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Release Date:
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December 10th, 1988
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release, but difficult to find in stores.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you'd be interesting in hearing one of Jerry Goldsmith's
few all-electronic scores that relies on brooding texture to provide its
effect.
Avoid it... if you prefer Goldsmith's often vibrant combination of
electronic and orchestral elements with thematic and rhythmic development.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Goldsmith | |
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Criminal Law: (Jerry Goldsmith) While the film was
absolutely torn apart by critics and audiences alike, Criminal Law
was an introduction of two eventually well-known people in the mainstream
American cinema. Young British actor Gary Oldman debuted in Hollywood's
spotlight with Criminal Law, as did director Martin Campbell, for
whom this film would be his first leap from television to a career in cinema
that would yield projects like Goldeneye and The Mask of Zorro
(and its sequel) down the road. With a plot that attempts to jolt audiences
with false scares from start to finish, Criminal Law throws Oldman's
cocky character, an attorney, into a series of legal fires created by Kevin
Bacon's maniacal character. The attorney gets the criminal acquitted on one
brutal rape and murder charge before that criminal then turns around and
begins framing the attorney (and generally harassing him) for subsequent
murders. Hokey dialogue and a homoerotic subtext plague the graphic film,
and by the time the movie was done jerking around the audience on its ride
of dubious logic, Criminal Law qualified as a genuine, grade-A
stinker. Campbell would, a decade after this project, rely on James Horner
as a regular collaborator, but Criminal Law would come when the
director rotated between composers and, for this project, teamed for the
only time with Jerry Goldsmith. In the 1980's, Goldsmith was at the height
of his experimentation with electronics, often with grand results when
combining them with his usual orchestral ensemble. Even in scores dominated
by his array of synthetics, either an orchestral ensemble or notable
collection of soloists would accompany those electronic textures. There were
only a few scores for which Goldsmith would turn exclusively to his
synthesizers, and their succession in the middle to late 1980's includes
Runaway, Alien Nation (a rejected work) and Criminal
Law. Not surprisingly, these would be the few scores performed by
Goldsmith himself as well.
To enjoy a score like Criminal Law, especially if
you're a die hard fan of Goldsmith's typically resounding combination of
orchestra and electronics, you have to accept the work at face value. Even
as dominant as the electronics are in a concurrent score like Extreme
Prejudice, there is little that will prepare you for the stark landscape
of Criminal Law. Synthesizers back in the 1980's had a distinctly
fake sound to their imitations of real instruments, and scores like this
show their age very quickly. The tones are harsh, mechanical, and dissonant,
leaving practically nothing for the listener to latch onto and remember
later. From start to finish, Criminal Law is an exercise in texture
devoid of thematic or rhythmic development beyond brief ideas introduced in
nearly every cue. Stylistically, the music is probably appropriate for the
age and attitude of the film itself, sweeping aside any sense of harmony or
genuine sensibility in the same way the film disregards logic and reality.
It broods with unsatisfying monotony similar to James Horner's The Name
of the Rose from the same era, even with the token thematic inclusion at
the end (for Goldsmith, it's a synthetic trumpet and piano theme). Whether
Goldsmith's reason for producing an all-electronic score for Criminal
Law was budgetary or purposefully for the texture, one thing is for
certain: the learned Goldsmith collector will be able to translate the
rhythms and motifs to their orchestral counterparts if they listen closely
enough. This may be difficult, given the propensity this score has towards
boring the listeners, but there are certain sections in Criminal Law
that could easily make for a very strong cue if only performed by orchestral
instrumentation. The choice of synthesized sounds themselves is somewhat
curious, though, because Goldsmith refrains from using his more popular
synthetic sounds (pan pipes, bouncing basketball, wet street swishes, etc)
in favor of very dull and unmemorable keyboarding and sound effects.
Overall, Criminal Law is definitely one of the weaker Goldsmith
efforts of the modern era, combining a lack of diverse instrumentation with
a stylistic intent to add to the film's dissolution through dark textures. *
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. The Victim (2:29)
• 2. The Body (3:21)
• 3. Start Remembering (1:30)
• 4. About Last Night (1:24)
• 5. The Closet (2:29)
• 6. The Garden Pavillion (3:15)
• 7. The Drive (1:13)
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• 8. Avenger (1:13)
• 9. The Game (1:58)
• 10. The Clinic (2:12)
• 11. Poor Ben (4:37)
• 12. Hostage (0:46)
• 13. Burnout (1:13)
• 14. End Title (2:44)
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Insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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