Buy it... if hard, cool attitude from menacing guitars, gritty percussion, and aggressive strings is a perfect accompaniment for your foul mood.

Avoid it... if the undeniably engaging moments of brash attitude in Mark Isham's score can't compensate for the many sequences featuring the composer's usual ambient droning for the thriller genre.

Isham

The Mechanic: (Mark Isham) Apparently, there are limits to even actor Jason Statham's ability to carry an action thriller in the role of a "mechanic," an individual who solves problems by assassinating targets in ways to conceal the fact that the killing was a hit job. Box office success was not destined to meet The Mechanic, director Simon West's 2011 remake of the 1972 film starring Charles Bronson. If you dig seeing Statham sneak about and execute people, seek revenge for personal wrongs, and out-smart his associates, then The Mechanic is predictably simplistic entertainment with plenty of bullets and explosions to go around. The story follows several of his assignments, one of which necessitating the killing of his mentor. After training that target's son in the business of assassination, the two eventually seek the man who double -crossed that mentor and, of course, inevitably turn on each other. There's little intelligence in The Mechanic, but people with true intellectual curiosity don't go to such films. West had collaborated with a wide variety of composers in his directorial career, usually skirting the boundaries of the Hans Zimmer clone factory at Media Ventures/Remote Control. For The Mechanic, he went with a composer unaffiliated with that group but whose production in this genre often sounds awfully similar. Mark Isham is one of the true chameleons of the film music world, responsible for some of the most engagingly dynamic orchestral scores of recent times (Fly Away Home, Racing Stripes, The Black Dahlia, and even the Army Strong theme for American recruitment commercials) but also capable of cranking out nearly intolerable and workmanlike ambient scores for films like The Mist, The Crazies, and Twisted. There is no doubt that The Mechanic is inherently conducive to a continuation of the style heard in the latter group of scores.

Isham, however, to his credit, did take a slightly different path when approaching The Mechanic, merging his synthetic library called "The Sodden Dog Electronic Arts Ensemble" with an orchestra in Prague and a variety of super-cool soloists on electric guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, and rock-like percussion. The result is a score that is certainly more stylish than Isham's usual churning in the thriller genre, though even this effort has more than its fair share of atmospheric brooding. Thankfully, the resulting merging of the above elements, though in many circumstances reminiscent of a Remote Control ensemble effort, is at least a bit different in tone, giving The Mechanic a solid musical voice. There is a raw intensity in Isham's combination of sounds in The Mechanic that allows the guitars in the score to be cool but not evoke the sophistication of a James Bond score. The orchestral presence seems limited to only a string section, occasionally offering creepy, noir-like romantic harmony while at other times exercising the customary, chopping ostinatos typical to this genre in the 2000's. Honestly, while you can tell from the performance aspects (and their slightly wetter sound) that the string players are live, Isham probably could have saved some money and stuck with their synthetically sampled counterparts without much detriment to the score. The strictly electronic elements include looped percussion sounds, groaning dissonance, and the periodic use of sound effects meant to imitate the operation of weapons or the pitch-wavering wails of police sirens. The soloists are the real highlight here, the guitars really employed in brutal but oddly palatable ways to match the personalities on screen. The closing suite, "The Mechanic," most successfully conveys the heightened coolness factor that results from these performances, and the score's midsection is best served when Isham injects the same brazen attitude. There's nothing quite as raw as Ry Cooder-like guitar passages over tapped percussion and violently chopping strings.

	Assassin's Edition: Only $9.99

The score's primary theme is heard most clearly in the summary "The Mechanic" as well, its opening minor-third progression repeated twice and an effective tool of quick reinforcement throughout the score without the need to state the entire theme. When toned back to transitional or conversational cues like "Bayou" and "An Outside Individual," the theme becomes even more alluring, faintly reminiscent of John Ottman's contemporary style. Other melodic ideas are just as menacing, though their meandering lines don't offer the directly focused simplicity of the main theme. These ideas occupy cues such as "Amat Victoria Curam" and "Vengeance is the Mission," the former featuring smooth orchestral passages and the latter infusing Isham's usual processed vocal tones before unleashing a heavy metal guitar rhythm to indicate a victory. For some listeners, the multitude of ambient cues in between those of extroverted, stylish intent will make The Mechanic too difficult as a whole to appreciate. Isham, who was in the news at the time for his staunch disagreement with former collaborator Paul Haggis over the director's angry departure from Scientology, did use this score as the opportunity to launch his own label, "Mark Isham Music" (or MIM). Not only that, but he released three different albums for The Mechanic, the first an "Assassin's Edition" with suite-like highlights, the second a "Complete Collector's Edition" with the whole score in order, and the third a "Double Barrel Limited Edition" containing both albums with a few additional perks (including a USB stick, autograph, and videos). Ironically, the complete album is a better listening experience than the shorter, suite-like "Assassin's Edition," the longer album containing some specific cues of note that were not incorporated into the shorter product. In the end, The Mechanic is a more stylish score than expected, overflowing with attitude in parts, and because of these highlights, it should be recommended to those who enjoyed the film. On the other hand, the score does also exhibit many of Isham's tiresome ambient techniques as well, so it's a clip half full or clip half empty scenario at best. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Mark Isham reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.9 (in 21 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.88 (in 8,084 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.