The Getaway (1972/Unused Music) – Jerry Fielding’s
Original Score (CD/DVD set/Limited
Edition/Film Score Monthly)
CD Sound:
B Music: B+ DVD Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Main Program: B-
Jerry
Fielding is one of the great underrated film and TV music composers who found
his most prolific partnership with Sam Peckinpah. For Peckinpah’s Steve McQueen/Ali MacGraw
thriller about prison escapes, revenge and stolen money, Fielding delivered
another great score, but McQueen was not happy with it and thought it would
hamper the film’s commercial prospects.
Overriding Peckinpah, McQueen had it dropped in favor of a Jazz-styled
score by Quincy Jones and that is what appears in the film today. Recently, the FSM soundtrack music label of
Film Score Monthly issued the music for the first time ever and even included
their first-ever bonus DVD.
It was
Quincy Jones himself who personally sent a letter to Warner Bros. advocating
the release of the original score and it is a winner. It seems McQueen wanted something leaning
more towards Bullitt (with a great
score by Lalo Schifrin) than the Southern/Country/Staccato/ “good ol’ boy”
style score Fielding delivered. It was
certainly appropriate with the film taking place in the South, though one wonders
if another reason was to distinguish himself from competitors like Paul Newman
and the up-and-coming Burt Reynolds for the title of Action film king. Also, the new success of Clint Eastwood with
the first Don Siegel-directed Dirty
Harry the prior year must have loomed large in how big it went over with
audiences.
There are
16 tracks here and you can just imagine how this would have worked in the
film. It has never been added to a
print, though Warner Bros. ought to consider doing it as an alternate soundtrack
when they get around to issuing the film in the HD-DVD and Blu-ray
formats. Fielding was a master of film
music and his range, along with his timing, always brought any film or TV
project he did to a higher level. He had
few equals and this CD reminds us of that all over again.
Because
the master tapes had been sitting around unused, yet preserved in good shape,
the 16bit/44.1kHz PCM 2.0 Stereo sound is terrific. I really enjoyed this when I first heard it
and though I understand McQueen’s reasoning, even he could not deny what a
great work this is. The DVD has Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo that is simple and mostly consists of interview audio on the
spot from the taping.
That DVD
is one extra and the terrific booklet typical of all FSM releases is loaded
with facts, figures, rare stills and insight like no other company
delivers. They even note audio reel
numbers! We have reviewed dozens of
their CDs on this site and they remain among the best in the business. The DVD offers the documentary Jerry
Fielding, Sam Peckinpah & The Getaway that runs 29:54, is a region
free NTSC disc (for those foreign readers who will want this set), is directed
by Nick Redmond and has a letterboxed 1.85 X 1 aspect ratio that looks just
fine for a documentary work.
It features
interviews with his family, a look at his career, this situation with this film
in particular and is a special work for all involved. It is also the kind of referential work
serious film, film music and scholarly libraries would want to have. However, like just about all FSM releases,
this one is limited to only 3,000 copies and when they are gone, you are out of
luck unless you want to pay more money.
For that reason, you will want to go to www.filmscoremonthly.com (for this
and other great exclusives) and get a set before you let it get away!
- Nicholas Sheffo
