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| Howard |
The Package: (James Newton Howard) If there's a
thesis to Andrew Davis' 1989 political thriller,
The Package,
it's that he loves filming chases, escapes, betrayals, and Chicago.
Before his techniques were honed in
The Fugitive, he pitted Gene
Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones against each other in a high stakes game of
deception and death in the earlier film. The plot supposes that America
and the Soviet Union are negotiating to eliminate all nuclear weapons
and that forces within each military are trying to assassinate their way
to preventing that possibility. Hackman's U.S. Army Sergeant gets caught
up in the plot on the American side and loses Jones, who is posing as
another sergeant during a prisoner escort and the two spending the
remainder of the film knocking off assets on either side as the
conspiracy is exposed. The film doesn't conclude on a particularly happy
note, though the whole Cold War ended not long after its debut, so
perhaps the whole exercise was moot. Receiving middling reviews and
somewhat poor audience response,
The Package hasn't found any
notoriety since, though it did represent a very early orchestral score
from novice composer James Newton Howard at the time. His career
mirroring Alan Silvestri's in general evolution but a few years behind
in mainstream success, Howard was equally known for his serviceable
electronic scores of low budgets, some of which pretty wretched in
retrospect, but even in the 1980's he was starting to explore
compositional techniques that would later come to define his style.
Although there is a Synclavier component to the espionage and suspense
portions of
The Package, the project also represents Howard's
breakthrough orchestral debut on a large scale. The two halves of the
score aren't entirely comfortable with each other, though, and the
recording betrays its age with a rather raw mix of the sizable ensemble.
The orchestra is well rounded but totally dominated by brass, especially
at the low end, with woodwinds diminished throughout and accents like
the harp often getting lost in the fray. Percussion is satisfyingly
present.
The narrative of
The Package demands three
orchestral action cues at its start but shifts to ambience for much of
its midsection. In these parts, electronics are not always obnoxious in
1980's fashion, often too atmospheric to be badly dated, but there are
exceptions, such as the electric guitar and bass of "The Shoot Out." The
main attraction of the work is its action material, which emulates Jerry
Goldsmith of the late 1970's and nods to Michael Kamen influence, too.
While early cues like "Henke Arrest" crank up the intensity really well,
it's the final trio of long chase-oriented cues are where this score
earns its pay. Howard's themes for
The Package aren't memorable,
but they function well enough given their inflection. The main idea
represents the sullied military honor of the tale, a somewhat anonymous
melody typically on brass and anchored by a repeated opening four-note
phrase. That sequence is adapted into secondary lines that vary
throughout the score; many of the phrases are four notes long, even
those that end the theme. A more romantic string interlude previews
Howard's fantasy music to come but is too short to sustain appreciation,
applied only a few times. The primary melody is stated on stoic brass
early in "Main Title" and supplied with vaguely Russian tones a minute
in, shifting to trumpet heroism for the American military thereafter but
tarnished by dissonance. The theme punctuates the frenetic action of
"Henke Arrest" in diverse infusions of honor, takes a stately, trumpet
personality in "The Chateau," and instills panic in "Carlson Killing"
before chilling back to the meandering solo trumpet. Fragmented and
restrained on keyboards early in "Gallagher Escapes House Arrest," the
theme returns to its original militaristic blurting on harsh trombones
in "The Brass Arrives." It fights the soft tumult at 0:16 into "Neo-Nazi
Demonstration" over nervous harmonies and directly counters the villain
material in the snazzier "Boyette Leaves Safehouse." In the core action
cues at the end, the theme helps inform the exciting bursts of "Chase
Pt. 1/Chase Pt. 2" while foreshadowing
The Fugitive, and this
mode this continues in "Chase Finale - Pt. 1/Chase Finale - Pt. 2,"
where strings and woodwinds elongate the idea again in the latter cue
but not obviously.
To close the score, the main theme strikes a new, more
optimistic pose early in "You're a Dead Man, Sergeant" but returns to
prior formations for the worry before the heightened finale inflates its
stature again. It goes more deeply muscular at the beginning of "End
Credits" with great force, and the string interludes for the main
four-note phrase are attractive in this performance. A heroic version
closes the credits for one fleeting moment of hope. Meanwhile, the
villains' theme in
The Package is an offshoot of the score's
conspiracy motif and debuts its deliberate, descending singular notes in
"House Arrest" on electronics. This material twinkles throughout
"Computer Alert," helps guide somewhat abrasive tones of the sparse
action in "Police Chase Eileen in Garage," and punctuates the cloudy
environment in "Gallagher to Eileen." It then elevates to percussive
coolness with puffing keyboarding in "Boyette Leaves Safehouse,"
continues that mode with more drama in "Chase Pt. 1/Chase Pt. 2," and
sneaks around in the middle of "Chase Pt. 3." The aforementioned
conspiracy motif consists of deep rumbling ambience with synthetic
assistance that opens "Main Title" and does so more impressively in "The
Plot." This allusive idea sets a sour mood in the middle of "Computer
Alert," drones at the start of "Police Chase Eileen in Garage" before
leading to bland drum kit action rhythms, and achieves more suspenseful
cohesion in "Richards Follows Gallagher" with light percussion. It
closes "The Shoot Out" and carries over to "Gallagher to Eileen" while
synths force themselves to the forefront in "Eileen Answers Phone" and
the idea haunts "You're a Dead Man, Sergeant" as the final executions
occur. None of these identities will reach out and grab you, though the
main theme's exposition in "End Credits" will really help solidify its
progressions for some. Fortunately, the action material in
The
Package occupies more than 50% of the score's presentation on its
lone, 51-minute album from Prometheus Records in 2003. The film makes
extensive use of extremely short cues that provide stingers for
particular shots, and many of these were not included on that product.
That's to the benefit of the listening experience, as the arrangement
makes it easy to appreciate the orchestral portions in clusters of
tracks. The album remains decently available decades later despite its
limited run, and enthusiasts of 1970's Goldsmith action and Howard's own
The Fugitive will find merit in the work's ambitious action
half.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.23
(in 90 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.22
(in 90,228 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes notes about the score and film.
