Buy it... only if you desire James Horner's humorous adaptation of the large choral cantata by Sergei Prokofiev heard very obviously over the film's opening and closing titles.

Avoid it... if you aren't inclined to seek a rare album to obtain of one of the most extremely irritating, lazy scores of synthesized, contemporary action in Horner's career.

Horner

Red Heat: (James Horner) You could summarize this movie in just a few words, and most them would be "Arnold Schwarzenegger pairing with James Belushi to bust criminal ass." Schwarzenegger is the tough cop from Russia who's been forced to follow a criminal to Chicago, where Belushi, the underworked slob of a cop, is his liaison to law enforcement in the United States. It's another buddy cop flick from the pen of Walter Hill, and while the merits of the storyline itself are dubious at best, who cares? Schwarzenegger and Belushi are the comedy in and of themselves, and as they chase dopeheads and other unsavory people, the two manage to teach each other some helpful lessons about life and entertain viewers in the process. Despite being one of the earlier films to shoot in the Soviet Union (though just in snippets), there is nothing intellectually redeeming about the movie. Violence abounds, of course, but in that comic book fashion that Schwarzenegger seems to attract in his more comedic films. Composer James Horner wasn't actually busting through walls in the same physical fashion as the eventual Governator, but 1988 was still his official break-through year with which to announce that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Aliens, and An American Tail weren't just beginner's luck. He was still occasionally mired in ridiculously awful actions scores of contemporary leanings during that period, a sound best known in Commando and 48 Hrs. and tapering off by the time of Red Heat and Another 48 Hrs.. With both The Land Before Time and Willow proving to be orchestral powerhouses in 1988 that would define Horner's career for decades to come, Red Heat easily got lost in the shuffle. That isn't to say that the score failed to cause plenty of listeners to scratch their heads, though. The only really distinct cues in Red Heat are its two orchestral and choral ones that bookend the score. They sounded nothing like Horner's other works, back then or decades later. The massive choral piece was so strikingly different from the composer's career sounds, not to mention the rest of Red Heat itself, that it remained a curiosity for many years. Even in context, the piece remains an over-the-top aberration in the film's late-night showings on cable channels.

	Learn about supporting Filmtracks

Thank goodness for the learned ears of classical and international music, however, for they eventually uncovered the origins of the piece that Horner aped (without recognition) for the title sequences of Red Heat. Indeed, the composer had pulled the Russian choral theme from a Sergei Prokofiev cantata, "20th Anniversary of the October Revolution," and beefed it up for good measure. The movement itself from which the music was taken is called "The Philosophers," which once and for all answers why the mixed adult choir performing the title theme of Red Heat keeps repeating the word "philosophy" over and over and over again without any relation to the plot of the film. What's even more unfortunate than Horner's borrowing of this theme (not to mention his adaptation of it again much later in Enemy at the Gates) is the fact that his surrounding underscore is extremely poor. Its existence as an all-electronic work is not necessarily its downfall (that distinction is reserved for other entries, including Unlawful Entry), but its demise is instead caused by its inability to maintain any consistency whatsoever. No thematic integration, common rhythmic approach, or consistent use of instrumentation is to be found in this lazy, contemporary extension of 48 Hrs. After chase music pulled from Gorky Park in "Russian Streets," random shakuhachi flute blasts occupy "Victor Escapes" and an immature version of the descending transition motif heard in Clear and Present Danger is heard in "Tailing Kat." Ticking, tapping, and occasionally blaring rhythms snag your attention with their purely offensive texture, and "The Bus Station" switches between nasty loops and grating, manipulated crescendos that boggle the mind. But nothing will prepare you for "Cleanhead Bust," for which Horner loses all control of himself. The disco beat in this cue, with wild electric bass and guitar performances accompanied by saxophone, eventually yields to sound effects by the sax and bass that can best be described as whale calls. It's extremely irritating and perhaps serves as evidence that Horner sometimes drank his breakfast while scoring Red Heat. Overall, since the revelation that the choral piece in Red Heat isn't even Horner's own material, it can truly be said that there isn't a single minute of original music for this film worth the search for the rare import album. Find the original Russian performances of the Prokofiev cantata and forget this most unfortunate Horner blunder. *   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.13 (in 98 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25 (in 184,725 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.