Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,501
Written 3/15/97, Revised 4/9/06
Invert Colors
Buy it... only if you have seen the film and appreciated the
underscore.
Avoid it... if you are only a casual Leonard Rosenman collector and
are not overly impressed by his rather tepid suspense writing.
 |
| Rosenman |
Keeper of the City: (Leonard Rosenman) Among the
plethora of early made-for-cable films that suffered a horrible death
was Keeper of the City, a tale of murder investigations involving
high crime in modern-day Chicago. Louis Gossett Jr. is detective James
Dela, hot on the trail of Anthony LaPaglia, who plays a character insane
due to religion and dozens of other equally troublesome circumstances,
and who is killing off mob bosses because he can't stand his own
father's mafia-connected past. A rather mundane screenplay by Gerald Di
Pego (based on his own novel) is lackadaisically directed by Bobby Roth,
with untenable subplots and leaps in logic hindering an already
over-shot scenario. Lost in the process is a pretty decent cast, and the
1991 film, despite theatrical releases in a few countries, has since
disappeared completely from the face of the planet. Composer Leonard
Rosenman had been scoring television films and series since the 1950's,
with the bulk of his work in that venue appearing throughout the 1970's.
Nominated for four Academy Awards, Rosenman took home Oscars for his
song scores for Barry Lyndon and Bound for Glory in the
mid-1970's, though he is better known for his dramatic underscore
nominations for Cross Creek and Star Trek IV in the
1980's. While he has continued to score films into the 2000's,
Rosenman's production in the 1990's was substantially restrained, with
RoboCop 2 his only large-scale project. Among these last few
obscure projects was Keeper of the City, a score that doesn't
really provide much new inspiration in Rosenman's career. Written for a
moderate orchestra, the score focuses on two central themes: first the
symphonic title theme for the detective, and then the dissonant motif
that mirrors the psychotic mind of the killer. The first theme is the
only highlight of the score, while the second theme ruins the rest of
it.
The title theme was constructed in part by Rosenman for
the purpose of representing the stylish lights of the big city, and to
some degree, he succeeds. The theme has the same robust optimism as the
title theme for
Star Trek IV, but sounds equally out of place in
its strictly upbeat nature. Some of the more turbulent variations of
this theme (heard in the latter portions of the opening cue) are perhaps
more accurate for the genre, and the tapping cymbals and snare hint at a
sense of "coolness" that the rest of the score could have greatly used.
The symphony wouldn't be utilized to a great extent until the "Freeway
Killing" cue, after which Rosenman begins to turn on some heat, but
until that point, much of his score meanders in basic melodic
performances by solo woodwinds. Several of these cues will be completely
lost in their barely audible solos, leaving the more psychotic secondary
theme to occupy your mind. Because of the villain's religious nature,
Rosenman uses dissonant Latin chanting by a few female voices to help
rattle the brains, and it succeeds so well that it's nearly unlistenable
on album. Often accompanied by a high pitch organ, these vocals are
truly disturbing despite their lack of depth. That lack of adequate
layers dooms
Keeper of the City in the end; the score doesn't
make use of enough of the soundscape to make any viable statements. A
distant and muted sound quality compounds the problem, leaving the
entire score --even in its moments of horror-- as a disengaged listening
experience. A short running time is a blessing on the non-descript
album. Why Intrada chose to press this score is a curious question;
perhaps Doug Fake's friendship with Rosenman was the sole factor. At any
rate, Intrada ultimately sold this product (among a few of its other
duds) for a deletion rate of $1. Even at this price, the product
lingered for a while before then disappearing completely from the
market. There is no compelling reason to seek this one out now.
* @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
