Buy it... if you specifically appreciated the static pace and sufficient substance of the score as you heard it within the context of the film.

Avoid it... if you are frustrated by Mark Isham's knack for underplaying topics with a lack of passion and orchestral depth in situations that require an enhanced sense drive and emotional appeal.

Isham

Miracle: (Mark Isham) "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" With these words in 1980, viewers of the Olympics in Lake Placid were treated to the spectacle that Sports Illustrated magazine deemed the single greatest sporting event of the 20th Century. As the United States seemed on the decline as a world power, suffering from scandals at home and a hostage crisis in Iran, the U.S.S.R. was surging with its invasion of Afghanistan and continued control over the Eastern Bloc. The Soviets had dominated men's Olympic hockey in the 1960's and 1970's, winning four consecutive gold medals leading up to the 1980 games in America. Under the determined coaching of Herb Brooks, a collection of American mutts averaging 21 years of age trained for the 1980 games, and the punctuation of that year's tournament was a spectacular win over the Soviets that was seen politically by some as an important turning point of the Cold War. Director Gavin O'Connor, still a newcomer in the industry at the time, took the story of first time screenwriter Eric Guggenheim and made a play-by-play documentary of the story, obviously leaving no suspense about the outcome. Even the depiction of the game itself included Al Michaels and Ken Dryden's authentic commentary played over archival footage from the television broadcast, and original speeches by President Carter could be heard over other segments. With Kurt Russell convincing in his portrayal of Brooks, the film was considered a success by both critics and audiences alike, the ultimate feel-good story based on a real event. Despite a wholesome narrative in which the "good guys" beat the "bad guys" with world domination at stake, the film suffered from a sluggish response by mass audiences and was not a tremendous success at the box office. O'Connor wanted a unique and personal approach to his film and, consequently, its music. In composer Mark Isham, O'Conner found "a score that is truly potent, arresting and multi-layered, going to a profoundly deep level." Response to Isham's music seemed equal to the merits of the film upon its debut, despite a somewhat static tone in the performances and a primary theme containing strangely awkward chord progressions from the Carter Burwell playbook. It is one of Isham's more functional career works, but one that clearly underplays the passion behind the events that inspired the film. It arguably fails to achieve, therefore, a lasting reflection of the gravity that the movie truly deserved. At no point does Isham come close to touching upon the memorable excitement that Jerry Goldsmith so adeptly captured in the practice and game portions of Rudy.

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A lack of engagement remains one overarching aspect of Isham's usual methodology that often restrains his scores from greatness. When O'Conner mentions "multi-layered" as an attribute of Isham's score for Miracle, it's difficult to understand his meaning, because this score (as well as many of Isham's others) seems two-dimensional and mono-thematic in its composition and flat in its recording. Isham's concurrently written score for Twisted suffers from a similar lack of depth; whereas that production was obviously a hideous project all around, however, it's surprising to hear more of Isham's understated style and lack of powerful emotion in much of Miracle. Sports dramas typically bring out the most ambitious of film scores from composers, but only in the heightened training and game sequences does Isham very slowly develop a sense of drive, determination, and passion in his chopping strings. This film would have seemed to be an excellent opportunity to spur the same feel-good depth of involvement heard in Isham's spectacular effort for Fly Away Home, and yet, Miracle falls flat before it can really get started, its string figures tepid in personality and lacking any spark in their performances. On a technical level, one could argue that the simplistic sound of Isham's music here is due to a complete lack of satisfying counterpoint, variation of rhythm, or interesting orchestration, all of which making the whole of the recording sound as though it was performed by an ensemble half the size of the one actually featured. The softly tapping snare drum, as the expected but effective representative of patriotism, is badly underplayed, and the sense of weight necessary in the American victory simply cannot be conveyed from the tone of just one trumpet player. Had a dozen brass players, a rattle of electronics, or, better yet, the distinct crack of a hockey stick on the ice been used to punctuate rhythms or carry themes, Miracle could have been inspirational. There is no musical representation of the Soviets, too, no tone of adversity whatsoever. To his credit, Isham does finally unleash the full ensemble of 100 players in the finale of the score, with brass on levels not often heard from the composer, but Miracle takes a long time building up to that moment and might have put the listener to sleep by then. Once that finale arrives, a listener could very well wonder what all the fuss regarding the 1980 Olympics was all about. It's a sufficient score, but not a noteworthy one; it simply lacks true drive and enthusiasm. An album with no proper track breaks (and without a single picture from the film), unenthusiastic performances, and three songs unrelated to the score cause the entire package to be insufficient. Isham seemingly phoned this one in.   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Score as Written for the FIlm: ***
Score as Heard on the Album: **
Overall: ***

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.