The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)
Sound:
B Music: B+
Director
Richard C. Sarafian was in a solid position in the early 1970s, making a
variety of ambitious films, including Vanishing
Point (1971) which finally made it out on DVD. Three films and two years later, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing was
released. This was a Western with a
twist, in that it dealt with high stakes racism and the individual against
ignorance. The Burt Reynolds/Sarah Miles
picture also had a John Williams soundtrack, that until now had never been
issued anywhere in any way. The recent
CD from the FSM label of Film Score Monthly Magazine not only issued the
actually music for a film barely on VHS, but they also added the original music
written and not used by Michel Legrand.
It has
been so long since I have seen the film, I could barely remember the Williams’
score, but I do remember that it fit the film very well. The improvement in fidelity is one of the
reasons. Then I listened to the Legrand
version and it is also smart, impressive and even more challenging of the
genre. From what is here, I can clearly
see how this would have been just as effective, if not quite as traditional.
For
Williams, this is one of his more substantial works before he became the
maestro of blockbuster filmmaking, traditional at first before his ace ability
for narrative enhancement kicks in.
Legrand is more willing to go out on a limb for music that represents
the ethnicity of the people and not the genre, with the idea of Native
Americans more prominent in more of an Arthur Penn/Oliver Stone way if not like
either of them.
All of
this makes for a terrific opportunity for comparison and observation of the
kinds of often tough creative choices that have to be made when real filmmaking
and many artists collaborate. You have
more of a wealth of great materials than you can use, a rarity in the
over-processed world of terrible commercial filmmaking we suffer through now. The Williams score places the film squarely
in the golden era of mature filmmaking that was the early 1970s. The Legrand score is comparatively more ahead
of its time and not pretentious in the least.
I love his ambition in what is some of the best music I have ever heard
form him. Having been from a Musical and
Operetta sense via The Umbrellas of
Cherbourg among other works, it is a fresh take, if not as raw or as
mortally volatile as Williams’ approach.
The PCM
CD stereo is good on both scores, but the Legrand tracks have a more natural
sound, while the Williams tracks have some slight harshness and stridence in
places. Both are limited by CDs 16
bit/44.1kHz sound limits, but are both a true ple4asure to listen to. Whenever Warner Bros. finally gets around to
doing the DVD of this film, they ought to make the film available with the
option of watching it with both scores in stereo, along with the original mono sound
and a commentary by Sarafian. Sarafian’s
commentary on Vanishing Point was
very good and if Williams, Legrand, and even Reynolds and Miles joined him,
that could only make it better.
So there
you have it, another winning soundtrack release by Film Score Monthly. Now that Warner Bros. no longer owns the
record company that bares their name (it was spun off to former Universal owner
Edgar Bronfman, Jr.), we may even see an increase of WB/FSM releases. As is always the case with all FSM CDs, this
one is limited to only 3,000 pressings, so go to www.FilmScoreMonthly.com for
information on this and hundreds of other exclusives and how to order
them. Once they are gone, who knows when
you’ll see them again.
- Nicholas Sheffo
