Where Eagles Dare is
one of those quintessential World War II films where the main characters
find themselves in the middle of some military operation that takes place
deep within enemy territory with the odds stacked against them of ever
returning home. Of course, with these films, someone usually does make it
home, even if more than 2/3 of the original group end up dead. Still, what
can you say? It may sound stupid in concept written out like this, but
when done right, it usually ends up being a good film. I've always liked this film,
but not having seen it in a long while, I can't say whether it still holds
up or not. I need to find out if it exists on DVD so I can watch it in
widescreen for a full critical viewing of the movie. Until then, however,
this score has found its way into mainstream release as part of the
Chapter III Classics series.
The opening title track sets the
stage quite well. It is a dark, militaristic piece with lots of
percussion and brass. While it is a heroic theme it is not full of itself
and is instead quite serious in tone. The main theme comes into play often
throughout the run of the music, though Goodwin never really twists it
around very much. Its appearance is usually a highlight, but some more
subtle incorporations of it into the score would have been really nice.
Being a film filled with a lot of suspense and subterfuge, the score is
mainly made up of dark string sections that creep around with the action
onscreen. The action cues are the only time this departs away from the
standard suspenseful string cues, and even then it is because Goodwin
drops the main theme in. These cues are very interesting, but again a
little variation would've been very welcome. It is also interesting to
note just how different he scores chase sequences. It is all composed
fairly straight with no frantic sections, just militaristic percussion.
The quality of the sound is
fairly decent, but a large share of the tracks on the disc sound muffled. Of
course, considering the age of the source materials and the fact that this
was not a major score release the sound is not half bad. The tracks are
split up nicely, with only two being over seven minutes in length, but the
three pieces of incidental music at the end of the CD comprises one track
when it should have really been split into three. Considering that
they are not really anything special, though, it is no big loss.
Overall, there are some
really interesting cues here and the main theme is quite good, but
considering the fact that a majority of the score consists of "sneaking
music" it is actually rather boring. For
those interested in the score, it would probably be wise to check out the
movie first. ***
