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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Scarface (Giorgio Moroder)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you are an avid enthusiast of Giorgio Moroder's
very dated style for the era or, more likely, you desire a faithful
souvenir of a gangster film you love.
Avoid it... if you expect Moroder's fascinating ideas to coalesce into a truly functional film score, the muddy thematic handling a potentially bigger issue than his tiring electronic mannerisms.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Scarface: (Giorgio Moroder) For enthusiasts of
gangster movies, the 1983 spectacle Scarface remains a giant pile
of white powder. For those who find violence, cocaine use, racist
stereotypes, foul language, and glorified violence abhorrent, the movie
is wretchedly repulsive. Critics decried the Brian De Palma film at the
time, and audience reactions were mixed, the film's flirtation with an
"X" rating from the MPAA appealing to hardened crime drama fans. Over
time, though, Scarface has earned significant respect in its
genre despite its many ills, inspiring countless lyrics in hip hop songs
and topping retrospective lists of culturally significant films. Al
Pacino plays Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who parlays his 1980 Miami
arrival into a crime syndicate that makes him fabulously wealthy,
knocking off other bosses and their henchmen as he accumulates power and
endless piles of cocaine. He fearlessly and obsessively deals and kills
his way to a monumental confrontation at the end of the film that leaves
almost the entire cast dead, but not before some pithy, very meme-worthy
dialogue. Montana's bizarre relationships with his wife and his sister
are an intriguing but rather sick storyline on the side, his fascination
with his sister particularly unnerving. These elements play directly
into the music for Scarface, an endeavor helmed by popular
Italian songwriter and producer Giorgio Moroder. At the very height of
his popularity, the electronic music artist had transitioned into the
film industry and won Academy Awards for Midnight Express and
Flashdance, and he was just a few years away from doing the same
for Top Gun. Along with Superman III and The
NeverEnding Story, Scarface stands as testimony to Moroder's
influence at the time, though his contributions to Scarface have
long been somewhat controversial. The musician's new wave and electronic
style wasn't immediately embraced in its context, and there was talk of
replacing the score in later re-releases of the movie, but the
filmmakers have always stood firm in retaining Moroder's music.
Moroder approached Scarface with its song soundtrack as his primary concern. The movie contains eight of his songs, with two others not making the cut. Many of these songs were utilized as source material in the various club scenes in the story, though radio usage also applied. The composer also recorded eight separate non-vocalized source pieces that spanned the ethnic, rock, and disco genres as well. Sometimes, these songs and source pieces bled together and were overlaid in the final mix of the picture. To Moroder, his scoring duties were a purely secondary concern. The post-production schedule on Scarface was so hectic that the "Main Title" represented the only time the film was edited specifically to the music. The rest was haphazardly spotted, arranged, and dropped into the picture by others without adequate coordination efforts by Moroder himself. Five electronic music artists arranged and performed the score, with Moroder writing the primary themes and lead arranger Sylvester Levay essentially making a score out of them. German keyboarder Kristian Schultze wrote music for the longer edit of finale battle scene, which might explain why "Finale" is comparatively terrible and does nothing to wrap up the score's themes. Moroder wrote the score's themes as if they were the instrumentals to songs, with opening riffs persisting as interludes to the melodies. The synthetic keyboards and percussion are extremely familiar to Moroder's style, too. It's not difficult to notice that the bulk of the songs for the movie sound all too alike, their generic early 1980's extension of disco mannerisms into the light rock and new wave genres defining nearly every one of them. The score is much the same, the synthesizers programmed similarly for song-like instrumental applications but the crew devising some creative ways of manipulating that sound into ethnic, suspense, and quasi-religious tones. Synthetic ethnic woodwind and jungle percussion were used for the story's South American settings, and that percussion was manipulated for a rattlesnake-like sound that does have a positive impact. Otherwise, however, the Latin element for the Miami and South American settings is not directly infused into much of the overall work. Moroder himself was rather loose with all of the arrangements in the music, doing little to guide the nitty gritty or urge a tight narrative once his thematic duties were fulfilled. As a result, Scarface is a highly interesting but ultimately very flawed score, certainly dated in its sound but more importantly not always effective in how its themes and emotional appeals affect each scene. While he devised a memorably unique theme for Montana, his handling of the identities for the two leading women is intentionally left vague. His two love themes are extremely similar in melodic design and thus become interchangeable. There are riffs and interludes that are dedicated to the Elvira and Gina characters, but the actual melodies applied to them are only slight variations of the same tune. (It should come as no surprise that Moroder has mentioned them as one theme, including on the original LP album release.) The thematic situation is complicated by really odd spotting at times, too, with Montana's theme not always present for long periods of the film and the melodic variants for the two ladies sometimes switched for no clear reason in several scenes. For instance, music introduced lavishly for the Elvira character is later applied to Gina instead, causing a muddy mess of attribution. Still, the instrumental tones of the two variants are almost identical, so many listeners may not consider the issue a problem, especially with Montana essentially infatuated with both women. Of greater concern with the two romantic themes is the inability of the arrangement team to really adapt them well into circumstances that force them far beyond their base, light rock modes. The Montana theme, likewise, is deconstructed in its various darker shades but fails to show any malleability towards a more positive end for moments when the character actually makes a noble decision. Instead, listeners receive a healthy dose of rather non-descript suspense material in the score, sometimes comprised of very simple dissonant chords on the higher registers of the synthesizers. The handful of cues in the middle of the score for Montana's journey to South America present the only total diversion from the otherwise rather glum ambient design when neither of the romantic themes is explored. Some listeners will rightfully simply pick out the Montana theme's instances, because it is an extremely catchy construct. The Tony Montana theme in Moroder's score for Scarface is a processional chant of sorts with a pulsating rhythmic sequence that teases itself as an intro riff to an actual melody but is, in fact, the main theme itself. Its repeated pairs of notes on deep keyboarding are focused and obsessed, just a notch away from being appropriate for a budget horror score during that era. The theme consists of multiple parts in its entirety, with a disco layer serving as one sub-part and a fuller part of phrasing promising to be a fuller melody but never achieving that status. The complete melody is a simplistic repetition of phrases, both in its primary and secondary parts, and one has to imagine that Moroder intended both the opening riff and this melody to define the character throughout. The score never explores this full idea ever again after "Main Title," the arrangers becoming totally entangled in the opening riff and its underlying chords instead. In "Main Title," the riff opens the score; a disco-oriented motif begins at 1:03 into "Main Title" and the actual melody follows at 1:13 and 2:17. That's the last you hear of the melody, however, and that loss is unforgivable. Rather, you get the pulsating riff at 1:43 into "Rebenga" and even that disappears in the film for quite some time. Later, the riff slowly consolidates in "Just Paranoid" with a subdued demeanor, the actual theme experiencing a false start. The riff's chords alone occupy the very high ranges in "Lopez Begs," with sense of finality at end. The original, quasi-religious version of riff returns at 1:09 into "The World is Yours," and while the theme itself very faintly informs the suspense late in "Plant the Plastic," it's the riff is that is repurposed as an action thriller motif in "The Chase." (Obnoxiously heavy chords at the end of this cue close out the original flair of the riff.) Only the first note of the riff smartly repeats incessantly at the start of "409 Citrus Drive" until it finally unfolds along with some slurring manipulation and a heavy dose of distortion. That rhythmic motif shifts to a moment of regret at 0:56 into "Paranoid Tony," solemnly opens "Tony's Grief" in higher ranges, and returns again to the opening cue's power in "End Title," where it features a synthetic choral effect but never again touches upon the melody. There is much to appreciate in how Levay and the team adapted the Montana riff into the score, but the loss of the disco motif and the theme proper is truly bizarre, because the character's later suffering scenes could have used intelligent adaptations of this material. The two romantic themes of Scarface are a messy attraction. The riffs and interludes for each woman are distinct to those characters, but similar melodies are passed between them. For Elvira, he concocts a soft rock theme accompanied by descending counterpoint phrases, the latter riff opening "Elvira" before the actual melody occurs at 0:56 and 1:50. But that theme is immediately associated with Gina in a bit lighter but still keyboarded form at 0:06 into "She's Not For You," a cue interrupted by singular dissonance at the end. The descending Elvira riff opens "Proposal" before the theme emerges at 0:56, just same in inflection as before and bubbling along for the whole cue. Then the theme represents Gina again in a darker and slight rendition in "Tony Slaps Gina," building to a more resolute version in "Tony Guilty." Elvira's descending riff is very muted at the start of "The World is Yours," and the theme is expressed for Gina with genuine sadness at 1:26 into "Gina's Grief" and even more destitute at 0:16 into "Back to the House." It's barely coherent and slurred at 1:58 into "Crazy Gina" and opens "Gina Dead" on refocused, pretty keyboarding, essentially confirming that Elvira's theme has been completely reassigned to Gina by this point. The descending riff returns at 4:32 into "End Title" in same light rock mode as the Gina material, the actual theme heard at 4:57 and repeating countless times before fading out without resolution. Gina, meanwhile receives another soft theme initially, this time more keyboarded, very simplistic, and shorter in structure. An undulating opening riff for Gina is an almost a new age-like intro, much informed by the chords of the Elvira theme. The Gina riff opens "Gina" while her actual melody exists at 0:29 and 1:52, a formal interlude debuting at 1:11. It's the interlude alone that defines Gina thereafter, opening "What About You?" tentatively on keyboard and recurring at 1:05 into "Back to the House," 2:44 into "Crazy Gina" (in manipulated form), and 0:40 into "Gina Dead." The original Gina theme is reprised at 2:57 into "End Title" in snazzier light rock mode while the interlude interjects at 3:30. These attributions are troublesome, perhaps by Moroder's intent and perhaps due to poor arrangement work by his team. Overall, the score is a faithful souvenir of the film and presents numerous challenges on its own, starting with its extremely dated style. While the songs and two score tracks were long released, the full score waited until a 2022 La-La Land Records/Back Lot Music album that includes all the songs and source pieces with it. This definitive product also provides the generic rock rhythms of "Trailer Music (Unused)" with no hint of the score's themes. It's a fantastic album for a flawed but fascinating time capsule.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 156:02
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes extensive information about the score and film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Scarface are Copyright © 2022, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 5/15/23 (and not updated significantly since). |
