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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Breakdown (Basil Poledouris/Various)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on the comprehensive 3-CD set of 2011 only if you can
swallow the bittersweet pill of knowing how good Basil Poledouris'
original version of this score was before being absolutely butchered by
a director with no musical sense.
Avoid it... if you prefer not to be frustrated by the backstory of this unfortunate turn in Poledouris' career, for the replacement score is so hideously passionless and desolate that it merits no place in your collection.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Breakdown: (Basil Poledouris/Various) Rearranged
formula concepts don't usually work as well as Breakdown, but the
1997 movie took some of the best elements from predecessors like The
Vanishing and Duel and assembled one of the most satisfying
entries in the "roadside suspense" subgenre. As part of the actor's
transformation into an everyday type of guy, Kurt Russell plays a man
who is driving with his wife across America's Southwest when the pair
have a road rage encounter with a local man in a pickup truck. When the
couple's Jeep breaks down a short time later, they are offered
assistance by a nice semi trucker who takes the wife to get help. She
disappears, of course, and the husband spends the rest of the movie
tracking down and exacting justice upon the redneck gang of kidnappers
and extorters. It once again is the type of topic that AAA hates to see
made into films, because it could make average suburbanites terrified of
traveling the dusty roads of America and encountering its human scum.
The film was met with positive reviews and decent box office success,
remaining well respected as the initial mainstream entry for director
Jonathan Mostow. Unfortunately, Breakdown represented a
significant turning point for composer Basil Poledouris, who, in his
later years, became disillusioned with the Hollywood scoring process in
part because of his nightmare during this assignment. In fact, at least
some of the composer's decision to restrict his workload at the end of
the 1990's was due to Mostow, a director with a generally poor musical
sense when it comes to his movies. Aside from a few highlights in
U-571, Mostow's involvement in the oversight of the music in that
film, Breakdown, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and
Surrogates (his only films during this period) has proven him to
be a poor judge of the boundaries between music and sound design, the
latter element seemingly his primary desire even in situations that
require the kind of emotional connection that only more traditionally
melodic music can provide. Lots of directors make these choices, but few
do so with such detrimental results to their own pictures.
Breakdown is the perfect example of this directorial incompetence, a diverse orchestral and synthetic hybrid score by Poledouris rejected in favor of ambient sound effects. It was a rare occasion in which a composer was allowed to stay on the project even after nearly his entire score had been rejected. Poledouris worked tirelessly to first reshape and then totally reconceptualize the score, only to see some of his music supplanted by electronic effects by his own assistants and Richard Marvin, Mostow's regular collaborator. Eventually, five artists "wrote" the music for Breakdown, despite Poledouris' solo credit in most circumstances. The original vision of Poledouris for the film involved an approach very similar to what Jerry Goldsmith would likely have taken to the topic. He started with a melodic orchestral foundation to address the human drama of the story and then layered electronic dissonance and Native American drum and percussion samples to represent the alienation inherent in the natural desolation of the Southwest landscape. The symphonic portion of his first score is restrained but harmonically engaging. It's pure Poledouris in its mannerisms, sometimes bursting with action motifs reminiscent of RoboCop. He uses an acoustic guitar rhythm to set the pace of the story, starting immediately over the "Main Titles." Over this, strings perform the long, primary theme with subtle brass counterpoint and swooshing sound effects emulating tires on a road. The somewhat somber but driving, pretty demeanor of this theme extends into the initial panic cues, slowly stripping away the instrumentation to enhance the alienating effect. The guitar seems to represent the rambling, endless expanse of the open roads (without sounding Latin, remarkably), revisited keenly in "Route 7-North." Undoubtedly, the latter cue is a highlight of the composer's output during the 1990's, so adeptly conveying a sense of rhythmic propulsion through his various tools without losing the element of fear. In its fifth minute, its rhythms accelerate to match the best foundations of the composer's action music of the era. There is a certain touch of Bernard Herrmann fear built into "Leaving Belle's" and "The Bank," too, the former using timpani very wisely to denote an increasing sense of growing panic at the 1:00 mark (and partially surviving in the final score). As Russell's character begins to strike back at the abductors, however, Poledouris shifts into a mode that his collectors will recognize from his music for Steven Seagal movies earlier in the decade (On Deadly Ground and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory). Unlike those earlier works, however, the first Breakdown score never loses its dramatic appeal, constantly addressing the agony of the leading couple through morbidly propulsive orchestral rhythms. Various rattling and drum effects are very well utilized in Breakdown as well, joining stark, sampled plucking and other brief synthetic interludes for the necessary discomfort. From "The Bank" to "Truck Ramming," Poledouris employs a distant electronic groaning effect that seems to match the mechanical death call of a semi truck. In "Bringing Money to Earl," an EVI (or electronic wind) instrument produces the most eerie of these effects (akin to parts of Cherry 2000), though the glimmer of hope felt by the main character allows this material to be overtaken by woodwinds in beautiful harmony. This cue may be the origin of the problems for Poleoduris, for the EVI would come to represent the tragedy of this score's dismemberment. Mostow clearly wanted a more ambient tone for Breakdown, so with the help of assistant Eric Colvin, the composer wrote second versions of many of his cues, deemphasizing the orchestral mix in favor of the already applied sampled elements. Most of Poledouris' hour-long score was tweaked or completely redone, though even in this material, the composer's melodic sense for the character was apparently too strong for Mostow. At some point in the re-write process, either due to time constraints or frustration, Mostow started working with Colvin, mixer Tim Boyle, EVI performer Judd Miller, percussionist Steve Forman, and Richard Marvin on rearranging or outright replacing Poledouris' material. While Poledouris continued to influence a fair number of cues in respect to the placement of the sampled elements, major parts of the score were eventually credited to these other artists. Some of Poledouris' scaled down orchestral recordings were maintained in the film's third and final score, though much of the robust, propulsive cohesiveness is lost. Ironically, only the "End Credits" cue really touches upon the human drama that had been evident in earlier versions of the music. The rest of it is a mess and proves Mostow a complete fool in regards to his direction of the soundtrack. The ensemble team made the EVI the centerpiece of the score, its high pitched whines opening the picture and defining most of its suspense. The instrument performs a three note phrase from Poledouris' previous theme for the film, but this usage is so fragmentary that it is largely pointless. The final score is a meandering stew of sound effects and dreary atmosphere meant to make the environment even more forbidding. Unfortunately, in the film, this approach greatly diminishes the passion of Russell's character during his desperate search. It also makes for a sleep-inducing listening experience on album, the pitch of the EVI and lack of Poledouris' deep suspense in a cue like "Route 7-North" draining all the interest out of the score and substantially decreasing the impact of the movie. The opening half hour of Breakdown is especially damaged by Mostow's choices, for this portion of Poleoduris' first score so masterfully balances the orchestral and electronic sides of the soundscape that it makes for a very smooth listening experience in the suspense genre. Ultimately, the final score for Breakdown is obnoxious and simplistic in the movie, testimony to Mostow's poor judgment and clear retribution in support of Poledouris. After all, if the director wants to ruin his own film, who's to stop him? The tragedy about Breakdown was not only its effect on Poledouris' subsequent career decisions but also its representation of larger negative trends in film scoring caused by the invention of more genuine sampling technologies. The final and rejected scores were long collectible items on the bootleg market until La-La Land Records pressed a 3-CD set in 2011 containing both the rejected Poledouris scores and the final group effort. The final score (on CD #1) is unlistenable apart from a few flourishes of Poledouris' original intent, and the first attempt to redo the music (on CD #3) is painful because of the composer's obvious struggles to minimize the damage to that original intent. The second CD in that set contains the original score, however, and this is a very strong listening experience, especially in the first eight tracks. Sound quality on all of the CDs is satisfying, especially in the mix of the organic and synthetic elements in Poleouris' first score. The guitar and swooshing effects in "Main Titles," as well as the deep bass strings in "Heist Explained," are very dynamic in particular. Take the "End Credits" cue off of the first CD, add it (and whatever scraps of worth you can find in the rest of the material) to the second CD and you'll have a very strong hour of Poledouris music that is truly bittersweet. Devine punishment is in order for Mostow.
TRACK LISTINGS:
2001 Bootleg:
Total Time: 116:57
2011 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 167:54
NOTES & QUOTES:
The bootlegs contain no consistent packaging. The 2011 La-La Land set
includes detailed information about the film and the circumstances involving
the rejection of the score.
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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 Breakdown are Copyright © 2001, 2011, Soundtrack Library (Bootleg), La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/19/11 (and not updated significantly since). |
