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| Goldsmith |
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| Isham |
The Public Eye: (Jerry Goldsmith/Mark Isham) After
failing to secure the rights to the story of famed New York crime
photographer Arthur "Weegee" Fellig of the 1940's, writer and director
Howard Franklin instead created his own stand-in concoction to tell a
dramatized story of similar early tabloid sensationalism. With the lead
photographer played by Joe Pesci,
The Public Eye conveys the
seedy and not always legal methods of obtaining grisly crime photos
before the police could show up at a scene. As in real life, a radio
tuned into police frequencies was the key to the protagonist's success,
and his photos inspired others to seek the same glory for years. The
1992 film takes the character into the underworld of the mob, a widow
hiring him to investigate her late husband's dealings; because the
photographer falls in love with her, he complies, but before long he
finds himself in a situation where his life is in danger and, not by
coincidence, snapping photos of one of the city's biggest mob hits in
history. The movie failed to generate enough positive reaction to recoup
more than just a small fraction of its budget, a fair amount of which
was spent on a fruitless expedition to find the best music for the
picture. Franklin, an inexperienced director whose career was largely
killed by the failure of
The Public Eye, was thrilled to hire
veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith for the assignment, and he approved of
the initial thematic ideas that were presented to him. By the recording
sessions, however, Franklin became displeased with the repetition he
perceived to hear in Goldsmith's music. The composer, who had written
two themes for the picture and based the full score off of them,
declined to write additional ideas for Franklin. Having used Mark
Isham's score for
Reversal of Fortune as a temp track, the
director approached then Isham directly for a quick replacement score
that accomplished pretty much the same result but with less of the
distinctive style Goldsmith brought to the table. The rejection of
Goldsmith's music represents a senseless decision by the novice
director, as that original score was a model of efficiency and expert
adaptation of motifs that Franklin declined in favor of more brooding
atmospheres.
While there is nothing really wrong with Isham's take on
The Public Eye, his approach is far less engaging and memorable
than Goldsmith's. (Some may simply argue that Goldsmith was a
significantly better composer than Isham, especially at that time, and
there would be merit to such a proposition.) For Goldsmith, the late
1980's and early 1990's represented a disturbing period in which his
work was rejected with alarming frequency. Fascinatingly, he countered
this circumstance with a stubborn refusal to abandon material he had
written for his unused film scores. Foremost in this admirable tendency
was the thematic core of his classic espionage score for
The Russia
House in 1991. That work was clearly an itch that the composer
needed to scratch repeatedly both before and after its immense success
in that picture. He had first written the main theme for
The Russia
House in 1987 for Oliver Stone's
Wall Street, and after his
departure from that project, he finally recorded it for 1988's
Alien
Nation, which itself was rejected. Even after the maturation of that
idea in
The Russia House, Goldsmith took the same jazzy style and
adapted its core progressions to form a character theme for 1992's
Gladiator, where it never really fit well with the otherwise
abrasive and synthetic nature of that substandard soundtrack. Upon that
fully recorded score's rejection, he inserted an almost identical
adaptation of that theme from
The Russia House into
The Public
Eye the same year, a setting perfect for the noir mannerisms of the
idea's performance. The composer still refused to abandon the idea even
after recording and then losing the assignment for
The Public Eye
as well, and an almost identical version of the theme and its jazzy
inflection oddly but satisfyingly graced
The Vanishing in 1993,
letting rip with its uninhibited form over that movie's end credits. For
the many diehard enthusiasts of
The Russia House, the history of
its main theme and this subsequent offshoot is as bizarre as it is
complimentary of Goldsmith's taste and resilience. Fortunately,
The
Public Eye represents the best fully mature revisitation of that
material, conveyed with much the same personality as the suspense
portions of the classic 1991 score.
While there is much to like about Goldsmith's economical
approach to
The Public Eye, it doesn't capture the same intensely
personal appeal of
The Russia House. Still, even as an echo of
the same suspense and noir mould, the rejected 1992 score is a pleasure
to hear. A clarinet replaces the saxophone this time, but the string
bass, light percussion (including woodblock effects), and subtle
synthetics in support are kept. No brass or heavier percussion exist in
the work, harp, piano, and dramatic strings carrying the remainder of
the soundscape. The synthetics are mostly comprised of base thumping,
but some of the composer's higher-range keyboarding carry the melodies
as in
Basic Instinct for eeriness. Goldsmith remains faithful to
his two themes for
The Public Eye, establishing them separately
but eventually bringing them together as the two halves of the film's
plot converge. The main noir theme for the photographer and setting is
what inspires the primary rising phrase of three notes and descending
fourth note that listeners will recognize as the offshoot of
The
Russia House. Its chords and progressions, including the rambling
and elegant piano bridge sequence, are all directly carried over from
the rejected
Gladiator from the same year. (The theme was
reprised so thoroughly in
The Vanishing that the bridge sequence
returned in exactly the same form there as well.) That piano bridge
sequence only appears in this score in the middle of "Main Title" and
during the suite arrangement in "Final Shot" at the end. A rising bass
string pitch emulates the first two notes of the theme like
The
Russia House as well and seems to serve as something of a potential
betrayal motif here. Pulsating violins conveying the underlying chords
with little else in the mix are also a distinct Goldsmith-specific
carryover from
Basic Instinct's ambience. The noir theme is often
presented over the top of or around the secondary suspense motif devised
by the composer for
The Public Eye, that technique emphasizing
the main theme in smoother and longer lines over the cyclical suspense
theme in "First Sale." (The four core notes of the idea eventually yield
a fuller melody as the score progresses.) Its piano and strings are
subtle in "Morning Call" while clarinet carries it cleanly with
loneliness late in "Someone to Trust," violins tease it in "Black Gas"
over the suspense theme, and a high clarinet appeals with the idea early
in "Snapshots."
The main Goldsmith noir theme of
The Public Eye
becomes increasingly intertwined with the score's darker material as the
film progresses. It's directly pitted against the suspense theme in the
worry of "The Alley" and returns to that tactic using more restraint in
"Beauty and the Beast" with synthetics leading. A piano tentatively
takes the longer version of the theme in "Ask Me" while that instrument
and the clarinet share a heavier rendition in "Protection" with
descending string phrases. A chilly synthesizer closes the creepy
ambience of "The Slaughter" while only the theme's chords occupy
"Everything is True" in quiet agony before the piano finally plays the
tune, the same occurring in "Turn It Off." The suite rendition of the
theme for the full ensemble is highly attractive in "Final Shot,"
including the bridge sequence. Meanwhile, Goldsmith's secondary but
well-developed theme in
The Public Eye represents the element of
suspense with cyclical, four-note phrasing of mystery that debuts in
"First Sale." It's not as snazzy as the equivalent in
The Russia
House but is definitely related, the employment of rhythmic
pace-setters and stuttering two-note fragments particularly reminiscent
of the same uneasy environment. The theme itself is boiled down to just
its chords underneath the noir theme in "Morning Call" and provided more
style on harp in "The Body," its underlying rhythmic movement driving
"Someone to Trust" and "After Hours." Slowed to fragmentary suspense in
"What's the Trouble?" and "Black Gas," the suspense theme is supplied a
romantic tilt to its first three notes on piano in "No User" and shifts
into Goldsmith's trademark 7/8 meter for additional swagger in
"Snapshots," sadly the only such moment in the score. It applies nice
bass counterpoint to the noir theme in "The Alley" and "Beauty and the
Beast," speeds up with triangle accents and more stylish bass for "New
Evidence," and is carried by harp again in "Ask Me." The theme's plucky,
underlying rhythmic movement returns with the triangle in "Midnight
Caller," the darkest cue thus far with ominous breaks in rhythm. In
"Three Months Pay," Goldsmith deconstructs the motif until it strikes
out in fragments at the end. The first two notes of the rhythm repeat
starkly in the bass during the appropriately serious "The Slaughter"
while the theme lends some of its phrasing to the suite in "Final Shot."
On the whole, Goldsmith's score conveys both smarts and style, its
derivative nature excused because it works reasonably well in this
iteration, the noir theme highlights particularly enticing.
While Goldsmith's music for
The Public Eye is
structurally repetitive, the composer's adaptation of his themes to fit
the narrative didn't merit the drastic step of rejection from the film's
director. Isham's replacement score seems to have tipped its hat to a
few of Goldsmith's ideas but is generally more workmanlike and
pedestrian. It also applies some of the same bass string and piano style
but replaces the clarinet with a bass flute. Isham loses most of the
noir element in his more basic orchestral and synthetic approach, the
end result less vibrant, heavier in tone, and more atmospheric overall.
He, too, employs a main character theme and a suspense identity, but
neither is particularly memorable. The main theme is similar in chord
structure and seemingly retains some progressions from Goldsmith's noir
theme. Developed in "The Public Eye" and explored further in "The Meat
Market," Isham's main theme merges well with the suspense theme's
rhythmic ambience in "Pictures in the Dark" and shifts to a more somber
set of progressions on strings in "The Great Bernzini," this mode
explored further in "Portrait of an Artist" in dispirited sadness. Isham
teases his main theme throughout "Waiting, Then Calling" and "Waiting,
Then Hiding," reduces it to surprisingly passionless string meandering
in "The Kiss," and returns it to its opening form over much gloominess
in "The Public Eye (End Credits)," where it is badly elongated to fill
space at the end of the cue. Isham's suspense theme is rhythmic like
Goldsmith's, a three-note piano motif introduced in "Nightime
Developments" and mundanely repeated in "The Bureau at Night" and
"Pictures in the Dark," eventually acquiring more synthetic ambience and
thumping bass tones. It briefly gains momentum in "Many Questions?" and
"Waiting, Then Calling," crouches on piano and bass flute in "Waiting,
Then Hiding," and becomes overwhelmed by dramatic posturing on strings
in "The Massacre," a much louder take on the scene than Goldsmith had
recorded. Unfortunately, the suspense theme is not touched upon in "The
Public Eye (End Credits)." Overall, Isham's score, as a last-minute
replacement, is competently serviceable and moderately appreciable on
album. But it does not compete with the distinctive style or much
superior soundscape of Goldsmith's alternative. The original Isham score
album contains spirited jazz songs ("Flying Home," "Topsy," "Cafe
Society Blues," and "Undecided") mixed into the presentation whereas
Intrada Records' limited 2021 score-only release of the rejected
Goldsmith music stands alone. The Isham album has limited appeal, but
the Goldsmith one will be a pleasure for any enthusiast of his
suspenseful noir methods.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Written by Jerry Goldsmith for the Film: ****
- Music as Written by Mark Isham for the Film: ***
| Bias Check: |
For Mark Isham reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.84
(in 26 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.87
(in 9,473 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 1992 Varèse album contains no extra
information about the score or film. That of the 2021 Intrada album
includes details about both.
