PATTON/THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX

JERRY GOLDSMITH and FRANK DE VOL

Patton Rating:
The Flight of the Phoenix Rating:

Original Review: Okay, don't everyone hate me at once. I admit, I was disappointed with Patton the first time I listened to this double-score set from Film Score Monthly. Having never seen the film, having never bought the Varese release of a few years ago when it was coupled with Tora! Tora! Tora!, and having only heard a spiffing re-recording of 'Entr'acte' and the 'Patton March' on a compilation, I think I was anticipating to be blasted out of my chair by an intense film score experience when I popped the CD into the player. I'd heard reports of it being the best score Goldsmith has ever written, and other quotes of similar sentiment, and while Patton is certainly an intelligent and well-crafted score, it wasn't quite what I was expecting, although it has grown on me with subsequent listenings.

More than anything, I found Patton to be a surprisingly quiet score. Goldsmith only wrote 33 minutes of score for the entire 3-hour film anyway, and his approach to Franklin J. Schaffner's epic biography of the legendary US Army General George S. Patton was completely different from what one might have anticipated. Instead of conveying Patton's military exploits, his brilliant tactical brain and his hard-fought victories with patriotic flag-waving action sequences and big orchestral themes, many of Goldsmith's cues are sparsely scored and eerily dissonant, alluding more to the devastation and carnage suffered by the men under his command, and to the sickening nature of the war itself, than the General's egotistical self-belief and the gung-ho guts and glory normally displayed in American war films. The Patton March, with its ground-breaking echoing brasses and glorious fanfare theme, is justly famous, but I was surprised to discover that it is only used in four cues - 'Main Title', the magnificently full-bodied but slightly schizophrenic 'Attack', 'The Pay-Off' and 'End Titles'.

Similarly, I was interested to learn that the joyous, bizarrely amusing 'Entr'acte' doesn't even feature in the film itself - it was written to be performed during the film's brief intermission at the 90-minute mark. Instead, the vast majority of Goldsmith's music is subdued and melancholy, sometimes disturbing, but still expressive and appropriate in the context of the film. The echoing trumpet triplets feature heavily throughout the score, notably in 'The Cemetery' and 'First Battle', while a series of introspective secondary themes for woodwinds and strings are brought to the fore in tracks such as the mournful 'The Funeral', the elegant but unused 'The Hospital' and the lyrical 'The Prayer'.

The equally famous Winter March sub-theme finally appears during 'German Advance' when it is accompanied by ragged string motifs, and is stated again in the intense 'An Eloquent Man', when it is performed off-key and at differing tempos. While Patton is undoubtedly a classic Goldsmith score, and is certainly deserving of its status as being one of the best uses of music in a cinematic setting, I personally feel that, in terms of a "listening experience", it is vastly overrated. The Patton March, when it eventually gets into full flow, is a staggeringly good piece, but the score's long periods of quiet dissonance make the album as a whole somewhat morose and - dare I say it? - boring.

The second half of this release is dedicated to a score by composer Frank De Vol, who is probably most famous for the theme he wrote for another classic war movie, The Dirty Dozen. The Flight of the Phoenix was made in 1965, was directed by Robert Aldrich and starred James Stewart and Richard Attenborough as the leaders of a group of oil rig workers struggling to survive in the desert after their plane crashes in a sandstorm. De Vol's music is suitably rousing, with a definite sense of adventure and just a hint of a mysterious Eastern melody. The orchestra is large and powerful, frequently quick and busy, and hints at a musical inventiveness which I personally had never previously discovered in my admittedly limited experience of De Vol's music.

Several of the recurring themes of the film are presented in 'Main Title', which begins with a lively string melody accentuated by syncopated snare drum licks. The courageous spirit is suddenly shattered by the onset of a nervous action sequence which underscores the film's pivotal moment - the freak of nature which downs the massive cargo plane in the middle of the Sahara - and goes from there into a romanticised, sorrowful string lament which encapsulates the desperate situation the survivors find themselves in. Thereafter, the score fluctuates between these three or four musical styles, as well as incorporating music from traditional songs such as "Senza Fine" and "Lilli Burlero" as character leitmotifs.

Standout cues include 'Harris Leaves' and 'Caravan', two stirring pieces reminiscent of Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia; 'The Propeller', a glorious, almost reverential cue depicting the relief of the men as they realise their hard work rebuilding the plane may not be in vain; and the final three cues, all of which contain stirring renditions of the film's main themes. Overall, I have to admit that I enjoyed The Flight of the Phoenix far more than I did Patton. While Patton is serious and clever, The Flight of the Phoenix is much more approachable and straightforward. Although it may be unfair for me to compare the two, my score collection is undoubtedly better for the inclusion of these scores. Because of my ignorance of De Vol's work, I know I would never have chosen to buy The Flight of the Phoenix had it not been on the same CD as Patton - a score I have wanted to hear for a long time. That's the beauty of releases like this one - not only do you get two scores for the price of one, but you also get to hear a long-forgotten work which 99% of soundtrack collectors would never look at if it were on a shelf on its own.

Track Listing:

PATTON THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX Running Time: 76 minutes 31 seconds

Film Score Monthly Vol. 2 No. 2 (1999)

PATTON: Music composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. Re-recorded and mixed by Rick Hart. Score produced by Jerry Goldsmith. THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Music composed and conducted by Frank De Vol. Re-recorded and mixed by Brian Risner. Score produced by Frank De Vol. Album mastered by Dan Hersch. Album produced by Nick Redman, Lukas Kendall and Jeff Bond.


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