WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? (1981)

In WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? (1981) Richard Dreyfuss stars as a sculptor named Ken Harrison who at the beginning of the story is paralyzed in a terrible car accident and ultimately robbed of his ability to move and create art with his hands.  The story proceeds a few months later where Ken's life has been tragically transformed. The score was Arthur B. Rubinstein's first "major" feature film score assignment and directed by his old friend John Badham. Amazingly, Arthur B. was able to ask to score this film after visiting John Badham's office and seeing the script laying on his desk! Badham's answer was simply "well... okay."

The score to the film is arguably the finest work of Arthur B. Rubinstein's career and one of the greatest scores written for a motion picture. It is shocking that it never received an album release until 2009 and is now sadly out of print.

The aesthetic approach of the score is essentially a Neoclassical one. Rubinstein's influence would be Neo-Baroque dance forms, a strong influence on the composer's music in general, with the opening Main Title being a gigue. The result is somewhere between Bach and Stravinsky (in this case his middle period). It's an uplifting and stunning classically inspired work where the music masterfully gives life to the main character and the film.

The opening main theme is first stated on a high lonely french horn solo line. It's followed by an exciting build on a fanfare/gigue in the strings (the score does away with the violins and only calls for violas and cellos). This idea quickly climbs the tessitura of the orchestra in a repeating figure punctuated by snare then finally landing on a bold trumpet (six trumpets, four being piccolo) and full orchestra statement. After an exploration of the fanfare passed through the piano/harpsichord, horns and low woodwinds (only four oboes and four bassoons) the opening main theme is finally reached again after another climb but this time stated brilliantly fortissimo in the trumpet section. A gentle use of the fanfare continues until the main theme is presented again with cello/horn punctuated by pizzicato. These two ideas form the structure of the Main Title:





Early in the film is a four note motif which outlines the harmony of the gigue/fanfare theme. This is an important idea in the score which returns for Ken's paralysis (titled Intensive Care on the album). It's first use is for a scene with Ken and his doctor played by John Cassavetes in another brilliant performance. The gigue neighbor tone figure dances around the four note idea in the beginning and end of the cue.

Sadly a lot of the score was dropped or moved in the final picture but all that is there is incredible. One cue for example that this happened to was the dialysis scene where Ken speaks to a younger girl who is also a patient at the hospital. The cue starts beautifully with a minuet theme with solos for tuba, trumpet, oboe and harpsichord as Ken cheers her up. Many identifiable Arthur B. traits find themselves in this cue like the descending trumpet/bassoon tone pyramids that the composer would return to in WarGames. The tail end of the cue (sadly again dialed out of the film) is a fantastic use of the gigue fanfare on piccolo trumpet/oboe as Ken's blood is pumped through the dialysis machine.

The first cue Rubinstein worked on was the dream ballet sequence where Ken sculpts his girlfriend Patricia as she dances. Arthur B would work with Janet Eilber early on and compose the cue Montage (Sculpting Pat). This cue utilized every thematic music idea in the score.

Here is a quote from Arthur B. Rubinstein from an interview I conducted some years ago: 

"Whose Life is it Anyway? There’s one I’d like to re-record someday. It was a very special score. Here’s the other thing: It was originally supposed to be a black and white picture. My own synthesis of that was what I heard as a black and white score, which to me was low strings. Now, why this is black and white I don’t know, double reed instruments are sort of there, too, not like a clarinet, which is always in the background. The sound of a clarinet is always mellow. I had six trumpets, of which four were piccolo trumpets, two keyboards. I even used cimbalom in that score because I wanted a sound that was very gritty but could still have a romanticism when needed. It was a black and white score and I think it was David Begelman who said something like, “Classics don’t make money. Let’s do it in color.” They shot it in color and it was to be processed in black and white. So the color is a beautiful, sort of strange washed kind of color. The score is very unusual. The first work I did on it was the ballet, before I even started writing the score. We sat, as I recall, for weeks in a dance studio with Jan Eilber—terrific lady, I adore her, dancer, who played [Richard Dreyfuss’] girlfriend and we developed this ballet..."

The finale cue where Clare (Christine Lahti) says goodbye to Ken is sadly not present in the movie. This included a resigned use of the fanfare idea in a slow movement as closure to the score.  The film would have benefited from it's use in the picture along with the wonderful performances from Lahti and Dreyfuss. The End Credits continue the gigue fanfare to a rousing close.

Overall the score is a smart, intelligent, and dynamic work that is very moving and uplifting in this heavy film. Here's a great segment of "Trailers from Hell" with John Badham talking about his film:




And here is the trailer without commentary:




Highly recommended.

-- Brandon F.