Buy it... only if you are completely prepared for the mundane personality of James Horner's minimalistic atmosphere maintained by quiet piano, sax, and synthesizer.

Avoid it... if your interest in Horner's work only rises when the composer significantly rearranges his own formulas and emphasizes emotional development in his dramatic efforts.

Horner

Class Action: (James Horner) While many of director Michael Apted's films have a longevity of popularity because of their usual high quality, Class Action isn't one of them. That's not to say that the 1991 film isn't without its fair share of merits, earning a fairly positive critical response despite yielding disappointing audience support at the box office. A father and daughter tandem of lawyers, played by Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, finds themselves on opposite sides of the bar and arguing a large, contemporary class action case against each other. The father is more of the radical, sleazy type of attorney who jumps at the opportunity to serve a case against an automaker whose 1985 station wagons have a nasty tendency to explode. His daughter represents the big business interests in defense, and the case allows the entire family to interact in such ways as to expose and deal with each character's flaws. Apted seems to enjoy making films about people immersed in their journeys towards self-discovery, and in the case of Class Action, it is Mastrantonio's portrayal of the growing up and coming to terms with Hackman's (and her own) flaws that highlights the movie. In these regards, screenwriters Carolyn Shelby, Christopher Ames, and Samantha Shad nicely avoided the pitfalls of cliche in a project that otherwise had cliche written all over it. As for the score for the film, Class Action marked the second of three notable collaborations between composer James Horner and Apted, ranging from Gorky Park way back in 1983 to Thunderheart in 1992, the latter respected as one of the better scores to ever exist in an Apted film. The director would then jump around between composers before settling upon David Arnold as his usual collaborator multiple times in the late 1990's. On Horner's part, Class Action is as basic of a contribution to a film that a score can be. With so much attention placed on the dialogue and acting in the film, the music serves only the minimal purpose of filling dead air in the film. With an obvious minimalistic approach in mind, you can't really blame Horner for the lack of enthusiasm inherent in this kind of safe conversational drama music. At the very least, it makes for an extremely consistent listening experience outside of context.

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From the opening to closing notes of Class Action, there does not exist even one inspiring moment of meaningful emotional depth. Horner's cost-efficient performing ensemble consists mostly of himself, with a piano and synthesizer array joined occasionally by a saxophone for a touch of contemporary flavor. With his own piano performances carrying much of the load for the score, as well as a rather low gain mix on the album as a whole, it's easy to forget that any music is playing at all. Only one primary theme exists in Class Action, and its introduction in the first bars of the "Main Title" cue leads to insufferably countless repetition of that idea thereafter. The opening and closing performances of that theme are the most developed instrumentally, backed by light, meandering keyboarding, a synthetic high-tone choir, a few magical swishes of metal, an electric bass sound, and the sax over the top. A lazy, slightly jazzy swing defines the theme's attitude, although the contemporary instrumentation of the piece is betrayed by the lack of power necessary to establish a realistic presence for this "big court case" topic. The theme is essentially based on ideas also developed for Unlawful Entry and Sneakers, but with all the life sucked out of the latter's performance emphasis. Straight piano solos for subsequent cues in the score simply reshuffle and repeat this theme countless times, with little genuine emotion or any emphasis in performance that would give listeners any reason to maintain interest in it. A secondary motif involving descending keyboarded figures accompanies the main theme at times but also serves as the de facto suspense identity in the score's mid-section. The lifeless tone of the music continues during the entire length of the score and is interrupted only by a high-class piano piece not from Horner and the cues "Stolen Files" and "The Trial" as the film nears its climax. A slightly heightened rhythm in "Stolen Files" is joined by a familiar, light tapping of percussion that would hint at some of the suspense in The Pelican Brief. For "The Trial," Horner employed a lengthy series of dissonant keyboard chords to maintain an unpleasant atmosphere of tension. But aside from these slight variations, Class Action contains little deviations from its steady course. Without the several very casually appealing sax performances of the main theme, this score would sink down to Unlawful Entry levels of total disinterest. Fortunately, it has remained relatively easy to obtain over decades for those desiring a complete James Horner collection. **   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.13 (in 98 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25 (in 184,725 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.