Varèse Sarabande release a deluxe edition soundtrack for the 1975 film Rooster Cogburn featuring music by Laurence Rosenthal. The score contains 18 tracks (39 min, 29 sec). The film saw the return of John Wayne’s booze-swilling, eye-patch-sporting, rough-and-tumble U.S. Marshal that was first introduced in the 1969 western True Grit...

While marketed as a "deluxe" edition release, this is the first time that any of the music from Rooster Cogburn has been released to purchase, so if you're looking to pick up an old copy of the standard soundtrack you're out of luck.

Composer Laurence Rosenthal delivers some memorable themes here. There's the standard western based music, but this is more a collection of pieces that venture into the realm of classical music. Those familiar with the work of Aaron Copland could argue that Rosenthal was greatly influenced by that composer's work.

Those that normally shy away from western soundtracks need worry not about cliched themes. What Rosenthal delivers here is a beautiful and tight score that deserves to be heard on its own merits.

10

Darren Rea