JOE VS. THE VOLCANO

GEORGES DELERUE

Rating:

Original Review: Until quite recently, the name Georges Delerue meant very little to me. Dead French composer, worked with François Truffaut a lot. That about summed up the extent of my knowledge, and I would imagine that quite a large proportion of film music fans in the 18-25 bracket are the same. Having gradually been introduced to the great man's work, I now have come to appreciate Maestro Delerue for the genius he was, and I lament for all the potentially great scores we will never hear following his untimely death in 1992. Of his celebrated latter works - most of which were written for American movies such as Agnes of God, Black Robe, Steel Magnolias, Rich In Love, Platoon and Salvador - my favourite has to be the little-known Joe Vs. The Volcano.

Many people think that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan first appeared on screen together in the 1993 smash hit Sleepless in Seattle, forgetting that they co-starred three years earlier in this film, one of the biggest commercial and critical flops in either of their careers. The film was directed by John Patrick Shanley (who won an Oscar for writing Moonstruck) and starred Hanks as the eponymous Joe, a man who discovers he has just six months to live, and who is offered a deal by eccentric millionaire Lloyd Bridges: he will be pampered and treated like a king for the entire six months, providing he throws himself into an active Polynesian volcano at the end of it all. Hanks agrees, of course, but then falls in love with Meg Ryan...

While the film sank without a trace, the late Georges Delerue's superb music remains one of his most acclaimed and sought-after works, having never been legitimately released, except as a bootleg CD with less than perfect sound. This album, which is still circulating the secondary market albeit in limited numbers, contains six tracks of pure, unadulterated film music heaven - without a doubt one of the most thematically beautiful, unashamedly romantic scores I have heard in my life.

Two themes dominate the score, but it is not until the second cue that either of them appears. The first track actually begins with a rather sober, melancholy piece performed by what sounds like about 5000 violins, ushering in the main theme, which finally appears during the opening moments of Track 2. The theme is a heartfelt and romantic string melody which undulates with a lyrical innocence, and is then developed further through the addition of a warm, lively saxophone accompaniment. The second theme, which I personally feel has a more enticing and endearing melodic line, appears for the first time in the latter half Track 3, but soon gives way to the 8-minute fourth track, which contains a wonderful example of something for which Delerue was not famous - action music. Here, the main theme is adapted into a series of vibrant, heroic brass fanfares accompanied by some amazing horn calls, massive rolling timpanis and powerful, dramatic string writing which, after around three minutes, segues into a lush string arrangement of the secondary theme that truly makes you melt.

Track 5 picks up where Track 4 left off with some more heavy percussion material, but the best is left for Track 6, the final piece, which is quite possibly one of the most incredible single cues of film music I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. In this cue, the secondary melody is turned into a Hawaiian song, "Marooned Without You", with haunting lyrics performed by a dreamily attractive female choir. After the first refrain, the orchestra takes over and the music swells into the most magnificent arrangement of the Marooned theme imaginable - the first time I heard it, it made my entire body, not just my spine, get the chills. The cue continues with a glockenspiel lullaby of such grace and delicacy it takes your breath away, before finishing with a stunning final performance of the main theme. To paraphrase another review of this score, it is almost impossible to listen to this cue without bursting into tears.

This score is far too good to remain locked away in a darkened vault somewhere, gathering dust and losing quality, when it could be enjoyed and appreciated by thousands of score fans for the work of genius that it is. Maybe I have gone a little too overboard with the superlatives here, but I find myself unable to contain myself and refrain from shouting from the rooftops about the incredible quality of Georges Delerue's music for Joe Vs. The Volcano. So, here and now, I make a heartfelt plea to all the people who could make a difference. Robert Townson, Ford A. Thaxton, Luc Van de Ven, Nick Redman, James Fitzpatrick, Lukas Kendall, Didier Deutsch, Douglass Fake, ANYONE. I BEG you. Find the master tapes for this score and give it the proper release it deserves - before it is too late.

*Note: The cue names below are my own creations, as a result of watching the movie. Tracks 1 and 2 do not feature in the film, and were replaced by pop songs instead ("Sixteen Tons" by Eric Burdon and "Mas Que Nada" by Sergio Mendez respectively). There are several other cues heard in the film which do not feature on this CD, notably several renditions of the "Marooned" theme heard when Joe goes on his date with Dede, and during the volcano ceremony on Waponi-Wu.

Track Listing: Running Time: 24 minutes 44 seconds

Bootleg (1990)

Music composed and conducted by Georges Delerue "Marooned Without You" written by Georges Delerue and John Patrick Shanley. Edited by Ken Wannberg. Score produced by Georges Delerue.

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