Based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper and the 1936 screenplay adaptation, The Last of the Mohicans was a powerhouse movie, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the frontier scout Hawk-eye, a white man raised amongst the Delaware Indians. With the help of his Mohican friends Chingachgook and Uncas he now helps the two daughters of a military commander to their father in the middle of warfare with the French and their recruited Indian allies the Hurons, headed by the wicked Magua. Directed by Michael Mann, the film is a fast-paced action adventure that is immensely entertaining as well as perfectly performed. Despite a two-hour running time the film just seems to fly by thanks to the fast pacing and captivating story that in the novel often seems to get stuck in overlong descriptions and empty dialogue stretches.
The Last of the Mohicans is one of those strange occurrances when a composer has been replaced by another in mid-production. Trevor Jones was originally hired for the job for which he wrote his arguably best known theme. After completing a lion's share of the work he was suddenly replaced by Randy Edelman whose more lightweight music provided a completely different feel to the more orchestral Jones part. I'm not exactly sure why this change was made but I suspect that due to the large amount of editing done to the film, Jones was no longer available to write additional music. Therefore Edelman, whose musical style was more deeply rooted in the cheaper and faster medium of electronic music became an ideal choice. But regardless of the causes it does provide an interesting insight into the styles
of both composers.
When comparing the music of both the composers one aspect has always remained the same: Jones' half is universally considered as being the better. Jones' more orchestral approach is much more dramatic and this combined with an instantly memorable and powerful main theme makes Jones' half the more enjoyable and by far the more memorable. The main theme proved so magnificent in fact that Jones later used mutations of it in Cliffhanger and Cleopatra. The theme makes appearances in every single one of Jones' cues in one form or another and always to great effect. Apart from a rather harsh and repetitive violin figure in "The Kiss" and "Promentory" there is really quite little other thematic material that is repeated to any great extent over the course of the score. A popular highlight has always been the cue "Elk Hunt" where a strong and pulsating synth background is eventually taken over by the orchestra, which makes a very strong opening for the film. The battle cues "Fort Battle" and "Massacre/Canoes" feature tense marching rhythms and, if not exactly pulse pounding in their own right, are quite exciting nonetheless. The final "Top of the World" has the main theme reach a beautiful climax and makes for a perfect way to end the film.
Edelman's half is not as strong. Whereas Jones uses the synthesizer as a mainly colouristic device to accentuate the orchestra, a tactic that has worked well for him in other scores, Edelman places his synthesizers in the forefront. The problem with the synthesizer is that it has a tendency to make the music sound very cheap if not used to perfection. Edelman's half simply does not have a single powerful theme that could come even close in rivaling Jones' theme and this causes the music to feel more like simple filler material. This becomes painfully evident when the music is allowed to ramble on for long stretches in the cues "River Walk and Discovery" and "Pieces of a Story". These two tracks simply contain nothing that keeps you interested for the entire length that they run. However there are a few tracks that do stand out. "The British Arrival" and "The Courier" are quite enjoyable as is the only major theme that Edelman comes up with in "Cora", a romantic and quite beautiful theme that unfortunately does not reappear later on. But still the fact remains that the guitar and synth approach of Edelman simply does not fit in with the epic nature of the film, better suiting a more intimate setting.
The original 1992 album consisted of 56 minutes of music with the contributions of Jones and Edelman arranged into their own separate halves, both containing roughly 30 minutes of music. The problem with this arrangement however rested on the fact that listening to Edelman's half after Jones' made the latter part sound anti-climactic and rather unspectacular. It made the music sound very uneven, as if the music had come from two completely different movies. Furthermore having all Jones' cues follow one after the other makes the main theme, that appears on every track, sound tiring and extremely repetitive and makes the Edelman half sound even more arbitrary since that memorable Jones main theme suddenly disappears. The new-age song performed by Clannad in the middle of the movie, however, seems to fit in much better due to the duality of the score as opposed to having just Jones' music to cover everything else. The album on the other hand has proven immensely popular with mainstream audiences. The combination of the Clannad song, Jones' memorable theme and Edelman's more romantic music have undoubtedly caused record sales to go up on many different quarters.
After the great success of the original, Varèse Sarabande decided to make a re-recording of the score in 2000, including some formerly unreleased cues, while at the same time deciding to drop others (mostly from the Edelman side). As a re-recording there are the positives and negatives. Performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Joel McNeely, we have consistency of recording since the music is performed by a single ensemble. Many have noted that the performances of the Edelman tracks have greatly improved over the originals while Jones' half has suffered in many key cues, especially in "Elk Hunt", which is much softer and less stimulating than the original. The big disappointment however is that the album only runs for 45 minutes (less than the original), and undoubtedly there were many who were expecting the entire 77 minutes of score to be included here. The sound quality is very good, but since we are talking about a score made in 1992 the difference is rather marginal. But the music does pack more interest since the indvidual tracks are arranged in film order, therefore meshing better with each other rather than sounding two different scores on a single album. Still Last of the Mohicans is a worthy purchase if just get the wonderful theme of Trevor Jones.
Original 1992 album Jones 1. Main Title (1:44) 2. Elk Hunt (1:49) 3. The Kiss (2:47) 4. The Glade, Part II (2:34) 5. Fort Battle (4:20) 6. Promentory (6:13) 7. Munro's Office/Stockade (2:30) 8. Massacre/Canoes (6:52) 9. Top of the World (2:44)
Edelman 10. The Courier (2:27) 11. Cora (2:30) 12. River Walk and Discovery (5:30) 13. Parlay (3:46) 14. The British Arrival (2:00) 15. Pieces of a Story (4:58)
16. I Will Find You (performed by Clannad) (1:42)
2000 Varése re-recording 1. Main Title* (1:52) 2. Elk Hunt* (1:50) 3. Bridge at Lacrosse** (1:23) 4. Garden Scene** (3:20) 5. Ambush** (2:35) 6. The Glade* (3:16) 7. Fort Battle* (4:18) 8. The Courier** (2:30) 9. The Kiss* (2:49) 10. Stockade* (2:47) 11. Massacre* (6:54) 12. Ascent/Pursuit** (3:06) 13. Promentory* (5:38) 14. Top of the World* (3:01)
Trevor Jones
* Randy Edelman
Music Composed by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman Orchestrated by Guy Dagul, Brad Dechter, Jack Smalley, Bobby Muzingo and Greig McRitchie Conducted by Daniel A. Carlin and Randy Edelman "I Will Find You" Written by Ciaran Brennan Performed by Clannad
Again, another fantastic review. I bought the re-recording some time ago, and would agree that Jones' music is far better than Edelman's addition. I got my hands on some of the Edelman tracks that were cut out, such a River Walk and Discovery, and they're undoubtedly stale and overshadowed by the other tracks. I also found that the Clannad song is one of those few mainstream commercial songs that actually works quite well in cohesion with the film.
habitualdamnation 05.07.2005 17:45
you must be a mind reader. i've been wondering what's the difference between this and the 1992 recording for ages. i've been in love with the film and the score for years!
newc0597 22.06.2004 20:26
Great review. This is one of my favourite soundtracks, although I have to agree that it has a few weaker moments.
This re-recording does much to address what was wrong with the original 1992 album. All ... more
the cues are presented in the film's chronological order, something that immediately makes sense in the development of the (superb) principal themes. The split betw...
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This re-recording does much to address what was wrong with the original 1992 album. All ... more
the cues are presented in the film's chronological order, something that immediately makes sense in the development of the (superb) principal themes. The split betw...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
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