Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #777
Written 12/2/96, Revised 3/3/13
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Buy it... on the Romanian bootleg release containing both
Testament and the 1989 score for In Country if you
appreciate James Horner's more somber, humbling dramatic works for solo
instruments over very basic orchestral accompaniment.
Avoid it... if only the quality of the finale from In
Country is worth the trouble of finding that rare collection of
early Horner music, because while Testament is an interesting
score, it is a frightfully depressing listening experience when
separated to a presentation on its own.
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| Horner |
Testament: (James Horner) The 1983 apocalypse film
Testament was originally produced as a television project for
PBS's "American Playhouse," but the quality of the film was considered
so high that Paramount decided to purchase the rights for a full
theatrical release. Its production qualities are still those of a
made-for-TV film, with minimal, improvised special effects, strong
acting performances (rewarded with an Oscar nomination for lead actress
Jane Alexander), and a reliance upon a strong adaptation of Carol Amen's
short story, "The Last Testament." The plot resembles many that
prevailed due to societal fears that festered in Ronald Reagan's
nuclear-ambitious period of the early-80's, with the concurrently seen
telefilm "The Last Day" better remembered for its more famous cast and
melodramatic treatment of everyday America after a nuclear war. The
unrestrained and stark reality of Lynne Littman's Testament is a
disturbing experience to say the least, with the primary suburban family
in its story slowly dying off as radiation spreads and the skies grow
dark. The coping of average people in such an aftermath of global
annihilation is no light topic, and some audiences likely found
Testament too overly disturbing to tolerate. It is understandable
that James Horner's score for the film is equally depressing, carefully
augmenting a handful of scenes with very underplayed melodrama while
much of the story was left unscored to allow the gravity of the plot to
sink in. Although the composer had already hit the mainstream with his
immense science fiction music by this time, his work here is built for
an ensemble of only ten players and usually consisting of duets or solo
trumpet or woodwind performances, yielding an extremely respectful
stance while mourning a lifestyle lost. The resulting intellectual,
largely unheralded score for this somber glimpse at unexpected heroism
may provide some pleasant surprises for a learned Horner collector
sympathetic to the composer's less obvious dramatic techniques.
The standout tracks in
Testament include the cue
for the bike ride shared by father and son before the war, with Horner
providing one of his more enjoyable family theme variations for horn,
synthesizer, harp, piano, and strings (an interesting precursor to his
children's work a decade later). A title theme for horn exists
separately, a variation on this consistently utilized idea recollected
by haunting choir in the late moments of the score. Less engaging is a
theme for another specific boy in the family, eerily dying in its
progressions as appropriate. On the whole, striking solo performances
define
Testament; the respect that Horner shows with the melodic
simplicity of his work is shown in the fact that he mirrors the hopeless
optimism of the primary character (the family mother) with slowly
deteriorating statements of the title theme in a persistently major key
form. It's interesting to notice how many mannerisms in this early
Horner score would manifest themselves in much greater depth later in
his career. The sound quality for the score is outstanding given its
age, and it is reproduced well in the film despite existing in a
monaural soundscape. It has existed on several bootlegs, the most well
known of which a 1996 Romanian "Vivo" label album that also features
Horner's more accessible
In Country as an appended suite of 30
minutes in length, though in 2011, Film Score Monthly released the
Testament score in slightly longer form to account for a variety
of source recordings. For many years, this bootleg and the others that
followed were a considered top collectibles and fetched unreasonable
prices on the secondary market, but not for
Testament; the solemn
but heroic fully orchestral journey heard in
In Country is far
more appealing and drove most of the demand for the combined
presentations on album. With both the two humbling scores sharing a
common introspective style, the Romanian bootleg is a strong
recommendation for collectors of Horner's dramatic works. Aside from
that, completists will find FSM's product for
Testament alone to
be an intriguing glimpse at the composer's trademark mannerisms in early
developmental stages, despite the topic's overwhelmingly depressing
demeanor.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 108 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 203,515 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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