LEVIATHAN
Rating: 
Original Review: Leviathan was one of a slew of 'terror from the deep' flicks which hit movie theatres during the late eighties and early nineties in the wake of films such as The Abyss and DeepStar Six and, as such, Jerry Goldsmith composed an elementary, but surprisingly effective score for orchestra and synthesisers. Performed by The Orchestra di Santa Cecilia di Roma, the score kicks off with 'Underwater Camp', a lyrical, hypnotic, rhythmic piece for synths and strings with a mournful clarinet melody accentuated by eerie hooting 'whale' noises, which builds up to a massive brass crescendo as the cue wears on; after this curiously engaging opening, though, the score settles down into a fairly standard series of dissonant action cues, most of which feature a relentless 'ticking' motif and peculiar sound effects along with all the usual orchestral mayhem - the best of these are 'Decompression', 'Can We Fix It' and 'Too Hot', parts of which are rather reminiscent of some of his action sequences from Total Recall, albeit rather less well developed. There are a couple of real standout tracks, though: 'One of Us' is a much more relaxed piece with an unusually delicate piano melody; 'Escape Bubbles' features a series triumphant fanfares and a brilliant, brassy, heroic full orchestral theme with a prominent xylophone melody towards the end, while the finale, 'A Lot Better', is incredibly good - a glorious, vibrant restatement of the heroic theme first heard during 'Escape Bubbles' which brings the album to a wonderfully upbeat close after all the musical chaos that preceeded it. Although this is far from being one of Goldsmith's best works, Leviathan is nevertheless a fairly solid, decent action score which certainly served the film well and, if nothing else, shows that Goldsmith is the undisputed master when it comes to incorporating unearthly sound effects into his music.
Track Listing:
- Underwater Camp (3:23)
- Decompression (3:16)
- Discovery (5:24)
- One Of Us (1:41)
- The Body Within (4:33)
- Escape Bubbles (5:37)
- Can We Fix It (3:25)
- Situation Under Control (1:49)
- It's Growing (3:10)
- Too Hot (3:27)
- A Lot Better (3:31)
Running Time: 39 minutes 16 seconds
Varèse Sarabande (1989)
Music composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. Performed by The Orchestra di Santa Cecilia di Roma. Orchestrations by Arthur Morton and Nancy Beach. Recorded and mixed by Alan Snelling. Album produced by Jerry Goldsmith.
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