaving in the Resistance and the Gestapo, the story
outlines simple noble principles and was generally satisfying for
audiences despite cramming a lengthy period of history into 90 minutes.
While Judy Davis received most of the attention for her lead
performance, the film is also regarded well for its performances by Sam
Neill, Kate Beckinsale (one of her earliest films), and Denholm Elliott
(in one of his final films). For Holdridge, the score would make similar
demands to the plethora of other projects in his 1990's documentary and
family film projects. Without a release on CD by Intrada Records a few
years after the film's debut, the score would certainly have fallen into
total obscurity, a fate the befalls too many solid efforts by the
Latino-born composer. One aspect of Holdridge's writing for these kinds
of projects that makes him so enticing for filmmakers involved in
upcoming projects is the classically melodic consistency of his musical
style. More than perhaps any other composer working in the television
and documentary genre today, Holdridge is predictably solid in his
output, ensuring that even a relatively unknown score like One
Against the Wind will be an interesting and functional work at the
very least.
The flip side of the equation for Holdridge, however,
is that his scores for films like
One Against the Wind rarely
seem to take any chances that would distinguish themselves from the mass
of his other works. Utilizing an adequate, but underpowered orchestral
ensemble, the score maintains orchestral integrity without featuring any
standout solo performances. Like all Holdridge efforts, a strong central
theme exists, and in this case, there are two. Both heard in the opening
prologue and titles, the snare-driven brass theme yields to a stock
inspirational Holdridge theme for the primary character. These uplifting
themes, always rising in structure and usually utilizing strings on top
of broad brass accompaniment, do tend to cross over from one Holdridge
score to another, and the title theme here does begin to establish some
personality of its own when introduced by an elegant piano (as in the
Finale cue). Structurally, the action material --represented by the war
theme-- is well conceived, but suffers from a lack of power in
performance, allowing holes in the orchestral soundscape to become
easily evident. Some of the writing is so grand (such as in the
aforementioned "Reunion and Finale" cue) that the ensemble's
shortcomings become frustrating, for it's easily to imagine Holdridge's
intent on paper and wish that a full and accomplished group could have
handled the duties. Drawing even more attention to this unfortunate
circumstance is a dull and muted recording quality in which non-string
and non-brass instruments (including the snare, timpani, and chimes of
the percussion section) are nearly lost. Such tragedy happens often in
Holdridge scores, but isn't surprising given the size of the projects on
which he works, and a score as much potential as
One Against the
Wind begs for an alternate universe in which Holdridge could work on
high-budget films each time. It should be noted that some of the
composer's work for this project was struck from the film, but was
included by his request on the CD. Once a close-out item on CD,
One
Against the Wind may not be worth a lengthy search if you already
have a satisfying Holdridge collection, but it won't disappoint you if
you find it at bargain prices.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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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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