Post by erik on Apr 11, 2015 21:39:56 GMT -5
As many of you are aware, but also for those of you who aren't aware, besides all things Linda Ronstadt, I am an especially big fan of movie music. My two favorite composers of movie music are John Williams (natch!) and the late Jerry Goldsmith. But a close third on my list of great film composers, and maybe the most underappreciated one in this genre's history, is Jerry Fielding. And one of my favorite film scores of his is the one I'll talk about here:
Blacklisted during the 1950s because of his extremely liberal political views, Fielding re-emerged in the early 1960s with the score for Otto Preminger's 1962 political film ADVISE AND CONSENT. Then in 1966, he began a close, occasionally contentious, but artistically excellent collaboration with legendary Hollywood maverick director Sam Peckinpah, on the made-for-TV adaptation of Noon Wine. Peckinpah then got Fielding, whose background was in modern classical and big-band jazz, to come up with the Mexican mariachi/ranchera-influenced score of the director's extremely violent 1969 Western classic THE WILD BUNCH, which resulted in Fielding getting an Oscar nomination (he didn't win, but still the score bought him back from obscurity).
The film in question here is one that Fielding worked on for Peckinpah in 1971, the one for the director's nightmarish made-in-England psychological horror film STRAW DOGS. In contrast to the ethnic Mexican influences of THE WILD BUNCH, the score Fielding composed here is decidedly modern, dissonant, and oftentimes downright creepy. Of course, it goes quite well with this movie, which is about an American mathematician (Dustin Hoffman) seeking refuge from the campus violence of America by moving to England, only to confront the xenophobia of some of the men in a small town in Cornwall that ends in a hugely horrifying siege on his isolated farmhouse. The basic musical motif Fielding uses, an ironclad brass chorale that serves as the film's prologue, and a main score with scurrying string figures and a Paganini-like violin solo part, is one many believe was inspired by Igor Stravinsky's elaborate 1917 orchestral suite "L'Histoire Du Soldat" (A Soldier's Tale). One of the cues on the soundtrack album, however, that is of special note, because it will give one the creeps, is "The Infamous Appassionata", heard during a sequence that is so incredibly shocking even by our standards--a scene where Hoffman's wife (Susan George) is brutally raped by two of the men (Del Henney; Ken Hutchison) that had been mocking Hoffman. This sequence made the film enormously controversial, especially with feminists who accused Peckinpah of being misogynistic and even fascist (he was known to have had very complicated relations with women, but his ultra-liberal politics belie that fascist tag). The chill factor of this cue is bought about by the process of recording the trombones in the orchestra at half-speed, resulting in a disturbing avant-garde collage. A couple of other cues in the score, though they're not really heard in the film itself, are "source music", where Fielding engages in jazz-like influences.
Because of the extreme controversy involving the film's violence and sex (its late 1971 release coincided with the release of Stanley Kubrick's equally incendiary A CLOCKWORK ORANGE), Fielding's score was the only aspect of STRAW DOGS that got even an Oscar nomination, which the composer found bewildering given what he felt was Hoffman's superb performance. But I would rank this score as one of the best and most chilling, comparable to the avant-garde music that Kubrick utilized in his 1980 horror classic THE SHINING.
Fielding, unfortunately, died a tragically early death at age 57 in 1980 due to a heart attack; he was a workaholic during the 1970s, after having been blacklisted and not allowed to work in Hollywood for so long. Nevertheless, he created many great (and hugely underrated) film scores; and the one here for STRAW DOGS is one of his best (IMHO).
Blacklisted during the 1950s because of his extremely liberal political views, Fielding re-emerged in the early 1960s with the score for Otto Preminger's 1962 political film ADVISE AND CONSENT. Then in 1966, he began a close, occasionally contentious, but artistically excellent collaboration with legendary Hollywood maverick director Sam Peckinpah, on the made-for-TV adaptation of Noon Wine. Peckinpah then got Fielding, whose background was in modern classical and big-band jazz, to come up with the Mexican mariachi/ranchera-influenced score of the director's extremely violent 1969 Western classic THE WILD BUNCH, which resulted in Fielding getting an Oscar nomination (he didn't win, but still the score bought him back from obscurity).
The film in question here is one that Fielding worked on for Peckinpah in 1971, the one for the director's nightmarish made-in-England psychological horror film STRAW DOGS. In contrast to the ethnic Mexican influences of THE WILD BUNCH, the score Fielding composed here is decidedly modern, dissonant, and oftentimes downright creepy. Of course, it goes quite well with this movie, which is about an American mathematician (Dustin Hoffman) seeking refuge from the campus violence of America by moving to England, only to confront the xenophobia of some of the men in a small town in Cornwall that ends in a hugely horrifying siege on his isolated farmhouse. The basic musical motif Fielding uses, an ironclad brass chorale that serves as the film's prologue, and a main score with scurrying string figures and a Paganini-like violin solo part, is one many believe was inspired by Igor Stravinsky's elaborate 1917 orchestral suite "L'Histoire Du Soldat" (A Soldier's Tale). One of the cues on the soundtrack album, however, that is of special note, because it will give one the creeps, is "The Infamous Appassionata", heard during a sequence that is so incredibly shocking even by our standards--a scene where Hoffman's wife (Susan George) is brutally raped by two of the men (Del Henney; Ken Hutchison) that had been mocking Hoffman. This sequence made the film enormously controversial, especially with feminists who accused Peckinpah of being misogynistic and even fascist (he was known to have had very complicated relations with women, but his ultra-liberal politics belie that fascist tag). The chill factor of this cue is bought about by the process of recording the trombones in the orchestra at half-speed, resulting in a disturbing avant-garde collage. A couple of other cues in the score, though they're not really heard in the film itself, are "source music", where Fielding engages in jazz-like influences.
Because of the extreme controversy involving the film's violence and sex (its late 1971 release coincided with the release of Stanley Kubrick's equally incendiary A CLOCKWORK ORANGE), Fielding's score was the only aspect of STRAW DOGS that got even an Oscar nomination, which the composer found bewildering given what he felt was Hoffman's superb performance. But I would rank this score as one of the best and most chilling, comparable to the avant-garde music that Kubrick utilized in his 1980 horror classic THE SHINING.
Fielding, unfortunately, died a tragically early death at age 57 in 1980 due to a heart attack; he was a workaholic during the 1970s, after having been blacklisted and not allowed to work in Hollywood for so long. Nevertheless, he created many great (and hugely underrated) film scores; and the one here for STRAW DOGS is one of his best (IMHO).
