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Review of The Wind and the Lion (Jerry Goldsmith)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you have ever wondered what Jerry Goldsmith would have
produced had he been active during the time of Hollywood's greatest
Golden Age epics, because The Wind and the Lion is a classic
carried over from that time.
Avoid it... only if you demand the clearest of sound quality in your massive Jerry Goldsmith scores, in which case a combination of Lionheart and The 13th Warrior touches upon most of the same stylistic bases.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Wind and the Lion: (Jerry Goldsmith) At a time
when old fashioned epics of immense landscapes and larger-than-life
characters had faded from the spotlight in major cinema, writer and
director John Milius liberally adapted a true story of an abduction that
brought two of his favorite historical figures into surprising symmetry.
While the facts of the tale are skewed for the purposes of melodrama,
The Wind and the Lion is still the result of Milius' significant
respect for both President Teddy Roosevelt and the famed El Raisuli
("the Magnificent") of Morocco, leader of fierce Arab resistance against
foreign powers in this region just prior to World War I. The film uses
the abduction of Candice Bergen's surprisingly independent woman of
class to draw parallels between the leaders, portrayed amicably by Sean
Connery and Brian Keith. There are no real winners or losers in the plot
of The Wind and the Lion; Milius instead uses the environment to
stir up dust, show beheadings, and allow glorious cinematography of vast
open spaces to carry the film's appeal. Despite the director's new
arrival on the Hollywood scene, The Wind and the Lion was
rewarded with significant critical praise and did quite well at the box
office, eventually yielding a pair of Oscar nominations. One of those
nominations came for Milius' chosen composer for the assignment, Jerry
Goldsmith. Though most soundtrack collectors are well aware of the
director's fruitful collaboration with Basil Poledouris, The Wind and
the Lion came at a time when Milius' friend from college had not yet
established his feature scoring career. Thus came Goldsmith, initially
reluctant. It was a rare circumstance in which the veteran composer did
research into the music of the setting, discovering that the cultural
sound of Morocco was largely informed by its controlling European
superpowers at the time. Goldsmith eventually produced one of the finest
scores of his career for The Wind and the Lion, not only earning
the Academy recognition, but also allowing him to finally write grand
music for a sweeping epic. He had arrived in the industry just as such
films were falling out of favor, and Goldsmith eventually looked back
upon the assignment with respect and admiration.
True the style of Maurice Jarre's classic score for Lawrence of Arabia, Goldsmith utilized a diverse ensemble for The Wind and the Lion that relied upon the fury of a massive percussion section to establish the mood of the setting. A wide variety of struck metal objects (one of which struck and then put underwater) and unconventional drums created a barbaric atmosphere suitable for the old-fashioned methodology of the Raisuli and his forces. Assuaging audience ears is the infusion of Western romanticism into The Wind and the Lion as well, merging extremely heroic brass tones with a broad string sub-theme to give the efforts of the Raisuli the appropriate balance between accomplished brute force and a refined sense of taste. Several themes and motifs run though The Wind and the Lion, many of them overlapping and integrated as fragments into each other. The most dominant progression at work is a series of alternating complimentary notes that are open fifths in musical terminology but will be more recognizable to collectors as the equivalent progression to the opening of Goldsmith's forthcoming Klingon theme in the Star Trek films. The three notes of this motif, boldly starting and ending on key, serve as the basis for both the score's boisterous primary theme for the Raisuli and a more subdued and stately identity for Roosevelt. The motif signals the Raisuli and his forces very effectively, though the full theme to follow it is surprisingly lyrical in its flow, giving the character an allure not only dramatic in its depth, but slightly tragic in its acknowledgement of a changing world that will marginalize his influence. Conversely, the theme for Roosevelt is a French horn piece that is as mannerly as it is robust, an appropriate though comparatively less interesting representation. Only in a couple of places in the score does Goldsmith afford this theme some expanse in which to fly. In the latter half of the film, the composer provides a love theme to accompany the unrealized romantic attraction between the Raisuli and the Western woman he has kidnapped. This idea, utilizing strings and woodwinds in familiar roles while light metallic percussion reminds of the location, features all of the weight of the thematic structures that John Barry would make famous in the 1980's. It is lovely counterpoint to the bombast of the material for the Raisuli, itself taking several full-ensemble explorations. Several secondary motifs, including two for the Arabs (one specifically during scenes of travel), are faithfully conveyed by Goldsmith throughout The Wind and the Lion, but it is the intelligent interaction between the primary motif, the Raisuli's theme, and the love theme that makes this score so effective. The propulsive ensemble rhythms will remind some listeners of The 13th Warrior, though Goldsmith impressively layers these with his strong themes with the kind of explosive effect heard in Lionheart. There is an excruciating level of detail in The Wind and the Lion, with so many lines of action concurrently performed in the score's action sequences that the overall impact of the score is overwhelming. The cue "Lord of the Riff" is a perfect example of how Goldsmith can take most of the score's major themes and lesser motifs and feature them either in progression or on top of each other in very satisfying fashion. The composer also saves his most dramatic single moments for Milius' equally beautiful shots on screen, including one in "A Bid for Freedom" that is nothing less than stunning as Connery's Raisuli sweeps by one of the two Western children on horseback and, in glorious slow motion, takes his rifle from the boy before riding out of the story. Another momentous cue that highlights the film is the ambitious "Raisuli Attacks," a brutal but extremely complicated piece (especially for the trumpets) that matches the skill of the horseman in executing his enemies. Outside of the openly predatory cues, The Wind and the Lion maintains its appeal in all but its source-like cues. There is a significant amount of source material in the film, mostly arranged for Goldsmith by longtime associate Alexander Courage, and the original score itself has several cues that consist of varied percussive rhythms with no assistance from the other sections of the orchestra. These portions of The Wind and the Lion are its least interesting and, therefore, its only weakness. All of its ensemble performances, however, which constitute the mass majority of the score, maintain a level of multi-layered excellence that, in this genre of historic bravado, would stand alone until Goldsmith's Lionheart. Some listeners prefer the more soothing tones of the material for Roosevelt, highlighted by an optimistic, full performance at the start of "The True Symbol." Goldsmith's music for The Wind and the Lion, most importantly, is a very obvious production aspect in the finished film, carrying entire scenes with the engrossing kind of prominence that the composer would accomplish again in another of his classics, Hoosiers. The score presented some complications of its own when the time came to revisit it on album. Because the film shared two studios, a situation (which occurs on occasion) arose in which one record label owned the licensing rights to release a score album while another label owned the rights to the studio's actual library of master tapes from which the score needed to be mixed and pressed. In 1989, Intrada Records transferred the old LP record arrangement to CD and that product represented the score until 2007, when the label intended to remaster the same mix and re-issue it. Coincidentally, Film Score Monthly had been investigating the newly discovered, superior master tapes of the complete score for a possible release of their own. Luckily, Lukas Kendall of FSM and Doug Fake of Intrada coordinated efforts in this peculiar situation and with production assistance from Kendall, Intrada released a comprehensive 2-CD set of The Wind and the Lion in 2007. This non-limited album's presentation is as good as it could possibly get for enthusiasts of this fine score, with the first CD containing the entirety of the score remastered from the best available source and the second CD offering a remastering of the original album's mix along with the many source recordings. The mixes of the album and film versions of the score often differ (and a small bit of the material on the film-version CD does not match what is in the actual film as well), but most listeners won't be able to distinguish any serious differences (including sound quality in most places). Unfortunately, The Wind and the Lion, even when cleaned up, doesn't sound as good as some of Goldsmith's other recordings of the era (take the crisper, concurrent Breakheart Pass, for example, though as with Inchon, much of this depends upon the recording locale), and discerning listeners will hear some occasional harshness bordering on distortion in the brass section. Still, the compositional superiority of The Wind and the Lion trumps its issues with slightly archival sound quality, and any collector of Goldsmith's works should seek the 2007 set with confidence. And don't forget: the Raisuli does not sing! *****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1992 Intrada Album:
Total Time: 38:37
2007 Intrada Album: Total Time: 123:19
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts of both the 1992 and 2007 albums include notes about the score
and film, the latter extensive in its detail.
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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 The Wind and the Lion are Copyright © 1992, 2007, Intrada Records, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/21/09 (and not updated significantly since). |
