Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,073
Written 6/13/97, Revised 12/15/06
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Buy it... if you enjoy large-scale television Western scores like
Lonesome Dove and Buffalo Girls and want to hear one of
Bruce Broughton's best ventures into the genre.
Avoid it... if only a small dose of typical Broughton action
material can't justify the very lengthy sequences of quiet and
respectful pastoral beauty.
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| Broughton |
True Women: (Bruce Broughton) Even as it would have
seemed that the viability of massive Western productions for television
should be reaching its natural end, Hallmark's True Women proved
the genre still viable in 1997. The story progresses through the lives
of three women starting in 1853 and follows their maturation over the
course of 4 solid hours. While the film focuses on the personalities of
these women, the usual array of wider issues is explored, ranging from
politics, prejudice, sexuality, and slavery to death. Of particular note
is the death, for there are plenty of heartbreaking moments in True
Women. The difficulties of the era are soothed in some regards by
composer Bruce Broughton, whose lengthy score for the film gained
True Women its only Emmy award nomination. By 1997, Broughton was
a respected veteran of Western scores, and his nomination here should
have come as no surprise. If you look at the careers of Broughton, Basil
Poledouris, and Lee Holdridge, all three have experienced significant
success in the genre. Poledouris' Lonesome Dove is the standard
for television Western music, and Holdridge remains the leader of the
pack in the quantity of work in the area. But many could argue that
Broughton's music for the Western is more consistently of high quality.
Both his feature scores for Silverado and Tombstone are
widely considered among the best in the genre's modern age, and his
television score for How The West Was Won has also been
recognized for its effectiveness. While True Women may not be as
heroic or flashy as other scores in the genre, it is without a doubt one
of the better ones in existence. Broughton returns to record once again
with The Sinfonia of London, a group that served him well on
Tombstone and several re-recordings of Golden Age scores for the
Intrada label. While the results from this ensemble can be debated
occasionally, there is no doubt that they are in form for True
Women.
It's difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons why
True Women succeeds so well both in the film and on album. The
score has no one dominant element that draws you back to a particular
cue. This is, ironically, the score's only weakness... the fact that it
is consistently good, reaching towards excellence at times, but never
defining itself as a classic. This mixture begins with the themes
Broughton uses for the story; there are so many lines of plot followed
in
True Women that Broughton attempts to write material
representing most of them, whether it's for a particular character, a
coupling, or an underlying emotion. At some point, you get lost among
all the ideas, for they're mostly tied together with the same hopeful,
lush sensibility that lends romance and beauty to the location and its
personalities. Even in its darker action moments,
True Women is a
score with little dissonance, though a sequence in the "Main Title" and
"The Lynching" can call for a quick visit to the next track. The action
is sparse, but when Broughton throws fuel onto the fire, he cooks with
intensity. Both "Night Raid" and "Big Elm Draw" are furious rhythmic
pieces similar to other wild ventures in Broughton's career. The
majority of the score, however, is either pastoral in its performances
for the entire ensemble, or lightly tender in its conversational
accompaniment. The cues "Phemie Joins Sarah" and "Setting Out" offer a
"sisters theme" that contains a few almost ethnic twists in progression
that quickly distinguish the score from others in the genre. The score
never becomes lost in the weight of the Americana spirit that it skirts
during its running time, allowing it to be delightfully flighty at a
snap. Easy melodies and harmonic progressions are almost always present.
There are only a few moments of outward creativity in the writing,
either by Broughton's hand or in the instrumentation; a sparse wail of a
distant animal with a woodwind seems to be standard. Light percussive
elements add suspense. The album can run long and thus warrant the
temptation to copy 15 to 20 of the best minutes onto your own
compilation, but even at its full length, it's a pleasantly respectful
tribute to the personalities of the time.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For Bruce Broughton reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.36
(in 11 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.28
(in 4,522 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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