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Review of Narrow Margin (Bruce Broughton)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you desire an aggressive and frenetic suspense
environment for large symphonic ensemble that is presented on album as
Bruce Broughton intended it to be heard.
Avoid it... if you demand a sizable and distinct theme to anchor your otherwise technically impressive action scores.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Narrow Margin: (Bruce Broughton) Among the better
forgotten thrillers of the 1990's is Narrow Margin, a harrowing
tale of witness protection from director Peter Hyams that was inspired
by its 1950's film noir predecessor. A deputy district attorney played
by Gene Hackman is assigned to protect a book editor (Anne Archer) who
is the only witness of a mob assassination. The attorney's challenge is
to escort her against her will from the wilderness of Canada back to Los
Angeles to testify, eluding the mob's resources along the way. The
production rented an entire train on which to shoot for the majority of
its running time, with the rail trek through British Columbia taking
several suspenseful turns as killers from the mob predictably infiltrate
the voyage. For train enthusiasts, this film ranks up with Under
Siege 2: Dark Territory and Runaway Train as an exciting
modern thriller, though Narrow Margin has the distinct advantage
of featuring two outstanding actors in their prime. Despite these perks,
the film toiled in obscurity soon after its release. Hyams has always
been notorious for his difficult relationships with members of his crew,
however, and most notably with his composers. Having worked with Jerry
Goldsmith early in his career and then moving on to half a dozen
composers thereafter, it is no surprise that there was never a
consistent composer for the majority of his films. Having written the
music for four of Hyams' projects, however, Bruce Broughton is the most
frequent name on that list (just ahead of John Debney), with entries
spanning the late 1980's and early 1990's. Broughton, whose career was
arguably also at its prime, tackled Narrow Margin with a
warranted sense of aggression that remains gritty around the edges
throughout its length, providing one the most frenetic action scores of
his career. Assembling a diverse range of orchestral performers,
Broughton's composition is lively and robust, featuring a consistent
level of activity to accompany the film's non-stop suspense from start
to finish. Unfortunately for the composer, the lesson of Hyams'
sometimes deranged thinking was not yet learned, and his score for
Narrow Margin would suffer from endless requests for the
re-scoring of many scenes, and even after such work was completed, the
finished product was chopped into pieces by the time it was heard in the
cinemas.
Rather than providing a distinct theme for any of the film's characters, Broughton offers a series of four notes that is really only heard in full during the opening and closing titles, with mutated references of that progression informing motifs throughout the score's contents. On the other hand, an alternating piano motif of sixteen notes serves as the score's true identity, fitting more gracefully into subtle places and translating well in wildly frantic, sometimes cyclical string and brass performances. Those rambunctious action sequences are highlighted by "Chopper Chase" (before the train enters the film) and "Nelson, Then Katherine" (the finale action scene), both of which exploding with raw, rhythmic energy and both of which, ironically, extensively re-scored and then butchered anyway in the final cut by Hyams. The director reportedly preferred the more jarring effect of single blasts from the full ensemble, adding specific, synchronized accents to each glimpse of a villain or other scary element, rather than allowing Broughton's music to simply establish an overall mood through the application of a consistent rhythm. To his credit, Hyams may have recognized that Broughton used an effective technique with his orchestral blasts in Narrow Margin, one in which only the lowest and highest ranges of the orchestra produce the sound, omitting the middle ranges as almost to suggest a polarizing shriek of good and evil at once. But Hyams was dead wrong in regards to the continuity of Broughton's original cues. As it was originally written, the narrative flow by Broughton for Narrow Margin is superior. But with both original and alternate cues cut, moved, or deleted, the composer was best advised to forget about the project and move on; one cannot hear anything resembling the quality of his work by watching the film. As a relatively early, 2004 installment in Intrada Records' "Special Collection" of limited albums, Narrow Margin is presented with both original and alternate cues with which listeners can make their own judgments. The sound quality is so remarkably clear that you can even hear the nearly inaudible, whispering strings at the start of the titles and alternate end credits recordings. The album comes highly recommended to contemporary suspense enthusiasts, and although the 1,500-copy run of the product went out of print as expected, it long remained relatively inexpensive on the secondary market. Its presentation thankfully preserves what remains as one of Broughton's most impressive genre achievements.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 61:29
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes detailed information about the score and film from
Bruce Broughton and the producers of the album, as well as a list of performers.
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