Open Range

Although he didn't do many film scoring projects in the last few years of his life, Michael Kamen contributed to many important musical occasions, not least of all as orchestral director for concerts celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the Queen. Kamen was noted as saying that after scoring the TV miniseries Band of Brothers, he felt it was unlikely he would find many projects that inspired him so much and as a result, this was his first major film score since X-Men, but sadly turned out to be his last. Kevin Costner made a big splash with Dances with Wolves, but then stumbled with The Postman. However, Open Range seems to have garnered generally good reviews, if a somewhat lukewarm box office, but then who said the movie going public were a good barometer of quality? Titanic - nuff said.

The original composer was apparently replaced by Kamen at the last minute, which in retrospect seems even more fortuitous to his fans, as it gives us a fine score with which to remember him. The album opens with Holding All My Love For You which, as other reviewers have pointed out, does sound like a country version of the WW2 flag waver, The White Cliffs of Dover. Although the similarity is strong at times, the sound and style are so removed that it doesn't really distract greatly and is quite delightful, given a lovely performance by Julianna Raye. The melody becomes a major theme within the score itself, but as with most of Kamen's scores, the thematic material is only obvious after careful listening, something which always made his scores less popular than perhaps they ought to be.

Whether by design or accident, Open Range begins with a trumpet solo, much like Barry's Oscar winning Dances With Wolves, but the material is a shade darker than Barry's warmly glowing account of the west. There are only hints of the more typical western score, notably the bouncing guitars of Card Game and Wagon Wheel, plus Jake Walker's delightful fiddle playing. In some ways, it sums up the spirit of the west more accurately; most of those in the old west were simply farmers and lived a fairly simple life, with much less of the good versus evil gun slinging that most movies suggest. In that regard, Kamen's music seems a good reflection of Costner's film, presenting people in shades of grey, torn between self interest and doing the right thing. There is a strong sense of melancholy throughout, indeed there are hints of his superb Band of Brothers score, but with the gentle folksy element woven in.

Adding to the realist approach, the gunfights and other skirmishes are scored in a low key way; there is certainly no heady heroism, although neither is there the level of quirky tension that Ennio Morricone generated. There are hints of Bruce Broughton's Tombstone, but nothing quite so heavy and imposing. There aren't really highlight tracks, as such, simply a carefully shaped dramatic arc from the gentle opening, through to the dynamic, darker scenes, climaxing in the warmly scored Proposal and curiously titled Teapot. A few tracks in the middle of the album could perhaps have been omitted, but these are generally fairly brief anyway. Even if it hadn't been his last, Open Range would still be counted as a notable contribution to Michael Kamen's filmography and a winning finale to a career cut tragically short.