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| Poledouris |
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Switchback: (Basil Poledouris) After a successful
screenplay for
The Fugitive, Jeb Stuart wrote and directed for
the first time in
Switchback, a taut serial killer and chase
thriller that weaves its way through the picturesque Rocky Mountains.
Unlike many films in its genre,
Switchback uses lengthy screen
time setting up its primary four characters for their ultimate showdown,
a conclusion not perhaps as intelligent as its setup. Respectably good,
but ultimately forgettable, the film featured a score by veteran
composer Basil Poledouris, who was in the last flurry of superior
mainstream activity before his career slowly descended into obscurity.
The year of 1997 was particularly fruitful for Poledouris, with both
Breakdown and
Switchback providing the vast expanses of
America's landscape with suspenseful and occasionally explosive scores,
and topping off the year with
Starship Troopers, which commanded
a larger, sci-fi oriented audience. None of the three scores,
interestingly, was initially treated with an album that satisfied
Poledouris' fans, though the 2000 release of
Switchback by
Intrada Records is both definitive and, for the label, historically
significant. The contents of Poledouris' score are predictable and won't
break any new ground for the vast majority of the composer's collectors.
The style of the music is at the upper end of your run of the mill,
stock action variety, utilizing elements all very familiar to
Poledouris' career. A brass and percussion-heavy orchestral mix is
augmented by unique sound design, and the few cues that combine the
composer's tendency to create strong rhythms with his electronics and
let rip with muscular orchestral action over the top are the
highlights.
The brutally propulsive aspect of Poledouris' writing
in these circumstances is quite entertaining, though you hear less of
that sound in
Switchback than you might expect. That, combined
with a rather flimsy thematic design throughout the score (and
surprisingly so), creates a sufficient score that is interesting on
album, but nothing more. Poledouris uses a straightforward three-note
structure as the thematic basis for the work, always progressing through
the notes in the same major-key scheme but often involving the idea
inside other fragmented statements. You hear this idea immediately on
flute at the start of "Going West," and the most forceful permutations
exist on blaring brass in "Buck's Sendoff" and "Rude Awakening." The
simplicity of the theme afforded Poledouris easy functionality (a tactic
that Jerry Goldsmith used for his stock action scores like
U.S.
Marshals at the time), but it doesn't provide for a particularly
melodic listening experience. None of the three-note variations really
has time to sink it. During the conclusion of "Andy's Return,"
Poledouris does explore a more extended, lyrical idea, both at the start
and end of that redeeming cue. The bold, harmonic statements by brass in
Switchback are often ambiguous in theme, but they, like the rest
of the score, compensate with the sheer power and size of the performing
orchestra. The Seattle recording quality is better than some that came
from the region at the time, and it is because of the elevated volume of
the ensemble that
Switchback is a functional score in its action
sequences. Lesser motifs do tend, like the title theme variants, to get
lost in the equation.
Only once the "218" train (a character in and of
itself) becomes involved well into the film does Poledouris kick the
score into its highest gear, utilizing an impressive array of timpani,
electronic rhythms, and brass. The use of drums and synthesizers to
mimic the chugging of a steam train (twice in the last moments of "The
218") is entertainingly creative. Several of the cues in the middle
portion of the album are disappointingly bland, with extended moments of
slightly dissonant, ambient electronic droning that plays poorly on
album. On the other hand, one positive aspect of the score's
non-descript action cues and minimally textured conversational cues is
the consistency that they create on album. Without one dominant theme or
motif, the score has no particular high or low points; it melds together
for 40+ minutes of leveled background music. The product was the first
volume in Intrada's long line of "Special Collection" releases, and sold
out relatively quickly. It established the high production values that
producer Douglass Fake has instilled on the entire series. For a
complete listening experience, the outtakes and electronic cues of
ambience from
Switchback are presented in a suite at the end of
the album, with only some slight rearrangement of previous cues for
purposes of flow. Meanwhile,
Switchback is a good score for
appreciation by Poledouris collectors, but it doesn't feature the
outward highlights that
Starship Troopers,
Under Siege 2,
or others of the era contain. It may attract attention from fans of
Goldsmith's conservative action scores of the 1990's, though with its
scarcity on the market, it may not be worth the expense.
*** Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
| Bias Check: | For Basil Poledouris reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.47 (in 33 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.27
(in 32,977 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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