Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you can never turn away Horner's rambling piano rhythms and broad character themes for strings. Avoid it... if three or four tracks of ambitious, rhythmic orchestral theme cannot outweigh the generic atmosphere on the rest of the rare album. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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 on Album: *** Overall: *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 49:35
All artwork and sound clips from Searching for Bobby Fischer are Copyright © 1993, Big Screen Records. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/15/98, updated 3/28/05. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 1998-2005, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
