The Five Man Army (1969)

Complete Morricone Western Score

Composed by: Ennio Morricone

On the heels of Guns for San Sebastian, Navajo Joe and The Hills Run Red comes another classic Ennio Morricone spaghetti western: The Five Man Army (1969). Long believed to be lost, the complete score is presented in clean monaural sound (given a light stereo reverb for listenability) from a 35mm music stem in the Warner Bros. vaults.

The Five Man Army was an attempt to capture the popularity of Mission: Impossible (then riding high on television) in a spaghetti western, particularly through the casting of Peter Graves as the leader of a small team of mercenaries and misfits (the Magnificent Seven model) who band together for “one last job” that ends up benefiting the local Mexican population (the Wild Bunch model—though The Wild Bunch had yet to be produced). American Don Taylor directed the film, which was shot with synchronized sound (Italian-produced films were typically dubbed).

Little needs to be said about the colossal output of the legendary Ennio Morricone, whose westerns alone have made a titanic impact in film and pop music history. Everybody can conjure the “spaghetti” template (famous from A Fistful of Dollars) of whistling, whip-cracks and a pop beat—but Morricone’s actual western soundtracks are astonishing in their richness and diversity. The Five Man Army is no exception: from the heroic, rollicking main title theme (complete with bizarre sounds and quirks) to the tender, elegiac “Cinque Amici, Cinque Eroi” (“Five Friends, Five Heroes”) and peasant anthem “Muerte Donde Vas?” (“Death Where You Go?”)—plus the usual setpieces for action and suspense—this is a major work from an important period in Morricone’s career.

The Five Man Army was previously released on a short LP and CD (always in monaural sound), and the main title was released in true stereo (also presented here) on a Morricone collection in the 1980s. FSM’s CD corrects a pitch/speed error from the previous Beat CD and presents the complete score in film order. Liner notes by Italian film music authority John Bender flesh out the customary detailed booklet.

Tracklist & soundclips can be found here:
http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=12931

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

First Time on CD

Composed by: John Rubinstein, Tim McIntire

One of the loveliest and most lyrical symphonic scores of the early 1970s comes to CD in deluxe form in Jeremiah Johnson (1972), the Sydney Pollack-directed, John Milius-scripted western starring Robert Redford as a 19th century mountain man. Decades before Dances With Wolves, this adventuresome tale (featuring breathtaking views of the Utah wilderness) told a somewhat different but still existential tale of a white man determined to escape society, who forges his own, often violent relationship with the land and its Native American inhabitants.

The gorgeous, folk-symphonic score to Jeremiah Johnson was composed by a team of musicians largely unknown to soundtrack collectors (except for this effort)—but don’t let that fool you. John Rubinstein (b. 1946) and Tim McIntire (1944-1986) were primarily actors but also musicians with a handful of composing credits; they won the assignment after Rubinstein had a meeting Pollack through his acting agent. Between McIntire’s efforts as a singer-songwriter and Rubinstein’s gifts as a symphonic composer and orchestrator—and their collaborative harmony—they created a lasting piece of Americana centered around several original songs (sung by McIntire) essaying Jeremiah’s story. The symphonic portions, meanwhile, brim with the Milius ethos of heart, humor, strength and love of the land—very much in keeping with the robust orchestral scores Basil Poledouris would later compose for Milius’s films as director and, apart from Milius, the Emmy-winning Lonesome Dove.

Previously available only on LP, the complete score to Jeremiah Johnson has been restored from excellent stereo sources to present a main program generally following the LP but omitting the dialogue that appeared on several tracks (rather like a concept album). A comprehensive bonus section includes those dialogue-laced tracks, plus alternate instrumental cues from the original soundtrack and—thanks to Rubinstein’s foresight in saving the material—the complete demos which the composers used to secure the assignment. Including early and unused versions of the songs, the CD is a lasting treasury of this exceptional project.

Liner notes feature an essay on the film and score by Nick Redman and program notes by Al Kaplan incorporating new interview material with Rubinstein by Jeff Bond.

Tracklist & sound clips can be found here:
http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=12930

Both can now be pre-ordered at the MovieMusic store here:

http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/fivemanarmy

http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/jeremiahjohnson

James