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In the Army Now: (Robert Folk) For fans of composer
Robert Folk, films like
In the Army Now are exactly the variety
of trash to be cursed... the trash for which Folk has seemingly become
accustomed to writing overachieving music. The 1994 embarrassment
starred comedian Pauly Shore who, upon being bored and unemployed, joins
the Army Reserves and immediately gravitates towards other misfits who
will eventually make up a water purification team. When a crisis breaks
out with Libya, these buddies are put in harm's way, and, not
surprisingly, nothing bad happens to them. The film, written by no less
than eight screenwriters, including director Daniel Petrie, Jr., seems
to have lost all individuality in the editing process, leaving the film
as a tool with which to connect stupid physical comedy by Pauly Shore
himself. The film received its due thrashing by critics and has since
disappeared, much like its lead comedian. One interesting point about
In the Army Now were small protests by Arab communities, who
couldn't understand why 1994 (with
True Lies, among others) was
the year that Hollywood badguys officially stopped wearing communist red
and instead wore turbans. Director Petrie, Jr.'s collaboration with
Robert Folk would be better remembered for
Toy Soldiers a few
years earlier, and the previous project would yield significantly better
results from Folk as well. When approaching this project, Petrie, Jr.
and Folk attempted to determine how they could interpolate the ideas of
composer Richard Strauss (who Folk had been listening to, by chance,
right before signing on to this project) into a film like
In the Army
Now. The problem with films like this, as per usual, is creating a
convincing sound for the environment of the army without stifling the
comedy of the script or writing music that's so silly that it's strictly
a parody effort. In this case, Folk suffers from traveling too close to
the first problem.
Folk is no stranger to militaristic styles; among his
better scores are
Toy Soldiers and
Beastmaster 2, both of
which set to militaristic paces. The same would apply to
In the Army
Now, though the music that Folk would provide for this film would
sound much like filler from the aforementioned scores, without the
strong themes of the former and complex layers of the latter. Folk's
title theme is appropriately light-hearted, but is tiresome when Folk
forces it into a backdrop of action built on Jerry Goldsmith models in
the film score genre and ideas from Strauss that also litter the score.
Only in the "Boot Camp" cue does Folk seem to find a perfect balance of
his large-scale orchestral sensibilities and a slightly jazzy swing of
theme. As the characters get into progressively more serious situations,
Folk largely abandons this mold and flies with a fairly serious military
action score that happens to feature a fluffy theme interspersed
throughout... a circumstance that deflates several strong action cues.
Led by French Horns, Folk's ensemble of 90 performers receives the
customary workout that we all expect from his writing, with nearly
constant snare rips and cymbal crashes setting the stage for bold brass
and theme-carrying woodwinds (strings play a smaller, secondary role).
It's difficult to pinpoint the exact reason why
In the Army Now
is not a satisfying listening experience outside of the film, as most of
Folk's scores are. Much of the difficulty comes from the inherent
problems when trying to merge comedy and action, and refraining from
irritatingly trite, prancing themes is something that Folk sometimes
fails to do. John Debney suffers from similar difficulties in some of
his comedy efforts. The other difficulty that plagues
In the Army
Now is a poor recording quality. Unlike most of Folk's other scores,
In the Army Now is muted and muffled in its recording, leaving
many of his customarily crisp orchestrations lost. Because of these
faults, Folk fans should invest in the composer's other available works
before seeking this one.
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The insert includes notes from the composer and director about the score and film.
