MOVIE MUSIC UK

THROWBACK THIRTY

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

Very few events in the colorful and sometimes fanciful history of the American West capture the imagination like the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The event did take place, in the boom town of Tombstone, Arizona, on October 26, 1881, and it did see the brothers Virgil, Morgan, and Wyatt Earp, plus their friend Doc Holliday, shooting it out with a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys, led by Ike Clanton. The real gunfight lasted just seconds, resulted in the deaths of three Cowboys, and was probably no different from many of the other gunfights that were regular occurrences in the old west. However, for some reason, the Gunfight, the story of the Earp family, and the subsequent Earp Vendetta Ride, have become near-mythical events in the romantic history of the period. Tombstone was at least the eighth film to depict these events on the silver screen, after such legendary western movies like 1946’s My Darling Clementine starring Henry Fonda, 1957’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, and 1967’s Hour of the Gun starring James Garner.

This film stars Kurt Russell, Sam Elliott, and Bill Paxton as the Earp brothers Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan, who arrive in the silver mining boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona, in 1879 intending to retire and settle down after a storied career in law enforcement. However, after reuniting with his old friend John ‘Doc’ Holliday (Val Kilmer) – who is suffering from tuberculosis – Wyatt is slowly and reluctantly drawn into a series of confrontations between the local sheriff and the fearsome Cowboy gang, led by Curly Bill Brocius (Powers Boothe) and his trigger-happy borderline-insane right hand man Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn). Tensions come to a head when the sheriff is gunned down in the street, and the people beg Wyatt to help rid the town of the Cowboys – leading to the fateful confrontation at the O.K. Corral, and the violent retributions that follow. Simultaneously to all this, Wyatt’s personal life is collapsing around him, as his long-suffering wife Mattie (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) becomes hopelessly addicted to laudanum, leading him to seek solace in the arms of the beautiful and free-spirited actress Josephine Marcus (Dana Delany).

To say that the production of Tombstone was difficult is a massive understatement. The original director and screenwriter Kevin Jarre (son of film composer Maurice) was fired a month into production amid innumerable shooting delays and out-of-control budget increases; he was subsequently replaced by veteran action director George P. Cosmatos, although contemporary reports suggest that most of the film was actually directed by Kurt Russell himself. All this upheaval didn’t affect the final product, though, which has since cemented itself as one of my all-time favorite westerns. The cast is absolutely stellar, with Val Kilmer especially giving a career best performance as the consumptive Doc Holliday, who spits out witticisms and pithy insults as easily as he does blood into his handkerchief. I’ll be your huckleberry. It looks fantastic too, with gorgeous cinematography, gritty and realistic action, authentic sets, perfect period costumes, and perhaps the most impressive facial hair ever committed to celluloid.

The icing on the cake, however, is the score by Bruce Broughton. Having paid his dues as a jobbing TV composer in the late 1970s and early 1980s Broughton finally gained mainstream critical acclaim in 1985 after scoring another western, Silverado. That score earned him his first and only Oscar nomination, and over the next decade or so Broughton wrote some spectacular scores, notably Young Sherlock Holmes and The Boy Who Could Fly. However, for me, Tombstone is his career best work.

Ironically, Broughton was not the first choice to score it – Jerry Goldsmith was originally meant to score the film, having worked with Cosmatos before on films like Rambo: First Blood Part II and Leviathan, but he was forced to pull out because of scheduling conflicts, and he recommended Broughton instead. Some internet scallywags have commented that all Bruce Broughton scores somehow sound like westerns, even if the film itself is not a western, and that observation might have a kernel of truth to it, but Tombstone is a western on purpose. It revels in the glorious sound of the classic Hollywood western perpetuated by composers like Alfred Newman and Aaron Copland, Elmer Bernstein and Jerome Moross. It’s not authentic in the sense that it doesn’t depend on typical western instruments like guitars or harmonicas, but it is nevertheless steeped in the sound that moviegoers think the wild west sounded like, and it does so without apology.

The score is a multi-themed epic which is anchored by at least four recurring thematic identities, is awash in enormous depictions of the gorgeous landscape, which dances and swoons to the heights of rapturous romance, and which captures the danger and brutality of the time with dark action sequences of great itensity. It was recorded in England with the Sinfonia of London and the scale of it is, in reality, probably too big, but of course that’s the point. As much as they were real people, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are contemporary folk heroes, gun-slinging tough-talking comic book superheroes of the American west from a hundred different penny dreadfuls, and Broughton’s music perfectly depicts them as such.

The score begins, not with a rip-roaring main title, but with a piece of historical honkytonk piano music underscoring newsreel footage, which then segues into the theme for “The Cowboys,” which Broughton himself describes as a ‘relentlessly dark motif’ for clattering metal percussion, surging strings, and the growl of the immense contrabass sarrusophone, a double-reed instrument that looks like a giant bassoon crossed with a trombone, and which is so bass heavy that it can shake your floorboards. This music scores the film’s opening scene, of the Cowboys attacking a Mexican wedding, mercilessly slaughtering the bride and groom in retribution for prior misdeeds, and then slaughtering the priest too for good measure.

“A Family” introduces the second recurring theme, the Earp Family Theme, a warm and wholesome melody for strings and horns augmented by tender oboes, which is just lovely – a perfect depiction of the aspirations of the family, before all hell breaks loose. Interestingly, Broughton uses quite a bit of ethnic color here, including a cimbalom, Irish tin whistles, and bodhrán drums, ostensibly to represent the Earp family’s Scots-Irish heritage. This then continues on into the equally lovely “Arrival In Tombstone,” which again showcases the Earp Family theme in sweeping fashion, but also contains the first performance of what eventually develops into the main Tombstone theme, first heard at the 0:39 mark as the three brothers catch sight of themselves in a mirror and marvel at their reflections, brimming with optimism. The slurred fiddle performance of the Tombstone theme in the second half of the cue, depicting the hustle and bustle of the boom town at its peak, is just superb.

The score’s final major theme is the theme for “Josephine,” the worldly actress from New York who catches Wyatt’s eye, and vice versa, with the latter describing the former as a ‘tall drink of water’. Josephine’s theme is a gorgeous, lyrical melody for woodwinds backed by the full orchestra, which overflows with romance, feminine beauty, and a wanton and carefree spirit. Later, in “Fortuitous Encounter,” Broughton combines Josephine’s theme with the Earp Family theme and turns it into a recurring love theme for Wyatt and Josephine, here underscoring their flirtatious meeting on horseback out on the prairie. The scampering string runs and Coplandesque xylophones that surround the statements of the Love Theme variation sparkle with mischievous sexual tension, and then when the theme explodes into expansive, full-orchestral glory at the 1:35 mark, the effect is pure magic.

However, things turn much more serious in the 15-minute set piece comprising “Street Standoff” and “The O.K. Corral,” which underscores the pivotal showdown between the Earps and the Cowboys, and cements them into Old West folklore. Broughton takes elements from both the Cowboys theme and the Tombstone theme and offsets them with sharp, bitter, angular action techniques, dissonant string textures, nervous percussion rattles, and fluttering woodwinds, all of which occasionally erupts into angry, noisy life. Parts of these cues remind me in places of the music Jerry Goldsmith wrote for Planet of the Apes, or of the revisionist western scores he wrote in the 1970s; it’s excellent, challenging stuff. In addition, Broughton’s persistent use of the orchestra’s lowest register instruments, including the massive contrabass trombone, gives the music a deeply unsettling feeling of dread and terrible destiny that you can feel in the pit of your stomach.

The “Aftermath” offers some blessed relief via a sweet performance of Josephine’s theme and the score’s first heroic statement of the main Tombstone theme, determined and stoic, but the respite is brief, and the subsequent “Cowboy’s Funeral” offers a series of sometimes melodramatic, variations on the Cowboys Theme for the full orchestra filled with dread, portent, and barely contained simmering anger. This leads up to the overwhelmingly tragic “Morgan’s Death,” which underscores the scene where Wyatt’s brother is gunned down by the Cowboys in cold blood while he is playing pool, and he dies in Wyatt’s arms; the climax of the piece accompanies the iconic shot of Wyatt staggering into the street, as his wails of anguish are drowned out by a thunderstorm. Broughton moves between the Earp Family Theme and the Tombstone Theme, arranged for searing, despairing strings, in what is probably the film’s emotional pinnacle.

The finale of the film begins with “Wyatt’s Revenge,” a brutal piece of action music for roaring horns and heavy percussion, anchored again by both the Earp Family Theme and the Tombstone Theme, which clearly states Wyatt’s murderous intent to take down the Cowboys once and for all. You tell ’em I’m coming, and hell’s coming with me, you hear? Hell’s coming with me! The first half of “Brief Encounters” reprises Josephine’s theme with a lovely romantic sweep, but the second half of the cue revisits the aggressively dissonant music heard in the O.K. Corral sequence to excellent effect. The subsequent “Finishing It” continues on with the aggressive action writing, although at times here this music is also thrillingly rousing and heroic, and often features enormous brassy outbursts of the Tombstone Theme to accompany Wyatt, Doc, and his posse, as they round up and deal with cowboy after cowboy as part of the Earp Vendetta Ride.

In the aftermath of their victory in the Vendetta Ride Doc’s tuberculosis worsens, and he moves to a sanitarium in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where he eventually dies in November 1887. “Doc and Wyatt” gently underscores their final scenes together, playing cards and reminiscing, and Broughton uses gently nostalgic woodwind variations of the Tombstone Theme to mark the end of their great friendship. The final cue, “Looking at Heaven,” begins with the scene where Wyatt – keeping his word to Doc’s dying wish – seeks out Josephine, declares his love for her, and waltzes with her in the snow. To underscore this moment Broughton brings back the Love Theme variation of Josephine’s theme and the Earp Family theme at its most sweeping and magical, a full orchestral celebration of their relationship that would last until Wyatt’s peaceful death in 1929. At 2:29 Broughton ends the waltz and segues into the score’s most iconic moment – finally, the largest, most epic statement of the main Tombstone theme in the entire score, performed on huge, masculine brasses as the end credits roll over footage of Wyatt, Doc, Morgan, and Virgil purposefully striding towards the O.K. Corral and immortality. The rest of the end credits reprise both Josephine’s theme, and the expansive ‘Fortuitous Encounter’ version of the Earp Family theme, before returning to the main Tombstone theme and the waltz version of the Love Theme for one final flourish. I can say without hesitation that, for me, “Looking at Heaven,” is the single best piece of music Bruce Broughton ever wrote.

The score for Tombstone was released by Intrada Records at the time the film was released, with an excellent 66 minute run time that, essentially, fulfills all the needs I have for the score. I listen to it often, and I enjoy it immensely. For the collectors, Intrada released an 85-minute expanded double CD in 2006 with some additional score cues that didn’t make the first album, plus Jerry Goldsmith’s 20-second Cinergi Pictures logo music, as well as several bonus alternate score cues, and the original music that Broughton wrote for the Fabian Theater sequence, including his arrangement of Camille Saint-Saens’s “Danse Macabre” for the Faust sequence. It is also an excellent album, and is an especially worthwhile purchase for its liner notes by Douglass Fake.

I want to end this review with an anecdote. In the late summer of 2005, just after I moved to live in the United States, I visited Tombstone. The outskirts of the city are just like any small Arizona desert town – normal houses, normal streets, normal businesses, gas stations and grocery stores. But the downtown area around Allen Street has been preserved to look almost exactly as it did in 1881. We parked our car on the east end of town, and I strolled down the street, soaking in the atmosphere. Allen Street is a dirt road here, and it’s lined with old fashioned saloons, stores and mercantiles selling western gear, each with a wooden sidewalk and a hitching post out front for your horse. There are local actors and historians dressed up in period garb for the tourists, and there are markers and monuments pointing out the locations of different events. I walked from the Bird Cage Theater towards the O.K. Corral, past the spot where Marshal Fred White was gunned down, past the pool hall where Morgan Earp was murdered. It was so wonderfully atmospheric, and through it all I had Bruce Broughton’s score playing in my head. I imagined myself as Wyatt Earp, striding purposefully to meet my destiny and cement my legacy. It was a tremendous day.

I have had the opportunity to meet Broughton on several occasions since then, and I once told him about this experience I had in Tombstone. After I finished my story he smiled and nodded, but he also sort of looked at me like I was insane, which is probably true, but I still think that this is a perfect example of what a good film score can do: in addition to being perfect in the film, and in addition to it being tremendous fun to listen to separately, it can actually enter your personal life and make it richer there too. That’s what Tombstone did for me that day, and while I acknowledge that this is a wholly subjective thing, it’s a part of why I love this score so much. This is an essential purchase, one of the best western scores in the history of the genre, one of my personal choices for the 100 greatest contemporary film score of all time.

Buy the Tombstone soundtrack from the Movie Music UK Store

Track Listing:

• 1993 ORIGINAL RELEASE
• The Cowboys (3:50)
• A Family (2:04)
• Arrival in Tombstone (2:15)
• Josephine (1:30)
• Thespian Overture (0:45)
• Gotta Go To Work (1:10)
• Fortuitous Encounter (5:17)
• Street Standoff (7:08)
• The O.K. Corral (7:34)
• Aftermath (1:30)
• Cowboy’s Funeral (4:29)
• Morgan’s Death (2:12)
• Wyatt’s Revenge (3:52)
• The Former Fabian (1:34)
• Brief Encounters (5:37)
• Finishing It (3:56)
• Doc and Wyatt (2:47)
• Looking at Heaven (8:43)

• 2006 EXPANDED RELEASE
• Logo (written by Jerry Goldsmith) (0:21)
• Prologue/Main Title/And Hell Followed (3:50)
• A Family (2:03)
• Arrival In Tombstone (2:14)
• The Town Marshall/A Quarter Interest (0:48)
• Josephine (1:30)
• Gotta Go To Work (1:10)
• Ludus Inebriatus (1:15)
• Fortuitous Encounter/Wyatt and Josephine (5:16)
• Thinking Out Loud (0:28)
• Opium Den/Law Dogs/You Got a Fight Comin’ (7:08)
• Virgil Thinks (0:53)
• The Antichrist/Gathering For A Fight/Walking To The Corral/OK Corral Gunfight (7:36)
• Aftermath (1:30)
• The Dead Don’t Dance/Dehan Warns Josephine/Upping the Ante/Morgan’s Murder (5:15)
• Defections (0:58)
• Morgan’s Death (2:12)
• Hell’s Comin’/Wyatt’s Revenge (3:53)
• No More Curly Bill (0:36)
• The Former Fabian (1:34)
• Brief Encounters/Ringo’s Challenge/Doc and Wyatt (5:38)
• You’re No Daisy/Finishing It (3:55)
• Doc Dies (2:46)
• Looking at Heaven/End Credits (8:45)
• Arrival in Tombstone (Alt.) (2:14) BONUS
• Josephine (Short Version) (1:00) BONUS
• Fortuitous Encounter (Alt.) (2:26) BONUS
• Morgan’s Death (Short Version) (1:47) BONUS
• Tombstone – Main Theme (2:23) BONUS
• Fabian Theater Music: Pit Orchestra Warm Up (0:39) BONUS
• Fabian Theater Music: Thespian Overture – Long (0:45) BONUS
• Fabian Theater Music: Tympani (0:08) BONUS
• Fabian Theater Music: Waltz (0:14) BONUS
• Fabian Theater Music: Piano/Cello Duet (0:36) BONUS
• Fabian Theater Music: Faust (based on “Danse Macabre” by Camille Saint-Saens) (1:14) BONUS
• Fabian Theater Music: Thespian Overture – Short (0:29) BONUS

Running Time: 66 minutes 13 seconds – Original
Running Time: 85 minutes 29 seconds – Expanded

Intrada MAF 7038D (1993) – Original
Intrada MAF 7078 (1993/2006) – Expanded

Music composed by Bruce Broughton. Conducted by David Snell. Performed by the Sinfonia of London. Orchestrations by Don Nemitz. Recorded and mixed by Mike Ross Trevor. Edited by Patricia Carlin. Score produced by Bruce Broughton. Expanded album produced by Bruce Broughton and Douglass Fake.