FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW

Review of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (Patrick Doyle)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if five to ten minutes of melodic material typical to Patrick Doyle's past is a substantial enough attraction to justify an otherwise workmanlike regurgitation of electronic techno-thriller tones founded by other composers.

Avoid it... if you expect the entertaining themes of this score to be adapted effectively into the remainder, the long suspense and chase sequences basically sufficient but mundane and anonymous.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit: (Patrick Doyle) For most of the 2000's, Paramount tried to resurrect the dormant Jack Ryan franchise that had run from The Hunt for Red October in 1990 to The Sum of All Fears in 2002. The fiscal juggernaut of a franchise had always followed the Tom Clancy novels from which the main character was devised, though at the time of Clancy's coincidental death late 2013, the studio was putting the finishing touches on the first film adaptation of the character not to be based upon one of the author's works. For 2014's delayed and somewhat maligned Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, the story is fresh despite maintaining the basic elements of any Ryan plot: government agencies, conspiracies, terrorism, and technological advancement. Taking over as Ryan is "Star Trek" captain Chris Pine, his mentor signed for this film and its successor being Kevin Costner. After Kenneth Branagh came onto the project late to direct, he was also cast as the film's villain, proving between this role, the one in Wild Wild West, and everything in between, that he'll try any ethnic twist as long as he's able to chew up the scenery. The story involves the Branagh character as a Russian tycoon interested in manipulating markets to plunge America into fiscal disaster, though you can be sure that there's a terrorist bomb and a city chase involved at the climax. With Branagh into the production came composer Patrick Doyle, his longtime musical collaborator and friend. The assignment of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit occupied the better part of a year for Doyle, who has stated that the process of creating the musical tone for the film was one of artistic liberty largely free of some of the industry's usual meddling and time constraints. Doyle and Branagh agreed early that the topic required electronically-leaning music, though with Doyle you can always expect at least some role for traditional instrumentation. The composer had already begun a career transformation in the blockbusters Thor and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, both projects requiring the him to adapt his style to meet the expectations of an industry in the 2010's that demands certain bass-heavy, rhythmic musical elements in its scores. This evolution for Doyle is complete in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, a work that still contains underutilized glimpses of Doyle's melodic sensibilities but could very easily be considered a wholesale interpretation of John Powell's extensive development of this genre of music in the 2000's.

The risk to Doyle in a situation such as Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is the substantial abandonment of his own compositional style, and, until the very end of the picture, he indeed loses his trademark Doyle sound in this score. His creation process included the sampling of stereotypical Russian instrumental tones and the manipulation of that material into an environment of rather stale-sounding rhythmic loops from percussion and electronics. A fair number of the rhythmic cues in this work contain some orchestral backing, "The Lightbulb" among the few to really combine string layers and brass over the synthetics to solid effect. Outside of a few featured ensemble moments, the London Symphony Orchestra is largely wasted in this score, a small Hollywood studio group more than capable of fitting into this kind of background role. The ambient electronic tinkering of the score's first half yields to the typical string ostinato suspense and chase mode common to Powell's methodology later. At times, the samples stray towards David Arnold's occasional abrasiveness, but while Doyle claims to have engineered many of these sounds within his crew, the result is predictable and tiresome. When confronted by a solid mass of this generic music, listeners (especially aggrieved longtime Doyle collectors) will seek out the more original and recognizably classical moments in the score. One clear moment of distinction is the choral "Faith of Our Fathers" piece that Doyle uses to introduce Branagh's villain and close out the end credits. Almost humorously, this somewhat distractingly organic cue is reminiscent of Basil Poledouris' Red October hymn. Another secondary motif in the score struggles to find its identity is the work's softer character theme, emoting minimally in "Shadow Accounts," "The Activation," and "Picking This Life." The main theme for the film is easily the score's highlight, a muscular idea with a primary phrase that strangely shares chord progressions with Jerry Goldsmith's First Blood theme. This theme's suite-like arrangement in "Ryan, Mr. President" is the score's only traditional Doyle moment, the wildly enthusiastic violin and trumpet lines of the last minute astonishingly recalling Much Ado About Nothing. Unfortunately, this outstanding performance, building out of Remote Control-friendly low strings and snare tones, doesn't really inform much of the remainder of the score, utilized effectively only at the ends of the ominous "Second Great Depression" and relieving "Jack and Aleksandr." Absent this theme and the one for the villain for most of its length, the score for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is disappointingly anonymous despite housing those five to ten minutes of solid highlights.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 73:12

• 1. Flying Over Afghanistan (2:43) • 2. The United Nations (2:42) • 3. Shadow Accounts (2:54) • 4. The Window Reflection (1:51) • 5. Rooftop Call (1:52) • 6. Second Great Depression (3:19) • 7. Faith of our Fathers (4:00) • 8. Cheverin Meets Ryan (2:11) • 9. Plan in a Van (1:51) • 10. The Activation (2:19) • 11. Aleksandr (1:54) • 12. The Engagement (2:24)

• 13. Stealing the Data (7:59) • 14. Get Out (4:19) • 15. Moscow Car Chase (4:15) • 16. The Lightbulb (4:37) • 17. Unravelling the Data (4:37) • 18. CIA Recruitment (1:41) • 19. Chopper to NYC (1:40) • 20. Bike Chase (3:47) • 21. Jack and Aleksandr (3:15) • 22. Picking This Life (1:04) • 23. Ryan, Mr. President (3:28) • 24. Shadow Recruit (2:30)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes a note from Doyle about the score.

Copyright © 2014-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit are Copyright © 2014, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 3/29/14 (and not updated significantly since).