BORN FREE

JOHN BARRY

Rating:

Original Review:: One of the best-loved nature films of all time, it actually comes as something of a shock to learn that Born Free, one of John Barry's most admired scores, has never before been available on CD. The true story of British expatriates George and Joy Adamson who, on their vast Kenyan safari park, hand-rear an abandoned lioness cub named Elsa in order to prepare her for release back into the wild, Born Free was one of the cinematic successes of 1966. With excellent performances by real-life husband and wife Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna (who would later go on to make a second well-loved animal movie, The Ring of Bright Water) and featuring stunning wildlife photography, the third element of Born Free's popularity to click into place was John Barry's lush, sweeping score.

It is perhaps worth remembering that, back in 1966, John Barry was not known for the epic themes we know and love today. With just four Bond films and a couple of other British spy capers under his belt, Born Free offered the then 33-year old Barry the chance to compose a "landscape score" for the first time, and to begin developing the majestic musical style that would subsequently grace such films as Out of Africa and Dances With Wolves.

As the years have gone by, Barry's theme has almost become film music folklore. Despite being deceptively simple in its structure, it is effortlessly ear-pleasing, and as journalist Paul Tonks mentions in the disc's liner notes, has a jaunty sing-along aspect, although this is no doubt a result of the immediate connection between Barry's theme, Don Black's timeless lyrics ("Born free, as free as the wind blows...") and Matt Monroe's silky smooth vocal performance. Following its initial performance in 'Main Title', the theme obviously forms the cornerstone of the entire score, with gorgeous recapitulations during the opening moments of 'The Hunt', the slightly more introspective 'Feeding Time'; the slow and graceful 'The New Reserve', the heartfelt 'Abandoning Elsa', and the rapturous 6-minute finale 'Reunion', the length of which affords Barry the luxury of being able to gradually build his music into something approaching operatic grandeur as the cue concludes.

Several familiar Barryisms creep into the underscore proper. Screaming brasses and thunderous rolling timpani typify 'The Hunt' and 'Fight of the Lioness', seeking to illustrate approaching danger, and which feature in several of that period's Bond scores. The light and playful 'Elsa at Play', with its ascending flute lines over the main theme, goes on to present the first rendition of the jolly xylophone-led secondary theme. This motif, which is heard again with slight variations during 'Flirtation', is highly typical of the period in Barry's career which saw him compose similarly-veined scores for The Wrong Box and The Ipcress File. Similarly, when the powerful brass-and-percussion led and action music of 'Elephant Stampede' and 'Elsa's Kill' breaks ranks from the peace of the main theme, one is reminded of the immense call-and-response main title from his other African epic, Zulu.

Surprisingly for a Varèse release, the recording of this album seems to be a little below-par in sonic terms. I don't profess to have any technical knowledge of the recording process, but even I could notice several irritating snaps, crackles and pops in the mix, even at low volume, which quite obviously should have been removed in post-production. Having said that, French composer Frederic Talgorn's mastery of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is impressive, capturing as he does the precise tempos and nuances of Barry's music. Talgorn, working with Varèse for the first time here, has written several excellent scores himself (Robotjox, The Temp, Fortress) and is obviously an accomplished practitioner with a baton. Despite these little niggles, Born Free is nevertheless another album to savour, and makes for an excellent companion piece to Body Heat, Out of Africa and Somewhere In Time in Varèse's Film Classics series.

Track Listing: Running Time: 53 minutes 35 seconds

Varèse Sarabande VSD-6084 (1966/2000)

Music composed by John Barry. Conducted by Frederic Talgorn. Performed by The Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Recorded and mixed by Jonathan Allen. Mastered by Bruce Botnick. Album produced by Robert Townson.

Cinemusic Online
Filmtracks
Movie Wave
Score!
Scorelogue


Home Page | Reviews A-M | Reviews N-Z | Composers | Links

Movie Music U.K is designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton (c) 2000. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those the University of Sheffield. All photos and album artwork used on Movie Music U.K. are only for the non-profit making promotional purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.