Original Review: It's amazing to think that Henry Mancini, the composer of such celebrated easy-listening classics as "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffanys, Days of Wine and Roses and the Pink Panther theme, could come up with such a massive, powerful and vibrant score as Lifeforce. As many have rightly pointed out, Mancini's dramatic work is often overlooked by the general public, who tend to favour his audience-pleasing ballads and jazzy comedy scores. As a result, genre classics such as Touch of Evil and this one are often ignored. Many believe Lifeforce to be Mancini's swansong, the last great score he wrote before his death in 1994. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the film itself did not live up to the high standards of the music that accompanied it.
Adapted from the novel "The Space Vampires" by Colin Wilson, Lifeforce was a rather mixed-up affair directed by Tobe Hooper and starring Steve Railsback as the leader of a team of astronauts who discover three humanoid beings inside a spaceship that looks like an umbrella, in the tail of Halley's Comet. What begins as a comparatively straight-forward space mystery quickly turns into a bizarre end-of-the-world story, with a beautiful (nude!) space vampiress and her evil minions invading London with the intent of draining the local population of their life force and turning them into zombies. Oh, I don't even want to think about it. It's almost as though Tri Star Pictures knew they were backing a loser because, when a studio gets cold feet about their film, the score is almost always the first thing they change. So, Mancini's orchestral epic was chopped and changed around, combined with a quickly-commissioned electronic score by Michael Kamen, and plonked back into place in a vain attempt to salvage the movie. Needless to say, it didn't work. The film was a massive flop but, surprisingly, both movie and music have gone on to attain a sort of cult status.
It's easy to see why Mancini's work here is held in such high esteem. The centrepiece of the score is the 'Lifeforce Theme', an immense, thunderous march that plays over both the opening credits and the end title, bookending the movie with tremendous musical power. It keeps slightly unusual time by being written in 3/4 meter, but contains a wonderfully lyrical bridge for strings, and ends with a series of massive timpani rolls. Unfortunately, it only appears on the CD once (in the first track), and this is the only downfall of the album as a whole. After the big-bang opening, the score ends with a comparative whimper, and could really have done with a second performance to close things with a blast. As it is, most of the rest of Lifeforce is more subdued, but still makes for a supremely entertaining listen.
'Evil Visitation' is full of ascending string figures and circular motion, underscoring the first amazing encounter with the space vampires themselves, while the four-part 'Discovery Suite' has cue after cue of gorgeous, lilting "spacey" ambiences which, in the original cut of the film, were supposed to be heard without dialogue, acting instead as a showcase for Mancini's talents. In the end, this idea was dropped, but Mancini's ethereal sounds fortunately remain intact on disc for all to enjoy. 'Spacewalk' and 'Into The Alien Craft' have a sense of mystery and wonderment, accomplished through the performance of a soothing oboe theme and several passages for harps and cellos, while 'Exploration' and 'Sleeping Vampires' gain an added sense of grandeur by the eventual introduction of a beautiful chorus. 'Carlson's Story' is a bold action cue, characterised by sharp brass stabs. 'The Girl in the Raincoat' is a slightly peculiar extended variation of the brooding oboe theme from the Discovery Suite which acts as a motif for the sex-crazed leader of the space vampires (the nubile Mathilda May).
The three part-finale, which comes under the umbrella of 'The Web of Destiny Suite', rounds things off in grand style, with a series of exciting passages, brass fanfares that echo the march, beautiful, lyrical string pieces and eerily dissonant chords underscoring the eccentric climactic scenes inside a disused church. Lifeforce, unfortunately, is starting to become rarer as time passes. This version, on the Varése label, was released to coincide with the film, but is now regarded as a collectable item. A second version, by Milan, was released in 1989 with a slightly altered track listing (and a second performance of the march!) but this, too, is now out of print and quite valuable. All I can do is heartily recommend Lifeforce to the world in general. The march in itself is worth the price of the disc, but for those fortunate enough (and wealthy enough!) to be able to find a copy of this will find enough musical riches, lush harmonies and bristling cues to satisfy even the most demanding listener for hours.
Track Listing: