Buy it... if a blend of authentic 20's jazz band ramblings and comical impressions of both that style and early college marching bands is consistent with your established taste for Randy Newman's music.

Avoid it... if you've never been able to tolerate the foundation of 1920's jazz that has defined many of Newman's famous scores, for Leatherheads takes the style to parody levels.

Newman

Leatherheads: (Randy Newman) Fluffy and warm period comedies may be out of style, but Leatherheads pays about as much attention to that as it did the fact that it's a football-themed film released at the start of baseball season. In the 1920's, baseball was already the pastime and professional football was nonexistent. A slick, aging football player longing for the glory of his college playing days pitches an idea to a money man regarding the concept of taking the best college football talents and creating a professional league, which, in the interest of money, happens. Leatherheads is less about the historical facts (nor is it really a sports film at heart) than it is about sharp character exchanges and silly laughs. Dumb physical comedy and Golden Age romance are a strange combination for the modern age, and in the process of trying to make the sparring between George Clooney and Renee Zellweger into a mirror image of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Leatherheads is an odd duck. Clooney's own direction means well but the viability of its flighty charm has been questioned by more than one critic. If you step back and try to imagine which composer would be perfect to write snazzy high jazz for a 1920's picture (with a touch of 40's romance), who better an answer exists than Randy Newman? The famed songwriter is known for his period scores, his lovable comedic sensibilities, and his mastery of the genre of jazz. All three would play a major role in Leatherheads, a film very well suited for the kind of jazzy slapstick that Newman can crank out in his sleep. With the game of football not established as the testosterone-driven war of masculinity that is often conveyed in its music today, Newman's treatment of the sport has nothing more to rely upon than the trite, source-like tones of a marching band, the lasting epitome of the college football team sound. There are some distinct inspirations evident in the music of Leatherheads, including a few anthems here and there, a touch of Golden Age film score references, and the use of a George and Ira Gershwin tune for good measure.

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Together with Newman's trademark, swinging jazz, these elements of tradition all combine for a good-natured period romp that bounces with joy from start to finish. Whether or not you can possibly enjoy any of this material on album is entirely another matter. A pleasant and lazy title theme, with a slight hint of the slurs that have defined Newman for decades, is given easy-going performances by woodwinds and brass. The ensemble consists mostly of jazz band elements, heavy on various tones of muted and open brass, and a piano with occasional accompaniment from a moderate orchestra. With dueling thematic performances by saxophone and clarinet, the score zips with high style and is absolutely authentic to a parody representation of the era and its famed style of music. Shifts in tempo and several sharp taps of a cymbal accompany the conversational sparring, and the best moments of Leatherheads are those like the latter half of "Carter is Blue," which picks up the pace and adds a honky-tonk piano to the thematic mix. The opening three tracks make the most use of the comically solemn and intentionally sparse marching band sound, addressing the clumsy sport of football with an appropriately silly musical representation. If the entire score consisted of this straight parody work, then Leatherheads would be insufferable. But going back as far as A Bug's Life, Newman has proven that his lengthier cues of relaxing and elegant jazz can be quite rewarding, and Leatherheads luckily features plenty of such moments. As the film offers its big climactic sports moment at the end, Newman does shift to a slightly more conventional and modern orchestral approach, providing "The Ambiguity of Victory" with one momentous closing theme. Overall, the jubilant title theme, as typified by the charming performance to close the film in the cue "Into the Sunset," is heart of the score and will stick with you after the 40 minutes of Newman's material on album concludes. If you've never been able to enjoy Newman's usual foray into 20's jazz, a genre that has defined the foundation of much of his career, then Leatherheads will unequivocally drive you nuts. Otherwise, it's a breeze that'll have your butt wiggling in your chair before you know it. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Randy Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.06 (in 17 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.11 (in 20,737 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.