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A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

In one of the most inspired moments of composer casting of recent years, Barry Sonnenfeld elected to hire Elmer Bernstein to score his big-budget remake of the tv series Wild Wild West with Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek and Kenneth Branagh.  If the film failed to live up to expectations (though personally I thought it was OK) then surely the score could not be accused of such a thing; delightfully recalling Bernstein's classic western scores, it features several great themes, some rollicking action music and one chance after another to just have a smile on your face.

The album opens with the terrific main theme, which instantly recalls things like The Comancheros; it's a brilliant piece, with even a bit of funky jazz thrown in the middle for good measure.  I can never tire of hearing it.  The action music is surprisingly lively and boistrous (I say surprising only because Bernstein was 77 when he wrote it, but I suppose that's a fairly silly thing for me to have thought); there's a beautiful love theme, though it appears only very briefly on this album; some amusing comedy music that conforms to Bernstein's old model of scoring comedy as if it were the most earnest of drama; and there's a finale, "Ride the Spider", that will knock your socks off.  "The Cornfield" is a brilliantly quirky piece with jazz combined with the ondes martenot being played in a way you've never heard before.  "Loveless's Plan" even has some big choral music for comedic effect.  In just half an hour, Bernstein certainly manages to fit a lot of ideas in!

Because of time pressures, Bernstein drafted in his son Peter to write some music for the film and two of his cues make it onto the album (and since they run for nine minutes they actually make up almost a third of the running time!) - the younger composer displays a lot of talent and it's a pity he hasn't broken through onto the scene like many may have expected.  All in all though, this score is so much fun you would have to be a really grumpy old fart not to love it.  From start to end it's one delight after another.

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Tracks

1. Main Title (3:00)
2. West Fights (1:14)
3. Dismissal (2:13)
4. East Meets West (1:15)
5. Of Rita, Rescue and Revenge (5:43)
6. Trains, Tanks and Frayed Ropes (4:03)
7. The Cornfield (1:09)
8. Loveless's Plan (4:45)
9. Goodbye Loveless (4:33)
10. Ride the Spider (2:14)