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| Newman |
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| Barry |
The Horse Whisperer: (Thomas Newman) The
best-selling novel by Nicholas Evans was the focus of Robert Redford in
his 1998 screen adaptation that irked some viewers with its altered
Hollywood ending but otherwise wooed audiences with its honest depiction
of soul healing and the beauty of Montana. Over the course of almost
three hours,
The Horse Whisperer offers the tragedy and trauma
that injure a girl, her horse, and by association, her family. When they
consult with a "horse whisperer" who can heal the horse's spirit and
thus the others, they embark on a journey to explore and heal the hearts
of everyone involved. The film is melodrama at its finest, and combined
with the spectacular visuals that the region inherently provides,
The
Horse Whisperer was a moderate success. More problematic in the
production process was the recording of the soundtrack for the film.
Redford relied upon the steady hand of English veteran John Barry,
master of the epics of nature who had graced the Redford film
Out of
Africa with an Oscar-winning score and who had earned another statue
for
Dances With Wolves. Barry's career was grinding to a halt by
the late 1990's, his stubborn style of ultra-fluid romantic orchestral
writing finding fewer appropriate matches in the industry. His score for
The Horse Whisperer consisted of more of the same style and, for
whatever reason, Redford decided to jettison Barry in favor of Thomas
Newman, whose score for
The Shawshank Redemption had been
temp-tracked into parts of the new project. Speculation about this
replacement has long continued, perpetuated by Barry's eventual release
of his themes for the film on the concert album "The Beyondness of
Things." An examination of that album versus the final score provided by
Newman shows two composers predictably writing from their comfort
zones.
Barry's rejected work is an extension of
Dances With
Wolves, among others, and thus reflects the magnificent scope of the
Montana setting without addressing the intricate relationships in the
story. Newman's more dynamic blend of traditional orchestral sounds of
Americana with his trademark folksy rhythms and instrumentation,
however, covered both bases and is arguably more appropriate for the
picture. Ironically, however, while Newman succeeded in providing the
flair of character and intimate delicacy that Redford was likely
seeking, he lost some of the epic grandeur that the film could have
used. Newman's work for
The Horse Whisperer is rich with the
instrumental diversity that his listeners have come to expect, with an
extra emphasis on the Western elements of acoustic guitar and fiddle
(along with mandolin, piano, and the synthetic sounds of nature).
Despite expectations that Thomas Pasatieri's orchestrations would yield
a score similar to James Horner's
Legends of the Fall, listeners
are instead given the unpredictable and imbalanced ambience of
The
New World. A few of the folksy rhythms will remind of Danny Elfman's
Black Beauty, as will Newman's jubilant, primary theme. Much of
the score, surprisingly, meanders in the depths of barely audible
dissonance or colorful solos, seeming disorganized and uncommitted to
either the heart and personality of the solo accents or the occasional
majestic bursts of the orchestral ensemble. The latter parts are more
likely to appeal to fans of
The Shawshank Redemption and
Little Women, and (at the time) was one final venture into that
realm before the composer delved into more ambient, experimental sounds.
The soft, but never uninviting continuous orchestral murmuring that
sustains the "whispering" effect throughout the background of the entire
score never becomes too heavy. Nor do its frivolous moments continue so
long that they distract from the whole.
Newman offers a main theme that is a knockout, but it's
badly underutilized. Heard in full only during about five minutes
combined in "The Rhythm of the Horse" and "End Title," this relatively
simple minor-key theme is among the most attractive creations of
Newman's career. Carried by solo flute before yielding to the full
ensemble over elegantly strumming guitar and light percussion, these
performances are alone worth investigating the entire album. Newman's
failure to adapt this theme well into the fabric of his score's softer
moments is a definite curiosity and disappointment. His remaining
large-scale orchestral outbursts, highlighted by "Montana," offer string
and French horn ideas that never relate to form any cohesion with other
similar cues. The singular theme in "Montana" could remind Golden Age
listeners of Max Steiner's 1963 score for
Spencer's Mountain, one
of the composer's final works. The late cues "The Very Act of Being" and
"The Vast Continent" take their sweeping string crescendos in unique
directions, forming distinctly individual high points in
The Horse
Whisperer that don't leave much of a memorable impression once the
score is finished. What the listener will remember from the score is
Newman's warm specialty instrumentation and orchestrations, both of
which are standard in his career. Overall, however, while the low-key
personal temperament of Newman's music may be appropriate for the
characters of the film, the score as a whole is not as inspiring as the
setting of Montana would suggest. An album of cues presented out of film
order doesn't aid in the lack of cohesive core in the music, though any
fan of the composer will easily be delighted by a half dozen of the
lengthier cues. It may be impossible to compare exactly how John Barry's
expansive sound would have complimented the film differently that
Newman's replacement work, but it's likely that either score would
ultimately have done the job.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Thomas Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.14
(in 37 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.18
(in 60,837 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert contains extensive credits, but no extra information about the score or film.
