BREAKOUT

JERRY GOLDSMITH

Rating:

Original Review: After the successful release of Bruce Broughton's The Master of Ballantrae late last year, Ford Thaxton and Luc van De Ven have teamed up again for the second instalment in their occasional series of scores released through the newly-founded Prometheus CD Club - Jerry Goldsmith's Breakout. Like The Master of Ballantrae, Breakout is a limited edition of only 2500 copies, but is well worth spending a few extra pounds, dollars or francs on.

Breakout, released in 1975 and directed by Tom Greis, starred Charles Bronson, at the height of his Death Wish fame, as a maverick American helicopter pilot hired by sexy, sultry Jill Ireland to break her husband, Robert Duvall, out of a nightmarish Mexican prison where he is being held for a crime he didn't commit. If this all sounds like nothing more than a big-budget episode of The A-Team, you might be right. Charles Bronson's movies never did rate particularly highly on the intelligence scale.

Jerry Goldsmith though, being the composer he is, didn't care one iota about the quality (or otherwise) of his assignment, and attacked Breakout with as much gusto and breakneck pace as he has on every film throughout his long, illustrious career. To capture the sense of the film's location, much of Goldsmith's score has a subtle Spanish flavour running through it, and as such acts as something of a precursor to later Latin-themed scores such as Caboblanco, Under Fire and Medicine Man. Several times during the album, Goldsmith incorporates an acoustic guitar flourish, or a quick castanet rattle, or a swift tango rhythm into the music to elaborate upon the already obvious south of the border setting - cues such as "Ambushed" and "Miraculous Recovery/Waiting Game" are good examples of this.

The extended "Main Title" is the first rendition of the somewhat rough central theme, an ominous string cadence underwritten by tense drum work, agitated guitars and a jittery xylophone. As is often the case with Goldsmith, his main theme is remarkably malleable, and is recapitulated in a variety of styles, from threatening ("The Prison") to poignant ("Buried Alive") to highly-charged ("Breakout Part 1") and back again. Unlike other themes, though, the Breakout theme is not an immediately memorable melody than can be recalled later. Despite this, though, it fulfils its objectives admirably. Other moments of note include three lovely performances of the score's romantic theme in "Schemes", "All Yours" and "Farewells", and several marvellously vibrant action cues including "Border Crossing" and "Breakout Part 2/Here They Come", which can only be adequately described by a somewhat fruity verb - kickass.

The presentation is excellent, the liner notes by Gary Kester are well-researched and well-written, and the sound quality is a marked improvement over The Master of Ballantrae - a trend which I sincerely hope continues into later releases on the label. Although it's by no means an earth-shatterer, for fans of Goldsmith's music, Breakout certainly makes for an excellent addition to any collection.

Track Listing: Running Time: 39 minutes 58 seconds

Prometheus Club PCR-502 (1975/1999)

Music composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. Orchestrations by Arthur Morton. Digitally transferred and mastered by Mick Stern and James Nelson. Score produced by Jerry Goldsmith. Album produced by Ford A. Thaxton and Luc Van de Ven.


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