The Thanksgiving Promise

Manda tu crítica

 

Bruce Broughton’s traditional Americana take for the 1986 Walt Disney television film The Thanksgiving Promise isn’t concerned with an America of spacious skies, amber waves of grain or purple mountain majesties, but one of dusty backwoods roads, clear-water swimming holes and weathered painted barns. It’s the quiet, small-town America of hay rides, costumed fairs and broken-down pickup trucks. Broughton assembled an orchestra consisting of strings, woodwinds, guitars, dulcimer, recorder, keyboards, harmonica, vibraphone and light percussion, displaying the composer's passion for the Americana idiom.

Broughton recorded his music at the Disney Studios scoring stage with his engineer of choice, Armin Steiner. The complete score was recorded and mixed onto three rolls of two-channel stereo tape and vaulted in pristine condition waiting for the day Intrada arrived to assemble it onto an album and present the premiere of this heart-felt Bruce Broughton score.

Beau Bridges directs and stars as Hank Tilby, a simple farmer trying to raise his family, eke out a living and stay out of debt. The story centers on 12-year-old Travis (Jordan Bridges), a loner looking to make his mark. When neighbor Stu Larson (Lloyd Bridges) finds a wounded Canadian gosling, he pays Travis twenty dollars to feed the bird and deliver it six weeks later, slaughtered and dressed, for the Larson’s Thanksgiving meal. Travis becomes attached to the bird and tries to save it from the chopping block, but Hank is determined to teach his son a lesson in keeping his word, even at the expense of the bird’s life.