: (James Horner) After
beginning the original trilogy of Jack Ryan films with an overwhelming
cinematic (and soundtrack) success in the form of
, the series of adaptations of Tom Clancy's novels to the big
screen progressed with less fanfare through
. While the first film had the advantage
of conveying the most interesting story and technology of the lot, the
subsequent entries suffered from a lack of self-importance as the
criminal attention turned more towards Ryan, his family, and
introspective topics of protagonist integrity rather than
larger-than-life events of global importance. Harrison Ford was almost
becoming typecast as "the average Joe who has to do something
extraordinary" during this time, and the sequel films (if they can
really be called that) took on a similarly formula-restricted approach
without any of the glamour of the 1990 film. Phillip Noyce's 1994 entry,
, is still solid entertainment, however,
thanks to another gritty performance by Willem Dafoe as an unsung
veteran of invisible warfare, the striking elimination of a drug lord's
home by a missile, and a spectacular ambush sequence involving one hell
of an insurance claim on several Chevrolet Suburban SUVs. It's also
amusing to look back at how people saved files on (and desperately
deleted them from) computers during the early 1990's. Still, regardless
of the surprising fiscal success of
, the
less inspired methods of filmmaking in this franchise's later entries
translated directly to James Horner's sadly tepid and mostly forgotten
scores for the first two sequels. While his intention was certainly not
to try to match the impact of Basil Poledouris' popular score for
on its film, Horner's work for the sequels is
easily out-classed by his predecessor. Weighed heavily by its own
ethnicity and electronic emphasis,
remains one of
the most disappointing and marginally effective scores in Horner's
career.
For
Clear and Present Danger, the setting and
circumstances are far different from the prior films in the series, and
yet just as Ford runs around looking worried in the same old way, Horner
provides rehash after rehash of ideas in his final entry in the series.
If the composer is to be definitively whipped in public for his frequent
adaptation and blatant re-use of his own material,
Clear and Present
Danger is one of the more obvious points of evidence to use against
him. Not only does he lift general ideas from his previous works in this
score, but he obnoxiously and shamelessly copies and pastes significant
sections of previously existing music note for note. Ironically, he even
pulls a few interpretations from stock Jerry Goldsmith action music for
the era as well, with a primary theme largely predicting where Goldsmith
would venture in
Air Force One (that's right, another film with
Ford running around looking scared). The overall result is a dull,
repetitious, and predictable listening experience with few lasting
highlights. Without a doubt,
Clear and Present Danger exhibits
Horner on auto-pilot. While you have to give the man credit for at least
conjuring some basically unique sense of direction for
Patriot
Games, as flawed as that score might have been, he tries absolutely
nothing new here. A very bland title theme featuring simplistic, rising,
patriotic progressions over annoyingly atonal bass chords (taking a page
or two from the structures and demeanor of the final cues from
In
Country but without the same genuinely heroic tonalities) leaves the
excitement at the door and fails to make any significant appearance
throughout the mid-sections of the film, not even in veiled hints. Its
obnoxious, chime-led performance in "End Title" is nearly insufferable.
The only returning theme from
Patriot Games is a whiny,
descending motif representing the stench of bureaucratic dishonesty, and
it occupies "Jack's New Office" and "Looking for Clues," among others,
with its nearly intolerable sense of disillusionment, especially in its
violin performances in the latter cue. Surprisingly, the lack of
originality that prevails here applies to even the newly rearranged
Horner sub-motifs for individual scenes.
Among the rehashes in
Clear and Present Danger,
a nearly constant shakuhachi flute rhythm flutters in the distance (but
not mixed with the same precision as in
Legends of the Fall that
year; at least the incorrect application of this ethnic instrument isn't
really detrimental to this locale) over snare pronouncements that hail
back to
Glory. A wildly crashing piano pounds from high octaves
to low ones with the same effect as in
The Pelican Brief and
other suspense scores from Horner. Brass broods in low ranges, forming
mini-crescendos at each bar of music similar in style to
Brainstorm. A selection of tapping and clicking sounds seems
classified in the Horner sound library under the title of
Sneakers. Many of the more tense action cues lift entire
sequences from
Aliens, which will be a certain annoyance for some
listeners. Dull thuds from muddy, atmospheric synthesizers represent the
worst that Horner has recorded over the years, with
The Name of the
Rose a prime example. The highlight cue "Deleting the Evidence" in
particular could be deconstructed by musical scholars to reveal
humorously innumerous connections to prior Horner scores. The only
remotely interesting avenue that the composer explores in
Clear and
Present Danger, regardless of its roots in his 1980's thriller
works, is the electronic keyboarding in "The Laser-Guided Missile" and
"Escobedo's New Friend," but even this attempt to supply the villains in
the film with their own style is lackluster in execution. Curiously, no
Latin angle is explored in the instrumentation, suggesting that
everything on screen is simply an American problem using the Latin drug
wars as tools for domestic gain. Only in a few snippets throughout the
score does Horner offer a short piece of music that elevates the film
with striking appeal. The single piano notes and tapping of cymbals at
the opening of "Operation Reciprocity" (repeated with brass to open
"Second Hand Copter") and the explosively heroic climax of "The Ambush"
offer brief glimpses of the quality of music that
Clear and Present
Danger probably deserved. That said, for a casual listener who could
not care less about Horner's self-quotations, this score is adequate at
worst and a smooth, brainless listening experience at best.
If you took a long sabbatical from listening to vintage
Horner music, then parts of
Clear and Present Danger could be
quite entertaining. For regular Horner collectors, however, you have
either heard this music before in superior form in any one of the
aforementioned scores or you would hear far better, infinitely more
inspired executions of those ideas in his forthcoming work for
Legends of the Fall,
Apollo 13, and
Courage Under
Fire. Parts of it, in fact, would be tracked into
Ransom. On
album, the composer selected only about half of his composition for
inclusion on the 51-minute 1994 Milan album that was repressed with
identical contents in 2001. Sound quality was adequate, but the
recording of this music was never as expressively dynamic as some of
Horner's other, similar works. While this presentation did feature most
of the notable cues from
Clear and Present Danger, the score is
among the composer's longest, and in 2013, Intrada Records released a
2-CD set featuring most of the recordings made by Horner for the film,
amounting to nearly 100 minutes of material. The most notable additions
come at the end of the product, with the action music from the final
scenes of the film finally presented in complete and proper order. This
includes a sub-motif of nobility and victory in "Finding the Prisoners"
and "Woodroom/Finale" that builds to a monumental crescendo (and
reappearance, finally, of the main theme) in the latter cue.
Unfortunately, most of the additional music on the Intrada album
consists of Horner's droning electronics or light rhythms from the
ethnic flute, none of which unique enough to justify much renewed
interest in the score on album. The cue "Blow Up Narcotics Plane" is so
hideously reminiscent of
Commando and
Red Heat that it is
a nearly fatal detriment to the longer presentation, while other, purely
atmospheric sequences, such as "Casket Arrival" and "Greer's Last
Hospital," are insufferably non-descript. In 2022, La-La Land Records
presented a longer, slightly different presentation from better sources,
emphasizing film versions of major cues but without much improvement.
These 2-CD products are clearly aimed at the most ardent Horner fanbase
and present little new to casual listeners. Overall,
Clear and
Present Danger offers ten minutes of exciting, engaging material
split between "Operation Reciprocity" and "The Ambush," with the rest
derivative to the point of futility. Regardless of which album you
choose, don't expect clear and present originality.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 108 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
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