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Searching for Bobby Fischer: (James Horner) Perhaps the
most well developed and respectful film ever made about the game of chess,
Searching for Bobby Fischer is still first and foremost a movie about
human relationships. In this case, a young boy (and somewhat of a snot) at
the center of the story is a budding chess genius and the adults in his life
are forced to realize and deal with these talents. From the chess hustlers
in New York's Washington Square Park with whom the boy learns the game to
his own parents and eventually the testy professional chess teacher who
trains him, the journey in
Searching for Bobby Fischer ironically
doesn't actually include Bobby Fischer himself. The most infamous chess
competitor of all time, Fischer inspires the film in that he inspires all
chess enthusiasts, and while the real Fischer is stuck in a monumental legal
battle of citizenship that has landed him in unwilling Japanese seclusion,
it's the presence of only his spirit that is required to propel the story of
this film. A complex but magical product,
Searching for Bobby Fischer
would demand both an atmospheric and character-centered approach from
composer James Horner, in addition to some of the sugar-coated Hollywood
drama that the composer was starting to insert with greater ease into his
scores by the early 1990's. Horner has a tendency to score films about
complex personalities (or people with considerable inner-demons) with a
sense of dignified restraint. In this score, the French horn offers those
dignified solos, and much of the underscore quietly weaves its canvas with
supplemental strings and piano. From beginning to end,
Searching for
Bobby Fischer shares many traits with
In Country, remaining
slightly beyond reach for most of its length while hinting at the glorious
finish that would eventually enchant you once the primary characters gather
at a distant place to have questions and aspirations answered. Like a
well-played chess match,
Searching for Bobby Fischer is a score that
requires your patience.
The musical representation for the boy in the film is
elusive. Because the relationship between he and his parents and peers is
muted at best, Horner responds with a similarly distant touch. The boy does
have a theme, although that theme is tied more to his achievements in chess,
and could probably be assigned to the game of chess itself rather than
simply the boy's progression through the film. When the film puts the game
front and center, Horner responds with a magical touch. Accompanied by
layers of strings and tingling of metallic percussion, Horner's piano is the
instrument chosen to represent the sophistication of the game. First in
"Early Victories," Horner presents the flowing primary theme over a rambling
piano rhythm that shines with exuberance and pride. Another highlight is
"Josh and Vinnie," the most impressive cue on the album, in which the boy
and Laurence Fishburne's hustler character play a rapid game in the park,
culminating at a dizzying pace to an outstanding victory that Horner scores
with his most ambitious material for the film. This piano-rhythm sequence
slowly builds steam over two minutes until once again revealing the title
theme with triumphant power. More intriguingly, this rhythm would be the one
recognized by Horner fans and critics as the one introduced the year prior
in
Sneakers and eventually gracing the openings of
Bicentennial
Man and
A Beautiful Mind. While the overuse of this very similar
progression of chords has often been criticized, its appearance here (and in
A Beautiful Mind) perfectly represents the lightning-fast strokes of
logic at work. The score unfortunately allows the melodramatic string-based
drama to prevail in the championship tournament cues at the end of the film,
and while these are as enjoyable as any other broad Horner theme with
resounding bass, the lack of Horner's precise and intoxicating piano
layering is a shame. Having established the piano rhythms as the musical
identity of the child's genius, Horner strangely abandons it to a large
extent during the final competitions. Still, however, the score works
wonders in many other scenes in the film; its magic is slightly diluted on
album, with several lengthy tracks of pleasant, but uninteresting underscore
yielding only occasionally to the highlighted cues above. Still,
Searching for Bobby Fischer is one out-of-print Horner score that
should merit some searching by any Horner collector.
Score as Heard in Film: ****
Score as Heard on Album: ***
Overall: ***
| Bias Check: | For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.12 (in 89 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.33
(in 158,746 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert notes include information about Horner and the film's director.
