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| Goldsmith |
One Little Indian: (Jerry Goldsmith) Despite the
genre having fallen out of favor by the 1970's, Walt Disney produced a
live-action Western comedy in 1973 that quickly fell through the cracks.
In
One Little Indian, James Garner reprises his familiar Western
hero, this time as a deserting Union solder who declined to massacre
Cheyenne Indians with his unit. That posse of American soldiers chases
after him throughout the movie, but his escape depends on a 10-year-old
boy and a pair of camels that the two use to elude their fates. Garner's
soldier, Keyes, takes it upon himself to find a proper home for the boy,
who is white but had been living with the Cheyenne. They find a
well-meaning family to take him in, not to mention a love interest for
Keyes, but the boy's loyalty to the escaping father figure ties the two
together until they manage to both find peace. There are serious aspects
at work in the story of
One Little Indian, but the presence of
the camels keeps the movie rooted in comedy for much of its length. (The
U.S. Camel Corps was actually a real experiment at the time, so the
presence of those animals in this Utah setting isn't mere silly
fantasy.) Not many major composers were still writing Western music for
feature films during the 1970's, with the rise of pop-culture music
dominating movies and sending composers in search of work on television
instead. The assignment was one of great opportunity for Jerry
Goldsmith, who not only returned to the Western genre that had brought
him acclaim in the 1960's but also allowed him to work for Disney,
expanding his resume so that more children's assignments could follow
with other studios. The resulting music for
One Little Indian is
highly familiar to Goldsmith's usual Western methods, crossing over with
his concurrent
The Red Pony at times, and he does not diminish
the quality of his writing despite scoring a relatively lightweight
topic. He adds comedy to the equation, especially in the middle of the
narrative, but the tone is still generally serious throughout, avoiding
outright cartoonish and slapstick techniques outside of "Camel
Trouble."
The instrumental coloration of
One Little Indian is
superb, Goldsmith providing a combination of sounds extremely unique to
this context. He starts with the usual Western elements in conjunction
with the orchestra, but he substitutes harmonica and banjo with
distinctly East Indian sounds. The resulting ensemble includes the
somewhat weird combination of scratcher, bass accordion, bass electric
guitar, sitar, acoustic guitar, xylophone, mandolin, anvil, tabla,
gamelon, boobam, and a variety of ethnic drums. Some listeners may find
the use of the sitar and Indian drums to be regionally inappropriate
given that the camels historically used in America were imported from
the Eastern Mediterranean area. There are, however, an abundance of
camels in the drier portions of India, and the sitar in particular is a
more distinctively ethnic calling card for the animals than a Middle
Eastern substitute, especially if you consider that the sitar can very
easy replace a Western's typical use of acoustic guitar. The villain
material in
One Little Indian appropriately growls on the bass
accordion and sometimes cuts directly into the comedy portions, as at
the end of "Thirsty Boy" and in "Camel Trouble." The composer even
applies the accordion and bassoons to Keyes as a reminder of his own
origins with the army. The pop-oriented needs of the early 1970's are
handled very well by the bass electric guitar, particularly in the early
cues before the camels and thus the Indian influences come into play.
For those desiring Goldsmith's most robust Western mode from brass and
percussion, though, there are several such cues of highly exciting
action as well, the first one leading that charge. Despite the score's
reputation as a quirky instrumental deviation, it features a truly
outstanding thematic narrative as well, one of the best ever
accomplished by the composer. He wrote themes for Keyes and his escape
in general, the 10-year-old boy, Mark, and the lead camel, Rosie, among
other tangential ideas. The interplay between the three primary themes
is truly a treat in
One Little Indian, Goldsmith increasingly
overlapping their performances as the characters all become more
dependent upon each other.
Goldsmith's theme for Garner's Keyes character is the
straight-forward heroic Western identity of
One Little Indian,
dominating the opening "Escort the Prisoner" cue. Teased at 0:13 on
flutes, the idea is expressed fully on brass at 0:30, a major statement
that includes the theme's rare secondary lines before snare launches the
main phrase again. In that cue, it returns with some humor at 1:41 over
plucky bass electric guitar for coolness, and a lone trumpet performance
at 2:03 provides typical Goldsmith heroism for a soldier. The theme then
guides the middle of the cue over rhythmically hip accompaniment and
takes slower, more dramatic turns on strings in the latter half. This
Keyes theme moves to a back seat for a while thereafter, fragmented
about a half minute into "He's White," hinting at some of its
progressions early in "Thirsty Boy," coming into conflict with the camel
and villain tones at 0:42 into "Camel Trouble," and tangling lightly in
the early conversational music in "No Choice." It then bursts back to
the forefront with help from chimes early in "End of the Line" for a
full-throated escape moment, briefly interrupting the boy's theme later
in the cue. The Keyes theme opens "Hot Fire" on mandolin and shifts to
several different instrumental guises, eventually launching into full
fight mode again on brass at 1:44. It's nicely layered with the boy's
theme early in "Necktie Party," and an action explosion early in "Go
After Him!" includes the theme in anvil-banging form; full secondary
lines complete the theme during the escape and shift to sadness for the
loss of the camel at the end. The theme doesn't figure much in the final
cue, but it does become rousing counterpoint to the boy's theme at the
lofty conclusion of "A Free Man." That theme for Mark is highly lyrical
and gorgeous in its full form, bridging
Rio Conchos and
Take a
Hard Ride as this score's primary representation of character. Since
the focus of the film always sticks with the boy, this theme is dominant
throughout the work. Introduced immediately in "He's White" in various
softer guises, Mark's theme is quietly dramatic in cue's middle on
strings, formally appearing at 1:22 on violins and woodwinds over
acoustic guitar.
The main theme of
One Little Indian for the boy
becomes prominent in nearly every corner of the score after its debut.
It recurs at 1:51 into "Thirsty Boy" over the guitar again, building
momentum on trumpet and yielding secondary phrasing at 2:43 using full
strings and horn counterpoint with glorious impact. Mark's theme opens
"Outwit the Posse" on quietly plucked guitar, offers a distinct tone at
0:25 into "Saddle Sore" on electric keyboard that is unique to this cue,
and is expressed on flute over xylophone and accordion at 0:14 into "New
Friend," which benefits from a very nice presence of the drums. The
theme continues at 0:35 into "What He Needs" on oboe with gravity in
supporting chords and shifts to extreme sensitivity at 1:35 into "No
Choice" as boy's future is discussed, returning later in the cue for
additional renditions on woodwinds and strings before becoming anguished
near the end. The prettiest moment in the score comes with this theme at
1:58 into "End of the Line" on violins, the horn counterpoint and bevy
of plucked and struck accompaniment fantastic. The boy's identity turns
more troubled in the first minute of "Hot Fire" and stews again at the
cue end, later contemplating its direction early underneath Keyes' theme
in "Necktie Party." Woodwind layers over harp and softer accordion
shades carry the theme at 1:01 into "A Free Man," later combining
trumpet, winds, and sitar nicely in the middle of the cue. Goldsmith
provides a highly compelling closing statement of the theme at the cue's
climax, one of the composer's best endings in the Western genre. There
is a tremendous amount of heart in the various performances of the boy's
theme, and while some listeners may not be able to get past the
intellectual connections to
Rio Conchos in its progressions, one
cannot have enough pretty and lyrical Goldsmith identities in the
Western genre. This one is also distinct in that its instrumentation is
generally more tender because it represents a boy in a children's movie,
placing it closer to the composer's 1990's character themes for lighter
dramas. Importantly, while Goldsmith explores the basics of a love theme
in this score for Keyes and Vera Miles's character (and a young Jodie
Foster as her daughter) at 3:21 into "No Choice" on caring strings, this
idea lasts only a minute before rooting back in the boy's theme, the
focus on that character undaunted.
The third major theme in
One Little Indian
represents the two camels of the story, and the older one ridden by
Keyes specifically. This Rosie theme humorously pilfers the first five
notes of Maurice Jarre's famous
Lawrence of Arabia theme but
expresses them on accelerated sitar. This cyclical motif sometimes
simplifies into a four-note variant spanning an octave, as in "Camel
Trouble." It previews the comedy material at 3:16 into "Thirsty Boy,"
opens "Camel Trouble" and eventually flourishes at the end of the cue in
fuller modes, and it explodes for the full ensemble in "Thorny Landing"
with great humor, the sitar in tow. This mode carries over to the start
of "Saddle Sore" and continues in its four-note form. The fuller motif
starts "New Friend" but is quickly interrupted by the boy's theme, also
opening "End of the Line" with spirit under Keyes' identity, punctuating
the humor of the moment. It quietly maneuvers around the start and end
of "Hot Fire," turns alarmed at the end of "Go After Him!," and dies at
the outset of "A Free Man." One of two lesser motifs in the score is for
the Cheyenne, its descending phrasing helmed by a main, four-note figure
that can be expressed with exoticism or more traditional orchestral
empathy. It is common in the first two minutes of "Thirsty Boy,"
interrupts the boy's theme late in "No Choice" on flutes, reasserts
itself in "Necktie Party," and receives one last burst in the middle of
"A Free Man." The villain material for the pursuing army soldiers is a
disorganized march explored in the latter half of "Outwit the Posse"
that thumps and growls in the middle of "End of the Line" and continues
its menace on bass guitar and accordion in "Necktie Party." All of these
identities combine to form an outstanding narrative that is restrained
in appeal only by the stewing ambience of the villain material during
suspenseful passages. The exotic instrumentation is a delightful
deviation from the usual Goldsmith Western mould. The comedy music in
the middle third could try your patience, however. Because the score was
recorded at Disney's own studio, it was created and produced in great
sound quality, albeit needing reverb that was tastefully applied for the
album releases. Never released on LP record at the time, a 51-minute
presentation was assembled and cleaned up by Intrada Records for
identical limited CD releases in 2009 and 2017. The lack of resounding
bass region presence really hurts this score's soundscape at times, but
the composition and performance remain highly satisfying.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.23
(in 136 reviews)
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The inserts of both albums include a list of performers and
extensive information about the score and film.
