Maverick

The opening to Maverick is rather a red herring since it is a moment of great drama and mock horror. Several reviews have commented that it sounds like a horror film, but I can actually visualise one of those gut wrenching openings to a Western where something awful happens, the hero's father is brutally murdered while they are a child, then spending the rest of the film trrying to avenge the death. I've not seen the film, so couldn't say for sure. It turns out, however, that the rest of the score is a little more light hearted and brimming with memorable themes. The main theme is a syncopated minor key theme that appears most predominantly in Runaway Stage (that appears to have taken the role as the set piece cue for compilations). However, my favourite theme is a slightly more fun and bouncy theme that first appears after the crushing opening.

The love theme is gushingly romantic and sounds exactly how I'd imagine a love theme for a Western should, the sort that sounds derived a song that is sung by a drunk pianist in a bar. Can imagine all the rough cowboys being awfully pleasant and calling the lady in question 'Ma'am' and so on... The score as a whole is perhaps a little schizophrenic since there are quite a few different ideas going on, the opening growling rather recalls the darkest parts of Broughton's Tombstone, but there are some marvellously enjoyable parts and that love theme is so over the top, it's hard to take seriously. As with Broughton's Tombstone score, Newman's use of the orchestra is particularly noteworthy in Maverick, using guitars and all the rather typical Western instrumentations, but always deploying them to best effect given the mood of the track. Runaway Stage has a great guitar underpinning that could almost be deemed as cliche, but the way it's used is nicely different.

One of the biggest problems with the score is that the tracks are often a fraction too short, it would have been nice to sequence a few of them together to make some kind of sense. The other problem is that the music rather fizzles out a bit toward the end. Setpieces, such as the aforementioned Runaway Stage occur early on and so the final tracks don't seem to lead into a big ending, it just suddenly stops and the song appears, which is a bit of a shame. Whether this is just how it panned out in the film or just how Newman felt it should be sequenced is something I do not know, but it would have been nice to have a finale cue that justly wrapped up the rest of the score, especially given the great opening cue. The final track is a short medley song, Tartine de Merde (which, I am informed by my Francophile friends means 'Shit Pie' - an original title for sure...). Randy's voice seems to be even more rough and all over the shop than usual, but in the context of the song being a medley sung by a singer in a bar in the wild west, actually fits in rather nicely. There is no main tune to the song, but two giving the impression of a brief medley. I am uncertain as to whether the song appeared in the film or not, but either way it's great fun and rounds out the CD reasonably well, even though a rousing orchestral climax would have been preferred.

Definitely one to dig out if you're a Randy Newman fan. The first half is exceptionally good, but there are enough high spots in the latter stages to keep it interesting. Also, the CD is apparently becoming hard to find so pick it up now while it's still out there! Also, be sure not to mistake it for the songs compilation (it took a lot of pestering to get the actual score released and it was certainly worth the effort). The recording is particularly noteworthy and Newman's intricate orchestrations can be heard very clearly, as can the splendid performance. An interesting change from the usual low key efforts that Newman has to score (his Pixar projects excepted) and just goes to show that he can write great music in any genre.