My Favorite Themes - Part XXV

Score: Inside Man by Terence Blanchard (Malcolm X)

About the film: New York detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) gets embroiled in a bank robbery/hostage situation, though he feels that there's more to the heist than its mastermind, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen), is willing to let on. It genuinely throws me that Hollywood is producing a remake of the superb 70s thriller, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (with Washington in the lead, yet!). As far as I'm concerned, this film is (however unofficially) as perfect a remake as anyone could ask for; well-directed by Spike Lee, slyly scripted (by Russell Gewirtz) and filled with moments of cynical humor. It's the best film I saw last year and an exciting piece of filmmaking.

Title: "The Law". The theme for Det. Frazier is, at one, jazzy and serious, the best example of this occuring in "357". The bookending variations in "Good and Ready" are terrific, but the piano take on the theme in "Press Here to Play" is simply gorgeous.

Other themes of interest: Dalton receives a forceful, three-note theme (usually on horns) that appears throughout the score, but its almost triumphant rendition in "Follow the Ring" is especially noteworthy. There is a lighter, wafting theme that seems to represent Dalton's true intentions, treated to woodwinds in "392". However, the softer versions are fantastic, like the lullaby in "Defend Brooklyn", the string quartet in the amusingly-titled "Nazis Pay Too Well" and the reflective piano in "Dalton's Cell" The heist, itself, gets its own melody: a five-note motif that sounds best in the conclusive-sounding "Hostage Takedown".

Availability: Varese Sarabande rides to the rescue yet again.