Born Free (CD Soundtrack)
Sound: B Music:
B
The original Born Free (1966) is the tale of a
human-raised lion being trained so it can go back into the wild. Nearly 40 years old, it is a film that holds
up well. Behind the scenes, outside of handling
the lions on location, it turns out there is another story little known about
the film that pitted composer John Barry against director James Hill. Oddly, they were two of the key talents that
drove the 1960s Spy craze from English soil, with Barry doing The Ipcress
File and over five James Bond feature film scores among others in the
genre, while Hill directed some of the best episodes of The Saint and The
Avengers (all reviewed elsewhere on this site) among other solid work. So goes the story in the fine booklet
included in Film Score Monthly Magazine’s FSM CD soundtrack label’s release of
Barry’s score on CD.
Originally issued on vinyl through the long-defunct M-G-M
Records label, Warner Bros.’ Turner Entertainment division retained the rights
to the album, while the film was issued on DVD in 2003 by Sony thru their
Columbia/TriStar Home Video imprint.
The film was a Columbia Picture, but not a Columbia records
release. In what is their first non-limited
edition CD, FSM has issued the great score to be heard as clearly here in PCM
2.0 CD Stereo as the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on the DVD, with even a bit more
fullness. You can read about the
twelve-track release and even hear some downloaded samples at www.filmscoremonthly.com where this
and their dozens of great exclusives can be ordered. The title song by Matt Monroe, that guy who everyone hears
singing the theme from the James Bond film From Russia With Love in all
those Bond hits collections had an even larger exposure thanks to this song,
though it was not the hit it deserved to be.
Now to that story about Barry and Hill.
Barry is a legendary composer, one of the greatest in film
history, of which I am a huge fan. At
the same time, I am extremely fond of Hill’s work, one of the great gentleman
journeyman directors from England. The
argument came when Hill wanted to make the lion’s plight (Elsa and otherwise) a
metaphor for the fiasco that was developing for The United States in
Vietnam. Barry disliked the idea and
thought they should go for what was the Disney form of the time, which would
best enhance and serve the story. After
Hill was finished shooting, he was either dismissed from post-production or went
on to his next work. Barry’s beautiful
title song and great instrumentals were powerful and effective enough to turn
this into at least a minor classic of the nature/jungle/adventure cycle of the
time that showed more of the outdoors and wildlife (think Marlin Perkins) in
documentary and semi-documentary TV and feature film productions.
Though not directly addressing the Vietnam situation, the
film’s popularity has to be attributed in part to what it was saying at the
time about life in general without any of the political pretensions that it
would have if Hill had his way. The
film had the context of the time it came out and ultimately, Hill’s film stands
up better than if it was trivialized as a period piece. That timing was more than enough. As great as Hill was at his best, Barry’s scores
work at their best on the highest levels instrumental music (especially film
music) can and this is one of his best scores, however short. There is something deeper and more profound
in the depth and richness his music offers.
Born Free is from an era when Barry’s music ruled the cinematic
world and out of such a stunningly prolific period, it hits the nail on the
head over and over again. If Hill had
not had Barry, his ideas might have made more sense. In the long run, they both may have gotten their way.
- Nicholas Sheffo
