FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW

Review of Narrow Escape (David Michael Frank)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you're a sucker for hopelessly optimistic and lovable small-scale orchestral scores for feel-good television films.

Avoid it... if you've heard some of David Michael Frank's more diverse music for films and television and are searching for more of that robust sound.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

A Thousand Men and a Baby (Narrow Escape): (David Michael Frank) This original CBS movie was titled A Thousand Men and a Baby at the time of its debut on a Sunday night in December, 1997. It caused a moderate stir in the television world by beating X-Files and a showing of Terminal Velocity in Nielsen ratings on competing networks the same night. The title of the movie was changed to Narrow Escape when it made the journey to European television the following year. It is a typical feel-good Sunday night network affair, telling the true story of an event that occurred somewhat often in wartime for American forces. At the end of the Korean War, a half-American, half-Korean baby is found left for dead in the garbage of an Army Depot near Inchon, and soldiers take it to an orphanage. Unable to meet the medical needs of the infant, an unlikely transfer is approved to allow a Navy aircraft carrier to take on the child in its sick bay. As it recovers, and the carrier is reassigned to other duties after the war despite the end of hostilities, the crew collectively adopts the child. In order to legally adopt the child, the doctor on the ship resigns his commission and brings the child home to his wife in Seattle (where the couple had been unable to have children themselves). The film is a Hallmark-style fluff story, taking inspiration from any number of similar true stories that occurred in the Korean War and others. A Thousand Men and a Baby was a usual project for American composer David Michael Frank, whose career in television scoring has been lengthy. Beginning with episodes of "Laverne & Shirley" in the 1970's to "Columbo," "Different Strokes," and "Fortune Hunter," Frank's only significant ventures into feature films involved his collaboration with Steven Seagal projects of the early 1990's. His most famous score was for the Oscar-nominated IMAX film Cosmic Voyage in 1996.

In many ways, Frank's career has mirrored that of Lee Holdridge, restraining significant talent to the small screen, and Frank is another composer who has never gotten the break he deserved. A Thousand Men and a Baby isn't the type of score that would help him break through, though it suffices in what it needed to accomplish. A mostly monothematic score, Frank's effort here is as sugar-coated as possible, staying close to safe lyrical territory and offering the same title theme and spin-off motif consistently from start to end. The ensemble is The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, a formidable group that has never sounded so tender in their performing days. Indeed, despite the financial benefits of recording in Prague, it's hard to see why a group of that magnitude was necessary for A Thousand Men and a Baby, or even if its full ranks were employed for the project. The score itself has the melodic sensibilities of Holdridge, ironically, pleasantly simple and undemanding in its loyal thematic presentation from start. A title theme halfway between John Williams' Home Alone and Randy Edelman's Kindergarten Cop is delightfully appropriate. Instrumentation rotates in the performances of the theme, from solo woodwinds to solo violin, with brass and metallic percussion taking a secondary role. The only notable instrumental deviation comes in the Christmas-inspired light percussion of the opening cue. Only in "High Stakes Poker" does Frank partially abandon the hopelessly upbeat major-key attitude of the title theme. The great loyalty to that theme, and its lovable nature, is also the score's weakness, causing it --even after only 30 minutes on album-- to potentially become tedious. On that album, a 30-minute selection was pressed by Prometheus (in the Narrow Escape name) shortly after the debut of the film on TV, and not long after their more satisfying album to Cosmic Voyage. It should be noted that the L.A. Times newspaper filmed a title theme performance of A Thousand Men and a Baby, with Frank conducting, and used the actual footage in a television commercial promoting their paper.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 30:42

• 1. A Christmas Story (2:10) • 2. Discovery (1:55) • 3. The War is Over (1:02) • 4. Haunted by the Past (1:29) • 5. Gates of Freedom (2:34) • 6. Danny's New Home (1:28) • 7. High Stakes Poker (1:20) • 8. A Sikh Funeral (1:27)

• 9. Caring for Danny (1:05) • 10. Waiting and Jubilation (2:42) • 11. Mother and Child (2:29) • 12. A Tearful Farewell (3:54) • 13. Looking for Answers (2:11) • 14. The Sendoff (1:46) • 15. Home for Christmas (2:39)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes information about the film.

Copyright © 1997-2024, 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 Narrow Escape are Copyright © 1997, Prometheus Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/26/97 and last updated 6/24/06.