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Composed, Produced, and Co-Performed by:
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Eric Serra
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Co-Performed by:
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Nicolas Fiszman
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Label:
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M-G-M/Virgin (France)
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Release Date:
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March 1st, 2002
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Availability:
French album release, classified as an import in the U.S. Difficult to find in American stores.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you are a collector of Eric Serra's works and are
interested in hearing some his hardest, most abrasive material to date.
Avoid it... if you appreciate the fundamental structure of film scores,
or if pounding rock rhythms with a nasty attitude aren't your cup of tea.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Serra | |
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Rollerball (2001): (Eric Serra) Fascination with the
rollerball game as a concept has never really diminished since Norman
Jewison's 1975 film interpretation of William Harrison's original story. If
the term "cult" was to ever be attached to the ultimate, fictionally
conceived game, then Rollerball would be an obvious choice. Still,
for some reason, MGM and director John McTiernan, a talent who has produced
both fantastic successes and monumental failures on the big screen, decided
that a modern version of Rollerball needed to be made in 2001. The
film would pour its budget into its art direction, glitzing everything up
with lavish sets that were drenched in neon colors. Add to that the primal
noises of the violent game, as well as an awkward modernization of the
game's actual figure-8 setup, and you get eye and ear candy at every turn.
McTiernan, as expected, also took the adult nature of the game to its
furthest, with considerable gore and nudity (hey, why not?) featured
throughout the picture as well. When MGM (and test audiences) saw
McTiernan's film, they were horrified and demanded considerable editing and
a new ending. The toned back edit made even less sense when finished, and
the film, hindered by a poor cast and a nonsensical plot, was a huge
failure. The score didn't help the situation much either. The original
Rollerball film had utilized a bizarre combination of classical music
and Andre Previn's own material to throw the futuristic setting of the game
in flux. This time around, techno/new age composer Eric Serra was assigned
to modernize that musical sound even further into the frightening
future.
It's not often that Serra scores films outside of his
partnership with director Luc Besson, but given that this new
Rollerball was once again set in a mythical European/Asian setting,
Serra's habit of producing a pseudo Middle-Eastern style to his electronics
would be more than appropriate. Such an example of this Middle-Eastern
influence can be heard in one of his more popular mainstream scores for the
American public, The Fifth Element. For Rollerball, however,
Serra would push the limits of his rhythms and instrumentation to a much
more abrasive level. Most of the score cuts in the film accompany the
violent scenes of the game in action, so fans of Serra's more mood-driven
solo work or scores should beware of the monstrous attitude displayed here.
If you listen to enough Serra material, you begin to hear 30 or 40 stock
sounds in his synth library that Serra utilizes to make all of his works
(and many of them are samples that other people created in the first place).
This time, he throws them all at you with force, often on top of driving
guitar rhythms or deep bass droning of significant volume. A somewhat retro
organ approach if offset by screeching electric guitars and a crashing
series of percussive blasts throughout these action cues. A distinct absence
of harmony leads to the appropriate level of discontent that one has while
watching the horrific game, and yet the pace of the music is so daunting and
pounding that you can't help but allow it to suck you into its atmosphere. A
handful of underscored cues do allow a brief respite from the action, and
these are often the times when a Middle-Eastern vocal (such as in "Serokin")
or somewhat East-Asian choice of electronic instrumentation (such as in
"Oportu") heighten the appeal of the score beyond its typical brute
force.
The overall attitude of the Rollerball score is
deceitful at its worst and tragic at its best, with the film's cold,
corporate environment influencing every last cue in Serra's score. No matter
the rhythm of the cue, an industrial pounding is conveyed in the music,
thrusting this hopeless environment down your throat with every hit. The
anger conveyed in parts of this score is convincing, with frustrating motifs
often dying in unceremonious fashion. Even the somewhat less driving finale
cues are still drenched in sound effects that begin in upper ranges and
slowly descend in tone, pulling the emotions in a downward spiral to the
very last moment. Serra toys with the listener by throwing in some of his
usual sounds that are supposed to represent positive emotions, like the
sleigh bells, which begin to appear late in the score opposite of likewise
depressing cues. For Serra fans, this will be perhaps an interesting
experience, but for film score collectors, Rollerball will also
baffle you in Serra's continued disregard for cue structure or scene change.
Throwing aside Serra's inability to maintain a theme in many of his scores,
Rollerball is the worst yet example of a score that has no cohesive
element whatsoever, playing on album like a solo work that follows none of
the established customs of film music. It's aimless, meandering, droning
attitude that has no distinct beginning and end. Add to that four heavy
songs (one of which an intolerable Japanese rock song with old video game
sounds, and two songs by L.A. sleaze rockers Beautiful Creatures and
Rappagariya), and you get a very forgettable listening experience. Even if
Serra was successful in harnessing the negative power and emotion of the
game in Rollerball, he continues to provide music that is all over
the map, rendering the music useless in situations when it needs to
foreshadow an event, accentuate fine points in a cue, or even make
references to other scenes in the film. A complete failure, both on screen
and on album. *
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Eghnev (2:50)
• 2. Letzgo (3:27)
• 3. Body Go - performed by Hardknox (3:51)
• 4. Kornovol (0:58)
• 5. Kwinsky (3:47)
• 6. Orora (2:01)
• 7. Serokin (3:05)
• 8. Koshmor (1:42)
• 9. It.s a Show Time - performed by Rappagariya (4:19)
• 10. Blootim (2:26)
• 11. I am Hated - performed by Slipknot (2:40)
• 12. Shreflov (2:15)
• 13. Reitnov (6:54)
• 14. Oportu (3:16)
• 15. Baroof (6:09)
• 16. Enoff (4:08)
• 17. Panchoff (2:03)
• 18. Ride - performed by Beautiful Creatures (3:12)
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The insert includes extensive credits, but no extra information about the score or film.
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