Taps | The Only Game in Town rom the time Maurice Jarre began scor- popular score to the hugely popular Ghost. had to bow out and was replaced by War- ing films in 1952, but especially from It is a breathtaking body of work, and Jarre ren Beatty. Despite the story being set in F1959 onwards, it was very apparent was rewarded with nine Oscar nominations. Las Vegas, Taylor insisted the film be shot that a completely unique voice in film scor- Aside from taking the prize for Lawrence of in Paris, so she could be with her husband, ing had arrived. Back then, no film music Arabia, he also won for Doctor Zhivago, and Richard Burton, who was there shooting a sounded like Jarre’s, and even today those A Passage to India, a David Lean triple play. film. early scores sound fresh and adventurous and like no other composers of that or any In 1981, Jarre was hired to score Taps, a The resulting film was, like the play, not other era. Twentieth Century-Fox film, directed by Har- successful with either critics or audiences. old Becker, starring George C. Scott and an It opened, had a brief run, and disappeared. For many Americans, the first exposure pretty incredible array of up and coming It simply was not the right time for a dia- to Jarre may have been either Georges young talent, including Timothy Hutton, logue-heavy, old-fashioned, three-character Franju’s masterpiece, Eyes Without a Face Sean Penn and Tom Cruise. Taps was a film. It was the time of counterculture and (released in the United States as The Hor- hit with both critics and audiences – a taut Easy Rider and a whole new generation of ror Chamber of Dr. Faustus), a stunningly and tense story of a group of cadets who filmmakers and no one wanted to see a film original and terrific score, or the huge inter- take over their military academy instead of about the uneasy relationship between a national hit, Sundays and Cybele in 1962. allowing it to be closed. The acting from ev- lounge piano player and compulsive gam- But that same year, it was another film that eryone was superb, and Becker’s direction bler and a Vegas chorus girl. But all these would put Jarre on the map and catapult him of the screenplay by Robert Mark Kamen, years later, thanks to the recent Twilight onto the A-list of film composers – Lawrence James Lineberger and Daryl Ponsican (from Time Blu-ray release, we get to finally reas- of Arabia. For David Lean to take that kind the novel Father Sky by Devery Freeman) sess the film, which, as it turns out, is pretty of a chance on a relatively unknown, speaks is simple and assured. Tying it all together entertaining – not perfect by any means, but to Lean’s brilliance, and the end result was is Jarre’s wonderful score. Many cues are with some wonderful dialogue, star-power not only a brilliant score but Jarre’s first sparsely scored for trumpet, piano and per- performances from Taylor and Beatty, and Academy Award. He’d go on to score all cussion to excellent effect, and the other George Stevens usual elegant direction. of Lean’s subsequent films, including Doctor cues are used carefully throughout the film There’s something very dreamlike and sur- Zhivago, Ryan’s Daughter and A Passage and help give the film its tension, emotion real about the film, thanks to the gorgeous to India. and texture. Given the film’s success and photography of the brilliant French cam- the high caliber of its acting, directing, writ- eraman Henri Decae and just the natural But the 1960s were an especially fertile ing, music and production, it’s rather sur- oddness of shooting a film set in Vegas in period for Jarre, and he continued to write prising that it was not nominated for a single France. strikingly original music for such disparate Academy Award. films as Franju’s Judex, William Wyler’s The For the film, Maurice Jarre came up with a Collector, John Frankenheimer’s The Train While other films from that year are barely truly great score. Beginning with a lonely and Grand Prix, Fred Zinneman’s Behold talked about today, Taps continues to have a trumpet leading directly into an exciting and a Pale Horse, Is Paris Burning?, Richard big following on home video and has held up jazzy “Vegas” feel, leading back to a melan- Brooks’s The Professionals, Gambit, The amazingly well over the years. choly duet for sax and trumpet (the film is Night of the Generals, The Damned and all about loneliness, connections missed or Hitchcock’s Topaz, to name a few – it was decade earlier, Jarre was hired to made, and has a pervasive feeling of melan- an astonishing decade for the composer. compose the score for what would be choly), Jarre’s score compliments the movie Continuing into the 1970s, Jarre turned Adirector George Stevens’s final film – perfectly. out many memorable scores for every the 1970 romantic comedy/drama The Only type of movie – westerns (El Condor, Red Game in Town. The Only Game in Town Taps was previously released on CD on Va- Sun, Posse, The Life and Times of Judge began as a three-character play by Frank rese Sarabande as a limited edition that sold Roy Bean), comedy (Plaza Suite), drama Gilroy, which opened on Broadway at the out quickly. This is the premiere release for (Pope Joan, The Tin Drum, Winter Kills), Broadhurst Theater on May 20, 1968, star- The Only Game in Town – we present all the adventure (The Man Who Would Be King, ring Tammy Grimes, Barry Nelson, and Leo cues that were usable, but, thankfully, it’s Crossed Swords, Shout at the Devil) and on Genn. The play was not a success, run- most of the score and is fully representative and on. But that was only the tip of the ice- ning only sixteen performances. Twentieth of the cues Jarre wrote. berg, and the 1980s were equally filled with Century-Fox had actually purchased the classic Jarre scores, including The Year of screen rights prior to the play opening. Set — Bruce Kimmel Living Dangerously, Witness, Enemy Mine, to star in the film version were Elizabeth Tai-Pan, The Bride, Mad Max Beyond Thun- Taylor (reunited with Stevens, with whom derdome, Fatal Attraction, Dead Poet’s So- she’d worked to great success in A Place ciety and more. And while his 90s output in the Sun and Giant), and Frank Sinatra. slowed down, it still included his hugely But when the film was postponed, Sinatra