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| Debney |
Dick: (John Debney) With a significant chunk of the
acting crew from "Saturday Night Live" in tow,
Dick is a childish
attempt to bring political satire about one of America's darkest White
House chapters down to the level of dumb, skit-like jokes. It proposes
that two young women with about half a brain between them became
embroiled in the Watergate scandal through an accidental association
with Richard Nixon, a premise that has intriguing possibilities but
never really goes anywhere. The entire production is a tongue-in-cheek
laugh about the events, with so little respect paid to actual history
that the film doesn't work on any level. As usual for this kind of
picture,
Dick utilizes a broad selection of disco and rock songs
from the era, largely upstaging composer John Debney's score for the
film. His minimal contribution, however, is not without its influence,
for Debney very well extends the spirit that the film was attempting to
convey and writes music that merges well with the collection of songs.
For the composer, this project came sandwiched in between the mainstream
efforts of
Inspector Gadget and
End of Days, destined to
be forgotten if not for a short promotional release pressed by Debney's
representatives. The composer stated that his inspirations for
Dick were the crime capers of the 1960's and 70's, including "The
Pink Panther" and "The Man from UNCLE." The European jazz (of
faux-sophistication here) takes pages from the careers of Francis Lai,
Henry Mancini, and Michel Legrand. The environment of the smoky lounge
is a perfect representation for Nixon and his administration; not only
were they crooks, but they were sleazy slimeballs, too, which Debney
very astutely addresses with the tone of his music. There is parody at
hand as well, another concept at which Debney is well skilled. It's not
really the kind of listening experience that anyone will be clamoring
for, but the score does serve to further expose Debney's talents and
sense of humor for a project that obvious was much fun for which to
contribute.
Whether or not the score actually is a good
representation of the character of the Nixon administration, it nails
the sleaze element. The main theme of Debney's score is introduced in
the "la-la" vocals of Francis Lai origin in "Skipping Through Town," a
piece that takes Randy Newman's
Pleasantville interpretation and
infuses it will all the wit it can take. A straight reprise of this cue
is provided at the end of the promotional album. The latter half of this
cue offers solo female vocals performing the swinging theme for the
Arlene character, an idea that follows her in more sullen variations in
"Dreams of Dick" and "Arlene is Heartbroken." A theme of suspense is
conveyed immediately in "Watergate Break-In" and extends to "Lip Gloss
Intrigue," "Girls See Liddy," and others. This light rhythmic idea
combines the rattling and tapping of the "Mission: Impossible" theme by
Lalo Schifrin with the bass progressions of Monty Norman's theme for
James Bond, though Debney does an adequate job of just barely altering
(if not partially quoting) both ideas. The carefree and innocent
attitude of the performances of the jazz is the highlight of the score,
including the snazzy "Lounge-y Dick" and the layered, wordless vocals
spread throughout. Among the distinctly unique cues on the promo are
"High School Band," which gives the usual, sparse march (in the spirit
of Debney's
Little Giants) a strangely Mexican tilt, and "I
Honestly Love You," in which Michelle Williams (as Arlene) sings a
portion of the Olivia Newton-John song into Nixon's tape recorder and
thus causes the famous missing segment of the Watergate Tapes. The promo
only includes twenty-four minutes of non-vocal, non-reprise music.
Released a few weeks after the normal song compilation album for
Dick, the promo doesn't really have enough substance to merit its
existence for enjoyment purposes. Its recording quality, however, is
quite strong. For Debney fans, there's really no purpose in seeking this
promo over ones for
Inspector Gadget and
My Favorite
Martian from the same year, both of which better represent the
composer's mainstream style. If the
Dick promo were to be
combined with the contents of the song album, the resulting product
would ironically have been a far better.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For John Debney reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33
(in 56 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.1
(in 49,951 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
Neither insert includes any information or credits regarding the score. The
promotional album does have a more natural photo of Debney than the one included in
the Inspector Gadget promo.
