Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you consider yourself an extreme James Horner collector and would thus be interested in eight or so minutes of a decent orchestral theme unrelated to the rest of the score. Avoid it... if the idea of 45 minutes of Horner's standard crashing of piano, snare, and chimes as suspense stingers, along with a plethora of barely audible underscore, isn't worth the problematic album. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Pelican Brief: (James Horner) From Klute to Presumed Innocent, a movie directed by Alan Pakula is typically defined by a high-quality suspense story about well hidden corruption in the genres of law, journalism, and politics. The 1993 thriller The Pelican Brief touches upon all of these categories, with its story closely following John Grisham's best-selling novel of the same name. Julia Roberts is a law student with a sharp mind and an inquisitive nature, and her theory about a conspiracy behind the deaths of two American Supreme Court justices inks her name on the perpetrators' hit list. She teams up with a sympathetic Denzel Washington who, as a reporter, dodges the same assassination attempts on their lives in an effort to reveal the truth. Pakula's films have never been inclined to demand large-scale or thematically complex original music out of their composers. In this case, with a seemingly snug fit between Grisham and Pakula in place, the duties of the composer would fall upon James Horner, whose popularity was nearing its height in the industry even though he was still branching out into projects that didn't reside in his normal realm of operation. With many similarities in construct and demeanor, The Pelican Brief would be the same score for Horner that Presumed Innocent was a few years earlier for John Williams. Though both scores are introverted, tense, piano-dominated works, Horner's ability to generate a similar sense of sophistication in its atmosphere falls far short of Williams' ability to do the same. Thus, while Presumed Innocent and The Pelican Brief essentially utilize the same spirit of minimal ambient suspense (despite a more chase-oriented action tilt in the latter), Williams' tackling of the job is leagues beyond Horner's music in quality and class. Like his scores for the Tom Clancy/Jack Ryan films that debuted in the same era of Horner's career (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger), The Pelican Brief is a largely underachieving and uninspired score. Playing once again on ideas that Horner had already established in other works, there is little structural or instrumental intrigue worth mentioning about The Pelican Brief that could define it as a unique work or elevate it beyond its peers. That said, it contains enough moments of pleasant atmosphere and quiet melody to secure a place in many Horner collections. Not all of Horner's minimalistic efforts are as dull as The Pelican Brief. He has proven with Thunderheart and The Spitfire Grill that some outstanding personality can be expressed in his softer mode. And while The Pelican Brief has the same character-centered focus as Searching for Bobby Fischer and The Man Without a Face, it restrains its emotions to a far less dramatic level. Before diving into the faults of the music for The Pelican Brief, it should be praised for two cues that will likely appeal to enthusiasts of the scores mentioned above. Together, "Darby's Theme" and "Airport Goodbye" present about eight minutes of fully orchestral melody, not unique in its own characteristics, but built on a familiar, fluid string identity. The former track is seemingly a concert arrangement representing the score, four minutes not mixed into the final cut of the film. The latter cue may grace the end credits with resolute thematic beauty, but the rest of the score is an exercise in Horner's usual suspense tactics. Although the composer's typical piano crashes during moments of cinematic distress are nothing new, he takes them beyond simple stringers and forces then to thrash the listener with their ferocious rumblings. All too often, a pleasant, rambling piano motif or extended sequence of barely audible strings is interrupted by one of these outbursts. Tapping percussion, including a light snare in consistent rhythms, leads the score from one non-descript suspense cue to the next. When matters of importance occur, the crashing of chimes, in similar fashion to the piano, will also raise many memories for Horner collectors. Light clicking and high-toned electronic choir over synthetic bass and tingling keyboard rhythms, such as the ambience of "Researching the Brief," foreshadowed The Spitfire Grill. Such music would make for a very consistent listening experience if not for the crashing, staggering chase sequences, which play tricks with you by executing similar techniques every time the nervous Roberts looks over her shoulder at something (whether innocent or threatening). There are few direct, long quotations of music from Horner's previous work, but learned ears will easily get the impression that the composer was not even attempting to break new conceptual ground with The Pelican Brief. A lengthy album extends the suffering, and some pressings of the eventually out-of-print product contained faulty laser engraving that makes it difficult for various CD players to recognize the parameters of each track. If Horner's music was any better, there'd be reason to worry about this fault. ** Track Listings:
Total Time: 52:01
* not included in the film All artwork and sound clips from The Pelican Brief are Copyright © 1994, Big Screen Records. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/15/98, updated 11/8/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 1998-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
