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| Horner |
Searching for Bobby Fischer: (James Horner) Perhaps
the most well developed and respectful film ever made about the game of
chess,
Searching for Bobby Fischer is still first and foremost a
movie about human relationships. In this case, a young boy (and somewhat
of a snot) at the center of the story is a budding chess genius and the
adults in his life are forced to realize and deal with the ramifications
of his talents. From the chess hustlers in New York's Washington Square
Park with whom the boy learns the game to his own parents and eventually
the testy professional chess teacher who trains him, the journey in
Searching for Bobby Fischer ironically doesn't actually include
Bobby Fischer himself. The most infamous chess competitor of all time,
Fischer inspires the film in that he inspires all chess enthusiasts, and
while the real Fischer was stuck in a monumental legal battle of
citizenship that landed him for a long time in unwilling Japanese
seclusion, it's the presence of only his spirit that is required to
propel the story of this 1993 film. A complex but magical product,
Searching for Bobby Fischer would demand both an atmospheric and
character-centered approach from composer James Horner, in addition to
some of the sugar-coated Hollywood drama that the composer was starting
to insert with greater ease into his scores by the early 1990's. Horner
had a tendency at the time to score films about complex personalities
(or people with considerable inner-demons) with a sense of muted but
dignified restraint. In this score, the French horn offers those
dignified solos, and much of the underscore quietly weaves its canvas
through supplemental strings and piano. From beginning to end,
Searching for Bobby Fischer shares many traits with
In
Country, remaining slightly beyond reach for most of its length
while hinting at the glorious finish that will eventually enchant you
once the primary characters gather at a distant place to have questions
and aspirations answered. Like a well-played chess match,
Searching
for Bobby Fischer is a score that requires your patience, but unlike
many similar Horner works that meander through such territory without
much volume or distinction, this score does provide a few lasting
highlights that make the entire endeavor worthwhile. Of Horner's four
themes for the story, only one will really linger in your memory, the
remainder being smaller motifs of functional but secondary impact that
emulate countless other Horner light dramas of the era.
The musical representation for the boy in
Searching
for Bobby Fischer is elusive. Because his relationship with his
parents and peers is cold at best, Horner responds with a similarly
distant touch. The boy does have a theme, though that idea is tied more
to his achievements in chess and could probably be assigned to the game
itself rather than simply the boy's personal development in the story.
When the film puts the game front and center, Horner responds with his
best material. Accompanied by layers of strings and tingling of metallic
percussion, Horner's piano is the instrument chosen to represent the
sophistication of the game. First in "Early Victories," Horner presents
the flowing primary theme over a rambling piano rhythm that shines with
exuberance and pride. Another highlight is "Josh and Vinnie," the most
impressive cue on the score's albums, in which the boy and Laurence
Fishburne's hustler character play a rapid game in the park, culminating
at a dizzying pace to an outstanding victory that Horner scores with
some of his most ambitious career exclamations. This piano-driven
sequence slowly builds steam over two minutes until once again revealing
the main theme for the boy and game with triumphant power. More
intriguingly, this rhythm would be recognized by listeners as the one
introduced the year prior in
Sneakers and eventually gracing the
openings of
Bicentennial Man and
A Beautiful Mind, in each
case a representation of complex minds or mechanisms at work. While the
overuse of this very similar progression of chords has often been
criticized, its appearance here (and in
A Beautiful Mind)
perfectly represents the lightning-fast strokes of logic on display. The
score unfortunately allows the more generically melodramatic
string-based drama to prevail in the championship tournament cues at the
end of the film, and while these are as enjoyable as any other broad
Horner theme with resounding bass, the lack of the composer's precise
and intoxicating piano layering is a shame. Having established the piano
rhythms as the musical identity of the child's genius, Horner strangely
abandons them to a large extent during the final competitions. Still,
however, the score works wonders in many other scenes in the film; its
poignancy is slightly diluted on album, with several lengthy tracks of
pleasant but uninteresting tones yielding only occasionally to the
highlighted cues above. Still,
Searching for Bobby Fischer is one
Horner score that should merit some searching by any enthusiast of the
composer. An expanded 2015 album doesn't add significantly fresh
material to the adequate presentation on the out-of-print 1993 product.
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- Score as Written for the Film: ****
- Score as Heard on Album: ***
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 108 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 203,344 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 1993 album includes biographical information about Horner and the film's director.
That of the 2015 La-La Land album contains extensive notation about both the film and score.
