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| Isham |
Racing Stripes: (Mark Isham) Without DVD players in
sport utility vehicles and films like
Racing Stripes in the
theatres, how would adults ever manage to keep their obnoxious children
under control these days? Starting with
Babe and
National
Velvet, a long list of children's films of this sort could be
mentioned, with
Racing Stripes taking the well worn, standardized
plotline of "orphaned animal meets other talking barnyard creatures and
proves itself in a competition that redeems its species as well as the
heartland family that raised it." The animals in this particular film
are indeed real, and Hollywood took yet another opportunity to confuse
adults who see the CGI lips of the animals flail around without the
corresponding facial expressions that you've come to expect from looking
at talking humans. Perhaps if the zebra that fancies itself as a race
horse was for some reason shot at the end (another familiar animal movie
conclusion), then there would be something compelling about the film.
That said, it defied mostly negative reviews by tripling its budget in
worldwide grosses. The great news for movie-goers who enjoy
Racing
Stripes is that composer Mark Isham didn't seem to care about any of
the cliches or yawn-inducing dialogue inherent in the project. The
assignment marked a triumphant return to the genre of "child helps
animal" that remains the subject of Isham's most famous and long
commercially unreleased score,
Fly Away Home. Wandering
throughout various genres in his career, Isham is an interesting study
because he is able to write stirring music for Americana topics at their
finest while also being capable of countering with extremely mundane and
underachieving music for less wholesome genres. While the composer does
go the route of
Fly Away Home and
Dolphin Tale at times,
he's still best known for his gritty, electronically-defined thrillers,
scores that rarely achieve much positive impact outside of context.
Without a doubt, though,
Racing Stripes represents Isham at his
best, with sensibility and inspiration without an overdose of
sentimentality. In this fully orchestral music, he infuses the safely
tonal and melodic genre standards with just enough instrumental and
vocal flavor to keep you listening, including for good measure a few of
those rhythmic ensemble outbursts that made
Fly Away Home a cult
favorite. The result is a score that was considered by some to be the
most surprisingly superior effort of Isham's entire career.
While one of Isham's themes for
Racing Stripes
is incorporated into the song performed by Sting that appears over the
end credits, the vocal doesn't do the composer's idea justice. The fully
orchestral statements of this primary identity, often accompanied by
rambling snare, pounding timpani, and crashing cymbals, are victorious
in an innocently wholesome but highly satisfying manner. Simplistic in
structure and sometimes reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's 1980's and
1990's equivalents, the composer's array of themes relies upon the
intrinsic warmth and pleasant balance of instruments to convey their
good intentions, taking the standard methods of John Debney but
transcending that composer's procedural tone. Remarkably, Isham avoids
the saccharine melodrama that you expect to hear saturate a score like
this one. In its more subtle moments,
Racing Stripes offers two
interesting ideas: first, a bluegrass representation of the Kentucky
setting (provided by slide guitar, jaw harp, and banjo) and secondly, an
African influence in vocals and percussion that offers the zebra its
distinction of heritage. The bluegrass moments may seem too hokey at
first, but their absence in the second half of the score is a bit of a
disappointment. The African vocals, with solo voice similar to James
Newton Howard's usage in
Hidalgo and
The Interpreter, are
the best twist in the music, heard at a distance throughout the score
(and sometimes with cooing choir) in moments of inspiration and dreams.
The underlying percussive momentum of the score joins the vocals in the
triumphant moment of victory for the zebra in the big race at the end.
It would be interesting to know if Isham had any thoughts about the
speculation over the racial implications of this vocal application
(essentially representing the black athlete in a white-dominated sport).
The adventuresome "The Blue Moon Races" and "The Big Race" are
highlights, the latter featuring quick blasts of brass that will remind
you of James Horner's vintage children's scores. Another positive
attribute of Isham's
Racing Stripes is the avoidance of weaker,
slapstick humor. The comedy relief is restrained mostly to the
mobster/faux-Italian representations of the talking pelican in "A
Pelican Named Goose" and "Goose Makes a Hit on the Iron Horse."
Consistently solid performances from start to finish make
Racing
Stripes a very pleasant and surprising equal to
Fly Away
Home, perhaps even eclipsing its predecessor on album. That product
contains the two end credits songs by Sting and Bryan Adams, as well as
a generous portion of Isham's score. You have to set aside your biases
against this genre to appreciate this unexpected entry among the best
scores of 2005.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| 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 9,958 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
