Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #905
Written 4/2/04, Revised 10/12/11
Invert Colors
Buy it... if you value scores that rank highly on the "fun meter,"
in this case a George S. Clinton parody jab drenched in personality,
rhythm, funk, and distinct Hawaiian flavor.
Avoid it... if a Hawaiian lap steel, a ukulele, a baritone sax, and
lazy jazz rhythms earn the same disdain with which you hold Elmore
Leonard's equally quirky stories.
 |
| Clinton |
The Big Bounce: (George S. Clinton) The stories of
writer Elmore Leonard have inspired over 30 feature films over several
decades, and it seems that each of those adaptations does its best to
capture and extend Leonard's distinct voice onto the big screen. Sadly,
most of them are unsuccessful in providing movie-goers with the same
delight that the original written stories do, with the film director's
own voice (such as Barry Sonnenfeld for Get Shorty, Quentin
Tarantino for Jackie Brown, and Steven Soderbergh for Out of
Sight, just to mention some of the more recent Leonard adaptations)
often pushing the original flavor to a distant corner where only the
elaborately designed characters themselves are left to project the
author's genius. Few will argue that Leonard's plots, however, are as
attractive as his characters in the first place, and The Big
Bounce falls along similar lines. This remake of a forgotten 1969
adaptation did attract some high acting talent for its often outrageous
characters, but outside of a casual 2:00 a.m. television viewing when
you have insomnia, the result is not something to look forward to. The
film was equally assaulted by critics and audiences during a dull period
of cinema in early 2004, and it faded quickly from theatres. Lacking any
kind of narrative flow or logical plot, the film attempted to enchant
you with its quirky personality, and a key ingredient in brewing that
appeal is the score by George S. Clinton. No stranger to the outrageous,
the contemporary, and the funky, Clinton was probably best known in the
film score industry at the time for his efforts to bring retro-styled
coolness to the Austin Powers franchise. If you're in the mood
for his kind of modern, uncomplicated funk, then both the Austin
Powers scores and The Big Bounce will serve you well, the
latter thankfully leaving behind most of the 1960's influences. To get a
feeling for the laid-back personality of The Big Bounce, imagine
the same general elements and saucy atmosphere of Clinton's strangely
addictive music for Wild Things and project them into a dance of
the major key with an overflow of Hawaiian spice. It's for movies like
The Big Bounce that Clinton writes some of his best material, and
in this circumstance he does not disappoint.
Hidden in this seemingly ridiculous, tongue and cheek
score is music that is, compared to the vast majority of soundtracks on
the market in the digital age, remarkably original in tone and bursting
with personality at every moment. To achieve a sound appropriate for a
scene of absurd Hawaiian crime in
The Big Bounce, Clinton lays
down a bed of slow, lazy jazz rhythms below instrumentation that you
don't often hear in post-2000 scores but is remarkably effective in its
jabs at Hawaiian stereotypes. An orchestra consisting of a moderate
string section, a handful of woodwinds, a few French horns, and a
percussionist or two plays a purely background role to the soloists who
perform on the Hawaiian lap steel, ukulele, baritone sax, and more
contemporary percussion. The lap steel, ukulele, and flighty woodwinds
(in the innocent style of yesteryear) cause the score to drip with
common conceptions of Hawaiian flavor, almost to a fault, but keep in
mind that the characters and location in the plot are just as much "over
the top" as the score, so the tone well serves the comedy purposes. The
sax ripples with the familiar burps and echoes heard in
Wild
Things, and while
The Big Bounce churns with the same sensual
rhythms as the prior score, Clinton replaces the heavy drums and
electric guitars with the plucking string section of the orchestra,
producing a more high-crime, big-band era feel. The brass section seems
to only perform in "The Body" near the end, while the piano often
rumbles through soft and pleasant themes when the score is at its most
sincere. Those hearty moments, however, are not the fun parts of
The
Big Bounce. If you get hooked on this score, then it will be cues
such as "Upstairs/Downstairs," which allows the deep sax to set the most
purely infectious rhythm of the score, and "Main Title," which unleashes
all of the sound effects and specialty instruments in one piano-rambling
statement of the main theme, complete with the simply hilarious sounds
of male exertion. You almost wish these expressions ("Hay!" and "Hee!")
were included throughout the rest of the score. The sappy finale cue,
"Sail Away," concludes with 45 ultra-happy seconds of carefree ensemble
joy reminiscent of Randy Newman's 1950's throwback tones. There is
personality in
The Big Bounce that reminds of early Danny Elfman
in its ability to be thoroughly silly without restraint, and if you
enjoy scores that rank highly on the "fun meter," then
The Big
Bounce will cause you to leak some energy out of your feet.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
