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PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of The Right Stuff (Bill Conti)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on the early Varèse Sarabande CD containing a
London re-recording of 18 minutes from this score if you can satisfy
yourself with the most heroic symphonic highlights of this otherwise
highly varied score.
Avoid it... on the fuller 2009 presentation of the original recording if you expect to hear Bill Conti extend the glory of his primary themes with much conviction beyond these highlights.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Right Stuff: (Bill Conti) Not long after Tom
Wolfe's book "The Right Stuff" was published in 1979, a bidding war
commenced for the cinematic rights to its story about the early days of
America's space program. Unfortunately, the production turned into an
absolute nightmare over the following three years, burning through
writers, directors, and composers during its extremely uneven path to
success. From the test flights of famed pilot Chuck Yeager to the
initial rocket launches of the "Mercury Seven" astronauts, The Right
Stuff was a documentation of perseverance against adversity, both
for those who risk their lives and the families left on the ground. The
script of the film moves aimlessly through these individual character
studies and touches upon the political environment and the somewhat
juvenile comedy of the NASA space program in its early days. Regardless
of its efforts to promote the glory and sacrifice of these men with
genuine regard, the film's humorous scenes involving rocket explosions
and bodily functions (including one of the funniest urination scenes
ever filmed) questioned its focus. But despite these many narrative
flaws, The Right Stuff triumphs as a whole due to its stellar
production characteristics, its convincing performances, and the
nobility of the topic, and the film became one of the most highly
respected of 1983. Its plethora of Academy Award wins and nominations
ran counter to popular perceptions about the very long film, with the
movie failing to recoup its budget in domestic earnings. One of its
Oscar wins came for Bill Conti's score, however. The road to that
unexpected win, however, was among the most troubled for the composer,
who has at the top of his game at the time. Issues with the soundtrack
for The Right Stuff began with a disagreement between the
director, Philip Kaufman, and producers of the movie about the basic
function of music for the concept. The former sought a very limited and
intimate score that did not contain any of the bravado that might have
been expected, while the latter two desired a heroic symphonic attitude
to boost the grandeur of the pilots and astronauts' exploits. Caught in
the middle of this fray was composer John Barry, who was initially hired
to provide the score. Barry was likewise at the height of his career in
the early 1980's, and his romantic style of melodic writing seemed like
it would fit well in The Right Stuff.
After providing Kaufman with a few demos for the picture (a fact that has been disputed despite Barry's claims to have written some ideas but not recorded them with an ensemble), the composer became frustrated with the director and walked away from the project with disgust. With time already running short, in stepped Conti with only four weeks to write a score, and he soon found himself equally frustrated with the conflict between director and producers. Like Barry, Conti was well capable of writing both the intimate character music requested by the director and the heroic bravado from the full orchestra to satisfy the producers. Ultimately, he ended up cooperating more with the latter pair, though that didn't stop him from having to contend with insistence that he very closely follow the temp tracks placed in the picture. So tied to these temp tracks were the filmmakers that Conti had to re-write several cues to push them closer to the inspiration, by which point he demanded and was granted citation credit for those sources in the credits. He looks back amusingly upon his efforts to outright plagiarize Gustov Holst's "The Planets" and Henry Mancini's score for Kaufman's The White Dawn, along with references to Tchaikovsky along the way. For music aficionados, these quotations will be a bit obnoxious in the context of the film, though the greater obstacle for Conti to circumvent was the lack of time to really write a cohesively satisfying extension of his own ideas for the score. Despite his best efforts, Conti provided wildly varying music for The Right Stuff, ranging from his trademark fanfares and wholesome, Western-styled orchestral bravado to synthetic dreaminess, a source-like tango, and even the obligatory disco single of his main theme. Ultimately, it's his soaring symphonic portions that gained the score its notoriety, infusing the concept of American pilots and astronauts with the most famously heroic music on screen until James Horner's Apollo 13 twelve years later. You occasionally hear references to other Conti works, ranging from his trumpet usage in the Rocky scores to ensemble bombast clearly foreshadowing Masters of the Universe. It's precisely the sound that Kaufman fought so hard to avoid, especially when you consider the slight Western swagger to some of the ideas. The primary theme is definitely Americana at its roots, almost a bit too much of a representation of yesteryear to function for the space race. A better fit is the sub-theme directly applied to Yeager, supplying the score with its brightest, ball-busting highlights. Among the less heralded ideas in The Right Stuff is a somewhat dainty training motif that dances with business in typical Conti fashion, a fugue structure that eventually does sonic battle with the score's subtle Russian influences for obvious contrasts. Not much tension exists in the score, dissonance sparingly applied, though the pair of "Mach I" and "Daybreak in Space" do strive for post-modern coolness in a 1980's manner of achieving "otherworldliness" in tone. Overall, Conti has to be commended for achieving this score in only a matter of four weeks, especially with the temp track issues and battles with filmmakers. The music on the periphery, that which does not extend the score's thematic development, does cause continuity issues. The composer, for instance, recorded several traditional Texas songs for a marching band that are almost as insufferable as the truly awful disco version of the main theme. Despite its Academy Award win (which was deserved for Conti's personal hassle more than the actual quality of the music), no album was ever forthcoming for The Right Stuff, a consequence of the film's poor box office performance. In 1985, Conti personally financed the re-recording of 18 minutes of this score (along with slightly more material from his impressive work for the massive television production North and South) with the London Symphony Orchestra, released by Varèse Sarabande on an early CD album. This selection naturally emphasizes the three main themes in their full glory, the "Yeager's Triumph" cue a tremendous summary of these ideas. Sound quality is slightly more impressive in this recording than for the Los Angeles-based original, though a remastering would probably make it clearly superior. The original recording in its complete form has never been deemed possible due to lost master elements, but Conti himself arranged an album presentation and kept a copy of that material in his personal collection. In 2009, Varèse accessed that 37-minute copy to serve as the best available source for a release of its own, and the label made it part of their CD Club and limited its production to 3,000 copies. The obvious intent to prepare the music for LP record format is unfortunate, and for many listeners, the re-recording will be a superior (albeit shorter) alternative. Sound quality on the 2009 product is decent, though some distracting wobbles in pitch during the later tracks are notable detractions. Memories of The Right Stuff may positively inflate lingering opinions about the music, but when examined apart from the circumstances of its creation and the disjointed flow of the film, the score is strong enough in parts to admire but is far from being the best of its year. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
1986 Album:
Total Time: 37:15
2009 Album: Total Time: 37:26
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1986 album includes no extra information about the
recording or the scores or films represented. It was, however, of the generation
to come with a foam circle to hold the CD in place. The 2009 limited album
contains extensive information about Conti's initial involvement with the film
and his resulting score.
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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 The Right Stuff are Copyright © 1986, 2009, Varèse Sarabande (Re-Recording), Varèse Sarabande (Film Recording) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/1/12 (and not updated significantly since). |
