At 36 minutes this
CD is, by Film Score Monthly’s standards, on the short side. Yet it is an
expanded version of what was obviously a brief LP. This however is a prime
example of quality over quantity, and there are those who consider this to be
composer Marvin Hamlisch’s best work. Given it is the composer’s debut score
composed when he was just 24 he regards this opinion as a double edged sword,
noting that he had hoped he would get better as a composer.
The excellent
booklet accompanying the CD gives a fascinating account of the making of The
Swimmer (1968), noting how producer Sam Spiegel took director Frank Perry
off the project after he completed filming and how the director was replaced by
Sydney Pollack who completed a further eight weeks shooting in a very different
style. The result being a film of contrasting styles, with according to Perry
only half his material making the released version of the movie. Binding
together the different approaches to this offbeat story of a man (Burt
Lancaster) who decides to swim home one afternoon via his neighbour’s swimming
pools, is Marvin Hamlisch. Perhaps the notoriously manipulative Spiegel thought
he could bend a fresh young composer to his will more easily than an
established professional.
Whatever the
reasons behind Hamlisch gaining the gig – and we must not discount his pure,
raw talent – the result is a score filled with almost heartbreaking Americana.
This is after all the man who in a few years would pen The Way We Were.
Here is a similar vein of dignified nostalgia, the score repeatedly returning
to variations on the central tender theme used to depict The Swimmer as his
life falls apart. At heart lyrical, pastoral and heartfelt, the score also
contains moments of rousing, upbeat drama – ‘Don’t Come Back’ being a prime
example – and, this being the ‘60’s, almost inevitably ventures into kitsch for
parts of ‘Easy Four’. ‘Carnival’ is a more striking ‘60’s jazz rock workout,
the sort of theme that might have found a place in a film such as The
Graduate, while ‘Lovely Hair’ has the kind of MOR appeal one might associate
with Michael Legrand. Indeed, if the unsettling ‘On the Road’ and latter
dramatic cues occasionally point towards the harsh Goldsmith of 1968’s Planet
of the Apes, the string laden lyricism of much of the writing seem to have
one eye on Legrand’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and the other on
Herrmann’s The Ghost and Mrs Muir or Fahrenheit 451.
The overall result
is a rich, powerful and diverse score. Gorgeous, intensely dramatic, tragically
hopeful and beautifully sad, The Swimmer is a remarkable debut from a
very talented composer. Fans of composers as diverse as Michael Legrand, John
Barry, Ennio Morricone and Bernard Herrrmann, to say nothing of Mr Hamlisch
himself, will find much to delight them. The sound quality is excellent.
Gary Dalkin
Rating: 4.5
Film Score Monthly News Release:
FSM begins a
relationship with Sony Music Special Products (home of the Columbia Records
catalog) with an expanded CD release of one of the most haunting and unusual
symphonic scores of the 1960s, The Swimmer (1968).
The Swimmer> starred Burt Lancaster in
one of his most challenging and definitive roles, as a narcissistic suburbanite
who decides to " swim home" one day through the pools of his wealthy
Connecticut neighbors. From this simple premise comes an intriguing and
powerful character study, featuring a fine supporting cast and authentic
locations, and a shocking twist. The film has endured as a cult favorite, oddly
blending " new wave" film techniques with gritty realism.
The Swimmer was the first feature film
score of then-24-year-old Marvin Hamlisch, who got the job after a chance
meeting with producer Sam Spiegel. Hamlisch would go on to numerous successes
in songwriting, film scoring and Broadway shows, with credits including The
Sting, The Way We Were and The Spy Who Loved Me, and his strong
gifts for melody and drama were evident for the start.
As Hamlisch had
never scored a film, he enlisted the help of two veteran Hollywood
orchestrators for technical assistance, Leo Shuken and Jack Hayes. Shuken and
Hayes most notably orchestrated for Elmer Bernstein, and in their hands
Hamlisch's rich themes for The Swimmer are executed with many of the
lovely Americana orchestrations of Bernstein's work. The combination of
Hamlisch's writing with Shuken and Hayes' orchestrations created a classic
symphonic score that has been beloved by those who discovered it.
FSM's premiere CD
release of The Swimmer features the complete score (expanded from the LP
version, courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment) remixed and remastered from
the original 1/2" three-track stereo masters. Liner notes are by album
co-producer Jeff Bond.
Track Listing:
1. Theme From The
Swimmer (" Send for Me in Summer" )/Big Splash 3:22
2. Easy
Four/Bubbles 3:27
3. The Dive/Don't
Come Back/Slow Walk/The Horse 4:04
4. Lucinda
River/Two People 4:12
5.
Together/Hurdles 3:40
6. Julie,
Julie/The Little Flute/The Goodbye 1:25
7. Carnival 2:28
8. Lovely Hair
2:33
9. Down the
Steps/You Loved It/On the Road 3:05
10. My Kids Love
Me/Traveling Home/Closer to Home/Home/Marcia Funebre 6:06
11. Theme From The
Swimmer (Reprise) ("Send for Me in Summer" ) 1:15
Total Time: 35:57