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Review of The Express (Mark Isham)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you are accustomed to Mark Isham's understated and
weighty methodology in his historical dramas, because The Express
is not surprisingly a resilient, dark, and deadly serious score.
Avoid it... if you expect to be inspired in the same way that the most popular football-related scores of the past have so popularly flourished.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Express: The Ernie Davis Story: (Mark Isham) It
seams that there will never be enough stories to inspire screenplays in
the sports genre of film. The 1990's and 2000's have become an era for
American football in particular to take the spotlight, and the newest
entry in this stream of stories is loosely based on the life experiences
of 1950's college football player Ernie Davis, the first black man to
win a Heisman Trophy. While most of the historical events are followed
faithfully in The Express, the adaptation of Robert Gallagher's
novel doesn't exist without its share of Hollywood gloss-overs,
rearranging some of the events to maximize the emotional appeal of the
production. Unfortunately, this also produces a film that adheres to
several tiresome cliches in the genre of sports films. This circumstance
must have placed composer Mark Isham in a difficult situation. Of all
the sports films of the past two decades, none has had as big an impact
on the industry and mainstream America as Jerry Goldsmith's Rudy.
Many characteristics of the underdog story on the gridiron are shared
between that 1994 film and The Express, though the latter
obviously carries far weightier societal issues at its heart. The
Goldsmith score has become the ultimate temp track piece for
inspirational stories (even John McCain used it as a central theme in
his flawed 2008 presidential campaign), and it's not surprising to find
any similar football-related film's score to be compared to it. Both the
darker subject matter of The Express and Isham's tendency not to
provide tear-jerking moments of thematic glory cause his score here to
be a different breed. It has a hint of the harmonic, propulsive
highlights that made Rudy, Alan Silvestri's Forrest Gump,
and others so memorable, but never in sequences extended enough to add
The Express to that list. Instead, Isham spends most of the score
in the depths of minimalistic droning and very slight harmonic
progressions. This is obviously a troubled story in many parts, and
Isham responds with a score that relies heavily on many extended whole
notes for bass strings and electronics. For the purely sports-related
parts, he seems to draw inspiration from the percussion section of a
college marching band, though with a little more menacing
forcefulness.
If you're looking for an uplifting sports genre score, The Express is definitely not effective in that manner. The tone of the score is perhaps its most interesting element; it's serious, dapper, and beaten for much of its length, even by necessity in the actual game sequences. The percussive rips that dominate most of the scenes of successful perseverance are, along with overwhelming bass region electronics, malicious, causing an extended cue like "Cotton Bowl" to be a difficult listening experience at best. At times, the score diminishes its stance into atmospheric sound design. The title theme, an appropriately heroic idea hinted at the end of "Training" and finally exploding in "Cotton Bowl" and subsequent cues, is among Isham's boldest ideas, though it won't be particularly memorable outside of context. Expanded treatment in "Ernie David" and "The Express" make the second half of the album far more appealing than the flashback cues that come before. The score does not establish any other strong motif, whether for the lead character's relationships or the hostility of the prejudices themselves. A solo female vocalist contributes a very slight touch of elegance to a few of the middle-section cues, though the mix here is not as obvious as it was in Isham's The Fog. It's somewhat surprising to hear a lack of prominent solo trumpet performances given the composer's preference for them in previous works and their potential application here. The choppy movements of some of the moments of heightened emotion emulate the staccato style that came out of the Media Ventures days of the 1990's, and Isham's occasional reliance on synthetic tones only extends the likeness. The electronic rhythms sometimes become obnoxious, as they are late in "A Good Man," and seem out of place given the time period of the tale. The score's overall tone makes it a mixed bag on album. Just as Isham's 2004 score for Miracle proved to be a piece that didn't separate well from its film, The Express doesn't offer a compelling story of its own on album. Both scores move in a dreamy haze that defies the dynamic nature of the true stories. This 2008 score offers clearly functional music, but unlike some of the best entries in the genre, it doesn't have that feeling of magic that's necessary to elevate it to a place among its superior peers. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 49:28
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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