True Women

The epic western miniseries seems to retain its popularity and True Women is how women survived at a time when men made the rules, women wore bonnets and acted coy (or not, as in this case). Charming. Still, featuring Angelina Jolie, Michael York and Charles S Dutton, the acting talent is hardly shabby. When the well of big screen westerns ran dry for Bruce Broughton, quality small screen productions beckoned and True Women is one of two significant entries in the genre (the other being O Pioneers!). Unlike upbeat Silverado or the gritty Tombstone, True Women focuses more on the every day lives of people at the time, so the emphasis is a touch more pastoral and intimate than action orientated.
The main theme quietly opens the Main Title; while nice enough, it's one of those Broughton themes that sounds vaguely like something else, but doesn't make the strong impression of his big screen melodies. Still, it has precisely the right mood and as ever, the composer puts it through enough dramatic variations to keep it memorable, but fresh. The quiet opening is soon interrupted by Night Raid and the score, as a whole, takes a turn for the darker. Night Raid itself seems a bit like an outtake from Lost in Space, the running string motif and brass hits being along the same lines. Still, it makes for effective and exciting action. Elements of excitement return throughout, notably The Barn Fire and The Lynching which feature plenty of bristling orchestration and dynamic drama.

However, it's the music for the interpersonal relationships which stands out here and track with uninspiring titles such as Campfire Concerns feature some splendid woodwind writing and the kind of subtle scoring at which Broughton excels. True Women doesn't quite reach the quality of Broughton's big screen western outings, but it certainly never belies its origins as a small screen score. That it is performed by the substantial band of the Sinfonia of London helps immeasurably. However, miniseries scores almost always seem that little less focused than feature scores, their sprawling nature means that it often doesn't feel as though it's pointing in any specific direction, but the overall impression is favourable and Broughton fans should be pleased by it.