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| Goldsmith |
Small Soldiers: (Jerry Goldsmith) In the earliest
days of the Dreamworks studio, Joe Dante was given an opportunity to
resurrect the popularity of his cute
Gremlins, merging the
concept of that film's catchy plot with that of
Toy Story to
create a suburban battlefield for action figures that come to life. The
idea was perfect for Dante treatment, allowing technologically enhanced
toys, almost believable in reality, to take on personalities of their
own that, instead of resorting to terror, decide to go to war with each
other. Funny in-jokes made
Small Soldiers perhaps more suitable
for adults than children, though the film didn't really take hold with
either audience. The release date coincided with one of America's more
harrowing mass shootings at a public school, diminishing interest in the
blatantly militaristic take on the children's genre. Among one of the
expected results of Dante's return was his continued collaboration with
Jerry Goldsmith, a fruitful pairing which spanned from the early 1980's
to the composer's final score. Their previous work together,
Matinee, was entertaining enough to merit some interest, but the
score is largely forgettable. The same can't be said for
Small
Soldiers, for which Goldsmith provides one of his stronger entries
for a Dante film. The composer's large-scale parody scores, especially
those that expose his sense of humor, are typically quite enjoyable.
Here, he plunders his own music as well as famous themes by Franz
Waxman, Richard Wagner, and Richard Strauss, among others, recording new
takes of their works for pinpoint parody throughout. The Civil War hymn
"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" also returns prominently from its
historical pinnacle in
Dr. Strangelove. For a Goldsmith score as
purely wacky and fun as
Small Soldiers, you have to journey back
to
The 'Burbs, and the two works share several similarities. The
opening march for "The Assembly Line" is a bombastic, over-the-top
play on Goldsmith's own
Patton score, which not only receives
direct parody use later in the film but causes
Small Soldiers to
join
The 'Burbs as the second such manipulation of the famous
1970 score by Goldsmith.
Goldsmith's approach to
Small Soldiers is highly
lyrical, almost to a fault. His melodic statements shift wildly in their
abundance, though they do form a cohesive overall personality. Sharp
string rhythms, patriotic woodwinds, and light snare tapping yield to
bold brass statements of the main theme in "Assembly Line," augmented by
speaker-bouncing drum pads. This theme anchors a few action pieces
throughout the score, though it eventually runs into another march of
the same instrumentation introduced in "Prepare for Assault."
Representing the "evil" Gorgonite toys that battle the headlining toy
soldiers, this secondary idea reappears prominently in "Trust Me."
Unfortunately, the primary theme is rarely touched upon by Goldsmith in
the remainder of the score, heard in "This is Fun" and "No Prisoners"
but otherwise succumbing to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and only
referenced as a four-note fragment often on electric guitar in
association. Still, "The Assembly Line" is a remarkable singular cue for
the composer; its structure, repeating the main thematic statement twice
over a percussive and synthetic rhythm before venturing into a lofty
string interlude (for the Gorgonites here) and eventually returning for
one last main statement, mirrors
Total Recall,
The Shadow,
and many other Goldsmith scores' primary themes. The lack of its
well-incorporated, cohesive use later in this score is curious. In
general, while
Patton is an obvious reference point for both the
action themes, the percussive barrage and string rhythms are pulled from
Capricorn One and the heroic brass figures come from
Air Force
One. Goldsmith supplies the boy at the heart of the tale with a
buoyant suburban theme of innocence, this material foreshadowed at the
end of "The Assembly Line" before occupying "Alan's Town" and "Roll
Call." The connection between the boy and the leader of the Gorgonites
is highlighted in "Alan and Archer," including tinkling electronics
under pleasant strings that remind of
Total Recall and the even
more impressive, melodramatic string variant to close out "Off to
Gorgon." A standard, whimsical love theme from Goldsmith is expressed in
full in "This is Fun" and "Off to Gorgon," and a variety of lesser,
often comical motifs is littered throughout.
For twenty years, the 31-minute Varèse Sarabande
album of 1998 was assailed for its brevity against reports that upwards
of 90 minutes of music was recorded for
Small Soldiers. But in
its more complete form, this score exposes significant redundancy in its
repetitive expressions of its militaristic Goldsmith melodies and the
vintage hymn. The main theme's shorter, four-note representation (which
could be three notes if you consider the last one simply slurred
downward by the guitar) and the echoing trumpets of
Patton and
The 'Burbs are rather tiresome after a while. Some of the lighter
moments emulate the pleasant but nondescript passages of
Matinee.
The outright Wagner references, among others, are cute but distracting,
and listeners will notice a fair amount of love for Bernard Herrmann
from
Psycho in the shrieking synthesized string effects of
"Special Design" and the swirling of strings of
Vertigo in "Trust
Me." Overall, the score is light-hearted and rambunctious, highly
creative, a blast when edited into a 40-minute presentation but
something of a stretch on patience in its limited, 75-minute expansion
in 2018 by Varèse. That CD Club title adds a fuller narrative and
several alternate and source-related cues, including a humorous
re-recording of the famous 1970's disco rendition of Strauss' Also
Sprach Zarathustra. (Goldsmith re-recorded all parody source placements
in the film.) It needs to be noted that
Small Soldiers represents
the first of a series of Goldsmith scores in 1998 and 1999 that featured
brilliantly outstanding sound quality. Given that
Small Soldiers,
Star Trek: Insurrection,
The Haunting, and
The 13th
Warrior all benefit greatly from this remarkably crisp sound despite
being recorded at several different locations (Abbey Road, Todd AO,
Newman Stage, etc.), this result is possibly due to a uniquely wet,
vibrant mix provided to the music by engineer Bruce Botnick during only
this time. No matter the reason, if you compare the ambience of
Small
Soldiers to, for instance,
U.S. Marshals from earlier in
1998, there is a vast improvement in the soundscape. This extremely
dynamic mix gives
Small Soldiers yet another source of energy,
and along with Goldsmith's blend of parody style and roaring
militaristic performances, the score is an attractive joy.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26
(in 124 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.29
(in 153,454 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 1998 album includes a black and white picture of Goldsmith
conducting but no extra information about the score or film. That of the 2018 CD Club
album contains notes about both, as well as a list of performers.
