Buy it... if you can never turn away the rambling, shifty piano rhythms that James Horner uses to represent complex minds at work or, on top of that, his broad string-based character themes.

Avoid it... if three or four tracks of the primary, ambitious, rhythmic orchestral theme cannot outweigh the generic atmosphere that stews minimally during the rest of the album.

Horner

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 the ramifications of 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 was stuck in a monumental legal battle of citizenship that landed him for a long time 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 had a tendency at the time to score films about complex personalities (or people with considerable inner-demons) with a sense of muted but dignified restraint. In this score, the French horn offers those dignified solos, and much of the underscore quietly weaves its canvas through 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 will 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, but unlike many similar Horner works that meander through such territory without much volume or distinction, this score does provide a few lasting highlights that make the entire endeavor worthwhile.

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The musical representation for the boy in Searching for Bobby Fischer is elusive. Because his relationship with his parents and peers is cold at best, Horner responds with a similarly distant touch. The boy does have a theme, though that idea is tied more to his achievements in chess and could probably be assigned to the game itself rather than simply the boy's personal development in the story. When the film puts the game front and center, Horner responds with his best material. 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 some of his most ambitious career exclamations. This piano-driven sequence slowly builds steam over two minutes until once again revealing the title theme with triumphant power. More intriguingly, this rhythm would be recognized by listeners as the one introduced the year prior in Sneakers and eventually gracing the openings of Bicentennial Man and A Beautiful Mind, in each case a representation of complex minds or mechanisms at work. 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 on display. The score unfortunately allows the more generically 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 the composer'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 tones yielding only occasionally to the highlighted cues above. Still, Searching for Bobby Fischer is one Horner score that should merit some searching by any enthusiast of the composer.   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Score as Written for the Film: ****
Score as Heard on Album: ***
Overall: ***

Bias Check:

For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.13 (in 98 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25 (in 184,725 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.