The Eagle Has Arrived!
02/23/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is an album I've been looking for for a long time, mainly on account of the "March." This is a rousing, military theme, stated early on in the "Main Title," but only cropping up in muted form for the rest of the album, most notably in "The Hounds." But it also recurs in unusual ways: in "Eagle Goes to Church," it's played on recorders, and in one cue, it's played on a church organ. It's a splendid theme, and I wish it could get fuller development somewhere other than the end credits.A second theme is what the notes to the album call the "obsession" theme, a pouding, rhythmic pulse that occurs frequently throughout. A third motif is a trill on an instrument called a cymbalom. That's actually quite distinctive of this soundtrack -- it's easy to recall the poignant moments of the movie being punctuated by that unusual sound. There's also a love theme that's adequate, and unusual in that it features a whistler.Schifrin's style sometimes seems a bit naive, I think. The rhythm of the military music seems a bit too obvious, and the use of dissonance is a little too frequent to make for pleasant listening. On those grounds, I think I'd cut the cues called "Steiner," "The Eagle's Bite (Part 2)," "The Eagle's Bite," and "Dogs." The latter features the piercing whistle with which the Donald Sutherland character tames the guard dogs at the end of the movie. I thought a human being probably couldn't make that noise, and it's horrible. It sounds like someone driving spikes into my ears. The rest of the cues are wonderful.There are occasionally echoes of others of Schifrin's work. "The Eagle's Bite" sounds like the crazy person music from "Dirty Harry," for example, and "Flight of Eagles" features snare drums with high woodwinds that is reminiscent of the incidental music to "Mission: Impossible."Overall, I'd give this soundtrack a high rating, but it loses a star for the dissonance, and particularly the awful noise in "Dogs.""
Track Listings (19) - Disc #1
