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Composed, Conducted, and Co-Produced by:
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Randy Newman
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Co-Produced by:
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Frank Wolf
Bruno Coon
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Release Date:
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July 22nd, 2003
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you enjoy a mellow, pleasant, musical slice of Americana
on a conservative and easy orchestral level.
Avoid it... if you prefer your horse racing adventures and historical
dramas to kick up sustained energy and emotion.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Seabiscuit: (Randy Newman) Horse racing is a sort of
enigma in America. While the Americana 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 film representation of
Seabiscuit's run for the nation's heart is saturated with Americana
spirit, offering a feel-good tale of the champion
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 American 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 is clearly being fashioned as the
current Americana expert in the family. While most viewers associate his
work with fluffy Disney animation scores --as well as that lazy voice he
always uses for the title songs of those animation films-- Newman is also
well established in the historical American sports and societal dramas.
Aside from the sufficient, nominated score for Pleasantville, Newman
is even better known in the genre for classics such as Ragtime and
The Natural. It is along these lines that Randy Newman would infuse a
similar spirit into Seabiscuit's journey to stardom.
While Randy 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 their own popularity. 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 offers a pleasant,
occasionally exciting, orchestrally safe score. 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 of the music for lengthy
sequences of soft underscore. Eloquent, but conservative brass contributes
the heroic aspects of the score, bolting into action with a full string
section and the guitars during victorious moments. A hint of Hispanic
influence accompanies one Mexican source song featured in the film. When you
step back from this most 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, keeping
everything uncomplicated and true to the expectations of the genre. Thus,
the score for Seabiscuit works. On the other hand, the score presents
little tingling enthusiasm or nervous energy (outside of the brief fifth and
eighth cues) that could have perhaps better represented the ambience of
professional horse racing. Without a magnificent, lofty theme and without a
creative hoof-pounding method of conveying energy, Newman's work is
restrained to average levels of quality. On album, the consistently easy
score is only broken by the one Hispanic song in the middle; Randy does not
sing for this album. An awkward background hum, or perhaps simply a wrong
note by a woodwind instrument tarnishes the second cue (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 strong
listen on album. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Main Title (2:05)
• 2. Idea (2:08)
• 3. The Crash (3:06)
• 4. Seabiscuit - performed by Randy Newman (0:59)
• 5. Call Me Red (2:54)
• 6. Frankie (1:22)
• 7. La Tequilera - performed by Mariachi Reynas de Los Angeles (1:14)
• 8. Marcela/Agua Caliente (2:23)
• 9. Campfire (1:17)
• 10. Red's First Win (3:35)
• 11. Tanforan (1:43)
• 12. Infield Folks (1:38)
• 13. Pumpkin (1:36)
• 14. The Derby (3:14)
• 15. Wedding (2:06)
• 16. Night Ride/Accident (1:41)
• 17. To the Line (3:37)
• 18. The Unkindest Cut (3:30)
• 19. Ready? (3:01)
• 20. A Nice Ride (3:16)
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film, but the CD is enhanced with pictures and other information about
the film.
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