MOVIE MUSIC UK

THROWBACK THIRTY

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

The iconic canine film star Lassie, a heroic and intelligent collie dog, was created by British author Eric Knight in a short story published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1938, which was later expanded into a novel entitled Lassie Come Home in 1940, followed then by a film adaptation of the same name in 1943. The stories were all pretty much the same – Lassie’s teenage owner Joe gets into some kind of trouble, Lassie helps him overcome the difficult situation, while showcasing his loyalty, courage, and the bond between humans and animals – but the formula was immensely popular, and resulted in several sequels, and a long-running television series which aired from 1954 to 1973.

The 1994 Lassie film was directed by veteran filmmaker Daniel Petrie and continued this tradition by focusing on the relationship between a new Lassie and a young boy named Matt, who moves with his family from Baltimore to a rural Virginia farm following the death of his father. Initially, Matt struggles with the bereavement and the upheaval in his life, but things begin to change when a stray collie named Lassie enters their lives. Lassie forms a special bond with Matt, helping him cope with his grief and adjust to his new environment, while also protecting and guiding the family through various challenges, including confrontations with local bullies and attempts by a corrupt neighbor to take their beloved sheep farm. The film starred Helen Slater, Jon Tenney, Frederic Forrest, and young Tom Guiry as Matt, and was mostly well-received as an innocuous piece of wholesome entertainment.

The score for Lassie was by composer Basil Poledouris, and was his only collaboration with director Petrie. As one would expect considering the subject matter and the family-friendly nature of the entire project, Poledouris was asked to write a broad and lush Americana score, and he responded to that request by writing one of his warmest and most appealing works. Tonally, the Poledouris scores that Lassie resembles the most are Lonesome Dove and Free Willy, both of which feature similar thematic elements – a positive relationship between a boy and an animal, and a celebration of the beauty and majesty of the American natural landscape.

The “Lassie (Main Title)” is a lovely presentation of the score’s recurring central idea, a sweeping melody for lush strings backed by a noble brass countermelody, and those gorgeous open chords that have typified so many Poledouris scores of this type. The theme appears regularly throughout the score, acting as the central anchor in numerous subsequent cues. In “Morning Glory,” for example, Poledouris arranges the theme into a bold brass flourish backed by forceful pianos and a warm wash of undulating, energetic strings, while in “New Beginnings” he dances around between being pretty and pastoral, and playfully energetic. I especially love the dancing woodwind lines underneath the statement of the theme in “New Beginnings,” which occasionally remind me of Bruce Broughton at his most florid.

Elsewhere, in cues like “Accident,” Poledouris engages in some more dramatic and intense material which occasionally becomes quite shrill and dissonant, especially in the cue’s opening moments which accompany the scene in which Matt’s father is tragically killed; the second half of the cue is much more emotional and poignant, with some especially lovely writing for solo oboe, solo piano, and soft strings, the progressions of which often reference the chord structure of the main theme. Later, after some more pretty allusions to the main theme, the second half of “The Diary/Wolf Attack” sees Poledouris letting rip with the first of several engaging action cues. The music here is still on the lighter and more playful side, in keeping with the musical conventions expected of a children’s adventure, but the thrusting percussive rhythmic ideas, prominent use of brass, and occasional use of very subtle electronics, will remind listeners of the score for Quigley Down Under, perhaps crossed with his action writing for Steven Segal thrillers like On Deadly Ground.

“Lassie Protects The Herd” is equally bold and dynamic, with some expansive and heroic writing for the full orchestra, bombastic brass rhythmic ideas, and some notably prominent use of tapped and struck percussion for a chase sequence that goes all the way back to Conan the Barbarian. There’s also a tremendous action arrangement of the main theme which is a ton of fun, really engaging. However, the showstopper is clearly the ten-minute “Lassie Saves Matt,” which sees Poledouris putting his main theme through a series of emotional workouts and action settings, punctuated by calmer and more low-key interludes featuring pretty combination writing for strings and oboes. There’s a wonderful sequence around the 5:00 mark where the main theme is slowed down and played against a host of rolling crescendos and dramatic chords, which is just outstanding.

As the end of “Lassie Saves Matt” segues into the conclusive “Return/Reunion” Poledouris ends the score with a final, slower reprise of the main theme, nostalgic, and perhaps slightly wistful, a lovely way to end the score. Poledouris has always excelled at this type of pastoral, emotional Americana, and Lassie embraces that aesthetic fully and unapologetically.

One thing I will note is that the soundtrack album, which was released on a long-defunct subsidiary of Sony Music called ‘Sony Wonder,’ has quite noticeably bad sound quality. This is not something I ever really notice – my ears are simply not attuned to that aspect of sound – but Lassie’s album is quite badly muffled in places, so much so that I find myself having to crank up the volume levels to the max to even make it audible.

That one issue aside, everything else about Lassie is top notch. The main theme, despite it never cracking into the top echelons of Poledouris’s career greats, is nevertheless a superb piece of warm Americana, and will appeal to anyone who enjoys that side of his personality. The action music is generally excellent, a more approachable albeit perhaps slightly less intense companion to the action music from scores like Farewell to the King, Quigley Down Under, and On Deadly Ground, and the overall sound of the whole thing is firmly in the sweet spot of anyone who appreciates orchestral evocations of the American west. Lassie is clearly not a score in Basil Poledouris’s A-tier of scores, but when your music is as good as his was, even second tier scores and minor works always have plenty to recommend.

Buy the Lassie soundtrack from the Movie Music UK Store

Track Listing:

• Lassie (Main Title) (1:56)
• Accident (3:14)
• Morning Glory (2:29)
• The Diary / Wolf Attack (4:58)
• New Beginnings (2:52)
• Commitment (2:41)
• Lassie Protects The Herd (2:54)
• Rustling (3:04)
• Lassie Saves Matt (10:26)
• Return/Reunion (3:20)

Sony Wonder LK-66414 (1994)

Running Time: 37 minutes 54 seconds

Music composed by Basil Poledouris. Conducted by Allan Wilson. Performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra. Featured musical soloist Sally Heath. Orchestrations by Larry Ashmore and John Bell. Recorded and mixed by Tim Boyle. Edited by Curtis Roush. Album produced by Basil Poledouris.