MINORITY REPORT, an effective action score from John Williams in the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS vein
© 2002 Dreamworks

Mania Grade: A
Reviewed Format: CD
Composer: John Williams
Distributor: Dreamworks Records
Retail Price: $18.98

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MINORITY REPORT

Steven Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT is a stunning vision of the future and probably one of the greatest science fiction films ever madefor its first hour and forty-five minutes. After that it kind of self-destructs in a way that I have to believe is going to alienate audiences the same way Spielberg's A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE did last year. Spielberg recently was quoted as saying that he's trying to turn off his sentimentality switch, but he still can't help wrapping up a tough and gritty futuristic film noir with a happy ending. Of course the same thing happened to BLADE RUNNER and we still thought well of it later, so maybe MINORITY REPORT will be a beloved cult film 20 years hence.

Even if you have problems with MINORITY REPORT the movie, you'll still get a heaping helping of gritty noir sensibility from John Williams' score, one of his most interesting works in years and an improvement on his enjoyable but somewhat mono-thematic ATTACK OF THE CLONES. If you think about it, MINORITY REPORT is practically Williams' first adult action thriller since JAWShe's spent the past twenty five years doing adventure films aimed at children (the STAR WARS, INDIANA JONES and even JURASSIC PARK pictures) and he's really never scored a science fiction film set in the future (the STAR WARS movies play out a long time ago, after all).

MINORITY REPORT's musical influences (like its cinematic ones) tend to be less futurist and more film noir-based. Williams' score is mostly acoustic, often grinding out aggressive motifs in brass and strings in the manner of Bernard Herrmann. For a sci fi influence, you have to go back to Williams' work for Irwin Allen to see the roots of a lot of MINORITY REPORTthe brooding underscoring often recalls LOST IN SPACE (for which Williams wrote some surprisingly sophisticated music), and Williams' frenetic, supercharged action music, while riffing on some of his chase motifs from CLONES, actually combines the best elements of his rambunctious title themes from LOST IN SPACE, THE TIME TUNNEL and LAND OF THE GIANTS. Two action cues ("Everybody Runs" and "Anderton's Great Escape") are standouts, pulsating with raw energy, and they serve the film's amazing set pieces well.

The emotional aspects of the story which eventually undermine the film have inspired some of the most compelling music from Williams, including a haunting theme for Tom Cruise's character (and a formative loss he's suffered) which opens the album (and closes the film) and a rich and gorgeous redemptive theme for the movie's wrap-up scenes. Other standouts are "Spyders" with a chattering, sneaky brass theme for the film's tiny electronic spider droids, and "Eye-Dentiscan" which kind of resurrects the old Lex Luthor theme from SUPERMAN. If you're the type of person who loves Williams for his big, sweeping romantic themes (which are, after all, something of a pastiche), you'll likely find much of MINORITY REPORT a drag, as it focuses on atmosphere and psychological violence (in fact Williams uses the same swirling psychological turmoil approach here that he used for Anakin going medieval on the Sandpeople in ATTACK OF THE CLONES, but the approach pays much richer dividends here). But if you're in love with hardcore dramatic scoring you'll rarely find a better example than this album.