MOVIE MUSIC UK

THROWBACK THIRTY

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

The Quick and the Dead is a Western action film written by Simon Moore, directed by Sam Raimi, and starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, and Leonardo DiCaprio. The story follows Ellen (Stone), also known as The Lady, a mysterious gunslinger who arrives in the frontier town of Redemption circa 1881. The town is controlled by the ruthless John Herod (Hackman), a powerful outlaw who has installed himself as the town mayor and who now hosts an annual quick-draw tournament where gunfighters compete to the death. Ellen enters the tournament with a secret motive – she seeks revenge on Herod for the death of her father, a marshal whom Herod had killed when she was a child. As the competition unfolds, Ellen encounters various colorful participants, including The Kid (DiCaprio), a cocky young gunslinger claiming to be Herod’s son, and Cort (Crowe), a former outlaw turned preacher who refuses to kill.

The film was essentially Sam Raimi’s homage to all the great spaghetti westerns of his youth, and his visual style draws heavily on Massimo Dallamano’s cinematography for Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy; it’s a very stylish, good-looking film, and has developed something of a cult following in the years since its release, although I personally found it to be a little bit repetitive; by the time we had got to the fifth or sixth identical high noon shootout on the main street of Redemption, I had sort of stopped caring who won the duel. Interestingly it was Sharon Stone –who was also an executive producer, and who in 1995 was the biggest star in the cast – who personally pushed for the casting of Russell Crowe in one of his first major Hollywood roles; his casting in this film came only a couple of years after his breakout role in Romper Stomper in 1992, and ultimately led to an impressive career which, a few years later, would result in his Best Actor Oscar win for Gladiator.

The score for The Quick and the Dead was by Alan Silvestri, working here with Sam Raimi for the only time in his career. By 1995 Silvestri was an old hand at scoring westerns – he already had Back to the Future Part III and Young Guns II under his belt – and The Quick and the Dead turned out to be ‘third time’s a charm,’ as he turned in one of the best and most satisfying genre scores of his career. Just as Sam Raimi was clearly inspired by the look and tone of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, Silvestri was clearly asked to be ‘inspired’ by Ennio Morricone for his score, and the resultant work is a blend of those two men’s styles – the bold, expansive orchestral western sound that Silvestri brought to Back to the Future Part III and others, combined with the idiosyncratic but immediately identifiable Morricone orchestrations from scores like A Fistful of Dollars, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, and a myriad of other western scores the legendary Italian wrote in the 1960s and 70s.

The opening cue, “Redemption,” is a perfect example of this – it’s a superb, affectionate homage to Morricone featuring a lyrical whistled melody, strummed guitars, sampled whip cracks, solo trumpets, intimate and tender woodwinds, warm orchestral crescendos – it’s just terrific. As a recurring idea for Sharon Stone’s character Ellen it is perfect, capturing the different aspects of her personality, her deep personal sadness, and her desire for retribution against the men who ruined her life. Ellen’s theme recurs several throughout the rest of the score to excellent effect, and these are enhanced by Silvesti’s action music for the different gunfights.

Cues like “Gunfight Montage,” the brief “Lady’s the Winner,” “Ellen vs Dred,” and “Kid vs Herod” are for me the pick of the action material, and feature low, moody, brooding orchestral textures that often erupt into satisfying bouts of western-styled orchestral mayhem. “Ellen vs. Dred” contains some outstanding flourishes for brass that sometimes have a touch of John Williams about them, while “Kid vs. Herod” ends with a real sense of almost Shakespearean tragedy, low brasses and tolling bells that eventually emerge into a fantastic new theme full of vivid writing for virtuoso solo trumpets and strummed guitars.

Other cues are more subdued, commenting on the character relationships and revealing previously unknown connections between the gunfighters. “Couldn’t Tell Us Apart,” “Ellen’s First Round,” and “Dinner Tonight” each offer bittersweet reprises of Ellen’s theme for a poignant acoustic guitar, with “Ellen’s First Round” also being accompanied by a notably dark piano element that adds a palpable sense of impending doom. Elsewhere, “John Herod” is a menacing motif for Gene Hackman’s character, while “Cort’s Story” contains an elegant bassoon solo that gives the history of Russell Crowe’s character some unexpected depth. The guitar solo that accompanied the Kid’s death scene in “I Don’t Wanna Die” is lovely, simple but emotionally direct.

Throughout all of this, Silvestri often brings out many of his familiar personal stylistics, and it is immensely satisfying as a Silvestri fan to hear so many of these aspects of his musical personality coming through; some of the percussion and low brass writing recalls his score for Predator, for example, while the searching string parts of “The Big Day” unexpectedly recall some of the sweeping, magical, mystical moments of Death Becomes Her, and as such give the first part of the score’s finale a sense of operatic grandeur that is really outstanding.

“Ellen Returns” is the score’s big finale, underscoring the scene where Ellen – with the help of Cort and others – reveals her true identity to Herod, defeats him in her gunfight, and restores law and justice to the town of Redemption. Silvestri blends Ellen’s guitar theme and a more subdued variation on the ‘big day’ theme with a whole host of his familiar drama, action, and suspense stylistics, eventually emerging into a rousing full-orchestral rendition of Ellen’s theme at the end of “The Law’s Come Back To Town”. The “End Credits” then reprise all the score’s main thematic ideas – including a notably spectacular statement of the theme from the end of “Kid vs. Herod” – ending the album on a wonderful high note of thematic flamboyance.

Despite receiving a somewhat lukewarm reception upon its initial release, there has been a critical re-evaluation of The Quick and the Dead in the intervening three decades, to the point where it is now considered by many an underrated gem in Sam Raimi’s filmography. The same can be said for Alan Silvestri’s score; while it has always been moderately popular, I think that it is time for there to be a re-appraisal of his work here, and for The Quick and the Dead to be given a little more respect and acclaim. Of course, it’s an outstanding Ennio Morricone homage, and you can never go wrong with one of those, but the score is also steeped in many of Silvestri’s personal stylistics, has a handful of killer action cues, and contains at least three outstanding and memorable themes. As such, fans of any of Alan Silvestri’s efforts in the western genre will find this score to be an immediately appealing career highlight.

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Track Listing:

• Redemption (3:25)
• Gunfight Montage (1:41)
• Couldn’t Tell Us Apart (1:17)
• John Herod (1:21)
• Ellen’s First Round (1:10)
• Lady’s The Winner (0:47)
• Dinner Tonight (2:11)
• Cort’s Story (1:02)
• Ellen vs. Dred (1:10)
• Kid vs. Herod (4:17)
• I Don’t Wanna Die (2:00)
• The Big Day (2:27)
• Ellen Returns (3:54)
• The Law’s Come Back To Town (0:49)
• The Quick and the Dead (End Credits) (3:30)

Varese Sarabande VSD-5595 (1995)

Running Time: 31 minutes 01 seconds

Music composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri. Orchestrations by William Ross. Recorded and mixed by Dennis Sands. Edited by Ken Karman. Album produced by Alan Silvestri.