In the 90's one of my favorite composers began to progressively score crappier and crappier films before finally take a hiatus for much of the 2000's.
Among the obscure and forgotten films from this time is 1999's ultra-low-budget Utah-lensed THE LONG ROAD HOME, a very cheesy and dull family western starring a young and here unrecognizable Mary Elizabeth Winstead and an aging Michael Ansara.
John Scott provides the score and it is a lovely Americana score for strings, brass and woodwinds. In scope it's comparable to WINTER PEOPLE more so than his previous large-scale Western score, WALKING THUNDER, which he did for the same director incidentally. A better comparison even might be some of Broughton's lighter Western scores from this era.
It's got a nice, folksy / hymn-like main theme, often carried by flute, trumpet, horns, solo violin or full strings. It's not earth-shattering stuff or his best work by any means, but there are some very fine moments, with a particularly lovely cue when the film's protagonist finds emblems from his father's death in the military.
Notably absent, perhaps for budgetary reasons, is any sort of percussion.
Entire film is on Youtube, but watch at your own peril - It's very boring, cheap-looking (probably super low-grad 35mm or maybe even 16mm stock, lots of blown out highlights and scratches speaking to a bad-condition negative - All for a film less than 20 years old!), cheesy and on-the-nose themes, stilted dialogue, etc. How ANY sort of orchestra was afforded to this seemingly micro-budget effort project is a total mystery to me.
Unfortunately and annoyingly, the end credits cut off about ten seconds in.
Thanks for sharing bobb. Just played through the first 10 minutes or so and yes, a hint of that Bruce Broughton/folky Copland Americana sound. Lovely though..I'd buy it in an instant. ORDERED!!!
As chintzy as this little no-budget family film/90's time capsule is, I just can't get Scott's main theme out of my head.
It's so warm, immediately memorable and accessible. Somehow it almost sound Horner-like to me, even though it's clearly a 100% John Scott construct - There's just something beautifully evocative of the American heartland in the first three ascending notes of the main theme, and the emotional and expansive way its modulated thereafter that makes me think of Horner's finest Americana ideas.
It's a melody that just begs for a huge, expansive treatment, but the dignified restraint encompassing the score fits its warm and gentle demeanor perfectly. Some really gorgeous flute writing is heard throughout as well.
It'd a really nice companion piece for Scott's WINTER PEOPLE, a score to which it's most-similar in Scott's filmography (and to which the main theme bears a few similarities in progressions).
Leave it up to a composer as gifted as John to capture the true heart of a film that couldn't convey it via its other cinematic means - Either for budgetary reasons or limitations in the abilities of the filmmakers.
And think how few people have probably ever heard a single note of it.
When John's back in town I'll have to ask him about this score and whether or not he has it on hand. I'd love to see this released, as unlikely as that may be.
Isn't it, somewhat cliched fiddle phrase at the beginning aside?
Scott could have just as easily phoned this one in - Who would have blamed him on a movie like this? - but instead he write a heartfelt, moving and humble melody that, while not his best, is quintessentially his own melody as no one else can quite write them.
This guy deserved and continues to deserve to be among the all-time great.
This guy deserved and continues to deserve to be among the all-time great.
For 32 years I have thought so.
If I can do anything about that, I hope to be changing the situation for John soon.
Also Kari, have you heard his Colchester Symphony? I just ordered it on Amazon; I remains, as far as I know, the last big/major symphonic work of his that I've never heard a single note of. I'm sure I'm in for a treat!
John is tentatively attached (i.e. via 'handshake deal' for now until he's back in town) to the script I have lined to direct as my first feature, which my manager is beginning to shop here in LA. I'm hoping to get this one off the ground within a year, but as a first-time director in my early 20's with a script budgeted between 6 and 10 million, it'll be a battle of course. But I'll make it happen, come hell or high water!
John's the only person I could imagine scoring the film, which I've described as a hard science fiction-oriented modern day fairy tale set at a boarding school for intellectually-gifted young women. The 'non-commercial' pitch I love to give is that the film is the lovechild of Charlotte Brontë, Guillermo del Toro and Michael Crichton!
I've written the film to feature many sequences where the music plays a vital role, where sound design takes a back seat or is gone altogether. You know the gorgeous impressionistic passages from GREYSTOKE and some of his Cousteau works? The film requires that kind of lush, almost sensorial sound - Moments of ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA and HAREM also come to mind, you know, those "understatedly ravishing" and Rimsky-Korsakov-esque ideas heard in those scores - And perhaps most importantly, it requires the original composition of a Viola Concerto that plays a huge thematic role in the film, a la THE RED VIOLIN.
I'd love nothing more than this film to be a late-day career high mark for John, not only artistically but finally, at long last, critically for him as well, as he so, so very rightly deserves.
I'll report back with my thoughts about the Colchester Symphony when it arrives!
Wow, I really wish you well for your film. How many film makers today are so passionate about great music in films like you? This is wonderful, the premise of your script is very interesting and the music will indeed be vital for such an endeavor. And I know few if any composer today who would pull it through magnificently.
The appreciation and understanding of what great music can accomplish in films is all but lost today. Make it happen, bob!
As I said, come hell or high water, I will, Kari! And thank you!
I'm rooting for you too bobb. The premise sounds like an amazing opportunity for any composer, let alone one as good as John Scott. Good luck and best wishes.
Oh and regarding his Colchester Symphony. I've played it about 3 times and it's one of those works that I think will improve with repeated listens. During my last play, tracks 2 & 5 really stood out.
I'm rooting for you too bobb. The premise sounds like an amazing opportunity for any composer, let alone one as good as John Scott. Good luck and best wishes.
Oh and regarding his Colchester Symphony. I've played it about 3 times and it's one of those works that I think will improve with repeated listens. During my last play, tracks 2 & 5 really stood out.
Thanks Kev. Because the film requires a composer to be hired in advanced to conceive of the Viola Concerto, I'll try and share the process as much as I can on FSM along the way.
I'm rooting for you too bobb. The premise sounds like an amazing opportunity for any composer, let alone one as good as John Scott. Good luck and best wishes.
Oh and regarding his Colchester Symphony. I've played it about 3 times and it's one of those works that I think will improve with repeated listens. During my last play, tracks 2 & 5 really stood out.
I forgot to ever follow up with this piece. It was, in truth, one of the few orchestral works of Scott that didn't resonate fully with me. I do, however, really like that final movement indeed - Interesting to hear him repurpose some thematic ideas from PARC OCEANIC COUSTEAU. I love that big, sonorous horn melody beneath rumbling bass strings - It's somehow very evocative of unfolding, portentous historical events. It's funny, but Scott himself seems to have very little recollection of the piece - Even though it's probably his longest symphonic work!
Kev, have you heard his RED AND WHITE suite? It's a concert work dedicated to the life, persecution and death of Native Americans, from circa 2006 or so. It's got a lot of dissonant percussive and woodwind writing, but also an absolutely amazing long-lined main theme that's instantly memorable and deeply evocative.
Not sure if any of our labels would have any interest in this, but during my last visit to John's house here in LA I was able to confirm that he does have the tapes for this score. It looks like he even prepared some album artwork for a JOS records release, though obviously that never materialized - even though the end credits of the film claim so!
Anyone? Perhaps this could be pared up with another score of his given the property's obscurity.
