 |
| Goldsmith |
U.S. Marshals: (Jerry Goldsmith) After the critical
and popular success of
The Fugitive several years earlier, it was
disappointing but not surprising that producer Arnold Kopelson opted to
yank the money chain for a watered-down sequel. Returning for
U.S.
Marshals in 1998 is U.S. Marshal Sam Girard, with Tommy Lee Jones
reprising the role that won him an Academy Award for the original. Most
of the plot elements in the sequel are simple re-writes and
manipulations of the same general storyline of
The Fugitive.
Girard chases another protagonist fleeing from a spectacular crash and
trying all the while to prove his innocence while on the run. Even if
Wesley Snipes hadn't diluted the talent pool of the film with his
non-existent performance, the insertion of traitor Robert Downey Jr.
(who'd a thunk it?) sealed the deal. The film consists of one chase
scene after another, and sadly few of those scenes can rival the tension
and intelligence of similar situations in
The Fugitive. Audiences
didn't seem to care much about the sequel, easily identifying the
project's intent as a profit machine rather than high art. An almost
all-new crew for
U.S. Marshals included a change in composer;
James Newton Howard was nominated for an Oscar for the original film's
score, the result of the film's popularity rather than a comment about
the composer's music for the occasion. But, to delight of many, new
director Stuart Baird continued his fruitful collaboration with the
legendary Jerry Goldsmith for the sequel. Their combined effort for the
1996 action flick
Executive Decision was competent in sum and
contained some enjoyable parts. For
U.S. Marshals, they
understandably abandoned Howard's themes and approach, opting for a
trademark Goldsmith suspense and action score. One of the interesting
aspects of Goldsmith's work for this project is his attempt, whether
instructed to do so or not, to combine the style of his 1990's action
music with some of the suspense style from his similar 1970's and 1980's
assignments. There are pieces from all over Goldsmith's career to be
heard in
U.S. Marshals, but the merging of those styles here
unfortunately does not create a particularly fresh result despite its
comforting familiarity for the composer's most ardent collectors.
From a technical standpoint,
U.S. Marshals is
more than just an average regurgitation of Goldsmith's 1990's action
sounds. His staggered rhythms, very low range piano, and percussive
ripping and tearing is a reminder of the more brazen, relentless
attitude from themes for films like
Capricorn One. That keen
sense of pace is well utilized in this work, though with the film moving
at a constant chase speed, the listening experience becomes monotonously
driven after a while. Accompanying these sometimes odd reinventions of
an older era are a plethora of Goldsmith's action techniques of the
1990's, especially those dealing with his handling of brass and
synthetics. There is a significant contribution by synthesizers in
U.S. Marshals, mirroring the composer's usage of electronics in
his last three
Star Trek scores. The interplay between the live
electronics and piano is handled quite in the mix, the deep metallic
clanging and occasional treble tingling augmenting the relentless minor
third alternations on the piano seamlessly. A frequently tapped snare
joins in that rhythmic effort. The thematic structures for the score are
relatively bland and obtuse in their applications despite being repeated
endlessly. The rather pedestrian main chase motif for the film is
eventually revealed to be a full-blown theme for the federal agents.
Goldsmith uses a pair of five-note motifs at home in any of the
Star
Trek scores or
Air Force One and performs them with
persistent medium-range brass throughout the score, altering a note or
two in the phrase to maintain slight variations for different
situations. Only in "Free to Go" and the "End Credits" edit does
Goldsmith reveal with the entire ensemble that this motif is actually
part of a larger theme set, albeit a simplistic one. In this theme and
the score's secondary ideas for Snipes' character and the savvier
mystery element, Goldsmith explores ideas that will be highly
recognizable to his collectors. There is phrasing from
Rambo: First
Blood Part II,
The Ghost and the Darkness, and
Star Trek:
Insurrection mingled into these motifs, but the most obvious
foreshadowing here is the villain's theme from
Star Trek:
Nemesis, which is exercised several times but most obvious early in
"The Front Gate." A cameo motif opening "The Pen" and continuing in "The
Humidor" and "Take It All" happens to resurrect David Arnold's
Tomorrow Never Dies with style.
While Goldsmith's somewhat brutal instrumental approach
to
U.S. Marshals is basically sufficient for the picture, the
score continues to beg for some discerning instrumental creativity,
something to elevate it beyond the norm. A moment of respite like "We
Lost Him," which translates the agents' themes down to solo trumpet and
oboe in a moment of tired frustration, doesn't stray enough from the
composer's comfort zone to really compensate for the nagging feeling
that the entire endeavor is rehash. For some listeners,
U.S.
Marshals will appeal because of several relative similarities to the
composer's just-completed
Deep Rising, a score that has more funk
and guilty pleasure than
U.S. Marshals, but suffers from the same
lack of genuine personality. The anonymity of Goldsmith's music for this
film is precisely the problem; it's a mundane score so consistent and
predictable in its final recording that it once again conveys a sense of
a master composer on auto-pilot, a habit that Goldsmith was annoyingly
making common in the mid-1990's. Still, the execution of the work
exceeds many of its generic siblings because of the rhythmic interplay
between piano, snare, and electronics. Also to consider is the complete
transformation the score experiences in its final two cues. In "Free to
Go" and "End Credits," the composer drops the relentless chase attitude
and allows the somewhat exhausted and sorrowful
First Blood
connections to shine, aided by lyrical versions of the woodwind and
trumpet contributions. The "End Credits" arrangement really outclasses
the remainder of the score, a powerhouse seven minutes worthy of any
Goldsmith suspense and action compilation. The
Star Trek
similarities take hold in the central passages of this suite, and it's
ultimately far more engaging than the rest of the score. This summary
arrangement was unfortunately absent from the original 30-minute album
from Varèse Sarabande at the time of the film's release. In 2020,
the label expanded the listening experience to a hefty 74 minutes in
their limited CD Club series and included the "End Credits" suite. While
the 30-minute album included many of the action highlights from earlier
in the score, it is totally eclipsed by the expanded presentation and
its outstanding sound quality. That said, such length exposes the
breadth of Goldsmith's rather ambient synthetic cues and aimlessly
repetitive chase sequences. Much of this score remains unsatisfyingly
dull and derivative, but the highlights on the longer album will be
worth your time.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Written for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on the 1998 Album: **
- Music as Heard on the 2020 Album: ***
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26
(in 124 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.29
(in 153,457 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 1998 album includes no extra information about the score
or film. That of the 2020 album includes detailed notes about both. The 2020 product
has a copyright date of 2019 even though it was released in 2020.
