Silverado

[Pieter Boelen 740]

Every few days I will post a thread on a random score from my collection that we can discuss and rate. I made a playlist on my computer with one track of each score I've got, so by using the random play option, I'll be able to post a truly random score each time. Hopefully this will allow us to discuss some scores that would otherwise never be discussed. Also we can record the rating so that we can create a full list of the ratings given to scores by JWFan.com.

On my holiday I listened to a fair few scores that I never really listened to before, so just for fun I'll be posting those next.

Today's score is Silverado by Bruce Broughton. Are you familiar with it? What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? How do do you think it works in the film? What are your favourite tracks?

So far JWFan has rated:

See Soundtrack Ratings by JWFan.com.

This web page contains the ratings from all my previous polls as well as those of Blumenkohl's.

Final ratings are converted to a 1-10 rating for both rating systems so that they can be compared.

[MSM 126]

Not familiar with, although from the little I know from Broughton his scores might be just my thing.

[Morlock 11]

Don't have the CD, but I couldn't stand it in the film. So obvious and heavy-handed. Tombstone is about a gazillion times better, if one is looking for a Broughton western score.

[Ollie 1,059]

I'm going to give this 5 starts on the theme alone. Back in the old days of film score discussion we used to call it the Western score John Williams never wrote.

It's one of Broughton's best scores.

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

I don't have enough Broughton.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

It's been a long time since I listened to it, but four stars from me based on memory.

[GoldsmithFanatic2000+ 0]

A very good score, but my personal Broughton favourite is Tombstone.

4 stars.

[Richard Penna 3,684]

I prefer Tombstone as well, but this one has its moments, along with a beautiful set of themes of course.

3 stars.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

If I gave this a 5 Tombstone would have to get a 6.

[Marc 767]

 

[Tallguy 3,383]

14 years later...

 

'Zooks, I love this movie! I'm sure I saw it on VHS back in '85 or so. But I didn't really discover it until fairly recently and I realized it might be one of my favorite movies.

 

So it's not like I knew the movie Silverado really well but not Tombstone. So why did people (14 years later) like Tombstone so much more?

 

Lovely cover. That opening horn has such menace but it also has kind of a wink. Perfect for this movie. I'm watching this right now:

 

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,282]

It's a terrific score, easily a top 3 Broughton. Great themes, never a dull moment and everything you could want by way of an old fashioned western score (instead of some grumbly noodling that you often get now with gritty westerns... same goes for war film scores...). Silverado is indeed a bit more on the nose and doesn't have quite the tonal or emotional range of Tombstone, but only because Tombstone is such a great score (perhaps his best ever?!).

 

While they aren't quite in the same league, some of his TV movie western scores are well worth checking out, notably O Pioneers! (what people in the 19th century said instead of FFS...) and True Women, which admittedly don't sound that promising, but are really lovely, albeit a bit more genteel than the more forthright styles of Silverado or Tombstone.

[ThePenitentMan1 743]

21 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

It's a terrific score, easily a top 3 Broughton.

 

What are the other two of your top three, if you don't mind my asking?

[Tom Guernsey 2,282]

7 minutes ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

 

What are the other two of your top three, if you don't mind my asking?

Damn... there weren't meant to be follow up questions ;-) I guess Tombstone and Lost in Space. If I'm feeling mathematically challenged, I'd add Honey I Blew Up the Kid, Miracle on 34th Street, The Rescuers Down Under and Young Sherlock Holmes. But only if I'm feeling mathematically challenged.

 

Oh and both Homeward Bound scores, True Women, Heart of Darkness, The Old Man and the Sea, O Pioneers... OK I'll stop now.

[thestat 348]

Not a massive fan of Silverado - I get the relevance, and the pre-post-modern golden age tactics but a lot of the action material is not amazing.

 

Tombstone on the other hand is a masterpiece. Fantastic main theme (played over the end credits), balletic expansive love theme, dynamic action material (that opening from player piano to percussive Sinfonia of London mayhem), and generally more structure.

 

Top Broughton:

 

1. Young Sherlock Holmes - no contest, beautiful and brilliant

2. Tombstone

3. Lost in Space (though the Don Davis influence might be a question mark)

4. The Shadow Conspiracy (amazing main theme which weirdly sounds exactly like Blanchard's theme to 25th Hour)

5. The Old Man and The Sea (some great Spanish guitar stuff not dissimilar to JG at the time).

 

Tombstone:

 

 

[ThePenitentMan1 743]

18 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Damn... there weren't meant to be follow up questions ;-) I guess Tombstone and Lost in Space.

 

Cool!  Lost In Space is one of my two all-time favorite scores. (Raiders being the other one)  I could talk about Broughton's LiS all day...  But like a certain "steely centurion", I'll spare you the chatter.

 

I've definitely tried watching more Broughton films a long time ago, and I do remember liking a lot of them, and I've been meaning to pick up more of his scores, but somehow Silverado and Tombstone haven't made their way into my hands yet.

[Thor 7,493]

Masterful score for a masterful film. Have the CD and the DVD. Very operatic, all of it, although some of the suspense/action music is a bit too wild and complex for my ears these days.

[Tallguy 3,383]

I'm listening to Tombstone. It's great. But I think I'm still going with Silverado.

[Andy 4,119]

14 hours ago, Thor said:

 some of the suspense/action music is a bit too wild and complex for my ears these days.

I agree with this.  The Theme is  an 11/10, but there are places where the musical narrative loses me. 

[Tallguy 3,383]

On 22/02/2023 at 7:47 AM, ThePenitentMan1 said:

 

Cool!  Lost In Space is one of my two all-time favorite scores. (Raiders being the other one)  I could talk about Broughton's LiS all day...  But like a certain "steely centurion", I'll spare you the chatter.

 

I've definitely tried watching more Broughton films a long time ago, and I do remember liking a lot of them, and I've been meaning to pick up more of his scores, but somehow Silverado and Tombstone haven't made their way into my hands yet.

 

Have you heard Rescuers Down Under? I had heard other Broughton previously but that was my introductory BB. I don't listen as often as I used to but every once in a while I rediscover it.

[ThePenitentMan1 743]

2 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

Have you heard Rescuers Down Under? I had heard other Broughton previously but that was my introductory BB. I don't listen as often as I used to but every once in a while I rediscover it.

 

That was definitely one of the ones I saw during my "watch more of Broughton's films" run.  I hate that I missed out on the Intrada when it was available, though.

[Thor 7,493]

RESCUERS DOWN UNDER is my favourite Broughton.