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A lack of engagement remains one overarching aspect of Isham's usual methodology that often restrains his scores from greatness. When O'Conner mentions "multi-layered" as an attribute of Isham's score for Miracle, it's difficult to understand his meaning, because this score (as well as many of Isham's others) seems two-dimensional and mono-thematic in its composition and flat in its recording. Isham's concurrently written score for Twisted suffers from a similar lack of depth; whereas that production was obviously a hideous project all around, however, it's surprising to hear more of Isham's understated style and lack of powerful emotion in much of Miracle. Sports dramas typically bring out the most ambitious of film scores from composers, but only in the heightened training and game sequences does Isham very slowly develop a sense of drive, determination, and passion in his chopping strings. This film would have seemed to be an excellent opportunity to spur the same feel-good depth of involvement heard in Isham's spectacular effort for Fly Away Home, and yet, Miracle falls flat before it can really get started, its string figures tepid in personality and lacking any spark in their performances. On a technical level, one could argue that the simplistic sound of Isham's music here is due to a complete lack of satisfying counterpoint, variation of rhythm, or interesting orchestration, all of which making the whole of the recording sound as though it was performed by an ensemble half the size of the one actually featured. The softly tapping snare drum, as the expected but effective representative of patriotism, is badly underplayed, and the sense of weight necessary in the American victory simply cannot be conveyed from the tone of just one trumpet player. Had a dozen brass players, a rattle of electronics, or, better yet, the distinct crack of a hockey stick on the ice been used to punctuate rhythms or carry themes, Miracle could have been inspirational. There is no musical representation of the Soviets, too, no tone of adversity whatsoever. To his credit, Isham does finally unleash the full ensemble of 100 players in the finale of the score, with brass on levels not often heard from the composer, but Miracle takes a long time building up to that moment and might have put the listener to sleep by then. Once that finale arrives, a listener could very well wonder what all the fuss regarding the 1980 Olympics was all about. It's a sufficient score, but not a noteworthy one; it simply lacks true drive and enthusiasm. An album with no proper track breaks (and without a single picture from the film), unenthusiastic performances, and three songs unrelated to the score cause the entire package to be insufficient. Isham seemingly phoned this one in.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

• Score as Written for the FIlm:  ***
• Score as Heard on the Album:  **
• Overall:  ***

Bias Check:

For Mark Isham reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.84 (in 26 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.88 (in 9,973 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 56:14