The Last Castle
Veteran film composer Jerry Goldsmith is renowned for his sci-fi writing, a reputation that stretches all the way back to the original TVTwilight Zone. But his work for military-themed historical epics is arguably every bit as compelling and includes such highlights asThe Blue Max,Patton,MacArthur,Tora! Tora! Tora!andThe Wind and the Lion. This restrained, quietly dignified score to director Rod Lurie's tale of a wrongly imprisoned general (Robert Redford) and the uprising he inspires against his abusive jailer (James Gandolfini) should join that canon. Carried by a mournful solo trumpet, its elegiac, minor-key main theme ("The Castle") somehow echoes Goldsmith's heroic writing forPatton, even as it underscores wholly different dramatic concerns. That haunting theme--one that affirms an often-lonely honor in the face of oppression--wafts through the mounting martial rhythms of Goldsmith's restrained, suspenseful orchestral score like a ghostly conscience. The pair of non-score selections here (John Hammond's swampy take onTom Waits's "Get Behind the Mule" and the equally gritty blues of Dean Hall's "Chiseled in Stone") offer aesthetic changeups that help give both the film and its score an earthy, human dimension.--Jerry McCulley