 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Composed, Arranged, and Co-Produced by:
|
Trevor Rabin
|
Co-Produced by:
|
Paul Linford
Steve Kempster
|
|
|
|
|
Release Date:
|
August 7th, 2001
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
 |
| | Rabin | |
|
American Outlaws: (Trevor Rabin) Let's try to put aside the complete
stupidity of the film before discussing this score... or is that even possible?
Trevor Rabin's career hasn't exactly included films of the highest quality. He
is hired to projects like American Outlaws because of his talents for
using a small budget to create a large sounding score (to the ears of the
general audience, that is). The elite of film score collecting --those now in
their 50s, who grew up on Elmer Bernstein Westerns in all their blazing glory--
don't pay the least amount of attention to a score like American Outlaws.
And why should they? To them, music like this is a joke... the film is a glazed
doughnut of teenage testosterone, muscle with a Western attitude, glitzed up
with Matrix-inspired shots of explosive violence and an eye opening role
for Timothy Dalton. When both Trevor Rabin and James Bond go West, you become
suspicious immediately. Maybe not so much so for Rabin, though, whose single
grade A success so far (in the mass populous of partially educated movie-goers)
has been Armageddon, a score which had its own country western feel.
Because of his years as lead guitarist with the rock group Yes, common theme for
Rabin in many of his scores is the guitar, so, after all, why wouldn't he
fit into the Western genre with ease?
If you were one of those bouncing fans of Rabin's electronic score for
Armageddon, then praise the universe and thank the score gods for
American Outlaws. Alas, your second coming has arrived. If you strip away
three or four of the extremely cliched Western motifs that Rabin has employed in
his programming and arrangement of this score, you get Armageddon, part
II. The choppy, fake orchestra hits continue to slap the listener in the face
(one would think that Rabin and his Media Ventures buddies would take the
example of John Powell and add some reverberation to those hits, as to make them
seem less false and staggered). The electronic cello, the budding symbol of
romance in modern films of dubious quality, plays essentially the same variation
on the theme of Armageddon. The acoustics and percussion of American
Outlaws continue to amaze in their lack of creativity and/or maturation over
the past four years. The electric guitar, of course, blesses the scenic West of
yesteryear with its late 20th Century high-pitched whining. Granted, it's more
pleasant than the utterly disgraceful Con Air, but there's no majesty to
this score, no title theme rip-off from Deep Blue Sea to at least allow
the listener to say, "yeah, now that's a neat theme." No, instead, we get all
the same old stock cues pulled from depths of synthesizer purgatory and allowed
to shine for one brief moment until, inevitably, they are pulled from the same
depths once again for another low budget score in the future. It makes me wonder
what Rabin would produce if he was found in the unenviable position of scoring a
Woody Allen film. Hey, maybe he'd spin out of that rut he's been stuck in for
his last four major scores.
Then again, who the hell are the fans to judge the musical integrity of Rabin's
approach to scoring American Outlaws? Unfortunately, we are the ones who
have to purchase the tickets at the theatre and the albums in the stores. In
short, in case you hadn't picked up on the vibes thus far, this score is a waste
of time. It's not that Rabin's music is unlistenable... No, in fact, there are
short sequences when his synthesized romance themes are quite enjoyable. But who
wants to hear the same score over and over again? This is stock music for a
stock film, and if you already own Armageddon, then what's the point? The
mock Western theme in the first and seventeenth tracks has no power, no sense of
adventure, no unique or redeeming value, and no reason to make anyone excited.
Not that any of this was unexpected, of course. You reach a certain point as a
score collector when you've just heard enough of a particular sound. Rabin's
music has come very close to reaching that point, and with his thematic talents,
he needs to branch out into a more diverse style. Otherwise, critics and fans
will simply adopt the attitude of "the same old same old" and ignore his work.
The album for American Outlaws is equally uninspiring, with poor poster
art and less-than-verbose packaging. The music isn't hideous, but we've been
bludgeoned with it before. **
 |
|
Viewer Ratings and Comments:
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
• 1. Brief Reunion (4:28)
• 2. Farewell and Hello, Key West (2:21)
• 3. First Kiss (1:23)
• 4. Perfect Outlaws (1:37)
• 5. I Was Famous (5:50)
• 6. Acoustic Outlaws (1:58)
• 7. Long Spring, Better Posters (2:33)
• 8. This is War (1:41)
• 9. Life's a Beach (2:04)
| |
• 10. Thaddeus Rains (0:34)
• 11. War is Over (0:59)
• 12. No Ma, No Mere (1:03)
• 13. Pinkerton's Idea (2:21)
• 14. You're All Dead Men (1:13)
• 15. Train Escape (1:32)
• 16. Do You Miss the War? (0:50)
• 17. Jesse's Ride (4:13)
• 18. Surprise Attack (0:58)
|
Insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
|
