: (Jerry Goldsmith) A film that has
fallen off the radar screen since its hyped release in 1987,
by
director Joe Dante, with Dennis Quaid having relationship problems with
an equally young Meg Ryan, getting shrunk to the size of a few microns,
and injected under dire circumstances into the rear end of Martin Short.
A group of neurotic criminals with science fiction abilities
relentlessly pursues the miniaturization technology and, in turn, Quaid
inside the body of Short. The idea was inventive and the film works on a
basic level as a romantic, silly comedy (audiences largely shunned it in
favor of more competitive alternatives in the summer of 1987), with
decent special effects paving the way for an active orchestral score
provided by veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith. Despite the film's
absurdity at times, the employment of music in the film is divided
between pop tunes meant to appeal to viewers of contemporary
inclinations and Goldsmith's mostly straight forward adventure score,
which treats the film as a serious topic with practically no hints of
comedy relief until the appearance of a strangely humorous assassin. The
composer and director had collaborated multiple times previously, with
the most recent pairing leading to an adventurous and creative score for
, and their works together would extend to the
composer's very last effort in 2003. In many regards, the environment of
, and the composer approached the new film with nearly
an identical treatment of orchestral and electronic elements in his
distinctive blend of the era. The resulting music would take the form of
a serviceable action score, sustained by Goldsmith's usual, strong sense
of rhythmic propulsion and bold instrumentation. At the same time, the
true sense of raw energy and kid-like enthusiasm that was present in
, instead
leading to a workmanlike atmosphere that doesn't engage the listener as
actively. The consistency of the harmonic action material presented in
is to be commended first, however. While the film
suffers from its moments of ridiculous sidebars because of the inherent
nature of its director, Goldsmith approaches the science fiction
elements with a genuine eye for action and suspense.
Four or five themes weave throughout the majority of
Innerspace, though none of them is a show-stopper destined to
stick in your memory for long. Fashioned after Randy Newman's heroic
title theme for
The Natural is Goldsmith's main theme of
triumphant stature for the story's two male leads. It receives several
shamelessly optimistic major key statements on brass, especially in the
short bursts of victorious action later in the film. Second is a love
theme involving the Ryan character's involvement with the two men; it's
a standard, pretty idea from Goldsmith that very much resembles the
structures of his plentiful similar themes for light drama in the early
1990's. Its most touching on-screen rendition comes in "The Womb," when
a miniaturized Quaid stumbles across his own son in his girlfriend's
womb (horn counterpoint over stings in this cue is perfectly soft).
Third comes a theme of determination for the scientific aspect of the
journey, an expedition theme of a fantasy variety. It merges the
rolling, tumultuous suspense of the ominous portions of
Poltergeist and throws in some bass string formations that will
remind of
Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This theme provides
several minutes of resounding power in "Optic Nerves" and "No
Messenger." Finally, the themes for the villains are where the comedy in
Goldsmith's score resides. The "Cowboy" assassin is provided a parody of
Ennio Morricone's famously distinctive Western music (similar to
The
'Burbs), and the Jew's harp, tambourine, guitar, and whistled theme
for this character is adapted significantly as one of the heroes
transforms into his identity near the climax. An evil henchman with a
mechanically interchangeable hand (think
Masters of the Universe
here) is given an outstanding brass and synthesizer theme that
experiences an impressively harsh trombone treatment in "Stop the Car"
that eventually disintegrates to a single xylophone. This moment is
truly Goldsmith at his most clever. In general, the tone of
Innerspace will be extremely familiar to the composer's
collectors. Several lengthy cues of brass-ripping heroism alternate with
the same kinds of electronic sound effects that you heard Goldsmith use
for like efforts in the 1980's: the twisting of metal, the tingling of
light keyboarding, and the occasional rumble of an instrument that can
only be described as the cousin the infamous Blaster Beam from the
Star Trek score. The sizable orchestra is well balanced in this
recording, from the menacing cello rhythms of the fantasy theme to
meandering woodwind counterpoint of fluid movement.
On the other hand,
Innerspace takes no chances.
Its thematic constructs are in no way as memorable as in Goldsmith's
other works of the era, yielding a score that presents itself as a
collection of very strong filler material from the composer that
desperately needed a defining identity to complete the picture. The
themes, while clearly delineated in their intended functions, fail to
draw the score to a cohesive whole on album. The work is so highly
derivative of Goldsmith's other music for the genre that it dutifully
reflects the composer's 1980's fantasy and action scores in the same way
that
Star Trek: Nemesis reflects his 1990's music in a similar
genre. In many cases, the ideas in
Innerspace had already been
performed with greater enthusiasm by equally dynamic instruments in
other scores. This not only applies to the rolling foundations from
Poltergeist, but also to the plethora of metallic clangs heard
throughout
Innerspace that are clearly lifted from
Explorers. On album, the score is a decent listening experience,
but if your Goldsmith collection is already of moderate size, you won't
likely be seeking
Innerspace for a listen too often. Geffen
released the score internationally in 1987 on a split song and score
album, with four 80's pop songs (including Rod Stewart's interpretation
of "Twistin' the Night Away"), one 50's song (Sam Cooke's wonderful
"Cupid," though it's out of place), and five cues of Goldsmith material
amounting to 25 minutes of score. Arguably the best two cues,
representing 10 minutes of the fantasy material, are condensed to the
start of that album's presentation of the score, with relatively vibrant
sound quality. Despite its widespread production, the Geffen CD
disappeared from the market in the 1990's and, although it took longer
than many had expected, a bootleg finally appeared in 1998. The
"Soundtrack Library 020" bootleg of over an hour in length featured only
the score in good sound quality, but it was also an example of overkill.
Presented in almost thirty short cues, the music ironically didn't
sustain itself as well on the bootleg as it had on the flawed commercial
album. This problem also plagues the 78-minute La-La Land Records
official release of
Innerspace in 2009, a popular limited product
of 3,000 copies. The sound quality on this album, however, is
impeccable, and its presentation includes several unused cues.
Interestingly, some of the sporadic heart-thumping sound effects heard
on the Geffen album ("Environmental Adjust") are missing on the 2009
expanded release. Despite finally doing
Innerspace justice,
however, the almost immediately sold-out La-La Land album will sound
quite redundant within its own ranks and in any Goldsmith collection of
considerable size.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26
(in 124 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.29
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