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Composed, Co-Orchestrated, Conducted, and Co-Produced by:
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Terence Blanchard
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Co-Orchestrated by:
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Howard Drossin
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Co-Produced by:
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Spike Lee
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Performed by:
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The Hollywood Studio Symphony
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Release Date:
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March 21st, 2006
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you specifically recall the music from the film and
enjoyed certain parts of its various styles.
Avoid it... if you expect a cohesive action score with distinct
genre boundaries and a compelling development of style.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Blanchard | |
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Inside Man: (Terence Blanchard) It might be
surprising to many movie-goers to watch a Spike Lee movie that has very
little editorial content, but Inside Man is about as straight an
action/drama movie as you can get. Robbers take over a Wall Street bank
with the contents of a single safe deposit box in their interest, and
four distinct parties are placed in constant motion around the heist:
the owner of the bank who wants the contents of the box concealed at all
costs (Christopher Plummer), the well-connected broker/negotiator he
hires to strike a deal with the robbers (Jodie Foster), the morally
ambiguous but incredible sharp detective trying to outsmart the robbers
(Denzel Washington), and the cops who want to free the hostages by
storming the building (led by Willem Dafoe). The cat and mouse antics of
the robbers and lead detective remain intelligent from start to end, and
with a cast of such reliable talent, it's hard to figure where Inside
Man might disappoint. Generally, reviews and popular response to the
film have been positive, though a few questionable holes in the plot and
the absence of any extraordinary element has caused Inside Man to
be labeled as "entertaining but unremarkable." For Spike Lee, only a few
occasional snippets of social commentary enter into the mix, a
surprising turn towards straight-laced action for the controversial
director, and in the same regards, the score by veteran black jazz
musician Terence Blanchard also attempts to play towards mainstream
action.
Partly because of his distinct talents and partly
because of his ethnic sensibilities, Blanchard's music often holds
characteristics unique to his scores, with his hits soaring with
elegance (Eve's Bayou) and his misses sometimes toiling in the
realm of the bizarre (The Caveman's Valentine in parts). For
Inside Man, Blanchard would produce exactly the same kind of
score relative to his career that Lee would produce for his own
directing credits: something entertaining but unremarkable. One of the
scores that came to mind when Inside Man was announced was Graeme
Revell's Out of Time from a few years ago (also starring
Washington and with the score released by Varèse Sarabande). That
previous score oozed with sophisticated ethnic suspense, an inherent
sense of "coolness," and a listenability that one would expect more from
Blanchard than from Revell. But Blanchard, while occasionally inserting
a touch of jazz or rhythm & blues styles into his smaller cues, takes a
much more mundane, conservative action stance for Inside Man. At
its best, this score starts scratching at the doors of Carter Burwell's
Conspiracy Theory, but never lets loose with the same appealing
pizzazz. Comparisons here will be plentiful, as Blanchard incorporates
many of the same chord progressions as Burwell's popular theme,
especially in his final cues of Inside Man. Solo piano work in
low ranges here is also reminiscent of Conspiracy Theory. The
more unexpected and perhaps disappointing element of Blanchard's score
is the common action figure heard in the opening cues.
Almost serving as leftovers from James Newton Howard or
Graeme Revell's stock urban action drama scores, the title theme for
Inside Man, aside from sharing common note progressions with half
a dozen Trevor Jones scores, is stale in its performances, suffering
from a lack of spirit that sometimes plagues Basil Poledouris scores in
which the writing on paper deserves a performance far more vibrant than
it receives. Echoing trumpets in "Hostage Takedown" are a variant on
Jerry Goldsmith's Patton technique. Slower character-building
sequences in the middle of the score share slower tempos and easy chord
progressions with John Barry's tepid Mercury Rising. Some of
Blanchard's own stylish rhythm work pokes through in more modest cues,
but even these feature deep brass accompaniment that take a page or two
from Conspiracy Theory. For "Nazis Pay Too Well," Blanchard
incorporates a faux-classical string quartet that sounds nothing less
than bizarre when performing the film's title theme. The following cue
zips into more light percussion and electronics rhythms under brass
accompaniment, exemplifying the identity crisis from which the score
suffers. On the whole, this music is all over the map, and as much
interesting talent as Blanchard exhibits on a regular basis, it might
have been more fruitful had he resisted the temptation of a standard
orchestral action score and infused the film with some consistent high
stakes jazz or other genre-bending style that would cater to his
abilities. The album ends with a decent A.R. Rahman/Hindi song from 1998
(with Irish-laced rap interludes! Caramba!), sending the listening
experience in yet another completely different direction. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Ten Thirty (1:59)
• 2. Thrown a Bone (2:36)
• 3. Stevie Switcharoo (1:40)
• 4. Dalton's World (0:46)
• 5. 357 (0:58)
• 6. 392 (1:41)
• 7. 2nd Floor Window (0:47)
• 8. Defend Brooklyn (1:18)
• 9. Food Chain (1:11)
• 10. Above Your Pay Grade (1:28)
• 11. Everything Hunky Dory (1:36)
• 12. Frazier's Tour (4:55)
• 13. Press Here To Play (1:41)
• 14. Nothing Yet (2:07)
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• 15. Demands in Place (0:59)
• 16. Here Lies Peter Hammond (2:36)
• 17. Nazis Pay Too Well (3:53)
• 18. Nice Talking to You (1:19)
• 19. They Bugged Us (1:45)
• 20. Hostage Takedown (2:51)
• 21. Dr. Phil (1:12)
• 22. Photo Ops (2:01)
• 23. ESU Search (1:26)
• 24. Dalton's Cell (1:11)
• 25. Follow the Ring (4:19)
• 26. Good and Ready (2:21)
• 27. Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint * (6:12)
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* performed by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi
The insert includes a list of performers and a short note from Blanchard about the score.
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