: (John Debney/Trevor Rabin) As
a formula sports film, the usual kind of highly predictable "based on a
true story" feel-good syrup,
is certainly
passable. As a commentary on historical fact and the serious nature of
ethnic turbulence associated with the integration of American schools in
the early 1970's, however, the 2000 Boaz Yakin film comes up rather
limp. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer was forced to balance those two
conflicting elements upon guiding this story about a heralded Virginia
high school football program that serves as the rallying point for
integration on the playing field in 1971, and to ensure a PG rating that
would guarantee better chances at mainstream acceptance,
lost the kind of muscle that it could have exerted in
exploring the gravity of the integration itself. Still, despite the
rather tepid racial conflicts in the film, strong acting performances
and a strict adherence to the formula of sporting perseverance made the
production a success. Among the slightly problematic aspects of
is its occasional lean towards the style of
silly humor that plagued the just previously released
, a part of the narrative often accompanied by famous
songs of the era. The soundtrack is riddled with standards of the late
60's and early 70's, punctuated by the team's standard entry onto the
field via intentionally corny dancing. Most of the music in the finished
cut is indeed derived from these songs, leaving little room for an
original score to make an impact. Veteran sports movie composer John
Debney was tapped to write a redemptive score with a fair dose of
Southern twang, and he did just that. Ultimately, after having completed
some of the recording of his score, Debney was removed from the project
and, being that this was a Bruckheimer film, Trevor Rabin was brought in
to write a replacement. The latter composer's music, while nowhere near
as technically or structurally deep as Debney's score, made a positive
impact upon the film in its limited usage and stands among his most
compelling all-time works. Both scores are quite strong, however, and
there are distinct reasons why Debney's work, regardless of its
remarkable ability to capture the spirit of the racial undertones, was
rejected. The perfect score for
would have
combined pieces from both soundtracks, though with the songs firmly
entrenched in the forefront of the mix, perhaps such a discussion is
irrelevant.
Debney, ever the chameleon, wrote a score for
Remember
the Titans that could have been all over the map in terms of
instrumentation and tone had it been completed and/or applied to the
entire film, leading to a possible lack of consistency. The fact that
the music meant to be heard during the final championship game is
missing causes a few potential snags. Without a doubt, though, the music
that Debney wrote for the scenes before that pivotal moment is vastly
superior to Rabin's, the Virginia culture very well addressed by
Debney's much less conservative approach. A mixture of electric guitar,
acoustic guitar, tambourine, piano, rock percussion, harmonica, and
banjo offer hard-nosed, rhythmic attitude in "Old Hatrids," "Long Hard
Practice," and "'69 Chevy Run." These cues, although only totaling about
five minutes in sum, create a tense but cool atmosphere that would have
well matched the confidence that the black and white players each have
in their own abilities before the integration (not to mention simple
locale considerations). The Southern style in the form of a piano in "A
New Home" is reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's
Love Field. A solo
violin performance in "Simply Dignity" starkly represents traditional
mores. An acoustic guitar solo in "Theme for Jenny" (extending to piano
in "Alone Again") is as pretty as anything you'd hear in a restaurant of
class on a Friday night. The somber "To Bury the Dead" serves as the
orchestra's only significant introduction in the music credited to
Remember the Titans (though it could be tracked from somewhere
else). The leaked promotional material specific to this film was
obviously incomplete, leading to problems with the so-called "promos"
that resulted when circulating the collector's market. Given the fact
that music from other Debney scores was included on those bootlegs to
approximate the material needed for the film, it's difficult to
determine exactly where the boundaries of this work actually exist. The
pair of orchestral highlights on the Debney's bootlegs, "Small Town
Heroes" and "For the Heroes," are in part copied from
In Pursuit of
Honor. Starting with "The Big Win" and extending several tracks are
exuberant performances from the composer's
Little Giants. It's
possible, though unlikely, that this material was used as temp tracks;
if so, despite the enthusiasm and humor in the team's antics by the end
of
Remember the Titans, that doesn't justify the Mickey-Mousing
major-key action material in "The Big Win," "Final Score," and "Pushing
the Yardstick." This placement more likely means that either songs were
assumed for those scenes or Debney never finished the score.
The dissolving of the Debney bootleg into the
children's realm to represent the final scenes of
Remember the
Titans is truly a head-scratcher. In retrospect, the
Little
Giants theme awkwardly sounds remarkably similar to Robert Folk's
In the Army Now, Craig Safan's
The Last Starfighter, and
Jerry Goldsmith's
McArthur, indeed a bizarre trio. Not only do
the Southern elements completely clash with the latter half of the
album's material, but some of the borrowed music strays too close to
John Philips Sousa territory for comfort. Still, the first half of the
Debney album, that which clearly represents the earlier scenes in
Remember the Titans, is extremely satisfying, strong enough to
ultimately recommend it to those who appreciate the film and composer.
Just be sure to turn it off after eight or so rather short tracks.
Rabin's approach to
Remember the Titans takes a far less active
role and is clearly an overreaction to what may have been perceived as
the flamboyant nature of Debney's original music. Whereas you might
expect the former rocker to touch upon some of the same techniques with
guitars that Debney employed for his take on the film, Rabin instead
almost goes the completely symphonic route.
Remember the Titans
has always stood as one of Rabin's most consistent forays into
orchestral music, refraining from more than just hints of the rock and
synthetic instrumentation that had defined his career at the time. Not
only is his music here surprisingly organic in construct, but he also
refrains from editing it so harshly that it sounds like it has synthetic
elements (or even just a cranked up bass region). Instead, there are
string performances during the score's softer passages that will
actually remind of Craig Armstrong's dramatic works. A largely
mono-thematic score, the accepted recording for
Remember the
Titans does still have all the melodic trademarks of Rabin's late
90's production. You'll hear portions of the anthem from
Armageddon in the deliberate secondary phrases of the theme, not
to mention snare and string pulsations with broad brass backing that
also seem to frequently appear in Rabin's scores. Rabin remains tonal
throughout, making his 25 minutes of material extremely consistent
despite the propulsive sections of game-time music. The only exception
is "Virginia," which ironically (though likely coincidentally) seems to
pull pieces of inspiration from Debney's
Little Giants score and
explore a secondary theme that exudes some of the same flighty major-key
exuberance that makes the earlier Debney venture difficult to tolerate
at times. Otherwise, for majority of the film, Rabin's material is
generally rooted in mid-range tones that probably speak to the gravity
of the event more than the simple sports formula.
Because of its somber dwelling in the lower registers,
however, the Rabin score is sometimes drowned out by ambient noise in
the context of the film. The only good instrumental accents in the
streamlined orchestral score from Rabin for
Remember the Titans
are ironically those few guitars and synthetic instruments that do sneak
into the music. A subtle electric guitar at the end of "The Field" and
low-range, tingling keyboarding at the outset of "Boone and Yoast"
provide character to a score otherwise too concerned with playing it
safe. The stoic nature of Rabin's music makes for a beautiful album,
though while it addresses restrained pride, it really does little to
handle the racial aspects of the plot. Thus, the Rabin score is more
enjoyable as a consistent listening experience apart from the film,
avoiding passages of turmoil in favor of a slightly militaristic sense
of redemption. You can understand why Bruckheimer wanted an easily
digestible score to accompany the PG rating; both heavily emphasize the
feel-good part of this story's equation. But it's difficult not to
admire the direction Debney was trying to take the picture, inserting
grating Southern instrumentation and occasional dissonance to better
develop the concept of integration. They are both four star efforts,
with Debney's score slightly weaker if only because it is incomplete. It
wouldn't be hard to imagine, however, the kind of 20 minutes of
orchestral material he could have provided for the climactic scenes had
he been asked (or had the opportunity). As is, his rejected score would
have been fascinating to hear in the film. The Rabin score is pleasantly
robust in its later placements, however, and it translates to the
smoother album presentation. One could wonder if it would have been
possible to combine the two scores into different sequences in the film
and give both composers credit. As mentioned before, the songs dominate
the soundscape so much anyway that the disparities in tone between the
two scores in their entireties may have gone largely unnoticed. Neither
score was commercially released, though both have floated about the
collector's market since the film debuted. The Debney score, like so
many of his others, was leaked in the promotional form standard to his
lesser-known music. The Rabin score was pressed by Blue Focus Management
as an official consideration promo and subsequently bootlegged. Both
scores sound fantastic, and their common brevity could make them an
interesting single combination album for any enthusiast of the film. As
for the songs, they were pressed on the only commercial product for
Remember the Titans, though that album was not comprehensive,
missing a few obvious items from the film and offering only the
extremely short "Titans Spirit" cue from the Rabin score at the end, an
unacceptably poor choice for inclusion. Rather than supporting weak song
compilations, seek out both the Debney and Rabin promotional material
with confidence.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- The Debney Score: ****
- The Rabin Score: ****
- Overall: ****
| Bias Check: |
For Trevor Rabin reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.5
(in 12 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.62
(in 13,618 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
