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Review of Mark Twain's Roughing It (Bruce Broughton)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if the light and fluffy side of Bruce Broughton's Western music
appeals to your appreciation of easy listening experiences in the genre.
Avoid it... if you fear that too much of that sound on a long album can deflate the effectiveness of the work as a whole, especially in the absence of the score's thematic anchors for much of that time.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Mark Twain's Roughing It: (Bruce Broughton) An innocuous and
lovable Hallmark Entertainment film of 2002, director Charles Smith's depiction of
both Mark Twain's younger and older personas offers an expansive glimpse at the
life of Samuel Clemens. Staying true to many of the facts of Clemens' life, Mark
Twain's Roughing It tells the tall tales of Clemens' youth through the
adaptation of his own autobiographical novel. He delivers these stories throughout
the film from the perspective of the 1891 Clemens (played by James Garner) while
speaking at the graduating ceremony of his daughter's school class. The enduring
success of Clemens' writing career (as Mark Twain) is sustained mainly because of
his ability to relate the details of history in a comical fashion, and the film
offers robust visual representations of many of these comedy routines in which
Clemens participated during his own lifetime. As wholesome entertainment, Mark
Twain's Roughing It is a lighthearted, fluffy, and undemanding distraction set
mostly in the Wild West, as Clemens' journeys lead him to California in search of
adventure and inspiration for his stories. Also at the top of his game, composer
Bruce Broughton was widely regarded as the scoring industry's foremost expert on
Western genre music in the 1990's and beyond. Since his Academy Award nomination
for Silverado established him as a Western guru in the mid-1980's, Broughton
has embraced the genre for projects both large and small. His willingness to
provide superior music for television films in particular has led to a prolific
career in these regards (to the detriment of his feature scoring career, though
it's hard to knock an artist for making a living in a comfortable field). Without a
doubt, Roughing It would be a perfect match for Broughton, who initially was
swamped with other scoring assignments when approached for this picture. His
enthusiasm for the project, however, would cause him to accept the challenge. There
was a large amount of music required for the production, and Broughton managed to
squeak through and finish the project with a positive attitude and a generous
amount of understandably predictable, but highly functional Western film music.
In several ways, Broughton's enthusiasm for the genre can be heard in the tone of Roughing It. The film's hearty spirit is mirrored perfectly by the composer, who responds with a score that is perhaps the most upbeat and spirited Western entry of his career. Three primary themes are offered to represent the older Clemens, the younger Clemens and his family, as well as the journey to the West. All three of them feature basic, major key constructs that mirror the simple lifestyles and positive attitudes of those with whom Clemens was involved. None of the themes bursts onto the screen with the same power and motivation that Broughton's best works have exhibited, but they do establish an effective mood for both the elements of comedy and drama in the story. The tone of every cue is rooted in straight-forward Americana tradition, with the Sinfonia of London performing with a slight skip in the step and rarely a foul note. The antagonist of the plot, Slade, is handled with a few hints of electronic accompaniment on top of a slightly dreary orchestra during a handful of cues, but given the monumental length of Broughton's score, such material has little effect on the overall attitude of the work. As the score progresses, the later scenes of the film required an increasingly sensitive and less comical touch, and Broughton handles these moments with softer, more delicate performances by solo woodwinds. There is little rugged action material in Roughing It; instead, loftier moments in the film are handled with slapstick rhythms that border on cliche territory but are nevertheless effective. The light, bouncing Western themes introduced at the outset of Roughing It are by far its life-blood, and on album, the presentation's significant length causes these ideas to become overextended and nearly lost (until a final restatement of the score's main identity in the 37th track, "Peroration"). Occasionally, too much music can be pressed onto a soundtrack album, and this may be the case with Roughing It. With nearly 40 cues and over 75 minutes of only original Broughton material, some of the hearty spirit exhibited early on the album is diminished by the end of the listening experience. That said, though, the limited, special edition run of 1,500 copies by Intrada Records (the ninth in their "Special Collection" series) was a welcome addition to their vast collection of Broughton's works, and it's no surprise that the product eventually sold out. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 75:01
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes Intrada's usual standard of detailed notes about the
score and film.
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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 Mark Twain's Roughing It are Copyright © 2002, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/16/03 and last updated 2/26/09. |
