SUPPORT FILMTRACKS! WE EARN A
COMMISSION ON WHAT YOU BUY:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
eBay
Amazon.ca
Glisten Effect
Editorial Reviews
Scoreboard Forum
Viewer Ratings
Composers
Awards


   CURRENT BEST-SELLING SCORES:
       1. Top Gun (2-CD)
      2. Avatar: The Way of Water
     3. The Wild Robot
    4. Gladiator (3-CD)
   5. Young Woman and the Sea
  6. Spider-Man 2 (3-CD)
 7. Cutthroat Island (2-CD)
8. Willow (2-CD)
   CURRENT MOST POPULAR REVIEWS:
         1. Spider-Man
        2. Alice in Wonderland
       3. The Matrix
      4. Gladiator
     5. Wicked
    6. Batman (1989)
   7. Raiders of the Lost Ark
  8. The Wild Robot
 9. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
10. Doctor Strange: Multiverse
Home Page
The Mexican
(2001)
Album Cover Art
Composed, Conducted, and Co-Produced by:

Co-Produced by:
David Bifano

Trumpet Solos by:
Gary Grant

Additional Music by:
Abraham Laboriel
Labels Icon
LABEL & RELEASE DATE
Decca Records
(February 27th, 2001)
Availability Icon
ALBUM AVAILABILITY
Regular U.S. release.
Awards
AWARDS
None.
Also See Icon
ALSO SEE





Decorative Nonsense
PRINTER FRIENDLY VIEW
(inverts site colors)



   Availability | Viewer Ratings | Comments | Audio & Track Listings | Notes
Buy it... if you like your parody scores to pull out all the stops and make you laugh with their insanely silly, large-scale mocking of classic cliches.

Avoid it... if you have a hard time tolerating the usual tones of the Western film music genre without a composer intentionally bloating each element of the recording out of proportion for purposes of comedy.
Review Icon
EDITORIAL REVIEW
FILMTRACKS TRAFFIC RANK: #471
WRITTEN 2/20/01, REVISED 1/31/09
Shopping Icon
BUY IT


Silvestri
Silvestri
The Mexican: (Alan Silvestri) A release date in early March 2001 betrayed any claims by Dreamworks that Gore Verbinski's romantic crime comedy The Mexican was considered a serious contender at the box office. Despite the production's star power, its remarkably dumb script is matched only by the boredom that the actors convey in their performances. A goofy and inept American criminal played by Brad Pitt is left by his girlfriend, Julia Roberts, while he bungles an assignment from his crime boss to retrieve a famous pistol in Mexico. Small bits of psychology and physical comedy along the way are meant to carry audience interest, but it didn't help that those two leads have absolutely no chemistry together. The film was appropriately treated with a score of parody intent from Alan Silvestri, who must have spent a few sunny afternoons conjuring the comedy tones of The Mexican instead of writing 70+ minutes of music for Cast Away. The film is a quirky romantic comedy that is inescapably attached to its setting, and because it wraps the funny characters, locale, and mythic Western elements into one package, Silvestri provided one of most unique scores in recent memory. For some of the more authentic stabs at original Latin material, Silvestri collaborated with Mexican bassist Abraham Laboriel (resulting in three of the cues in the film). It's not often that a score can completely fool an avid film music collector, but The Mexican is just that kind of score that plays so predictably to cliches in culture and a movie genre that it indeed becomes a surprise. The score is a charming, if not borderline silly piece of music, and it's hard to believe that Silvestri intended for anyone to take it seriously. Perhaps the tone is acknowledgement by the composer that he must have known this film was destined for failure. Still, there can't be much greater difference between the somber and restrained style for Cast Away, the full-fledged Western parody material with orchestra, chorus, and notable solos in The Mexican, and the adventurous symphonic romp for The Mummy Returns next. If anything, these three effective scores at the very least speak to the composer's immense talent.


Ratings Icon
VIEWER RATINGS
1,276 TOTAL VOTES
Average: 3.41 Stars
***** 312 5 Stars
**** 349 4 Stars
*** 315 3 Stars
** 155 2 Stars
* 145 1 Stars
  (View results for all titles)

Comments Icon
COMMENTS
5 TOTAL COMMENTS
Read All Start New Thread Search Comments
Orchestrations
N.R.Q. - March 28, 2007, at 11:12 a.m.
1 comment  (2288 views)
Silvestri's The Mexican
JMG - April 5, 2006, at 11:48 a.m.
1 comment  (2713 views)
The Mexican, a great score.
Don Smith - October 18, 2001, at 8:06 a.m.
1 comment  (3527 views)
ScoreCentral.net reviews "The Mexican"
Racerprose - April 19, 2001, at 9:09 p.m.
1 comment  (3169 views)
The Mexican - Additional info about score
Jeff Wopperer - March 5, 2001, at 9:41 a.m.
1 comment  (3634 views)
More...


Track Listings Icon
TRACK LISTINGS AND AUDIO
Audio Samples   ▼
Total Time: 49:14
• 1. Main Title (0:52)
• 2. Blame Shifting (0:58)
• 3. Oye - co-written by Abraham Laboriel (1:34)
• 4. These Boots are Made for Walkin' - performed by Nancy Sinatra (2:43)
• 5. 10% Clint (1:10)
• 6. Leroy's Morning (1:40)
• 7. Why Can't We Be Friends - performed by War (3:52)
• 8. Want Our Life Back (1:31)
• 9. Frank's Dead - co-written by Abraham Laboriel (2:51)
• 10. You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You - performed by Dean Martin (1:59)
• 11. Jerry & Ted to Pawn - co-written by Abraham Laboriel (1:27)
• 12. The Mexican (2:14)
• 13. Airport (2:21)
• 14. The Safety Dance - performed by Men Without Hats (4:34)
• 15. El Cable - performed by Esquivel (2:19)
• 16. Margolese Compound (1:03)
• 17. Where's my Stuff (1:01)
• 18. Thieves (1:11)
• 19. A Good F'ing Reason (1:16)
• 20. It's Cursed, that Gun (3:24)
• 21. Oye, Oye (1:33)
• 22. A Miracle (2:28)
• 23. The Mexican - End Credits Medley (5:02)

Notes Icon
NOTES AND QUOTES
The insert includes extensive credits and artwork, but no extra information about the score or film.
Copyright © 2001-2025, 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 The Mexican are Copyright © 2001, Decca Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/20/01 and last updated 1/31/09.
Reviews Preload Scoreboard decoration Ratings Preload Composers Preload Awards Preload Home Preload Search Preload