PRINTER FRIENDLY VIEW
(inverts site colors)

•	2004 Regular Album

•	2016 Intrada Album

•	2004 Regular Album

Of course, being a Mann product, Collateral still placed original music on a low pedestal, with song placements, including Paul Oakenfold material, and excerpts from other film scores utilized in distracting ways. The latter group is an utterly bizarre collection ranging from Elliot Goldenthal's Heat to Lisa Gerrard, Pieter Bourke, and Graeme Revell's The Insider, Vangelis' 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Pinto's own Behind the Sun, and Gustavo Santaolalla's popular "Iguazu" that later occupied Babel. How Mann ultimately divided up the original scores he received from Rothrock, Pinto, and Howard doesn't always make sense in the film, though the composers' styles do tend to address different aspects of the story inherently. The Rothrock music consists of harder rock cues for the detective character of the plot, each of these recordings similar and anonymous. They serve a dose of hard-edged attitude without much attraction. Pinto, meanwhile, took the more emotional route, providing Collateral with its most lyrical music that came to represent the taxi driver's trauma and ultimate relief. His recurring theme for the character is the film's most memorable original motif, extending behind the wet, electronic ambient tones to include orchestral shades from strings and brass. "Night Shift" offers the simple theme on strings, atmospheres, and vague vocals, whereas "First Target" cranks up the tonal intensity with methodically churning string rhythms, brass backing, and vocal wails. The theme from "Night Shift" is fully developed with passion and depth in this cue to yield a brief but engrossing highlight of all the music for the film. That material is reprised in the bolder noir spirit of "Requiem," with additional passion in the depth of ostinatos and melodicism from the same full ensemble sound. Otherwise, Pinto's music relies upon a rising two-note progression over deep pulses in many of his minimalistic cues. Slight noir lament in "Getting Mugged" is aided by vocals and strings while breathy atmospherics extend to "Club Fever" and "Last Stop." These elements are combined in "Car Crash," which also adds an electric guitar. Generally, Pinto's music best captures the vague noir hints that Mann seemed to be striving for with Collateral, and his powerful "Requiem" cue remains an enduring highlight of the compilation soundtrack album representing the picture.

The role of Howard in Collateral was to address the rhythmic suspense of the tale and, more importantly, the outright action in the third act. The veteran composer handled the majority of his duties with a blend of orchestral and synthetic elements, the action portions tending towards the former while the suspense passages heavy on the latter. Most of Howard's contribution meanders through the synthetically-dominant realm, deep pulses occupying many of his early cues. He attempted to infuse some soul elements in contributions by electric bass and distant vocalizations, but these colors are minimal. A cue like "Island Limos" strives to establish this material, and it even develops a nascent, ascending melodic figure on electric guitar that never goes anywhere in the score. In "Max Meets Felix," Howard extends a slight Latin tone in the use of an acoustic guitar. Ultimately, however, most collectors of the composer's contemporary action style will gravitate towards the final twenty minutes of Howard's material. While "Cops Pursue" is haunted by the Latin tones, the cues from "Race to Annie" to "Vincent Hops Train" are where Howard exercises the orchestra, which was intentionally kept low on the registers to satisfy Mann. With brass concentrating on trombones and woodwinds emphasizing bassoons, the ensemble allows its brooding to develop into generic stingers and sustains over relentlessly slapping percussion and synthetic dissonance. It's basically sufficient music but not appreciable out of context. The last cue, "Would Anyone Notice?" (otherwise known as "Finale"), allows hard rock coolness of an abrasive tone to overtake the ensemble. Overall, Howard's music is minimally effective but not consistently stylish enough to remember, while Rothrock's music is too brief and targeted to separate from the movie. Look for the most memorable cues to come from Pinto's work. The rather unsatisfactory compilation album for Collateral presents some of the highlights from all three composers with a few of the songs. Pinto released a 27-minute promotional album with his music in 2004, but it took until 2016 before Intrada Records released 49 minutes of Howard's score, including two alternate takes. This limited Howard product, which disappeared quickly from the market, struggles to carry its own length. Ideally, his music along with Pinto's and Rothrock's would have been pressed onto a single product. Otherwise, collectors are left scrambling to find the rare, expensive albums and create their own, more appropriate compilation. The whole situation is a mess of Mann's making.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

• Music as Written by James Newton Howard for the Film:  **
• Music as Written by Antonio Pinto for the Film:  ***
• Music as Written by Tom Rothrock for the Film:  **
• Overall:  **

Bias Check:

For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.4 (in 70 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.36 (in 86,486 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.