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Review of The Blind Side (Carter Burwell)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you desire only the short and predictable but basically effective orchestral score for this popular film and four of the two dozen songs heard in the context of the story on screen.

Avoid it... if you expect a soundtrack album with a satisfying narrative, because the majority of the source songs are missing and Carter Burwell's score meanders adequately through genres without much cohesion.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The Blind Side: (Carter Burwell) Among the most surprising box office success stories of 2009 is The Blind Side, a small-budget sports movie that tells the tale of a real life success story on the gridiron of the football field. Director John Lee Hancock had tested similar territory with 2002's The Rookie, though the resoundingly positive work-of-mouth involving Sandra Bullock's performance in the lead role of The Blind Side caused the film to take on a life of its own. Bullock had originally turned down the role because she was uncomfortable portraying a devout Christian when she herself was disillusioned with those who preach the faith without living by its moral guidelines. But she eventually accepted the role at reduced pay and, supported by an outstanding performance and her husband's infidelity at the time, became not only a darling of the industry, but an Academy Award winner as well. In The Blind Side, her rich Southern character generously adopts a well-natured, immense black boy who is academically challenged but extremely protective, the latter making him quickly accomplished as an offensive lineman in football. The adopting family, with the help of a hired tutor, assists the boy in achieving the minimum grades to play college football with a scholarship, and he eventually succeeds to a degree that he is chosen high in the NFL draft and plays professionally. The feel good story, as well as Bullock's appeal, afforded The Blind Side a delayed but massive series of earnings many weeks after its debut, eventually grossing over $300 million. For Hancock's previous two directorial projects of the decade, The Rookie and The Alamo, he had turned to chameleon film composer Carter Burwell to provide affordable orchestral and/or contemporary tones, and the equation isn't radically different in The Blind Side. Burwell's role in the production was relatively minor due to the insertion of almost two dozen songs for use throughout the film, ranging in genre and age considerably. The success of The Blind Side must have caught Warner Brothers by enough surprise for the studio to overlook the usual song compilation soundtrack companion on album; even after the returns came in, Warner still didn't produce a soundtrack that could have yielded quite a few units sold. The studio's music branch did, however, release Burwell's score with four of the source songs on a short, primarily download-only album. While nothing in Burwell's 27 minutes on that product will compete with his most inspired material, it is far from controversial and makes for a pleasant, though somewhat disjointed and predictable listening experience that lacks much narrative flow.

Stylistically, Burwell handles The Blind Side with predictable methodology but doesn't quite bring all of its disparate pieces together into a cohesive whole. He hired a limited orchestral ensemble in Seattle to supplement performances on a number of acoustic and electric guitars, piano, percussion, and other specialty soloists, with synthesized atmospherics (in the form of vague choral tones) sometimes lending added depth as well. Because the film has to juggle the topics of brash football attitude, hip contemporary style, and wholesome orchestral melody, the score for The Blind Side ends up tackling all three without really excelling at any of them. The score's most attractive theme exists for the hip, contemporary aspect, heard immediately in "To Protect His Blind Side" and consisting of simple descending phrases of easy coolness over ascending electric bass lines. In several subsequent cues, most notably "The Hang of It," Burwell fleshes the idea out with a variety of clapping and tapping enthusiasm and eventually orchestral backing. The same formula exists in "Summer Training," the electric guitar beginning to really infuse a Western flavor with enough twang to represent the South. By "Thank Me Later," more aggressive percussive rhythms and keyboarding over standard Western band elements steer the score towards its ballsy material in the midsection as "The First Game" and "Gridiron Machine" intensify the hard-ass aspect of the on-field activities. After this extremely harsh duo of cues, Burwell returns to softer acoustic shades in "Inspired Play" and "The Art of Recruiting," slightly retro keyboarding and rhythms reminding somewhat of Marvin Hamlisch's vintage music. The clapping effects are a bit obnoxious, but these passages are mostly harmless, looped expressions of the title theme and its occasional interludes for orchestra. The orchestra really starts to take over in the score during its final third, naturally, when the feel-good part of the story's conclusion is really pressed. A touch of Western pizzazz from The Hi-Lo Country represents the best of Burwell's usual, abnormally jumpy progressions. Lovely trumpet solos in the latter half of "The Light Brigade" and strings and woodwinds in the following two cues are generic but touching. Most engaging is "My Son Michael," a hint of Conspiracy Theory's theme eventually succumbing to gorgeous piano solos that exude a sense of the Old South. Overall, there's nothing really wrong with any of these portions of the score, but Burwell doesn't have much time to overlap these stylistic identities with much satisfaction. In some ways, it seems like he took the easy route with the electronic half of the score, because Jerry Goldsmith definitely proved with Rudy that these personal growth sports scores don't have to cater to conventions. Burwell's approach seems to echo John Debney's rejected work for Remember the Titans, though, and at the very least, those techniques suffice.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 39:31

• 1. To Protect His Blind Side (1:04) • 2. Cello Song - performed by The Books and Jose Gonzales (3:52) • 3. All Things Are Possible/Your Father (2:16) • 4. Osmosis (1:10) • 5. The Hang of It (0:50) • 6. Unsquare Dance - performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet (2:01) • 7. Eviction (1:01) • 8. Summer Training (1:34) • 9. Moms (1:11) • 10. Thank Me Later (1:47) • 11. Part of the Family (1:13) • 12. The First Game (1:13) • 13. Gridiron Machine (1:30) • 14. Inspired Play (1:37) • 15. Taming Lions (1:35) • 16. The Art of Recruiting (2:21) • 17. The Light Brigade (2:42) • 18. Michael Graduates (0:49) • 19. It's Your Life (1:16) • 20. My Son Michael (2:04) • 21. Going Up the Country - performed by Canned Heat (2:52) • 22. Chances - performed by Five for Fighting (3:33)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film. As in many of Amazon.com's "CDr on demand" products, the packaging smells incredibly foul when new.

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