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| Howard |
Pawn Sacrifice: (James Newton Howard) Avoiding a
glamorous depiction of the mystique of American chess champion Bobby
Fischer, director Edward Zwick examined the person from the perspective
of his extremely troubled and generally negative atributes in 2014's
Pawn Sacrifice. The chess master was known for his obsessive
personality traits, but this movie really focused in on his paranoid
delusions and other psychiatric issues alongside his antisemitism, poor
sportsmanship, and generally antisocial behaviors. The timeline of the
film spans a brief period in his childhood but is mostly concerned with
the man's tournament matches against Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky,
against whom Fischer experienced both victory and defeat in the late
1960's and early 1970's. The political angle of Soviet versus American
superiority is another angle of intrigue that exacerbates Fischer's
mental trauma, pushing the dramatic weight of the film even further.
While the movie ends on a high note in Fischer's career as he defeats
Spassky, the man's personal destruction thereafter is an epilogue not
covered. Although
Pawn Sacrifice was well received critically, it
failed to generate much audience interest and lost significant money,
audiences not interested in seeing actor Tobey Maguire dwell upon the
lead's miserable personal complexities. The project represented the
fourth and final collaboration between Zwick and composer James Newton
Howard, the two enjoying particular success on
Blood Diamond and
Defiance. There isn't a significant amount of original music in
this film, and Howard steers clear of making any kind of noticeable
impact upon the narrative until the final scenes of victory.
Interestingly, the composer makes no attempt to musically reflect the
flashy, brilliant aspect of Fischer's mind like James Horner had
memorably done in
Searching for Bobby Fischer two decades
earlier. Instead, Howard is compelled to underscore the constantly
simmering tension and slightly dramatic conflicts in the man's psyche,
yielding a restrained score that is content to toil in the background
before the more impactful final cue. The result of that decision is
dissatisfying for much of the picture, the thumping and clanging inside
Fischer's head musically emulated in rather unpleasant ways when Howard
isn't attempting to afford him vague admiration using tonality from the
orchestra.
The ensemble for
Pawn Sacrifice is remarkably
similar to that for
Nightcrawler at about the same time, a string
section joined by one clarinet, harp, and piano. Synthetic effects also
carry over but are far less intense despite their rattling around in
Fischer's mind; some of the synths are distinctly retro, as in "Ping
Pong," but they generally follow his typical electronic palette in the
bass region. Two themes weave throughout the score, one for Fischer and
the other for his approach to competition. The former, main theme is a
sequence of pairs of notes in vague call and answer formation, heard
immediately on marimba effects over tense strings in "There's Usually
One Right Move." Solo piano then carries the idea over atmospheric haze
at 1:10 in that cue, and light strings over plucking harp follow at
1:53, eventually elongating the melody for clarinet in a preview of the
finale cue. Fragmented in the soft piano tones of "Bobby Plays Carmine,"
the theme is expanded in its fluid clarinet form of the idea during much
of "Reading About Spassky." This theme only vaguely informs the latter
half of the dull ambience in "Forfeit" but develops more cohesively
early in "Bobby Wins" on full strings, where it finally achieves some
dramatic warmth, eventually adopting the competition motif as an
interlude. A solo cello rendition of the main theme yields to that other
motif on clarinet later in the cue, confirming their peaceful
coexistence after the triumph. The competition motif contains
descending, accelerating four-note figures in rhythmic formation, heard
first at the end of "Ping Pong" with militaristic force. This motif
dominates throughout "Boris Spassky" in light piano tones over eerie,
deep synth drones and is very faint on high strings and the clarinet in
the first half of "Forfeit." It's stripped down to only a pair of
descending notes in "Bobby Plays Boris" and translates into the
interlude for the main theme on weighty strings in middle of "Bobby
Wins." The last minute of the conclusive cue really expands nicely upon
this new direction for the idea. That closing six minutes of the score
reprises the tonal appeal of "There's Usually One Right Move" at the
beginning, and these two cues together represent the only really
accessible and attractive music in the score. Otherwise,
Pawn
Sacrifice tends to be rather dull and unimpressive, taking no
chances in its background duties. Even the highlights are somber, making
the entire listening experience a marginal exercise in fleeting care. At
23 minutes in length, the album is tough to recommend given the
composer's ample selection of more interesting dramatic works.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.28
(in 78 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.29
(in 87,039 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
