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Review of Keeper of the City (Leonard Rosenman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
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.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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. *
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 32:50
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes the following note from Rosenman:
The second theme, using four female voices singing in latin is the musical idea that surrounds the character Vince. I have found that the easiest thing to do in films is to write "crazy" music. Generally this usually dissonant practice is a form of naturalism that doesn't add anything to what one already sees and hears on the screen. In this case I wanted to echo musically the functioning of Vince's mind, as well as to musically establish and develop the religious motivation of his insanity. Such a practice ends up in establishing a larger dimension of understanding for the character on the screen. Moreover, it is the constant development and variation of the musical material that constitutes any successful overview of a filmic musical score."
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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 Keeper of the City are Copyright © 1992, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 3/15/97 and last updated 4/9/06. |
