THE CHALLENGE

JERRY GOLDSMITH

Rating:

Original Review: For many years, The Challenge has been one of the most sought-after Goldsmith scores, having never been released as a commercial album in the years following its initial opening in 1982. An oriental action-adventure directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Scott Glenn, Toshiro Mifune, Atsuo Nakamura and Donna Kei Benz, The Challenge is a tale of honour, violence and revenge in which two brothers - one a traditionalist who maintains the Japanese culture, the other a reformist who prefers the ways of the West - battle for control of a pair of sacred swords that have been in their family for generations. Into the fray comes a brash American boxer (Glenn), who finds that he must embrace the ancient code of the ninja in order to ensure that the swords remain in their rightful place.

I admit to having never seen this movie myself - hardly surprising as it did very little at the box office, and has since been released with at least three different titles in various parts of the world. Other than the chance to see Scott Glenn with a lobster attached to his face, one of the only real reasons score fans would have to watch this film would be to hear Jerry Goldsmith's rich, rousing score, which to date has only been available on a poor-quality bootleg coupled with The List of Adrian Messenger. Having now heard Jerry's terrific music, I almost feel compelled to seek out The Challenge to see how it all fits together on celluloid - surely the sign of a good score.

Unsurprisingly, Goldsmith's music is resolutely oriental in nature, making special use of the famous shakuhachi wood flute which has subsequently been used to great effect in many scores by James Horner. To my knowledge, this is the only time Goldsmith has used the shaku, but its effect is undeniably effective, lending a wistful, haunting quality to cues such as 'Main Title', 'Lonely Road', 'Interlude', 'Can't We Do It?', 'The Pit' and others. Equally redolent of Japanese culture is the soft, twangy tones of the koto, a "thirteen-string plucked zither" which Goldsmith also uses in several of the aforementioned cues.

The rest of the score is characterised by fairly traditional western scoring, albeit with several distinctive Goldsmith touches. Devotees of his music will find it easy to discern several motifs and compositional techniques from other scores, such as the throbbing action ostinatos from Capricorn One ('The Wrong Sword', 'Surprise Visitor'), the experimental metallic dissonance of Planet of the Apes ('Over the Top'), and the orchestral carnage and dynamic lyricism of The Wind and the Lion, which would later crop up in large quantities in The Mummy, and which dominates the majority of the score's action cues (especially 'Double Cross' and 'As You Wish'). A light, original love theme for woodwinds and strings gets its first performance in 'Let's Talk', and receives a further recapitulation in 'Stay With Me' and the finale, 'End Title'.

The Challenge is the fifth club release from Prometheus, the Belgian soundtrack specialists whose series of limited editions have included titles such as The Master of Ballantrae, Breakout, Contract on Cherry Street and Bite the Bullet. For several reasons, this release is the best of them all to date. Firstly, in purely musical terms, The Challenge is the most enjoyable score of the lot, featuring as it does lots of action, appealing ethnic instrumentation, and a gorgeous love theme. Secondly, the sound is superb, having been re-mastered from the original tapes by engineer Mick Stern. Finally, Gary Kester's liner notes are as informative and precise as always, resulting in a package which stimulates both the ears and the mind. Goldsmith fans especially, and fans of quality film music in general, would be foolish to miss out on this excellent score. It can be obtained from all the usual specialist outlets, or by visiting www.soundtrackmag.com.

Track Listing: Running Time: 60 minutes 27 seconds

Prometheus PCR-505 (1982/2000)

Music composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. Orchestrations by Arthur Morton. Recorded and mixed by Mel Metcalf. Edited by Bob Takagi. Mastered by Mick Stern and James Nelson. Score produced by Jerry Goldsmith. Album produced by Ford A. Thaxton.

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