Buy it... if you enjoyed the dominant songs in the film, including the Boy George version of the title song.

Avoid it... if you're only casually curious about the Anne Dudley score.

Dudley

The Crying Game: (Anne Dudley) Neil Jordan had languished with a few absurd Hollywood projects until the Irish director returned to his roots and stunned critics and colleagues with The Crying Game in 1992. From there, his career would include several top of the line films in the 1990's, though The Crying Game itself received several Academy Award nominations, including a win for "Best Original Screenplay." The story begins along popular lines in the early 1990's, with the IRA taking a British hostage and an amicable relationship forming between the hostage and the man assigned to hold and eventually execute him. While the film takes considerable time establishing the relations between its primary characters, the hostage scenario is setting up the audience for the second half of the film, in which the hostage-taker travels to meet the lover of the dead hostage out of a sense of conscience. The film dives into an exploration of sexuality and love, and not without a vomit-inducing surprise that left many audiences appalled. The erotic Jaye Davidson plays a role (originally considered uncastable by American studios and Jordan advisor Stanley Kubrick), which says enough right there for the 1% of you who don't know what flops out during a pivotal scene in the film. The IRA plotlines are then wrapped up, leaving audiences on a down note and solidifying the film in the arthouse category despite its immense critical praise. Musically, the film makes use of several source songs that play far more memorably than the underscore by Anne Dudley. Older classics like Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman" (truly ironic here) and Lyle Lovett's "Stand By Your Man" accentuate the lonely, romantic part of the story, while the modern dance club venue in the film is served by the two versions of "Live for Today" and "Let the Music Play," produced by the Pet Shop Boys. Their cover version of the classic "The Crying Game" song, performed by a then-obscure Boy George, turned into an instant radio hit and elevated the status of the entire film. The original Dave Berry version has been included as well.

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This would be Dudley's second and final collaboration with Jordan before he would team up with Elliot Goldenthal for his large-scale 1990's projects. Known sparsely in England for her Art of Noise music, Dudley had not experienced any international exposure, and partially thanks to The Crying Game, she would go on to popular projects in the 1990's that would net her a surprising (and largely undue) Academy Award for The Full Monty. Her symphonic music for The Crying Game, performed by the Pro Arte Orchestra of London, is not particularly memorable. Built primarily for strings, her slowly developing melodic structures are easily intended for use under dialogue for much of its length. The more interesting parts of her score here would be the foreshadowing of material in American History X, with snare-driven, maliciously-intended marches yield pulsating strings in highly-dramatic fashion. A significant dose of lamentation is evident in the strictly string pieces that follow. The score picks up a notch in "Transformation" and "Assassination," with piano rhythms rolling to a slow boil with the militaristic snare (and other varied percussion) returning with great effect. A timpani joins the party in the latter cue, clearly, but not really intelligently taking us on a lengthy procession toward the climax of the film. A four-note theme for trumpet exists throughout the score, perhaps representing the British soldier taken hostage, though its nobility is hindered by its lack of depth. The entire score suffers from a similar ambiguous moodiness; the emotions of the story are never reflected well in the score, and the end result is a barely functional, but ultimately boring and uninspired score. A less-than-vibrant sound quality also contributes to its anonymous nature. It's no surprise that the Boy George "The Crying Game" cover song and orchestral version of "Live for Today" are easily the highlights of the album. They represent the exploration of love in the film, and with Dudley's score toiling in the less attractive plot line of the IRA, you'll find yourself listening to the first half the album more often than the latter half, which is a rare event for film score collectors. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download