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Moneyball
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Composed, Co-Orchestrated, and Produced by:
Co-Orchestrated and Conducted by:
Nicholas Dodd
Co-Orchestrated by:
Dan Barr
Additional Music by:
Rob Simonsen
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LABEL & RELEASE DATE
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Madison Gate Records
(September 20th, 2011)
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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Regular U.S. release, primarily distributed via download but
also availabile through Amazon.com's "CDr on demand" service.
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AWARDS
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None.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... only if you seek the source songs heard in the film and
its trailers, because Mychael Danna's original score tepidly
concentrates on the cold statistical suspense of the concept in
disappointingly minimal fashion.
Avoid it... if you expect to hear Danna deliver any emotional
warmth or inspirational whimsy to address the family or baseball
elements in the plot, a strange underperformance for an otherwise
typical character story from within the sports genre.
BUY IT
 | Danna |
Moneyball: (Mychael Danna) The Oakland Athletics
baseball club of the 2000's faced a number of challenges exacerbated in
part by their perpetual secondary status in the Bay Area to the San
Francisco Giants. Their payroll has always been restricted, a by-product
of weak attendance numbers at the cavernous Oakland-Alameda Coliseum and
an emphasis on their remarkable farm system. After the turn of the
century, baseball's green and yellow oddity, despite its success on the
field, was plagued by stories of steroid use by many of its superstars
(in their defense, when the Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco reportedly got
jacked up on steriods after injecting each other in the buttocks, they
did the sensible thing and bashed up the umpires' restroom at the
stadium) and constant threats to abandon Oakland in favor of South Bay
territory traditionally controlled by the Giants. In the 1990's, the A's
ownership and general manager became the first club to truly adopt
"sabermetric" principles that used baseball statistics rather than
scouting intuition as the means of assembling a cost-effective team.
This technique led to several division championships between 2000 and
2006, and despite the Athletics' uncanny ability to barely be bounced
out of the playoffs each year, their model of success, especially in
their ability to develop their farm system, has been emulated by many
other clubs since. A 2003 book by author Michael Lewis (who also penned
the story that became The Blind Side) explored the Athletics'
remarkable 2002 season that included a record 20-game winning streak,
and this work was adapted after many years of production turmoil into
the 2011 movie of the same name, Moneyball. Starring Brad Pitt as
A's general manager Billy Beane, the film chronicles the evolution of
sabermetrics during that season and throws in some drama on and off the
field as well. It was well received by critics and audiences alike,
drawing reasonable profits in part because of its ensemble acting depth
and good humor. Original music had a relatively minor role to play in
Moneyball, though director Bennet Miller reunited with composer
Mychael Danna to receive what little dramatic underscore required for
the "people story" and suspense aspects of the film. There is absolutely
no sports genre personality to be heard in any portion of this music. In
fact, the score is overshadowed by source usage in the film,
particularly the cute performance of Lenka's 2008 song "The Show" by
actress Kerris Dorsey (who plays Beane's daughter) and the gritty rock
instrumental "The Mighty Rio Grande" by the Texas group This Will
Destroy You, heard first in the movie's trailers.
While Moneyball uses baseball as only a backdrop
for character studies, most movies with epic sports scores do the same
but still manage to contain inspirational genre music. Danna's
instructions were clearly to avoid that technique, instead supplying
extremely conservative and minimal atmosphere to Moneyball. The
baseball scenes were clearly not meant to receive any heroic original
material related to the score, this despite the legendary public address
system (and Roy Steele, the "voice of God," behind the microphone) and
the rowdy atmosphere at the Oakland Coliseum, which has allowed
noisemakers and a carnival-like, youthful atmosphere for A's games.
Danna's approach was to supply a hesitant and almost emotionally devoid
representation of a statistical game of chess, but even from this
perspective, his music generally underplays the importance of the
story's family connections and impact on the game of baseball. There is
no clearly dominant theme in the score, Danna instead using ostinatos in
Philip Glass mode to quietly address the brains at work on screen. In
cues like "One Way Out," "Time Tested Intangibles," and "More," these
rhythms promise to pick up steam but are never fully realized. In "It's
a Process," Danna adds deep piano thuds of a Craig Armstrong variety to
these string and woodwind rhythms, lending slight gravity to that and
similar cues. In "The Streak" and "Hattie," Danna manipulates the piano
digitally to create a sense of distorted reality, an irritating effect
in an otherwise smooth score. The cues for the height of the 20-game
streak are nearly as dismal as the rest of the soundtrack, though a
sight sense of desperation in "Game 5" (never a good game for the A's
during this period) eventually yields to some almost dreamy, resigned
contemplation in subsequent cues as Beane considers taking a job with
the Boston Red Sox. The score's ostinatos are summarized in "On Its
Head," capping a surprisingly distant overall tone. There is little
warmth to address the family portions of Moneyball and absolutely
no enthusiasm to reflect fans' appreciation for the team. Danna's focus
on the cool, statistical element is barely functional and essentially
fails to tell any kind of narrative to compete in any regard with other
scores about sports perseverance, family challenges, or even statistical
genius (James Horner's rhythmic representations of genius are infinitely
superior). The album contains 34 minutes of score that will be difficult
to embrace, though it at least has few moments of turmoil to upset the
tepid but smooth listening experience. While nobody should have expected
music like Randy Newman's classic The Natural to grace this film,
it's hard not to get the feeling that the score was intentionally buried
in a movie that could have used a few more doses of whimsy. Despite the
ruthless statistical aspect to baseball, it is still a kid's game. ** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check: |
For Mychael Danna reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33
(in 15 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.03
(in 4,495 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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Total Time: 48:48
1. One Out Away (1:48)
2. A Little Bit of Faith (1:09)
3. Spring Training (1:34)
4. Big League (2:20)
5. Opening Day (1:12)
6. Losing Streak (1:39)
7. Can't Miss Prospect (2:05)
8. Time Tested Intangibles (1:22)
9. Is Losing Fun? (0:53)
10. Coaching (1:01)
11. It's a Process (1:52)
12. More (1:37)
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13. The Streak (3:03)
14. Turn Around (0:48)
15. Old Ground (4:26)
16. Hattie (1:25)
17. Game (1:08)
18. Fenway (1:30)
19. The Offer (0:41)
20. Oakland (1:12)
21. On Its Head (1:35)
22. The Show - performed by Kerris Dorsey (3:13)
23. The Mighty Rio Grande - performed by This Will Destroy You (11:16)
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The insert includes a list of performers but no extra information about
the score or film. As in many of Amazon.com's "CDr on demand" products, the
packaging smells incredibly foul when new.
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