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Review of Papillon (Jerry Goldsmith)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you admire Jerry Goldsmith's unique knack for
heartfelt lyricism, his main theme for this score a mesmerizing waltz
that dominates the relatively short musical narrative.
Avoid it... if you expect the composer's bevy of secondary, darker motifs for the story's setting and oppression to extend any of the same allure, much of the work's underbelly comparatively understated and challenging.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Papillon: (Jerry Goldsmith) Remarkable public
hysteria surrounded the purported auto-biographical tales of French
convict-turned-author Henri Charrière in the early 1970's.
Regardless of the veracity of his depictions of life in a penal colony
in French Guiana long before, the story he told in 1969's "Papillon"
captured the hearts of readers and studio executives. Charrière
wouldn't live long enough to witness the 1973 screen adaptation of the
story, the film's production suffering numerous setbacks. The duo of
Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman portray French prisoners seeking to
escape their Southern Caribbean prisons in repeated attempts, McQueen in
the lead as Charrière's nicknamed Papillon. Their long plight
contains extended suffering and frustrating setbacks, but redemption
awaits at the end. Critics weren't impressed, however, many of them
focusing on the immense length of Franklin J. Schaffner's product and
the inevitable stretches of contemplation and boredom that result from
them. If you never become invested in either of these characters, then
Papillon can be a very arduous experience. One of the few
elements of the movie still enjoying lasting respect is Jerry
Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated score, the composer in the middle of his
extremely fruitful collaboration with Schaffner at the time.
Interestingly, prior to Schaffner's hiring on the project, the producers
of Papillon had promised the assignment to famed French composer
Michel Legrand as a favor for one of his previous scores being
unceremoniously removed from a picture. There were even several early
discussions about how Legrand would approach the story. Upon the arrival
of Schaffner, however, even Legrand admitted that the compositional
duties should shift to their mutual friend, Goldsmith. The movie proved
challenging for even Goldsmith, though, for Schaffner's instructions
about the intended French character of the score bedeviled the composer
for weeks. From a basic strategic standpoint, however, they agreed that
the film did not require much music. Despite running two and a half
hours long, Papillon only contains a little over forty minutes of
original music, rounded out by a few sprinklings of source material here
and there. No score is used in the first 20 minutes.
Despite the relative brevity of the music in Papillon, it certainly made a significant impact on the film and in pop culture, its memorable main theme translated into song covers and becoming a staple of Goldsmith's own concert appearances thereafter. The ensemble for Papillon is somewhat conventional at its base, the orchestra recorded in Rome in an arrangement more akin to Ennio Morricone's works. These players are supplemented by accordion and harpsichord to provide the French ambience to the otherwise Italian demeanor of the performance. Percussion is sometimes typecast, as in the chimes of "Reunion" and gong hit following the extended sustain in "Farewell, Part 1." More dynamic percussion contributions ranging from rattles to wood blocks were employed to generate the jungle-appropriate atmosphere of the Caribbean. Despite its ethnic variances, however, Papillon remains saturated with Goldsmith's structural sensibilities, especially in the meters and orchestrations of the full ensemble. The whimsical romanticism of strings, for instance, is a clear preview of similar passages in Under Fire. The few action cues offer the staggered rhythmic formations that were common for the composer as well, though they tend to exercise the more dissonant side of the equation. The score has one really uniquely divergent, long cue that is intended to stand apart; as the lead character lives for a year with a native tribe, Goldsmith provides an eight-minute cue in "Gift From the Sea" that plays like a miniature nature documentary within this score. It does not make significant use of the other themes in the work, and while Goldsmith does apply fanciful woodwind performances in other cues, their application here is distinct. The personality of this cue is also strikingly positive compared to the remainder of the score, offering relief and fulfillment in its harmonies and dedicate melodic ideas. The circular path of the lead character inevitably takes him back to his original captors, however, allowing the composer to return conveniently to his core set of themes. While most casual listeners remember Papillon for its remarkable primary theme, Goldsmith actually developed four recurring ideas in the work. While the main theme is the most hopeful and therefore accessible, the other three are all related to aspects of imprisonment and failure, making them less attractive despite their basic effectiveness. The main theme of Papillon has a mesmerizing, carnivalesque quality because of its waltz formations, especially when it's carried by the full ensemble, but that maddening character can be tempered back to simple beauty for touching sentimentality in the score's later cues. Goldsmith uses the harpsichord as a running rhythm-setter under romantically swaying lines in ways that the piano would accomplish in a few other cues here and prominently a few years later in the highlights of Ransom. (The two main themes even descend to similar structural resolutions.) The theme represents the bond of the two main characters and their shared goal of returning to France, used by Goldsmith for primarily the scenes of them together. Its concert arrangement in "Theme From Papillon" is the fullest ensemble representation of the idea, the accordion and harpsichord overtaken by the whimsy of the ensemble before the group nicely passes the melody back to the accordion for a tasteful finish. The counterpoint lines late in this track lend it a touch of mystery, and this technique carries over to later incarnations of the theme as well. In its development on screen, the theme begins with none of its allure, cues like "The Dream" and "Papillon (Theme Variation)" carried by solo accordion while deconstructed fragments are bludgeoned by the darker themes in prison-related cues. It occasionally pops up in quick, loftier moments, as at the end of the first minute of "Catching Butterflies." The theme's role as a tool of hope and successful escape starts to really impact the score in the latter half of "Reunion," brightening the unused "The Garden," pondering wistfully in "Cruel Sea" with more than a hint of Under Fire strings, and providing sentimental relief in the two "Farewell" cues, the latter representing the theme's ultimate homage to survival. Because Schaffner chose to use footage of the penal colony over the end titles, Goldsmith opted to apply his prison-related material rather than the main theme for this sequence. That didn't stop the theme from a receiving radio-targeted song adaptation. The melody retains its lovely form in song form, but its somewhat awkward structure translates into some stubbornly poor Hal Shaper lyrics that vocalist Engelbert Humperdinck struggles to perform seriously. Pop songs of the era were simply not meant to be built upon French waltz formations, so expect your appreciation of the melody to remain focused on the instrumental origins of the tune. The other themes in Papillon are largely forgotten because, while they serve their purpose, they're not particularly pleasant. A menacingly rising melody specifically for the prison environment is introduced in the first half of "The Camp" before mingling with the main theme later in the cue. It interrupts the optimism in "Catching Butterflies" and mingles with Goldsmith's other depressing ideas in "Hospital." It explodes on brass at 0:32 into "Freedom," bringing an abrupt end to a moment of nautical exuberance. Meanwhile the composer also briefly introduces a theme related to oppression generally in "The Camp" that struggles mightily to escape its key but always descends back to it. This idea returns with a sickly accordion performance in the unused second half of "Catching Butterflies." It continues its stewing in "Hospital" but takes leave until its brutal, long culmination starting immediately in "End Title;" Goldsmith intriguingly ends this extended treatment of the oppression theme with a glorious major key note to signify the eventual closing of the penal colony. A third related theme borrows a few progressions from the main theme and is used to representation lamentation by the main characters, and it doesn't really congeal until the latter half of "Hospital." Its most prominent placement comes at the outset of "Reunion." As mentioned before, the "Gift From the Sea" diversion contains its own peaceful melody as well. With all these themes jockeying for limited air time in Papillon, the score doesn't provide truly satisfying and deep development of its secondary constructs, the "Hospital" cue showing promise in its mingling of all four recurring themes but the remainder compartmentalizing them to a greater degree. Most casual listeners will return to the main theme regardless of the album presentation, and it's a strong enough identity to buoy the entire score. The original LP record presentation of 35 minutes became the first CD from Silva Screen in 1988. Universal France expanded the score to a 47-minute program in 2002, and that arrangement, with a few source cues in the chronological order of the story, remained the standard for the score until 2017, when Quartet Records released an even fuller presentation with unused cues, most of the source music, two alternates, and the song. The Universal and Quartet albums, the latter reissued in 2024, will suffice for most listeners, and the sound quality is on par with other Goldsmith works of the early 1970's. If you prefer not to bother with the darker material in Papillon, then one of the many excellent re-recordings of the main theme through the years will suffice. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1988 Silva Screen Album:
Total Time: 35:19
2002 Universal/2015 Rambling: Total Time: 45:37
* performed by Nicoletta 2017/2024 Quartet Albums: Total Time: 71:15
* performed by Engelbert Humperdinck
NOTES & QUOTES:
All of the albums' inserts contain varying levels of information
about the score or film, the Quartet products featuring the greatest
depth.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Papillon are Copyright © 1998, 2002, 2015, 2017, 2024, Silva Screen Records, Universal Music France, Rambling Records (Japan), Quartet Records, Quartet Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/28/24 and last updated 6/16/24. |
