Cutthroat Island (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed by John Debney
Renovatio Records’ next title is non-other than John Debney’s thunderous score for 1995 infamous pirate film Cutthroat Island. The motion picture directed by Renny Harlin was set to bring the pirate movie genre back to the surface, long before the now successful Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. However, it ended being regarded as one of the most spectacular box-office bombs of all time. Cutthroat Island costed almost $100 million to make and only managed to recoup barely $10 million, leading to bankrupting Carolco, the studio that financed the film. Even if it’s an entertaining and engaging movie in several parts, negative reviews and little audience interest quickly sank the movie into oblivion, almost taking with it the careers of some its cast and crew members. The film is starred by Geena Davis, who plays Morgan Adams, a female Caribbean pirate who is entrusted with the part of a map written in Latin that leads to the mythical Cutthroat Island, where a vast treasure is hidden. With the help of William Shaw, a slippery Latin-fluent thief played by Matthew Modine, Morgan manages to decipher the map and sets sail to the island in a race against time, as her villainous uncle Dawg (Frank Langella) is also looking for the treasure and will stop at nothing until he gets his hands on it.
Even with its clichéd script and silly dialogues, Cutthroat Island provides plenty of elaborate action set pieces, from a thrilling carriage chase through a town being destroyed by cannons, to swashbuckling swordfights and sea battles, culminating in what may well be one of the biggest ship explosions ever captured on film. All of this with Debney’s relentless and rumbling score that puts the powerful London Symphony Orchestra to the test with its dense and energetic yet memorable compositions. Right from the opening track, “Morgan’s Ride”, the listener will quickly realize that this is a purely leitmotivic score, as it presents the film’s main theme in all its splendor with the full ensemble (all with wonderful choir performances from the London Voices). This track is an instant winner and will surely have you hitting the repeat button over and over. After introducing his main theme, Debney plays around with it in almost every single cue of the score, sometimes as a brief fanfare to highlight certain heroic sequences and sometimes interwoven with other secondary thematic ideas producing an astoundingly harmonious effect. But that’s not all that this score has to offer as there are several other equally effective themes and motifs. Besides the main theme that accompanies Morgan’s heroisms from start to finish, her character has a secondary theme to emphasize her personal quest for the treasure, which is introduced in the form of a beautiful melody for violin and choir at the end of “The Rescue”, reprised again during “The Funeral”, and also taking the form of a propulsive march during the second part of “Morgan Takes the Ship”. There’s also a tender love theme for the romantic relationship between Morgan and Shaw, first heard in “First Kiss” and then played by the full ensemble in “Discovery of the Treasure”. The evil Uncle Dawg character is treated with a threatening low-range brass, choir and percussion, best heard during the beginnings of “Swordfight” and “The Triumph”. And last but not least, you have the action music, with the massive ensemble playing complex passages for the brass section, bolstered by the use of heavy percussion, cymbal clashes and a busy string section; tracks like “Carriage Chase”, “Swordfight”, “The Battle” and “Morgan Battles Dawg” are total tours de force that may leave any listener gasping for air. Debney also takes the time to make homages to Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s swashbuckling epics, as in the case of the latter half of “Setting Sail”, which follows the Austrian composer’s well-known mannerisms for adventures on high seas. The score also has many delicate and softer cues that provide moments of respite for the listener to explore and appreciate a handful of passages, such as the aforementioned violin solo in “The Rescue”, lovely flute solos over a harpsichord in “The Language of Romance”, and sinuous and mysterious brass experimentations in the first half of “Discovery of the Treasure”. The London Voices also get their moment to shine, as in the impressive “To the Bottom of the Sea”, which offers explosive choral bursts that will leave you speechless. The score culminates with the ten-minute track “It’s Only Gold”, which offers an end credits suite incorporating Debney’s main ideas. This track may well be one of the composer’s best compositions of his entire career and will most likely have many listeners air-conducting while enjoying it.
The score for Cutthroat Island has had a number of releases over time. First, it was available as a 70-minute album in 1995 from Silva Screen, containing several of the best parts of Debney’s work, but with the tracks presented out of chronological order, which was an aspect somewhat criticized, though it can be understood that the intention was to improve the listening experience. Later, in 2005, it was released for the first time as a 2-disc complete score by Prometheus Records. La-La Land Records would repeat this formula and present the entire score in 2 discs with remastered sound quality. For film score enthusiasts, both complete score releases are a must. However, many have come to deem these releases overlong and even found it a bit difficult to listen to the entire score on a regular basis. Renovatio Records now releases Debney’s score in the form of an 80-minute album presentation that shares some similarities with the first album, but with a new arrangement of tracks in chronological order while also adding noteworthy material that was only available (and a bit lost in the mist of wall-to-wall action cues) in the complete score release. So hoist your colors and let yourself be taken back to the high seas of swashbuckling adventures!
1. Morgan's Ride (4:41)
2. The Rescue (3:42)
3. The Funeral (1:30)
4. Morgan In Command (2:48)
5. The Language of Romance (2:38)
6. Carriage Chase (7:20)
7. Mordechai (2:34)
8. Swordfight (4:39)
9. Setting Sail (3:01)
10. First Kiss (1:54)
11. To the Bottom of the Sea (5:22)
12. The Island (4:47)
13. Discovery of the Treasure (5:30)
14. Morgan Takes the Ship (4:30)
15. The Battle (6:08)
16. Morgan Battles Dawg (4:44)
17. The Triumph (3:32)
18. It's Only Gold (9:46)
