| Air Force One (Rejected) |
| Composed by Randy Newman |
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Promotional Release |
Conducted by Randy Newman Orchestrated by Don Davis Release Date: 1996 |
Currently Not Available for Purchase |
| When it was first announced that Randy Newman would be scoring Wolfgang Peterson's film, Air Force One, many were skeptical. Newman was respected musically, but there were those who had doubts about his ability to score an action/thriller type film. Unfortunately, Newman's score was dropped late in post production due to Peterson's feelings that it was too "loud and blatty." Jerry Goldsmith was called in to dash off a quick replacement, and to this day Newman has yet to score an action film of this nature. This is quite a shame since Newman's score to Air Force One is a very fine effort. His action scoring is definitely complex, although it is probably complex to a fault for some. The music is also more sarcastic in nature that Goldsmith's more somber version, which may have been another issue at heart for Peterson's displeasure with it. The opening track begins almost like a sunrise, with the musical pieces slowly and mysteriously falling into place. The synthesized chorus is a bit of a drawback here, but it is still a terrific opening to the score. I find it interesting that Newman doesn't begin right off with his main patriotic theme. The opening cue doesn't hold on to its quietly majestic tone for long before the first of many action cues kicks into gear, introducing us to a couple of the motifs that will be popping up throughout the score. Newman's main theme is expanded upon in the next two tracks, with the first all-out action cue coming with Hijacked. From there, the score rarely lets up with its carefully blended mix of action and suspense cues. With my limited knowledge of the film, and Newman's rather quirky track titles, it is hard for me to tell if the score is in chorological order or not. I would guess that it is, but whatever the case may be, the CD is assembled quite well. There are some breaks from the action, but while they are few and far between they never seem interrupt the flow of the score. Some of the tracks in the last third of the score get a little bland, however, and the strong opening half greatly overpowers them, causing me to usually skip most of them to the last track, Kill Korsh, the last hurrah of Newman's action scoring for the film. I will not be one to second-guess Peterson, but at the same time I would have liked to have heard Newman's score within the context of the film. As it stands now, the only other time I've heard Newman score like this was for the fake bird scene from A Bug's Life. Hopefully, Newman will pick up on another project that will allow him to score more action music in the future. As can be guessed, given that this is a rejected score the CD is difficult to obtain, but if you ever come across a copy, be sure to pick it up. **** |
| Track Listing - Total Running Time: 63:13 | |
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