Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #699
Written 9/23/03, Revised 4/6/09
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Buy it... if you regularly enjoy the saccharine, positive themes of Randy
Edelman's usual style and want to hear them at their most noble and glorious
levels.
Avoid it... if Edelman's smooth and easy thematic constructs with an
orchestra and synthesizers seem plastic and simplistic to you.
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| Edelman |
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story: (Randy Edelman) A handful of
biographical films have been made about Bruce Lee, the legendary master of the
martial arts and film icon who mysteriously died in July of 1973. Many of them
have taken artistic liberties with the factual aspects of Lee's life, and
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is no exception. Starring Jason Scott Lee (who
is of no relation to Bruce Lee) as the famed kung fu favorite, this 1993 film
gets more of the facts about Lee's personality straight than any of the others,
but still suffers from some awkward missteps in those regarding setting and
circumstances. For director Rob Cohen, the film would mark his jump from
television films to feature projects on the big screen, and his choice for the
composer of his debut was the versatile Randy Edelman. Still enjoying the success
of The Last of the Mohicans (despite his lesser role in the production of
the memorable music from that super-popular score), Edelman was already well
established in the industry. He and Cohen would collaborate several more times in
the following years, from Dragonheart and Daylight to The
Skulls and XXX, and it's easy to understand how the partnership came
to be so strong after its initial outing. The score for Dragon: The Bruce Lee
Story avoids all of the stereotypical Hong Kong elements of electronic and
ethnic scoring that one would expect to hear in a score for Bruce Lee's life. In
fact, there's very little ethnic material inserted into this score, which may
come as a surprise given the immense racial barriers that Bruce Lee had to
overcome on his path to success. Nevertheless, with much of the picture taking
place in America (the filmmakers seemed to mistakenly substitute San Francisco
instead of Seattle as Lee's early residence), the score comes across as strangely
patriotic in its completely upbeat and heroic nature. This was Edelman's
stylistic tendency at the time, of course; his scores are often saturated with a
undaunted, positive spirit, and this serene outlook on life is once again put to
use in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.
The pleasant demeanor of Edelman's score is so sugary in general
that you sometimes forget that the film is a biographical tale with extremely
serious situations and often troubled hurdles. Edelman seems to get caught up in
the heroic atmosphere that one feels after Lee successfully kicks someone in the
head and wins a fight. Even in its more subtle, family-related moments, the same
lofty set of themes, all polished with shiny, harmonic progressions, fill the
room with a delightful touch of wholesome mores and personal achievement. As
usual, these themes aren't overly complex. Edelman, ever the songwriter, conjures
yet a few more smooth and enjoyable themes performed without much counterpoint by
his usual choice of instrumentation. The orchestra often performs the primary
themes in their glory, from "Dragon's Theme" to "The Dragon's Heartbeet," with
a noble horn (real or synthetic) leading the way. Edelman's electronics, recorded
separately (and perhaps with the piano under his own fingers), propel the
ambitious side of the story, hurling the heroic music into full gear during
action scenes. The instrumentation offers the same mix of orchestral and
synthetic tones as the equally saccharine
Kindergarten Cop, even down to
the same lightly menacing electronic samples used for darker moments in both
films. Likewise, the synthetics never interfere with the orchestral elements to
such an extent that an enthusiast of purely orchestral scores will mind their
presence much. A question needs to be raised, however, about Edelman's seemingly
limited method of creating a dynamic soundscape, and this concern relates closely
to his more famous score from the same year,
Gettysburg. While Edelman's
somewhat plastic, synthetic side of scoring hindered
Gettysburg due to its
inability to mesh with the historical setting, the same can't really be said of
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, given that it's a more modern tale. Still,
the strictly positive, cymbal-crashing attitude of the music, especially for such
a tragic family story, does seem slightly out of place. Even without considering
the topic of the film, Edelman's music, as positively charged as it is, could
potentially wear on the nerves after a while. Still, the simple themes of
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story make it an easy and enjoyable casual listening
experience.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Randy Edelman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.05
(in 20 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.16
(in 29,260 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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