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and HUGO FRIEDHOFER Rating
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Artwork copyright (c) 1958 Twentieth
Century Fox Film Corporation; review copyright (c) 2003 James Southall
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THE BRAVADOS Stark,
brooding western score
The dark, mature 1958 western The Bravados, starred Gregory Peck, who
played a rancher bent on revenge on four outlaws who raped and murdered his
wife. Given the subject matter, a typically boistrous western score of the
period was clearly not in order (though I'm sure Dimitri Tiomkin would have
tried to open the movie with a cheerful song). Fox music chief Alfred
Newman chose the assignment for himself, though his busy schedule meant he had
to pass along about half of the score to his friend and colleague Hugo
Friedhofer. Mysteriously, the movie credits the score to Lionel Newman,
even though he didn't write a single note of it - most strange. Newman's main theme, which forms the basis for the bulk of his material in
the score, is by far the strongest thing on offer, a macho march for Peck's
character; and by far the second best thing on offer is the love theme, "Josefa",
also by Newman, a highly-attractive melody. A hint of his religious music
is heard in "A Mother's Prayer", a piece of stunning beauty. The
rest of the score, mostly by Friedhofer, is dark and uncompromisingly brooding,
rather unattractive on the whole and difficult to like. Of course, that
particular style was entirely necessary for the film, but it's quite clear that
Newman picked all the best scenes for himself to score and those he left to
Friedhofer didn't give much of a chance for great material. Film Score Monthly's album presents the entire score, twice, a practice that
seems somewhat bizarre to me - first, fifteen stereo tracks are heard, then
various source music, then nine mono tracks. The stereo presentation of
the dramatic score lasts about 35 minutes. Sound quality is fine,
considering the age of the source material, and Bill Rosar's liner notes
superb. The music ain't bad either, but I wouldn't exactly call it an
essential golden age score. Tracks
Guitar source Church source Damaged stereo Mono suite |