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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Open Range (Michael Kamen)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if easily accessible, Western-friendly acoustic guitar music appeals
to your more romantic views of the genre.
Avoid it... if you prefer your action Westerns to consistently kick you in the rear with intense performances and vibrant rhythms.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Open Range: (Michael Kamen) The Western genre had become a bit
of an obsession for actor, producer, and director Kevin Costner during the prime of
his career. With his string of epic films of the late 1990's failing to achieve
critical and popular success, speculation had begun to arise about the chances that
Dances with Wolves was a fluke, potentially labeling Costner as a one-hit
wonder in the Western genre. While it didn't earn the same respect as his 1990
classic, Open Range was a strong return to the dusty, lawless environment of
the Old West for Costner, though this time in the waning days of the era. Teaming
with Robert Duvall, the two men play free range cattlemen who find themselves
embroiled in a battle of revenge with the powerful owner of a town they stumble
upon. Excessive gore and beautiful cinematography battle in the visual landscape,
and while Michael Kamen's score is sufficient in serving the genre's needs, it
often found itself unfairly compared to John Barry's classic music for Dances
with Wolves. Costner had collaborated with James Newton Howard for a handful of
his previous epic films, but for Open Range, he had originally settled on
Basil Poledouris, who himself had lengthy credentials in the Western genre but was
dealing with health issues that were shortening his career. In the end, however,
the carousel of composers would land Kamen on the crew, and the assignment would
turn bittersweet for collectors of the composer's works. It represented the last
score he entirely completed before his sudden death from a heart attack at the age
of 55 a few months later in 2003. Production timetables and the finishing of two
partially written works by his orchestrators kept Kamen's name appearing in three
subsequent films, but Open Range is commonly considered the composer's last
major solo work.
The timing of the film was somewhat fortuitous for Kamen, though, who had been working in relative obscurity away from the blockbuster spotlight in 2002 and 2003. His previous feature film score was the underachieving X-Men in 2000, though he impressed many listeners with his strong writing for the Band of Brothers television series in 2001. Otherwise, the composer had been busy with the non-scoring endeavors that remained a fixture of his professional career until the end. Surprisingly, Kamen had never in his lengthy career scored a true Western epic, even though his style of composing for acoustic guitar had been gaining popularity as means of portraying the genre for modern audiences. Kamen's music for Open Range is similar in style and romanticism to the Golden Globe-nominated All the Pretty Horses in 2001, and his ability to establish the romantic appeal of any landscape was well received in popular works such as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Don Juan DeMarco. On the other hand, with critics comparing the bloody plot of Open Range to the kind of realism that was seen in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, it's difficult to imagine how Kamen's generally soft tone would succeed in the picture. His approach to Open Range is "soft" because his music for the film has the same kind of tender touch throughout its majority as Don Juan DeMarco, which is an extremely easy and romantic listening experience. The title theme for Open Range is a heroic, bloated Western-style affair that could easily be translated into a vocal ballad. Its appeal is based on seductive harmony rather than the more usual employment of rhythmic excitement to set the Western locale. As suggested, Kamen utilizes his acoustic guitars as the only real means of placing the score in that genre. The swelling brass theme for the entirely orchestral score, heard in a noble statement at the outset, is eventually carried by the guitars during almost every subsequent performance. The first several cues heard on the album for Open Range offer all of the title theme performances in their magnificence. It's a simple theme, and it certainly won't turn heads, but it has the same kind of attractive, easy-going spirit as Carter Burwell's cattle driving equivalent in The Hi-Lo Country. The weakness of Kamen's score, however, is that the same laid-back nature spills over into the tense suspense material as well. The second half of the album features all of the cues of troubled constructs, culminating in the guitar and snare rumbling "Gunfight." A pastoral character in "Charley Rides Off" contains a shallow rendering that doesn't do the scene justice. The demeanor of all these passages reveals a lackluster performance, however, with an almost lazy handling of material that seems to have been written for a much greater, more dramatic effect. Some of this difficulty is written into Kamen's free-flowing, positive atmosphere at almost every moment, but the score also seems to lack punch in its performances during key dramatic sequences. It therefore comes across as a lightweight when it should rather grip the listener with its compelling power. Perhaps this teaches us that the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra really didn't have a good grasp of the depth that the genre requires. Some of the difficulty with these uninspiring recordings may be due to poor mixing, a circumstance which plagues the song rendition of Kamen's theme (performed by Julianna Raye). You can actually hear a hissing sound obscure her voice track whenever it overlies the instrumental backing. As a standalone product, the album is well arranged for the listening experience, with the mass of Kamen's most pleasant thematic statements condensed to the first six cues. Still, you can't help but feel that there's a power shortage in this score. It starts with great promise, but fizzles quickly. As the composer's final major work, Open Range is satisfactory, though many Kamen collectors will acknowledge that it could have concluded his career with a greater range of emotionally dynamic performances. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 51:37
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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