{"id":2662,"date":"2011-04-08T15:48:21","date_gmt":"2011-04-08T19:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2662"},"modified":"2011-04-08T15:48:21","modified_gmt":"2011-04-08T19:48:21","slug":"cd-chase-the-1966","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2662","title":{"rendered":"CD: Chase, The (1966)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>C<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Rating: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label: Sony Legacy\/ Released: May 18, 2004<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length: 16 tracks \/ (55:58)<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: n\/a.<\/p>\n

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Composer: John Barry<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

John Barry was imported to the States by producer Sam Spiegel to score The Chase<\/strong>, a lurid drama about an escaped convict, and who\u2019s imminent arrival literally makes the locals crack \u2013 not from fear of his arrival, but of their own criminally emotional behaviour and racism that\u2019s been kept just barely under a veneer of respectability.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s partly what Barry\u2019s theme espouses and captures, but he also sensed the film was long; the anti-hero of convict Bubber Reeves didn\u2019t even reach the town until the 100 min. mark in a 135 min. film; and the film\u2019s long midsection was very slow-going.<\/p>\n

The title theme is sort of bluesy, but filtered through the Barry brain it naturally goes against the norm by nor being steeped in ethnic instrumentation (harmonica and banjo are as far as it gets); it\u2019s a simple construction of rumbling percussion, stern brass, and slowly laid out chords over which the simple southern-fried theme is repeated.<\/p>\n

It works within the film because aside from the \u201cMain Title\u201d sequence, Barry repeats it almost verbatim whenever Spiegel \/ director Arthur Penn intercut footage of a Bubber getting closer to town by train, land, or river. It\u2019s a cheat to break up the dialogue and remind audiences \u2018Bubber\u2019s on the way and getting\u2019 close\u2019 but Barry did write a few threadbare variations, mostly to infer how the mere thought of Bubber coming home will unmask affairs unknown by fathers, and internal jealousies within the bank owned by the town\u2019s wealthiest despot.<\/p>\n

The finale is scored with a series of mournful variations, but the bulk of the film \u2013 namely the midsection \u2013 is mostly comprised of source cues and up-tempo theme variations. \u201cSaturday Night Philosopher\u201d is a party tune heard in the house of a cuckolded fool, and Barry\u2019s teasing music recalls the stripper source in his first score, Beat Girl<\/strong> (1960) with thick bass and heavy organ improv reminiscent of his prior hit, The Knack\u2026 and How to Get It<\/strong> (1965).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a tender theme variation, \u201cWhat Did I Do Wrong?\u201d which captures the pain of Bubber\u2019s mother who sits and deeply contemplates how she let down her boy, and set off bad behaviour that unlike the \u2018bad seeds\u2019 of other parents, landed him in jail time and time again. It\u2019s a lovely introspective piece performed with oboe, chamber strings, and slight backing from harp and flute.<\/p>\n

Stern drama dominates \u201cThe Beating\u201d and Barry again opts for simple orchestrations that support and prolong the brutal beating Sheriff Calder receives. Cartoon orchestral stabs might have enhanced the punches, but Barry\u2019s choice is to use unresolved chords, high register strings, and repeat the bass line from the title\u2019s opening bars on piano, albeit in a scattered & sparse pattern, mimicking Calder\u2019s struggle to defend himself as more cuts and blood blemish his once-virile physique.<\/p>\n

If The Chase<\/strong> may have limited Barry\u2019s scope of scoring choices \u2013 little action, too much dialogue \u2013 he at least got the chance to score what\u2019s ostensibly an elaborate cinematic play, and figure out when to get in & \u00a0where to step back and let the actors do the work. He also did seemed to have fun writing the source cues, delving into pop-rock, blues (\u201cCall that Dancin\u2019?\u201d), and slow jazz \u2013 music that quietly hinted at the towns\u2019 sleazy secrets without banging audiences over their heads.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that whereas the specter of Henry Mancini\u2019s easy listening jazz sometimes influenced other composer\u2019s film scores in the mid-sixties, Barry stayed away, confident that his own sound \u2013 sustained chords on strings, brass symbolizing mounting menace, and sometimes scoring against onscreen action using a slow tempo \u2013 was spot on. \u201cLook Around\u201d kind of straddles the border into Manciniland, but Barry managed to maintain his own voice quite consistently through the years, within and outside of the Bond films.<\/p>\n

Within the bloated film, Barry\u2019s music works, and on CD, the occasional thematic repetitiveness is broken up by a source cue. Sony\u2019s 2004 CD augments the LP\u2019s original (and long) running time of 50 mins. with 2 extra cues, an alternate version of the \u201cMain Title,\u201d and a theme re-recording done by Barry for a 1988 compilation album.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2011 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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Related external links (MAIN SITE):<\/p>\n

DVD \/ Film: \u00a0Chase, The<\/a><\/strong> (1966)<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0C<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ C . Rating: Very Good Label: Sony Legacy\/ Released: May 18, 2004 Tracks & Album Length: 16 tracks \/ (55:58) . Special Notes: n\/a. . Composer: John Barry . . Review: John Barry was imported to the States by producer Sam Spiegel to score The Chase, a lurid drama about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[396,283,397],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-GW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2662"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2671,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662\/revisions\/2671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}