FIERCE CREATURES

JERRY GOLDSMITH

Rating:

Original Review: Every now and again, even the greatest film music composers need to let their hair down and just have some fun. Jerry Goldsmith, in the year that he wrote the action-packed Air Force One and The Edge, was given the opportunity to produce something a little lighter and friendlier for Fierce Creatures, a comedy from the makers of A Fish Called Wanda set in a dilapidated zoo.

Fierce Creatures is a memorable film for me, because the night I went to see it I had a car accident on my way to the cinema. Whether this unfortunate (and expensive!) event clouded my judgement over the quality of this film is debatable, but I certainly left the theatre having not laughed as much as I had expected. The film suffered from alsorts of problems on the shoot itself, despite the presence of John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin from the original Wanda cast. Cleese starred as the new head of an English zoo, sent against his will to oversee things there by the Rupert Murdoch-style media tycoon (Kline) who has recently acquired the place. When Cleese falls in love with a beautiful American executive (Curtis), he resolves to save the zoo from closure by attracting more visitors with stories of wild, ferocious animals - despite the fact that the zoo's entire menagerie is made up of cuddly lemurs, sea lions and other assorted beasts of a furry nature.

Jerry approached the film with a light-hearted attitude, and wrote music which suitably accentuates the playfulness and cheery romanticism inherent in the script. The score adopts two alternate styles, with gentle pianos and woodwinds accompanying Cleese's hapless but charming attempted seduction of Jamie Lee, while a light jazz ensemble featuring nimble electric guitars, percussion and synth effects depict the hustle and bustle of daily life in the animal house.

The central melody, 'Willa's Theme', is a lovely little melody for pianos accompanied by fluffy flutes and synths, and is recapitulated in 'Contact' and the specially-arranged 'End Credits', while other tracks such as the unexpectedly poignant 'The Funeral' and 'The Grave' feature heartfelt quasi-classical violin solos. In addition, the waltz-like 'Trained Seals' effortlessly captures the grace and elegance of these beautiful creatures (but not the antics of their keeper, British comedian Ronnie Corbett). Surprisingly, parts of 'To The Zoo' and 'A Good Idea' are reminiscent of the music he would later compose for the Oscar-nominated L.A. Confidential, albeit with much less brutality. Still, the low end piano rhythms and muted brasses are still in evidence, leading me to wonder whether Goldsmith might have been using this movie as a testing ground for the music he wanted to use in Curtis Hanson's classy crime thriller.

Although this is certainly not one of the better scores in Jerry Goldsmith's seemingly endless filmography, when taken on its own merits, there is much to be admired. At a time when his star seems to be burning ever brighter, Goldsmith's talent for crafting enjoyable comedy scores tends to be unfairly overlooked in favour of his more experimental and action-oriented scores. Fierce Creatures is inconsequential nothingness in the bigger scheme of things, but entertains me enormously for the length of it's half hour running time.

Track Listing: Running Time: 29 minutes 27 seconds

Varése Sarabande VSD-5792 (1997)

Music composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. Recorded and mixed by Mike Ross-Trevor. Edited by Ken Hall. Mastered by Bob Whitney. Album produced by Jerry Goldsmith.


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

Movie Music U.K is designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton (c) 1999. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of the University of Sheffield. All photos, multimedia and album artwork used on Movie Music U.K. are for non-profit making promotional purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.