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Review of Bowfinger (David Newman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you appreciate 1970's retro funk in the mould of Lalo
Schifrin, for Bowfinger uses it almost constantly to carry its
cheesy attitude.
Avoid it... if you're a traditional David Newman fan curious about the magnificent three-minute orchestral finale cue that is available on a compilation elsewhere.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Bowfinger: (David Newman) Director Frank Oz's knack
for taking ridiculous concepts and developing them into highly smart,
entertaining films continued with 1999's Bowfinger, a comedy that
pokes fun at Hollywood itself. With in-jokes galore, the script by Steve
Martin is consistently funny from start to finish, especially for
hardcore movie-goers familiar with the workings of the industry. Martin
plays a filmmaker in the dumps, the kind of Ed Wood fanatic who produces
B-rate trash with hearty zeal and decides at the most perilous financial
moment in his life that the alien flick of his dreams is his ticket to
success. He manages to achieve studio approval, but is forced to acquire
an action star played by Eddie Murphy in order to get funding. When
Murphy refuses, Martin's creative genius decides to feature the star
without his knowledge, filming him in random public encounters with the
remainder of the cast and hiring a hopelessly shy and untalented
look-alike for other scenes. Highlighted by Murphy's dual performances,
Bowfinger received praise all around and was a popular success.
The film was just another atypical walk in the park for composer David
Newman, whose career has been largely defined by films that don't make
waves with their underscores. Like many of these projects,
Bowfinger's music on screen is better represented by the numerous
lovable songs licensed for the picture. Still, fans of the composer had
heightened expectations for the project because it was the first venture
for Newman since his Oscar-nominated (and certainly award-worthy) work
for Fox's animated musical Anastasia. In terms of style, you
couldn't get music any further from Anastasia than
Bowfinger, which relies on a small jazz and funk band for the
majority of its running time before unleashing one monumental orchestral
theme at its triumphant conclusion. Fans of Lalo Schifrin 1960's and
1970's pizzazz, it's time to perk up, for Bowfinger swaggers into
a cool territory that was experiencing a renaissance in the late 1990's.
The ensemble for the majority of Bowfinger consists of two
guitars, trumpet, bass, sax, drums, and keyboards, one of the last of
which is programmed as a cheesy and obnoxious hammond organ.
The retro style of the band is consistent in its upbeat, funky attitude during its entire length, often allowing simple, quirky rhythms to carry on for a minute or so in length before yielding to the next variation on the same general idea. Don't be looking for any themes or intelligent development in the score's jazzy, soul-influenced personality. Brightly showcased, that enthusiastic style busts the funk-o-meter in all but a couple of slightly suspenseful moments of pseudo tension. This is, after all, a parody of alien invasion movies of yesteryear, though Newman makes no real attempt to offer music appropriate to the sub-film within the story. Much of Newman's music is identical to that of the Major League baseball films... adequate comedy flick fun, but somewhat repetitive and pointless. Luckily, it lasts only 15 minutes and represents many smaller cues mixed together into suites (which works best because Bowfinger doesn't feature the type of underscore that is built around slapstick one-liner cues, or the quick, spastic hits of the ensemble that usually accompany such action on screen). The curious (and redeeming) aspect of Bowfinger is the three-minute orchestral cue at the end, with possibly the most powerful statement of theme from Newman since Hoffa. Not only are its bold horns completely out of place, but they tease fans of Newman's career with a cue that could very well have been a preview of the heroic theme to Galaxy Quest. A rhythm preceding this finale crescendo is interestingly similar to one of Jerry Goldsmith's Small Soldiers subthemes. Overall, the Bowfinger album only offers 18 minutes of score material and the two minutes of "Fed Ex Delivers" isn't worth the price of the album despite its strength. The longer half of the album is devoted to the equally retro songs that are likely to attract more mainstream attention to the product. While Johnny Adams' song at the very start tops the list in terms of style, it's hard to argue with the appeal of Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man." Newman fans eager to purchase only the three minutes of music recorded at the Newman Scoring Stage were treated to an encore offering of that cue on Varèse Sarabande's "Themes from The Phantom Menace and Other Film Hits" compilation from November of 1999. The cue does not, interestingly, appear on any of the label's large 25th or 30th anniversary sets. In sum, this one snippet of movie magic won't be worth the full score album for the majority of score fans. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 41:21
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Bowfinger are Copyright © 1999, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 9/3/99 and last updated 4/28/08. |
