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Intrada presents the premiere release of Leonard Rosenman's score to the Universal Pictures biopic The Outsider (1961). Remarkably, Rosenman's score is built on a single 8-note motif, resulting in a lean, monothematic score to this powerful film. This motif debuts in the main title on French horn, although it's already been hinted at seconds earlier on strings, and returns in one form or another in virtually every cue. It's a forthright, fanfare-like motif that strives upward to reflect a sense of heroism and achievement. On its second iteration in the same cue, Rosenman is already developing it, changing the intervals to make it reach even higher. So while the score features this motif prominentaly, it becomes an artisic exercise in crafting, molding, modfying, and even disguising it as it weaves through the score. As liner note writer Frank DeWald notes, "Leonard Rosenman's score for The Outsider is a classic example of what composers with strong compositional skills, good classical training, distinctive styles, authentic emotionalism and empathetic spirits were writing consistently during the 1950s and early 1960s—before the arrival of pop scores caused Elmer Bernstein to decry, 'Whatever Happened to Great Movie Music?'"
For CD producer Chris Malone, the project came together smoothly thanks to the perfectly preservered mono elements stored in the Universal vaults. The score runs some 36 minutes with another 17 minutes of extras including alternates and unused tracks. Cover art was designed by Stéphane Coëdel.
Directed by Delbert Mann, the film stars Tony Curtis as Ira Hayes, a Pima Native American and one of the U.S. Marines who famously raised the flag on Iwo Jima during World War II. The film follows Hayes' journey from a quiet reservation in Arizona to the brutal battlefields of the Pacific and back home again, where he struggles with postwar trauma, alcoholism, and the burden of unwanted fame.
- Intrada
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