Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you've enjoyed the score in the context of the film and can translate the magic of the film into an understanding of the diverse score. Avoid it... if you're simply taking the word of some James Horner collectors that this score is a crowning achievement; it isn't. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Field of Dreams: (James Horner) Based on writer W.P. Kinsella's book "Shoeless Joe," Phil Alden Robinson's Field of Dreams is as close to an Americana film about religion as you can possibly get. The popular flick with Kevin Costner in the lead role abandons all common sense and throws magic into the cornfields of Iowa. When Costner's farmer hears voices telling him to build a baseball diamond on his land with the promise that the ghosts of famous baseball players will inhabit it for games at night, you can't help but follow the religious parallels between God requesting a cathedral and God instead requesting a baseball diamond in the middle of nowhere. Baseball here is the religion, and the film takes the opportunity to draw important comparisons between baseball and real life philosophical issues that provide for some heartfelt speeches before it's done. Unlike Costner, composer James Horner has never been a baseball fan. But when he first saw a cut of Field of Dreams, he fell in love with the film and jumped at the assignment despite his lack of knowledge about the sport. Phil Alden Robinson had original used new age jazz as a temp score for the film, and the disapproving studio was very supportive of Horner's hiring because they believed that he would inject the spirit of his sci-fi/adventure scores into the picture. In fact, Horner defied their expectations and wrote an arguably minimalistic score dominated by electronics, piano, and specialty instruments. He then employed an orchestra for only the final few minutes of music during the finale. While such moves are made all the time in Hollywood for budgetary reasons, Horner claims to have approached Field of Dreams with this intention in mind. Interestingly, his claims of wanting to write a "magical Americana" score for Field of Dreams are contradicted by his finished result... a score that has a fairly low amount of magic and very little Americana spirit about it at all. Both The Natural by Randy Newman and For the Love of the Game by Basil Poledouris better capture baseball's historical place in America's past through orchestral music. Some Horner fans cling desperately to their now somewhat rare copies of Field of Dreams on album, but truth be told, the score is one giant curiosity. Little consistency is to be heard from start to finish, with Horner introducing the score with a solo horn leading to a base whole note... complete with the tingling that mirrors The Natural. From there, Horner's solo piano performances lead to the atmosphere of the simple life on the farm. Without warning, Horner launches into his light rock "building" theme that occupies two of the cues on the album. These two cues are ironically closest thing to being the heart of the film's ambition, and the pan pipe-led performance of the theme in "The Library" is the highlight of the album. Several brooding cues of heavy electronic base and meandering key shifts occupy the middle portions of the score, existing as a mundane cross between lengthy synth motifs of The Name of the Rose and the slightly atonal aspects of Vibes. For "Old Ball Players," Horner launches into another completely unrelated music idea: authentic big band jazz for the era of the ghosts. A light high-tone synth choir fades in and out over solo pianos in the latter half of the score before the orchestra finally makes its arrival in "Doc's Memories" and subsequent cues. The final fifteen minutes of the Field of Dreams score are perhaps its most overrated, with Horner accomplishing a far more genuine sense of broad, string-based Americana in later projects such as Deep Impact and Legends of the Fall. One difficulty with this score is that it only has one consistent element throughout: a pulsing bass-string (or bass-synth) effect that's meant to get an "eww... awe..." moment realized from the audience. An acoustic guitar in "The Place Where Dreams Come True" could have better tied the entire project together had Horner expanded its role in the score. Overall, Field of Dreams just doesn't make much sense. For a film about ghosts and baseball in Iowa, the electronic approach is a wasted opportunity because the contrast between the first 3/4's of the score and the last 15 minutes is not great enough for Horner's desired dramatic effect. The fact that Field of Dreams was nominated for an Academy Award in 1989 (the composer's second feature score nomination) instead of the far more authentic Glory is testimony to the Academy's deeply rooted faults. A highly overrated score. ** Track Listings:
Total Time: 50:29
All artwork and sound clips from Field of Dreams are Copyright © 1989, Novus/BMG. 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 6/15/98, updated 3/25/05. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 1989-2005, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
