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BORN FREE
Original Motion Picture Score composed and conducted by John Barry
Film Score Monthly FSMCD Vol. 7 No. 10

The classic family movie where a lion cub, Elsa, is rescued from the wild and reared by a gamekeeper and his wife, who go through various trials and tribulations, until Elsa must inevitably be released, at the film’s emotional conclusion, back into the wild. I’m going to hand over to FSM’s own publicity for this one, because I can’t fault it:

‘Key to [Born Free]’s success is its famous score by John Barry. Barry was red-hot from his work on James Bond films and Zulu (1964), and Born Free would cement his reputation as one of the most vibrant composers of the 1960s — if not of all time. Barry’s main theme — given lyrics by Don Black and sung by Matt Munro — became a pop sensation and one of the world’s most recognizable movie songs, a veritable cultural landmark.
‘The song “Born Free” has been so successful that it has overshadowed the rest of the score, which is a thoroughly satisfying, romantic and dramatic work. Barry maintains the predominant tone of Disneyesque charm but ranges from dark, suspenseful passages (for the hunting of a man-eating lion) to buoyant set pieces for Elsa’s development, and a heartbreaking finale as Elsa is returned to the wild. The sound is symphonic, but with ethnic African touches (in Barry’s inimitable style); the score is a far more serious and diverse work than most people realize.
‘Barry was rushed in his film recording of Born Free and at his insistence performed it again for album release (on MGM Records). This premiere CD release presents the 39:55 LP program, remastered from 1/4″ stereo tapes. New, authoritative liner notes by Jon Burlingame tell the heretofore unknown story of the film’s development and production, and feature new interview material with Barry and Black.’

Sumptuous. And if you ever wondered what a Barry score for a Bond film set in Africa might sound like, here’s a taste. Need I say more?

UNDEAD
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack composed by Cliff Bradley
La-la Land Records

The 2003 debut movie for Aussie directors Michael and Peter Spierig brings yet another low-budget zombie flick to our screens, though it is made by, and for, fans of the genre. Think PLAN NINE meets DAWN OF THE DEAD as falling meteors bring alien entities to Earth and the dead start to rise… (where’s Tor Johnson when you need him?). One of the things to admire about the movie, which isn’t that great, is that it accepts it’s budgetary limitations and, like the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, revels in them, providing us with some very cheesy, gory special effects, predictable stock characters and wooden acting. This is a true B movie for the 21st century.
The music is no exception. Composed apparently using a tea chest bass and a washboard (well, actually a music rig on a PC), recording a small choir in his mother’s office (the best acoustics they could find on a virtual zero budget) and enlisting the aid of several live musicians recorded at his parents’ house, Bradley has come up with a not-half-bad score, with simplistic, effective themes for different characters and locales and a good sense of dread and mystery. One track though really irritated me from the first: ‘Welcome to Berkley’, which I immediately spotted was a note-for-note rip-off of ‘Promenade (Tourists on the Menu)’ from JAWS. Reading the sleeve notes Bradley mentions this himself, saying that as Berkley (the location for the story) was a sleepy little town waiting for something terrible to happen, he deliberately copied the JAWS piece. It may be a nice in-joke, but I found it an annoying distraction that lets down an otherwise inventive and entertaining score.

MURDERBALL
Music from the film – Various artists
Commotion Records

This acclaimed and uncompromising documentary from directors Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro tells the dynamic and factual tale of the U.S. Paraplegic Rugby Team’s quest for gold in the Paralympic Games in Athens. There is no patronising or handicap stereotyping here, just an honest, brutal and revealing fly-on-the-wall account of the world of full-contact wheelchair rugby, cutthroat rivalry between the U.S. and Canada, and compelling, personal on-and-off-the-court stories of men simply trying to be the best at what they do. They’re not even in wheelchairs, they’re in tanks.
The soundtrack, with adrenaline fuelled tracks from Ministry, a gorgeous acoustic guitar/s track from The Whiles, a simply sweet song from The Moldy Peaches, which had me grinning throughout, tracks from Chicago icon/The Sea and Cake’s Sam Prekop, Polyphonic Spree and Scratch Massive, all of which are interspersed with a terrific original music score from Jamie Saft, perfectly captures the emotional range and power of the story.
The documentary garnered the Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize for Editing at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and the soundtrack is highly, highly listenable to.

DEADFALL
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack composed and conducted by John Barry
Retrograde Records – FSM 80124-2

My final John Barry offering is the soundtrack from the little known British 1968 movie starring Michael Caine, Eric Portman, Giovanni Ralli, Nanette Newman and directed by the latter’s husband Bryan Forbes (both THE STEPFORD WIVES ’74). Barry scored the movie between two of his best Bond scores, You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and also brought in GOLDFINGER’s vocalist Shirley Bassey to belt out the theme song (which I think personally is one of his worst – even the singers on the disc seem to have trouble with some of the slides). This is a rare and essential piece for Barry fans, the highlight of which is the full 14-minute version of the guitar concerto, Romance for Guitar and Orchestra, which doubles in the film as a concert performance and also the underscore for a jewel robbery taking place at the same time, and it is magnificent. Barry also makes a rare film appearance conducting the concert, a touch he would repeat in the Royal Albert Hall finale of THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS. Incidentally, Bernard Herrmann also conducted his own score on screen, as a concert and an underscore for the action, at the finale of The Man Who Knew Too Much, which was also set in the Royal Albert Hall (now there’s a movie trivia question for you – Which two movie composers…?). As usual with FSM’s releases there is great attention to detail including two never-before-heard demo versions of the theme song, one featuring a singer they’ve been unable to identify, and the other an instrumental with a cool Thunderball-style opening. Add to that a 16-page booklet that features new liner notes by Jon Burlingame, who interviewed Barry anew for it, as well as photos from the movie and of Barry then and now.

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