Medicine Man review

Medicine Man (1992)

Composer: Jerry Goldsmith

Number of tracks: 14

Total time: 50:09

Overview:

After his huge success in the 1980's with the action filmsPredator (1987) and Die Hard(1988), director John McTiernan decided to tackle an ecological drama. The result: the box office flop Medicine Man. Having not seen the film, I cannot further comment on whether the movie was good or not, but it does star Sean Connery so it can't be that bad, right? Right?

Anyway, on with the review.... The film is about a scientist by the name of Campbell (Connery) who has found the cure for cancer in the rainforest. A greedy pharmaceutical company sends another (female) scientist to find Campbell and bring back the "miracle drug". As can be expected, a romance ensues and trouble arrives when the scientists don't bring back the drug in time.

Fortunately for us, Jerry Goldsmith was hired to compose the score for this film and delivered what is arguably one of his most impressive drama scores. It may sound rather strange on first listen (like with Legend (1985) ), but this is a score that is worth warming up to.

Review of music:

The score contains three prominent themes: Rae's theme, a Romantic theme and a theme for the rainforest/natives. Rae's theme is introduced during the middle of the first track, "Rae's arrival", and is a brass heavy theme that is later given to the woodwinds and strings. It's a rather versatile theme, sounding at times threateningly powerful and at other times somewhat lonely.

The Romantic theme is probably the most recognizable theme in the score, heard in its splendor in "The Trees". This theme is among Goldsmith's finest pieces in his long career and appears several times throughout the album. The last theme is for the natives and consists of ethnic instruments, acoustic guitar and percussion. The Native theme is rather fun and upbeat being first introduced at the start of "Rae's Arrival", then appearing several times later on the album.

As was Goldsmith's way, he combines synths and synthetic percussion with the London Philharmonic Orchestra throughout the score. Some great examples of the use of synths can be heard in "First Morning" (where the synths sound like falling rain), "Without a Net", "Mocara" and "Mountain High". Goldsmith uses synthetic percussion extensively in Medicine Man, adding to the ambience of the score. There is even some musical comedy in a few tracks such as "Without a Net" and "Mountain High".

The album concludes with two amazing tracks: "The Fire" and "A Meal and a Bath". The first track features Rae's theme over a bed of organic and synthetic percussion. The latter track perfectly sums up the score with a restatement of the primary themes, with the Romantic theme being the most prevalent.

Review of packaging:

The CD comes in the standard jewel case with a booklet. The booklet is simply a two page collection of production stills with the film's credits in the middle.

The back of the album contains track listings (with correct times), album credits and brief film credits.

Closing thoughts:

Like with Goldsmith's masterwork Legend (1985), Medicine Man will take a little warming up to... but it is definitely worth the effort. This is a fun, light-ish drama score with some excellent themes and a real sense of wonder. This album comes highly recommended... with some slight hesitations.

Score:

4 out of 5