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I love many/most of Alex North's scores but never "got" this one. It seemed out of place to me in the film, and subjectively a rather disjointed listen away from the film. I once had the LP, but never bothered to pick up the CD (same true of DRAGONSLAYER). Pretty good film, CHEYENNE AUTUMN. I think a more traditional score would have served it better.
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the score seemed to do quite well in the recent north score poll thread, Zoob.
its been so many years since i saw the film - was probably a teenager - its not fair to comment. Something i must revisit when its on tv again.
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I’m glad I saw CHEYENNE AUTUMN in 70mm because it looked stunning in that format (roadshown in London). The Times film critic urged people at the time to see the film while they could in 70mm because, as he said, the image was so sharp that one seemed to be able to see every grain of sand. Indeed, it looked so good pictorially that one could ignore its failings. Seeing it now, greatly diminished in scale on TV, its faults are all too apparent. An unfocussed story line, heavy-handed in its message with a totally out of place and misguided central comedy sequence.
The music has never made a huge impression on me while watching the film but admittedly, other than SPARTACUS, I’m not a big Alex North fan. I have the Label X CD but it’s difficult to judge the quality of the music when it sounds as if it was recorded in someone’s bathroom.
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I've only seen this film once, and remember liking it, especially Edward G. Robinson's character, although the film does go on for a while. I'll have to watch it again.
I like or dislike Alex North on a score-to-score basis. The more modern and non-melodic he gets, the less I like the score. CHEYENNE AUTUMN is one I like.
Just a note: I always thought the main theme sounded like a slightly twisted version of North's THE LONG HOT SUMMER.
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It's a great score, and of course it goes without saying that the music is modally scored to fit the scales and intervals of Native American music.
Without racial stereotyping, I think it's necessary to 'get' that 'layer' in the human collective psyche. To feel that 'plains warrior' thing is to understand the music. North did the same for Indian music in this score as he did for jazz and Hispanic and other 'communities' in his other works.
It's such an important subject matter, badly handled as a film. The comedy stuff was hopeless, obviously an attempt to show the white man as inept and out of touch with the plight of these people, and to display a certain 'live and let live' underlying thing in the American psyche that's underneath the intolerances and can undo them, but it was just so misconceived.
There's still a great film to be made re Wounded Knee etc.. It's only a mystery why it takes so long to do these things. How many decades of Western film did it take to produce even 'Dances With Wolves'? People are so desperate to avoid stereotyping traps that they fall into them every time, or avoid the genre completely.
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Personally, I've always found ALL of North's scores "modern," but very few of them "non-melodic," and almost all of them terrific. Can't understand liking SPARTACUS but none of the others, since SPARTACUS represents the pinnacle of all the elements -- except jazz -- North brought to all of his music.
FWIW, I read somewhere that Ford hated the CHEYENNE score, but don't quote me on that. As a high school kid, I saw the film first-run in my community theater, without having a way of knowing it had already been cut down from its opening version. (For instance, the Jimmy Stewart mid-section ended in the saloon, without the big mob action scene.) I can still enjoy watching various individual scenes, but overall the film never really worked for me. It's far from my favorite Ford movie, or even my favorite North score, but I guess you can say I do appreciate a lot of the good work that went into both of them.
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The score was and is a change of pace and an improvement on the standard Western score sound. Tiomkin had the chops, but not the sensibility for this one.
Myself, I think this is a movie ahead of its time, though muddled, and we could all use a dose of the optimism that Ford, Stewart, and North tried very hard to give us in this film.
The whole enterprise gets an A for Effort.
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I've always enjoyed the Cheyenne Autumn cd (I've never seen the film). Isn't there some mixing problem with the cd? Like instruments were dropped or one of the channels are missing? In any case, put me down for another who would love for one of our beloved labels to revisit this title.
As far as North goes, I never picked up a cd of his that I didn't enjoy. I think i have them all...
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I love the way that "camptown races" is interpolated in the score.
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(Les has helpfully saved me the necessity of citing the origin of that "Death" cue in SPARTACUS. Thanks, LJ!)
Guys, rest assured, I'm on the same page with you, perhaps with a different perspective, but basically in agreement. In fact, I'll go you one better, and say that I think jazz influenced EVERY Alex North score. Remember, this was the young man in Moscow who wept at the sound of a Duke Ellington record and knew that it was high time he got himself back to the USA. That said, although you and I can hear a jazz influence in North's music, my reference to jazz vis a vis SPARTACUS was simply to draw a distinction between those North scores which are INFLUENCED by jazz and the North scores which EMBODY jazz. There are obvious jazz sounds, rhythms, moods and methods in scores like STREETCAR, DADDY LONG LEGS and such which would have felt anachronistic, I think, if he had employed them as overtly in SPARTACUS or that Michelangelo picture whose name escapes me at this (senior) moment.
(Stan Kenton was a name with which I was very familiar without ever hearing much of his music until I read some folks' opinions about the similarities to certain North scores and cues, which prompted me to finally buy a Kenton album and give it a listen and, yes, hear the resemblance.)
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