Ronin: (Elia Cmiral) Director John Frankenheimer's
first universally praised triumph since his classic
The Manchurian
Candidate more than three decades earlier,
Ronin is among the
most impressive chase movies of the digital era. Filmed in a dreary
France, the biting story of soul-wandering professional agents and
tacticians from various Cold War origins resorting to one mercenary
mission together is something of an excuse for a series of extraordinary
car chases along the charged, personal lines of
The French
Connection. A stellar cast highlights both the five mercenaries and
their shady employers, and their gritty performances of writer David
Mamet's uncredited script for
Ronin lacks a weak link. While
composer Gary Chang was the usual provider of music for Frankenheimer's
films, the
Ronin assignment was reported to be in the hands of
Christopher Young and then Jerry Goldsmith before the latter composer's
last-minute departure from the project left Frankenheimer with
little-known Swedish composer Elia Cmiral. In the ten years since
Ronin, Cmiral has made a career skirting mainstream film scoring
in Hollywood, with a series of B-rate projects rarely as compelling as
his major opening venture. His certainly adequate and occasionally
interesting score for Frankenheimer's project placed him on the map (his
previous notable efforts coming from television). Expectations for his
music for
Ronin were non-existent, though Cmiral's composition is
a striking combination of elements that do and don't make much sense.
The concept behind the title is that of the Japanese samurai who failed
to protect their lords from slaying, and who thus were outcasts and,
like the warriors of this film, available for hire. Cmiral does make
some token cultural references to the Japanese and East Asian culture in
his music, mostly centered around the use of Taiko-like drums and sparse
throat singing effects, both evident in the first minute of the opening
"Ronin Theme" cue. The remainder of the ethnicity involves the
performances of the title theme by a duduk, though the choice of the
Armenian clarinet seems a bit awkward in this context.
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Without a doubt, the employment of the duduk to perform
the simple, but effective theme for the souls of the mercenaries places
the spiritual setting of the story at some vague point in history. But,
as with the remainder of the performing ensemble, the greatest weakness
of the duduk's otherwise solemnly enchanting performances is Cmiral's
choice not to develop them well throughout the score's non-thematic
majority. The solitary theme is fine as a representation for the five
leads, but the statements of this theme, outside of the orchestral
accompaniment that breaks the monotony in both "Ronin Theme" and
(especially) "Good Knowing You," are too consistent to merit continuous
interest. Its appearances in "Thank You," "Et Toi, Comment Ca Va," "The
Girl Sold Us Out," and "The Ronin Myth" never grow with the characters.
A subtheme of comradery heard in "A New Friendship" and "Passion" is
performed on piano, strings, and flute without much interest until the
last minute of the latter cue. The majority of the score is a slashing
and bleak series of techno-rhythmed chase cues, often dissonant and
changing in tempo as necessary to follow the frantic movements on
screen. The instrumentation of these cues is marginally interesting for
the first few minutes, though after an hour on album, with most of the
cues adhering to the same chasing mold, it becomes tiresome. A distinct
European sensibility will remind of some of Eric Serra's more
electronically frenetic works, though the consistent augmentation of the
synthesizers by a reasonable collection of brass and strings will be
rewarding for some fans of Elliot Goldenthal's more edgy works. Outside
of this mass of suspense and action music, as well as the handful of
duduk and string-led performances of the two themes, the score's only
remaining notable cue is an irritating carnival march in "Carousel for
Little Tamao." While the score serves its purpose, it's a rather
frustrating one in that Cmiral had all the elements to make a truly
inspiring multi-cultural work but never merged the style or
instrumentation of the score's two halves. The lack of this development
is exacerbated further by an album that's 20 minutes too long. Overall,
there's much to be intrigued about in
Ronin, but outside of the
closing "Good Knowing You" cue, the score offers little to enjoy on a
regular basis.
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