Hollywood Stars: Music from the Films of Kevin
Costner: (Compilation) By the late 1990's, Silva Screen had hit
their stride in their production of large-scale symphonic re-recordings
of film music featuring The City of Prague Philharmonic. As they had
done before and would do again in the future, they released several
actor-specific compilations in the summer of 1998. Under the common
title of "Hollywood Stars," the three concurrent releases of the series
were devoted to films starring Sean Connery, Kevin Costner, and Mel
Gibson. The Costner album is by far the most positively varied of the
three, and will keep you on the edge of your set more than the other
two. Its most interesting characteristic is its inclusion of several
scores that haven't received full releases in their original form. The
symphonic selections have a distinct Western/Adventure theme, though the
album also features an abundance of synthetic cues as well. The album
opens and closes with two very good Western themes,
Wyatt Earp
and
Silverado, the latter of which is performed with the same
vigor as the original and is always a welcome inclusion on any
compilation. The suite of themes from
Dances With Wolves is more
extensive than the usual
Dances With Wolves concert performances.
At almost ten minutes, it offers a variety of music from the score,
including the choral-assisted "The Buffalo Hunt," and is a refreshing
variation for film score fans who have tired of hearing the score's
primary two themes through the years. Maurice Jarre's
No Way Out
is an awkward electronic score that sounds much like Christopher Franke
music in parts, varying greatly in tone from drab atmospherics to
unnerving rhythmic hits. The cue from
The Untouchables is a tad
bit unwelcome if you already have the Sean Connery collection (and vice
versa), for the same track appears on both albums.
The following four tracks come from two scores you may
be unfamiliar with. The selections of
The Bodyguard by Alan
Silvestri will be a welcome treat for fans of the composer unable to
acquire the original score on the secondary bootleg market. The love
theme is decent, though the more tense "On the Job" was probably
unnecessary for the compilation. The two cues from Jack Nitzsche's
Revenge are original recordings (owned by Silva) and are both
surprisingly enjoyable. "Jeep Ride" is an odd variation on the
electronic border style of Goldsmith's
Extreme Prejudice, while
"Miryea's Death" has a soothingly melodic keyboarded theme. The
"Prelude" to
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a tired piece. Its
exuberant construct keeps it somewhat fresh, but with every marching
band around the world performing the Kamen piece at some point or
another, even the Prague performers have a difficult time elevating it
beyond others. The four minutes from James Horner's
Field of
Dreams represent some of the best, most upbeat minutes of music from
the score, and its performance here is remarkably similar to the
original. The two tracks from John Williams'
JFK are rather weak,
especially in the brass solos. The stress and paranoia built in the
strings of "Arlington" are well portrayed, though the prologue track
from
JFK would have been a more satisfying choice to appear here.
The finale track to James Newton Howard's
Waterworld is a
necessary inclusion for any Kostner retrospect; the contributions of the
Crouch End Festival Chorus make it a highlight of the album. For
collectors who haven not been able to track down the promotional album
for William Ross' promo for
Tin Cup should note that the
four-minute finale cue here is a good sampling of his score for the
film. A fitting end to any album, of course, is
Silverado. Most
of these tracks were available on a "Music from the Films of Kevin
Costner" compilation from Silva in 1995, rendering that album largely
useless. Overall, this compilation is almost as enjoyable as the Connery
one (albeit shorter), and is a full step above the Mel Gibson one. The
tracks from
Revenge,
Waterworld, and
Silverado will
especially attract your attention.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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The insert includes detailed notes about the scores and films.
