Buy it... if you can accept a mellow, pleasant, musical slice of Americana on a conservative and smooth orchestral level.

Avoid it... if you prefer your horse racing adventures and historical dramas to kick up sustained energy and emotional depth.

Newman

Seabiscuit: (Randy Newman) Horse racing is something of an enigma in America. While the pastoral spirit that is associated with horse racing is embraced by many in the nation, the sport itself occupies mainstream attention less often than many would think. The only times during which a horse or a race streaks across the front pages of the news is when a particular horse wins two of the three races which constitute the coveted "triple crown" and has a chance to win the third and final race, an achievement that has seldom occurred over the past 100 years. One vintage horse who challenged a crown winner was Seabiscuit, an underdog in the 1930's whose awkward owner, trainer, and jockey combination was overcome as the horse beat incredible odds and captivated America. The dramatic 2003 film representation of Seabiscuit's run for the nation's heart is saturated with Americana spirit, offering a feel-good tale of an unlikely horse that wasn't supposed be the champion. The equation is simple in heart and raw with emotion, and the filmmakers continued their collaboration with iconic composer Randy Newman for Seabiscuit after his successful, Academy Award-nominated score for another slice of American history for their 1998 film Pleasantville. Coming from a family of talented, prolific composers in generations past and present, it's interesting to note that Randy Newman was clearly being fashioned as the expert in Americana spirit in the family at the time, despite the more bittersweet and serious activities of his cousin Thomas. While most viewers associate his work with fluffy Disney animation scores, as well as that lazy voice he always used for the title songs of those animation films, Randy Newman was also well established in the genres of historical American sports and societal dramas. Aside from the sufficient, but not particularly memorable, nominated score for Pleasantville, Newman was even better known in the genre for classics such as Ragtime and The Natural. It is along these lines that Newman would infuse a similar spirit into Seabiscuit's journey to stardom. The assignment wasn't completely fluid; due to his busy schedule, Newman couldn't arrange and conduct the final alterations required for the production, so orchestrator William Ross stepped in for the final sessions. You won't notice any difference between these final recordings and those that came before, however.

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The score is predictably efficient at its task, but remains anonymous in its character. While Newman's work for this genre of films has been both noteworthy and effective, his Americana scores have relied heavily on the quality of the films to sustain the reciprocal popularity of the music. Apart from the memorable theme for The Natural, Newman typically approaches this kind of project with less than flamboyant ideas of simple constructs and orchestral conservatism. For Seabiscuit, Newman constructs a pleasant, occasionally exciting, orchestrally safe environment. Hardly original in instrumentation, Newman restrains his orchestra in all but two or three cues of chasing and racing. Acoustic guitars provide a basic, soothing layer of history and heartland sentimentality to the drama. Newman's own piano performances add an additional layer of character depth, and woodwind solos accentuate the feel of the horse racing venues of times past. Steady, flowing string writing sustains a minimal volume in the music for lengthy sequences of soft underscore. Eloquent, but conservative brass contributes to the heroic aspects of the concept, bolting into action with a full string section and guitars during victorious moments. A hint of Hispanic influence accompanies one Latin source song featured in the film. When you step back from this consistently pleasant listening experience, you have to wonder if there's anything more to this predictable equation than there really is. Newman certainly wasn't taking any instrumental or thematic chances here, keeping everything uncomplicated and true to the expectations of the genre. Thus, the score for Seabiscuit, while not spectacular, works. On the other hand, the score presents little tingling enthusiasm, rapturous engagement, or nervous energy (outside of the brief "Call Me Red" and "Campfire" cues) that could have perhaps better represented the ambience of heightened anticipation in professional horse racing. Without a magnificent, lofty, or affirming theme and without a creative, hoof-pounding method of conveying energy, Newman's work is restrained to average levels of intensity. On album, the consistently easy score is only broken by the one source song in the middle; Newman does not sing for this album. An awkward background hum in the recording mix, or perhaps simply a wrong note by a woodwind instrument, tarnishes "Idea" at about 0:50. Overall, Seabiscuit is an appreciable and endearing score, but it fails to kick up enough emotion and energy to sustain itself as a really strong listening experience on album. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Randy Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.06 (in 17 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.11 (in 20,737 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.