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Unlawful Entry: (James Horner) An interesting premise
occupies
Unlawful Entry, one that elevates the film beyond its
restraints in the cheap thriller category and thrusts it into one of social
drama. A man and his wife --a typical, loving suburban couple consisting of
Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe-- are set up in a false burglary attempt on
their home and are tricked into relying upon the assistance of a cop to
protect them. The cop is a psycho with a good nice-guy look about him,
however, and Ray Liotta does his best to outperform his previous efforts in
exactly the same kind of role. As the corrupt cop works his way into this
couple's lives and eventually lands the husband in jail, we fear for the
innocently vulnerable wife, who not only fails to see this train of passion
steaming towards her, but even gets herself into the 'creepy dark house by
herself' kind of scenarios by the end of film. Until that all-too-familiar
end, the film is somewhat intelligent, but the stereotypical climax is a
disappointment for fans of director Jonathan Kaplan, whose crowing
achievement,
The Accused, and his other films seem to excel at
perpetuating scenes of fear and confusion. For a project that would seem a
perfect fit for the likes of composer Christopher Young, James Horner
instead took the assignment. The year 1992 was one that kept Horner away
from the large orchestral ensembles, with several projects consisting
totally of (or being dominated by) electronics. Very much like
Thunderheart,
Unlawful Entry would be built upon Horner's
keyboarding and four assistant musicians performing solo instruments.
Despite the ensemble of five performers, however, the array of electronics
are clearly at the heart of
Unlawful Entry. The reason for this is
most likely due to budgetary constraints, for there are parts of the score
that would clearly sound superior (as was the case with
The Name of the
Rose) had an orchestra been employed for the performance.
Along with Horner's synthetic keyboarding are usually a
saxophone and regular piano. It's not clear exactly how much of the
percussion is synthetic as well, though some of the metallics do reverberate
with a certain genuine touch. Horner has produced mostly electronic (and
some all-synth) scores that range from decent to quite terrible, and
Unlawful Entry unfortunately rests near the bottom of the barrel.
Generally considered by Horner collectors to be his worst score of the
1990's,
Unlawful Entry simply does not provide enough inspired ideas
to warrant its enjoyment apart of the film, and its presence in the film
itself has the sound of a stock B-film product. The score can be divided
into two sections: the opening and closing credits that merit attention, and
the extremely bland underscore that resides in between. The underscore has
some characteristics from
Thunderheart and
Vibes, especially
with the piano crashes from the former and the bass-heavy droning from the
latter. To end by saying that much of
Unlawful Entry is unpleasant
would be failing to recognize that even in its unpleasantness, there is
little technically in the composition to maintain your interest. The use of
a police siren sound effect produced by the synths in "Leon's Death" is
about the only notable point. The title theme, however, has several very
intriguing elements. First, a piano sets the stage with a truly John
Carpenter-like horror rhythm. The theme itself, performed by subdued sax, is
very elegant in construct, with tragic chord progressions we don't normally
hear from Horner. With the manner in which Horner changes between major and
minor keys, the theme has the very distinct sound of John Ottman (in later
years, of course), and Ottman fans will find much enjoyment in its inherent
darkness. As such, the title theme for
Unlawful Entry absolutely begs
for a fully symphonic recording at some point, with bass strings replacing
the electronic bass, a real choir in place of the fake one, and a brass
section taking the theme. Horner collectors will have to use their
imaginations in the meantime, and fortunately for them, the theme occupies
over seven minutes on album. But if you combine the frustration of this
underdeveloped instrumentation with the dull underscore and a short overall
running time, the album is still extremely disappointing. There is a reason
why its label, Intrada Records, decided to sell it off at 99 cents a piece
in 1998.
*
| Bias Check: | For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.12 (in 89 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.34
(in 158,769 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
