Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if a pompous and extravagant superhero theme combined with grandiose, Gershwin-style romance is your idea of a swingin' good time. Avoid it... if Danny Elfman's more chaotic comedy tendencies can readily make your head spin. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Dick Tracy: (Danny Elfman) This ego-stroking Warren Beatty film was an attempt by the Walt Disney camp to take advantage of the explosively powerful success of Warner Brothers' Batman a year before, even to the extent of teaming with Warner to produce and market this picture. But due to a poor script adaptation and endless cuts and re-shoots, Dick Tracy received mixed reactions from critics and audiences never embraced the occasionally impressive visuals. Wacky make-up, famous supporting actors, several Oscar nominations in technical categories, and a sultry performance by Madonna couldn't even save the project; nor could rumors of kinky off-screen activities between Beatty and Madonna generate substantial interest. In composer Danny Elfman's evolution of superhero themes, Dick Tracy ended up being the odd man out, never quite fitting into the rest of Elfman's developing career like his better known efforts. Elfman's approach to Dick Tracy was different from that of Batman, because it is evident from the start that he realized the need to inject some character and life into the otherwise restless film. He did his best to whip up a frenzy of swinging, jazzy rhythms, and he even tried to raise Gershwin from the dead for his bloated, melodramatic theme of romance. The music for Dick Tracy operates at a slapstick, cartoonish speed and, without the accompaniment of the film, it becomes a collection of cues that are only loosely held together by Elfman's general style of writing at the time. That style borrows heavily from Batman and Darkman, attempting at every turn to balance the tragedy of those other figures with the flightier needs of Dick Tracy. To that end, a certain amount of Pee-Wee mayhem is to be heard. But with such a schizophrenic score as this one, you can go from the swinging, explosive energy of "Crime Spree" to the tragic Darkman motifs of "Slimy D.A." at any moment. With Dick Tracy, you never know what you're going to get, and it is that lack of cohesive identity, despite some great ideas from Elfman, that ultimately restrains the score as a standalone listening experience. The strangest aspect of Dick Tracy is its inability to establish the film as one of major crime. Elfman relies instead on a few select, wacky character cues of off-the-wall swing and, of course, the overblown string themes of romance. Those efforts allow Elfman to achieve a film noir effect in the score, but many of his ideas along those lines are interrupted by the composer's second, chaotic half of the underscore. The title theme that Elfman assigns to Dick Tracy is pompous, extravagant, and sometimes downright annoying in its tendency to begin its progression, but never finish it and leave you hanging (this is another technique at which Elfman succeeded better in Batman). The softer interludes and self-contained ideas composed for the two female characters are much more interesting, and they easily develop the heart that Tracy's character never realizes. The slurring of ascending notes in a lush string ensemble is definitely a 'tip of the hat' (as Elfman calls it) to Gershwin's style of the story's era. The theme's film noir elegance is hindered only by the fact that Elfman can't seem to take any of his themes in Dick Tracy seriously, offering them in disjointed pieces throughout the score. On the other hand, the third track on the Dick Tracy album, "Crime Spree," is one of Elfman's most original compositions and has inspired a few interesting interpretations on re-recorded film music compilations. The delightful fun exhibited in this cue proves that Elfman could have really generated a storm of vivacity to help move this score at a great tempo had the opportunity presented itself. Unfortunately, most of this discussion is moot when considering the score's editing in the film itself. The "Main Titles" heard on the album were subjected to a last-minute re-scoring effort, and many of the performances of Tess' theme, as well as that great "Crime Spree" cue, were not fully utilized in the final cut. It is suspected that Beatty himself is to blame for what Elfman called an "insane" experience on the project. While the score received a better mix (including 5.1 treatment) on DVD, the album is still the only way to go when considering Elfman's Dick Tracy music. It is a shame that Madonna's Academy-Award nominated song from the film did not find its way onto the score release. Overall, both this score and film stunk of inconsistency at the time, and the work has never seemed to pervasively convince all of Elfman's general collectors of its merits. The ideas in the score aren't without merit, but their presentation is typically sloppy and underdeveloped. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 34:55
All artwork and sound clips from Dick Tracy are Copyright © 1990, Sire Records/Warner. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/20/98, updated 8/18/08. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 1998-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
