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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Small Soldiers (Jerry Goldsmith)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you have an affinity for the parody style of Jerry
Goldsmith's The 'Burbs and don't mind hearing the composer's
prior work and numerous outside sources pulled together for a robust,
militaristic barrage of comedy.
Avoid it... if you expect the 2018 expansion of the original album to yield uniquely satisfying music, for this work's extensive redundancies are exposed in the longer Varèse Sarabande presentation.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1998 Varèse Album:
Total Time: 31:01
2018 Varèse Album: Total Time: 75:32
NOTES & QUOTES:
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.
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