Think 3/4 = brilliant score by Brandon Moore (March 27, 2003)
"Think 3/4." Those were director Franklin J. Schaffner's instructions to his composer Jerry Goldsmith when it came time to compose the score for "The Boys From Brazil." It's amazing that those simple instructions would bring us, in my opinion, the best score in the Goldsmith/Schaffner collaboration. Goldsmith's main theme for the Nazi hunter hero Ezra Lieberman is in a Vienese waltz style complete with Straussian horn flourishes. What's incredible is that on the the flip side (basically a B section of the waltz theme) the composer gives us a menacing waltz ositinato bass figure for the evil mad scientist Josef Mengele, incorporating brief pauses of silence increasing the tension which lurk around every corner throughout the film. A great masterpiece in thriller scoring with some of Goldsmith's most brutal action music with dark Mahleresque passages. The album is set up like the LP with a suite with many key scenes on Side A and a few tracks plus a 70's pop song also composed by Goldsmith on Side B. One of the highlights of the score is a ferocious action cue called "The Dogs and Finale" as well as some fantastic dialogue scoring in "Frau Doring." This score is a must have for any Goldsmith fan's collection. The only problem is that it's overdue for a reissue because it is now out of print, originally issued as part of Varese Sarabande's first CD Club series.