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Release Date:
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September 22nd, 2002
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you enjoy Ottman's ability to produce intelligent,
harmonious music with small ensembles for unlikely genres.
Avoid it... if the intelligence of similar Ottman compositions is too
restrained for you by their limited scope and instrumentation.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Ottman | |
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Trapped: (John Ottman) Taking a greater quantity of
scoring assignments for films below the mainstream radar, John Ottman scored
more films in 2002 than in any other year in his career. The quality of the
films, both on the big screen and on cable television, were often suspect
(although it's hard to qualify Eight Legged Freaks because it was so
intentionally bad), and Ottman would follow with a strong pair of front-line
projects in 2003. For the 2002 psychological suspense thriller
Trapped, Ottman would have use his creative talents to compensate for
a tiny music budget. The film presented a well-rounded cast, telling the
story of an abduction for ransom in which a criminal (Kevin Bacon) and his
wife (Courtney Love) trap two parents in separate locations while a third
accomplice kidnaps their daughter. The mental breakdown of Bacon's character
through the course of the film, as well as the strong emotional bond between
the kidnapped girl and her mother (Charlize Theron), help the film deviate
from the normal course of ransom films. The initial inclination for the
score to the film involved the typical fright and flight approach, pounding
and screeching with terror while providing dissonant underscore the majority
of the process. But both Ottman and director Luis Mandoki agreed that this
stereotypical sound would be out of place in Trapped, and the
composer and director followed an agreeable evolution of ideas when
considering the more harmonious approach that could be used for the
emotional appeal of the film. No matter Ottman's result, he didn't have much
to work with. Due to budget constraints, the film continuously dropped
source music, putting a greater burden on Ottman to conjure up music for
elements in the film as specific as cartoon jingles heard on a television
screen in the background of a scene. A sudden, last minute addition of main
titles would level out the score at 85 minutes.
With four weeks to compose and only 17 hours to record,
Ottman was limited to 20 orchestral musicians. The majority of musical
instruments, therefore, would have to be simulated and performed
electronically by Ottman himself. But if Ottman has proven one thing as a
certainty in his early career efforts, it's an ability to write creative
music and suffice with less than perfect recording ensembles. In addition to
his synthesizers, Ottman utilized a piano, a few woodwinds, and some strings
for the bulk of his effort, and with this small group in mind, Ottman wrote
a score that very rarely relies on loud strikes of the instruments. The most
notable explosion of typical horror writing comes as a frightening surprise
in the middle of the "Abduction" cue, following what was otherwise a
pleasant, major-key set of cues establishing the bond of the family. One of
Ottman's two themes for the film would build upon the family connection,
established with the piano (the traditional instrument of the suburban
home), while the other would represent the primary criminal (Bacon) and his
mental collapse. The latter theme would be represented as the primary theme
of the film as Ottman was asked to score more reels of the project. In later
tracks, the suspense builds moderately though the use of tense strings and
rumbling base on the synthesizers, but Ottman maintains a remarkable flow of
rhythm and heartfelt emotion throughout the score. It's not melodic up
front, but it isn't pounding in intensity either, allowing the action and
dialogue on screen to speak for itself. This somewhat hands-off approach to
scoring the more obvious emotions of the film assists the score in avoiding
the pitfalls of horror efforts, but at the same time, lulls the listener of
the score alone to sleep. Ottman pulls off an authentic score given the
circumstances, except perhaps for the final "Crazy Rescue" cue on album,
which exposes some of the keyboarding and electronic percussion as
two-dimensional and a bit flat. It's an intelligent score, but restrained by
its limited scope and instrumentation. A generous 65 minutes on album may be
too much, and it could be combined by the listener with the similarly-minded
Lake Placid on the same album for better enjoyment. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Main Titles (1:29)
• 2. Goodbyes (1:25)
• 3. Abduction (3:10)
• 4. Plan of Seduction (8:12)
• 5. Cat in Heaven (0:53)
• 6. Inconvenient Call (5:29)
• 7. The Mood for Love (5:23)
• 8. He Will Kill (4:40)
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• 9. Hotel Visitors/Screw Up (4:23)
• 10. Like Mother Like Daughter (1:23)
• 11. Paralysis (4:22)
• 12. Does He Know?/Dust (2:14)
• 13. It's Showtime (8:16)
• 14. Temporary Reunion (3:18)
• 15. Bad Game (2:18)
• 16. Crazy Rescue (7:19)
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Insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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