Buy it... if the most ambitious ensemble ruckus from Dark City has always impressed you, that sound reflected to a greater degree in the action highlights of this score.

Avoid it... if you rely upon the dominance of themes in Trevor Jones' music to sustain your interest, for his two main identities for this work are not spectacular and take a while to develop.

Jones

Desperate Measures: (Trevor Jones) Jokes were made at the time of the release of the 1998 thriller Desperate Measures about how many unsuccessful desperate measures were taken by the filmmakers and Tristar to make the film into a winner. Box office disaster was the fate of the Barbet Schroeder project, its plot so contrived that critics and audiences failed to see any point to its narrative. The movie did represent one of the later entries in the slide back to obscurity for actor Michael Keaton, who played his "crazy" side perfectly in the role of a brilliant convict who devises creative ways to fool law enforcement and escape from prison. The protagonist of the story is Andy Garcia, oddly enough, as a police officer whose son suffers from leukemia and requires a bone marrow transplant. Of course, the maniac played by Keaton is the only compatible source, and in the ill-advised process of transferring the criminal to a hospital to secure this donation, there is the obligatory escape and the conflict of interest for the cop. The two play a cat and house game throughout the hospital and then the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the cop attempting to stop other officers from killing the criminal all the while trying to capture him for the purposes of the infusion. Fallacies riddle the plot, and it's hard not to root for Keaton's character by the end, a notion supported by the open-ended conclusion that suggests that he'll get the upper hand. Schroeder's movies in this genre over the course of the 1990's typically used the services of either Howard Shore or Trevor Jones for their music, and the latter built upon his previous work for Kiss of Death to create an ominously forceful orchestral environment for Desperate Measures. Jones had a tendency to write music that was more intellectually complicated than necessary for the suspense and thriller genres, usually combining his symphonic trademarks with voices or specialty instrumentation of a unique tone. For Desperate Measures, his standard London orchestra is the clear emphasis, utilizing synthetic backing only for adding depth to the soundscape and presenting occasionally eerie atmospheres. Jones' knack for over-thinking his assignments actually has the benefit of smartly addressing the mind of Keaton's villain in the story, affording a level of complexity in the ensemble performances worthy of a character always two steps ahead. Also figuring into the mix is an EWI, Jones' choice this time for the representation of the softer character theme for the protagonist, and the slap-happy medium-range percussion that became somewhat standard for the composer during this era.

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Most notably, the score for Desperate Measures is probably best remembered as being a powerful foreshadowing of Dark City, a cult favorite released just months later. One of the two themes in Desperate Measures is a forcefully rising figure that blasts over rollicking orchestral rhythms (punctuated by trios of notes) and resounding percussive depth to almost perfectly foretell the "reality altering motif" in Dark City. This theme is first heard fully at 4:40 in "In Transit" and explodes in full force just after the three-minute mark in "Escape." It continues to highlight the score's most engaging moments until its climax in "Chase," where the idea, joined by prominent piano pounding, is so similar to Dark City that those familiar only with the later score may be bothered by the cue. Given that this rhythmic device, complete with insane flute blasts on top, is one of Jones best career ideas, it's hard to knock its prominence in several of his works. In "Persistence," the motif is joined by electric guitar and, by the opening of "Redemption," the rising theme is expressed as a haunting shadow of itself on quietly turbulent low strings. Jones intentionally leaves the motif hanging in its final performance to suggest another escape by the criminal. The other theme in Desperate Measures is technically its primary identity, but like its adversary, it takes a while to get moving. It's quite reminiscent of the eerie idea for the main character in Kiss of Death, once again a descendent of James Horner's Unlawful Entry in its progressions and cold, detached rendering. Performed by EWI in many of its renditions, the theme toils with little attention in "Imprisonment" and "In Transit" before really clarifying itself in "Under Pressure." The theme only truly defines its purpose at the end of the film, the lovely piano version in the waning moments of "Redemption" leading to the contemporary light rock version of "Into the City." That closing sounds like one of Jerry Goldsmith's poor attempts to "popify" his themes in the 1980's, and the retro 1970's funk element is especially bizarre in this context. Jones' translation of his main theme from Kiss of Death to rowdy hard rock tones over the credits of that score remains far superior. Overall, Desperate Measures will take a while to really engage the listener. As always, Jones does well incorporating his electronics as just another section of the orchestra, and his music here is almost always accessible. But the hour-long score-only album is sometimes tedious, encouraging you to skip to the next passage that mirrors Dark City. That said, the melodic and action highlights of this score are certainly strong enough to once again merit interest from a faithful collector of Jones' always interesting music. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Trevor Jones reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.78 (in 18 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.5 (in 24,201 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.