River Wild

1994年影片《River Wild》原声。 by Jason AnkenyDuring the mid-'90s, Jerry Goldsmith composed a series of scores accompanying adventure films set in exotic wilderness locales. Together, these three projects (The River Wild, Medicine Man, and The Edge, respectively) represent an informal trilogy of sorts, and it was perhaps inevitable that they would recycle similar motifs and idioms. The River Wild is easily the weakest of the three, failing to generate much suspense with its relatively banal instrumentation and trite pastoral arrangements. The complexity and dramatic flair that are so essential to Goldsmith's best work are sadly absent here. Of course it's difficult to truly gauge Goldsmith's success or failure because RCA's release includes only about half of the complete score, assigning a pair of tracks to alt-country favorites the Cowboy Junkies. Here's hoping a specialty label like Intrada will someday restore The River Wild to its full running time.