About the movie

One of Travolta’s recent megahits, even though this movie is mostly fake in its exploitation of human emotions. The storyline also seems to borrow a lot of its ideas from the dubious Scientology-sect of which Travolta is a prominent member. Travolta plays the part of a simple workman in nowhereville USA, who encounters some sort of UFO, and subsequently starts growing smarter until he is a genious who doesn’t need to sleep. The movie has its touching moments, but the finale is somewhat of an anti-climax.

Starring John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker and Robert Duvall.
Produced by Barbara Boyle and Michael Taylor.
Directed by Jon Turteltaub.

About the music

Okay, let's first say this: Phenomenon is a delightful score by Newman, one of his very best. If you like the lush string sound from Little Women, Up Close and Personal or How to Make an American Quilt, you're sure to like this one. The main theme is a gorgeous pastoral melody for strings and clarinets that segues into some pretty energetic accoustic and eletric guitar playing (similar to certain tracks of The Horse Whisperer, let's call it Newman's countryside style). The rest of the score is equally elegant, with the great Oscar and Lucinda-like track Shout in the Sky, the rhythmic Orchard-track with its dynamic percussion and the many soothing tracks with soft piano and string melodies. It works marvelous in the movie and offers a delightful listening experience on its own. Of course, this score has not been officially released on CD. The only available source is a 23-minute promotional cassette compiled by Mr Newman that was sent out to the Academy's Music Branch voting members. At some point Varèse Sarabande had plans to release the score (most likely coupled with another Newman-project, like they did with American Buffalo and Threesome) but those plans never materialized. The promo cassette was the source for a bootleg-CD-R, which can be found on the collector's market. For now, this is the only way to obtain a copy of Newman's score, and that's too bad because Phenomenon is undoubtably one of his very best and most popular scores.

The soundtrack

Street date: Not released commercially; first distributed in October 1996.
Availability: Very difficult to find.

The track Phenomenon (2:54) was included on Hollywood '96 (VSD-5764), Joel McNeely's third CD of Hollywood themes, recorded with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

A bootleg CD-R of this promo cassette is available on the collector's market.

Only one track, The Orchard, was officially released on the official soundtrack album.

This score received a BMI Film Music Award in 1997.

Track listing

1. Phenomenon (3:38)
2. Chicken Wire (1:39)
3. Shout At the Sky (1:05)
4. The Orchard (2:20)
5. Portuguese Angel (0:44)
6. Something To Do (0:54)
7. Lace (0:51)
8. Earth and Trees (1:23)
9. Illusion Of Light (0:52)
10. Lousy Scenario (2:23)
11. An Expedition (2:13)
12. Home (1:49)
13. George Malley (1:00)
14. The Rest of Us (2:43)