Air Force One: (Jerry Goldsmith/Joel McNeely/Randy
Newman) There was a period in Hollywood when depictions of the President
of the United States on the big screen showed men younger and skilled
with weaponry, and perhaps the most ridiculous height of these fantasies
came with Wolfgang Peterson's shamelessly patriotic
Air Force One
in 1997. The summer blockbuster gave audiences Harrison Ford as the
leader of the free world, Glenn Close as his vice president, and Gary
Oldman as the sinister Russian rebel who hijacks Air Force One on a
return trip from Moscow. The plot is relatively simple (the plane itself
receives it's due share of glory) and the film cruised to lofty
earnings. Like many intentionally over-the-top action scenarios,
Air
Force One requires the suspension of logical thought from start to
finish, and in an effort to accomplish some semblance of believability,
a dead serious action score is mandatory. Unfortunately for the
director, his employment of composer Randy Newman for the assignment was
a woeful mistake. Newman was indeed revered for his ability to capture
the essence of "Americana" in his scores, from
The Natural and
Avalon through
Pleasantville and beyond. But his
reputation had been built and maintained in the realm of his children's
film scoring, with the success of
Toy Story and Newman's plethora
of quirky and jazzy songs defining his career. It should have come as no
surprise to Peterson that Newman would write a somewhat silly, mocking
score for
Air Force One; he had never tackled an action film of
this blockbuster size before, and he obviously looked at the genre with
a sense of amusement rather than one of serious intent. Newman's score
would still manage to offer a significant amount of viable action
material in parts, using the logical choices of brass and snare to lead
his fully orchestral ensemble (along with a few lightly synthesized
effects). But this action material would fall into the trap of comedy
action writing, attempting to move from motif to motif, rhythm to rhythm
far too quickly for the accompanying scene to receive the sense of
gravity it required.
Randy Newman's action cues for
Air Force One would
make for an interesting listen apart from the film, and they have been
highly praised through the years. Composer Hans Zimmer once indicated
that he considered these cues superior to any he had written at the
time. Several distinct sequences would be seemingly reprised by Basil
Poledouris in his forthcoming score for
Starship Troopers.
Critics awarded significant praise to Newman's score when it was leaked
almost immediately as a promo CD to the collecting community. But there
are significant weaknesses in Newman's score outside of a handful of the
more consistent action cues. His themes, simply put, are atrocious for
the genre. His concoction for the president includes a rollicking rhythm
and jovial fanfare that places the film just one step away from your
local carnival. Used in full during the early motorcade and
hostage-freeing scenes, this theme would have been horrifyingly trivial
in its futile attempts to infuse any sense of sincerity into the office
of the president or his plane. In both structure and frivolous
character, the theme mirrors the identity of David Newman's
Galaxy
Quest to a substantial degree. Equally dumb in a mock fashion is
Randy Newman's theme for the Russians and their general, nearing the
realm of parody in its prancing movements. His theme for the first
family is adequate, though inconsequential. On the whole, his score is
embarrassingly inappropriate in tone, despite the quality of a few
individual action cues. Newman recorded an hour of material for the film
before getting cut off by Peterson, who, with the release date of the
film fast approaching, must have been experiencing a serious case of
red-ass upon hearing Newman's recordings. There is no indication that
Newman recorded music for either the opening credits or the final
fifteen minutes of the film (and end credits). With only twelve days in
which to record a replacement score, action veteran Jerry Goldsmith
would make an attempt to save Peterson's film. Knowing that he couldn't
accomplish the task alone, Goldsmith initially asked his son, Joel, to
assist him in providing some of the music. Being unavailable, Goldsmith
turned to rising composer Joel McNeely for assistance, and received
superior results.
After the fact, Goldsmith would claim that he would never
again attempt such a last minute effort. And yet, by almost all
accounts, the work that he and McNeely provided
Air Force One is
exactly what Peterson was looking for. Despite its effectiveness,
though, Goldsmith's no-nonsense action style is derivative of his other
works; originality wasn't a luxury afforded by time. He wrote all of the
themes and motifs for the film and passed them on for McNeely to
interpret as necessary. The three concepts for which Goldsmith would
write themes would mirror the choices made by Newman, but they're
executed in a far more conventional way. The title theme is a somewhat
transparent re-working of the primary theme for
Star Trek: First
Contact from six months prior, replacing the stark nobility of the
prior theme with instrumentation of a more patriotic slant. Its blatant
heroic statements are the polar opposite of Newman's leading theme in
attitude and distinction, and while they may be slightly obnoxious in
their patriotism, they match the flamboyant displays in the film quite
well. Also owing a page to
Star Trek: First Contact is the
construct of the softer, woodwind-based family theme heard most
prominently in "No Security." The Russians are given two motifs that
eventually blend into one spectacular moment of General Radek's death
near the end of the film. First introduced in the latter half of "The
Parachutes," this material would evolve into a grim snare march under
stereotypically rigid Russian progressions for low strings and brass in
the film's latter half. Goldsmith rarely has written for Russian
settings, with the only other memorable use late in his career coming in
The Sum of All Fears, but McNeely on the other hand provided a
lavish, heavily choral Russian piece for the little know film
Virus not long after
Air Force One, leading some to
incorrectly believe that McNeely was the original source of this music
in
Air Force One. The idea, however, was indeed Goldsmith's, and
it should once again be noted that McNeely's job in providing support
for Goldsmith was strictly in the interpolation department.
Ever since his
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
featured some fantastic adaptations of John Williams' style, McNeely has
been known as a composer talented enough to mirror the style of anyone,
which is partly why he's made such a competent conductor of
re-recordings in the subsequent decade. All of McNeely's contributions
to
Air Force One came in the second act, and contrary to rumors,
some of these cues are major action pieces (including all the scenes in
which the plane is fired upon by friend and foe). The impression that
McNeely handled the table scraps is incorrect; his impact on several
scenes late in the film is significant, and many of the bland moments of
underscore during dialogue scenes are actually Goldsmith's work.
McNeely's adaptations of Goldsmith's themes for
Air Force One are
outstanding, even extending to the style of Goldsmith's stock 90's
action material. He uses all of Goldsmith's themes, including the family
theme and liberal usage of the Russian material. He also does a very
competent job of altering the static title theme to some interesting
variants by using key shifts and note substitutions worthy of praise. As
for Goldsmith's own material, the "Hijacking" cue is among his more
interesting 90's action music, though much of the rest sounds like stock
insertions from the same library of study. He uses absolutely no
synthetic elements in
Air Force One, though, a rarity at the time
for Goldsmith. McNeely utilizes a slight electronic rhythm-setter at the
outset of the attack by Russian planes. The finale cue of "Welcome
Aboard, Sir" takes substantial structural inspiration from the finale of
Rudy (sharing the same feel-good attitude down to the precise
instrumentation). Other small references can be made to the harsher
brass usage in
The Shadow. On the whole, the score has few truly
standout Goldsmith moments, including "The Hijacking" and latter half of
"The Parachutes" (the closing chimes are a nice touch), but the rest
fails to attract much attention when compared to Goldsmith's standard
output at the time. The truly interesting action material to be
considered is indeed McNeely's, as well as the development of the
Russian motifs by both composers.
The album situation for
Air Force One has always
been a terrible mess, begging for some kind of expanded treatment in
honor of the now-deceased Goldsmith. The Randy Newman score, as
mentioned before, was leaked for public consumption not long after the
film's release, and features two dozen tracks that were initially
unlabeled but have since been given their proper titles. The sound
quality on the pseudo-promo turned bootleg is decent enough not to be an
issue. The commercial Varèse Sarabande release of the final score
for
Air Force One has been a touchy subject, both for fans and
for the label. The release contained only about one-third of the
recorded music from the film and presented its limited contents out of
order. Additionally, while stating on the packaging that there exists
"additional music in the picture by Joel McNeely," none of that material
made it onto their album. While the two major action pieces highlighting
the score are present on the 35-minute Varèse product, most of
the Russian material is absent. This includes the extremely popular
choral rendition of the Russian theme as the General is ceremoniously
released from jail and then killed (the preceding song sung by the
inmates is a traditional piece not written by any of the composers for
the score). Given that
Air Force One really needed at least a
45-minute album (but more likely a 60-minute one) to provide all of the
noteworthy thematic material, the Varèse album has been ridiculed
for ten years. This is an obvious sore point for the label, which claims
to this day that it could not afford the re-use fees on any more of the
music, especially the choral piece. Not surprisingly, the fans took care
of their own problem by defying Varèse with a double CD bootleg
that has famously circulated around the collector's market for years.
While being complete, its sound quality is the primary issue. The
Goldsmith material lifted from Varèse's album, as well as
McNeely's contributions (which was leaked on his own promo), sound
great. In fact, the McNeely portions are nothing short of spectacular in
mixing quality. But the additional Goldsmith material is badly muted and
difficult to enjoy. This includes the famed choral piece, which
continues to elude collectors in its pristine form. Overall, the
Varèse album will satisfy the casual collector, and the bootleg
will reward you with McNeely's music. But there is no satisfactory
presentation of this score in existence, and despite its undeserved
hype, the Newman bootleg is no solution either. Approach the market for
this score with lowered expectations.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Randy Newman's Score: **
- Jerry Goldsmith's Score: ***
- Joel McNeely's Contribution: ****
- Varèse Sarabande Album: **
- Bootleg Albums: ***
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.29
(in 113 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.3
(in 143,216 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
None of the albums' inserts include any extra information about the film or scores.
