Buy it... if you apologize for even John Barry's most mundane 1980's and 1990's regurgitation in the romance drama genre, a style of music without any distinctive variation in Indecent Proposal.

Avoid it... if your already sufficient collection of Barry's music negates your need for endless repetition of soft, harmonic phrases and a stubborn adherence to tired instrumental patterns that fail to capture any of the agony, tension, and passion inherent in this film's plot.

Barry

Indecent Proposal: (John Barry) Controversial eroticism certainly has its virtues when it comes to generating box office returns, and Indecent Proposal was proof that a sultry topic with attractive stars can overcome unfavorable critical response of any magnitude. It was already clear by 1993 that director Adrian Lyne was obsessed with making challenging, sexually charged films like Fatal Attraction, and Indecent Proposal conveys its carnal intensity in much the same manner. A young couple portrayed by Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson seeks to solve their financial distress by winning big in Las Vegas, but when they lose it all, they're given an indecent proposal by Robert Redford in the role of billionaire home breaker. He draws up a contract to award them with one million dollars in exchange for one night with the woman aboard his yacht. After much agonizing, the couple agrees to the deal, only to suffer from predictable consequences thereafter. The plot was lambasted for its immorality and predictability, unfortunately having dropped the intriguing racial undertones of the novel on which it was based. Still, Indecent Proposal was the awful film that everyone went to see simply because of the taboo subject, and Paramount capitalized on the rampant buzz to earn over $260 million on their $38 million investment. Also popular was the film's soundtrack album, a product filled with generally easy-going songs of lament and heartbreak. It was topped by an affable light rock song from The Pretenders, highlighted by a Chrissie Hynde voice that well matches the somewhat defiant, bittersweet attitude of the story's protagonists. The remainder of the selections include similarly low key performances, capped off by Roy Orbison's usual depressing tone. Writing the score for Indecent Proposal was John Barry, who had just received what would be the last of his Academy Award nominations (for Chaplin in 1992) and was entering the final days of his career when redundancy in his static romance style of music had become his sole contribution to the industry. Lyne's films didn't typically feature Barry's kind of soft, hopelessly romantic style, and it could be argued that his score for Indecent Proposal is predictable in its failure to really address any of the highs and lows of the tension and passion on screen. It was also bound to recharge the ongoing debate about Barry's useful purpose in the industry and whether his stubborn refusal to explore any of the instrumental creativity from early in his career should have relegated him to concert albums long before that actually happened (later in the 1990's).

To say that Barry's trademark romance sound had become redundant by 1993 is a massive understatement. In fact, the bulk of the scores that he wrote for these dramas after Somewhere in Time are largely interchangeable with each other, and Indecent Proposal was unfortunately the recipient of a score that has absolutely no individual characteristic of note. In Chaplin and a few others, Barry would write secondary ideas of some measure of pizzazz that would offer those scores a touch of unique definition. That's not the case here. Not a single moment in Indecent Proposal is memorable when compared to the composer's larger body of work. The ensemble uses piano and strings to convey themes of familiar harmonic resonance. The piano is always the most alluring part of these Barry scores, if only because of the overexposure of his grand string themes for his Oscar-winning triumphs. These scores must be the most boring for a brass section to have to sit through. Subtle horn backing for the strings is once again the duty of these players, an extremely simplistic underemployment. Percussion (outside of the piano and harp) is virtually non-existent. The structures in Indecent Proposal are the stuff of Barry parody. Gentle sways of shifting, ultra-satisfying harmonic progressions repeat seemingly endlessly, each section of a theme stated twice as per usual. The pacing of the score is even slower than Barry's typically crawling tempi, sometimes to tedious extents. The album condenses what it deems five separate cues into one 25-minute suite, an ironic choice that almost accepts the inevitable reception of the score as one redundant piece. That suite is an extremely fluid listening experience, the kind of presentation you'd expect to hear on one of Barry's concert albums. There is no adherence to synchronization points in the film, with no abrupt changes in direction. As such, it's a music editor's dream. For listeners seeking even the most minute diversion from Barry's soft themes, there are a few slight changes in tone in the middle of the suite. At the 11-minute mark, Barry finally allows some of the broad ensemble strokes of resonance common to his famous scores. Then, at 12:30 and again at 15:20, he churns through a suspense motif for piano and brass that at least drops the sappy tone for a while. On the whole, however, while this music makes for very easy listening on album, it doesn't to capture the essence of the film. It doesn't reflect the seedy side of the story, nor does it make an attempt to bolster the agony of the couple's decision. Therefore, Barry failed in his task with a lackluster, arguably lazy effort, but it's a fine listening experience that will appeal to anyone sympathetic to the composer's later regurgitation.   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Music as Written for the Film: **
Music as Heard on Album: ***
Overall: ***

Bias Check:

For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.85 (in 27 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.52 (in 24,822 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.