A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Howard Hawks was effectively remaking his classic Rio Bravo when he teamed up with John Wayne for Rio Lobo, the last movie the legendary director ever made.  It was his only collaboration with composer Jerry Goldsmith (and also one of only two Wayne pictures scored by Goldsmith).  The movie is not all that well-remembered, but is solid enough, and those who saw it often rate it quite highly.  Musically, Rio Lobo is, like virtually all of Goldsmith's work in the genre, very different from the western scores by Ennio Morricone and Elmer Bernstein, the two other composers who worked in the genre so often during the 1960s and early 70s.  Bernstein's almost always emphasise the locale and are usually as sweeping and timeless as the vistas they portray (though in his latter-day scores for Wayne pictures, he very much reverted to scoring character, most notably in the beautiful The Shootist); Morricone's were sometimes semi-comedic, almost always insane and often full of incredibly lyrical and moving cues.  As always, here Goldsmith focuses on the underlying drama of the stories rather than what can actually be seen on screen or heard in the dialogue: his is a much more proactive rather than reactive style of composition when compared with just about any of his contemporaries.

It is not, perhaps, one of Goldsmith's most technically noteworthy western scores, but it's certainly one of his most enjoyable: it's half-way between the dark drama of Bandolero and the robust Americana of Take a Hard Ride.  The main title, highly-memorable, is performed in a variety of guises throughout the score, by guitar, full orchestra or, in "Plans", just a plucked violin.  The action material is in keeping with much of Goldsmith's work of the time (in other words largely dark and gritty), though usually gives way to a sweeping presentation of the main theme; and while there is little in the way of romance, the score does have its share of lighter moments, so it's not as intense as you might guess.  "Cantina" is quite reminiscent of Hour of the Gun, a tremendously atmospheric and powerful piece of dramatic scoring featuring an excellent part for electric guitar.

Unfortunately, only mono masters could be found from the recording sessions, though Goldsmith himself had a handful of the cues in his private collection, in stereo.  Those stereo cues are presented first on this album, followed by the mono, which does lead to a feeling of the album being in two distinct halves, though in truth that is only the same as old vinyl albums anyway, and is better than the alternative option of hearing frequent changes in sound quality as the album goes along.  That said, the sound quality is crisp, clear and very good and, despite the limitations of splitting the music the way it has been, the album works very well as a straight play-through.  It's well worth picking up, both for enthusiasts of Goldsmith's work and lovers of scores for westerns; while it was a limited release, copies are still available from Prometheus or other on-line retailers.  Unlike certain recent releases, which smack of "we'd release 3,000 copies if we could capture Goldsmith farting", this is a score whose release is long overdue

Tracks

1. Captured (1:39)
2. New Arrival / Unexpected Gun (3:03)
3. A Good Teacher / Quiet Town / Cantina (9:42)
4. Plans / The Raid (7:01)
5. Scar / Hang On a Minute / Finale (5:37)
6. Main Title (2:16)
7. A Good Teacher (complete) (6:00)
8. No Place to Go (1:14)
9. Cordona's Capture (:42)
10. The Trade / Retribution / End Title (6:41)