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Release Date:
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October 26th, 1990
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you want to hear a rare, but brilliant entry into minimalistic suspense by the legendary John Williams.
Avoid it... if you consider Williams' more sparse and understated scores to be unimpressive and boring.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Presumed Innocent: (John Williams) Director Alan J.
Pakula's adaptation of Scott Turow's best selling novel placed Harrison Ford
in a role that was becoming more familiar to him with each passing project.
While many will remember his action films before all others, serious
movie-goers will remember Ford's phase during which he adequately, if not
brilliantly, portrayed a scared man. From Frantic to Presumed
Innocent, Ford successfully expanded his career into the realm of
thrillers, with the latter, 1990 film representing perhaps the pinnacle of
such work. Pakula's storied, but sparse career included a working relationship
with composer Michael Small in earlier entries and finished its span of those thirty
years with contributions by James Horner for the two pictures immediately
preceding his death in 1998. Presumed Innocent would be the
director's only film featuring the music of film score legend John Williams.
Williams was about to embark on yet another decade of spectacular film
scores, finishing the previous year with multiple Academy Award-nominated
works. Steamy, adult thrillers weren't the usual assignments for Williams,
whose scores at the time resided closer to more traditional drama and,
still, action genres. Thus, Presumed Innocent stands out as a rare
stylistic departure for Williams, one that he would not further investigate
later in the decade. Most Williams fans are overwhelmed by Williams' ability
to present a score that stands as its own formidable force in the film.
Differing in its intent is Presumed Innocent, however, and the
score's underwhelming aim has often led to its demise in the opinions of
film music reviewers. To say that Presumed Innocent is Williams'
forgotten masterpiece would be slightly misleading given that so many of his
fans and collectors consider the score to be unimpressive, if not
boring.
Such critics should take another listen to Presumed
Innocent because wrestling within its contents is one of Williams' most
skilled presentations of harmony versus disharmony, good versus evil, and
confusion versus resolution. The film tears at the viewer with questions of
morality and murder, building to the gut-wrenching and ultimate destruction
of the Sabich family. Thus, Williams maintains the score with a single piano
at its heart, representing the normal sound of suburban family life with
elegant, though easily manipulated first and secondary themes. Also of note
is a solo horn and timpani, both forcefully performing their roles apart
from other brass or percussion, leading to the sense of despair and fright
on a personal level. Such instrumentation remains consistently simple, yet
sharp, with electronics providing a further edge of fright to the mix. More
importantly, however --and this is where you have to pay very close
attention to the score-- is how Williams adapts the themes in the film to
the constant battle between passion and terror. The themes are all
inherently positive and elegant in their construction, meandering on the
piano in a dance of sincerity during the few relaxed scenes of the film. As
the story unfolds, however, Williams' slowly strips away the harmony from
the themes and inserts more troubling off-key instrumentation and mutation
of those themes. Finally, as a major confession is presented at the end of
the film, Williams' score has completely degenerated into a wash of tingling
percussive sounds. The horror thus continues without resolution through the
every end of the work, exploding with a powerful, electronically enhanced
end credits performance of the themes that punches the audience in the face
one more time right after the film's devastating end. All of this is done
with subtle, troubled elegance, and all you have to do to appreciate
Presumed Innocent is hear how Williams changes the tempo on his piano
themes in accordance with the level of fright on the screen. If you're tired
of hearing the same old Williams action sound, then Presumed Innocent
is highly recommended as a stellar, gripping, lesser-known endeavor for the
master. *****
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Presumed Innocent (4:10)
• 2. Remembering Carolyn (2:17)
• 3. Family Life (1:30)
• 4. Love Scene (4:06)
• 5. The B File (3:28)
• 6. The Bedroom Scene (4:20)
• 7. Carolyn's Office (3:24)
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• 8. "Leon Talks" (1:59)
• 9. Rusty Accused (2:07)
• 10. Case Dismissed (1:53)
• 11. The Boat Scene (2:15)
• 12. The Basement Scene (2:55)
• 13. Barbara's Confession (5:17)
• 14. End Credits (4:03)
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The insert includes a short note about the score.
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