Behind Enemy Lines (Promo)

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

In all the long lost forgotten action movies of the several past years, Behind Enemy Lines isn't deserving the tiny interest and the low praising critics. It was a movie that didn't bring anything new of story, but felt so cool and original to me because of its exhilarating pace, darn cool action scenes and wonderful suspense building cat and mouse game. The movie makes of ordinary action scenes cool ones because of the way they were filmed or brought to explosive climaxes. And right along with that is the way that Don Davis handles the situation of Marcus Burnett, trapped in a country of nazi like enforcement. Don Davis seemed too busy (scoring 4 other movies, especially Jurassic Park 3) to make something daring of the approach, yet daring is the word that ultimately came to mind when composing Behind Enemy Lines. It is a heroic action score that can sound yet so harsh, emotional and blazingly heroic all at once and that is the key of the movie's ultimate cool edge. If you have seen the movie you will no doubt have loved just several important scenes and all are supported with some of the most effective scoring of Don Davis' career. It all doesn't make the score nearly that good as it could have been but the blazing feel these babies have when you finally spot them is supreme movie effective nonetheless. Because the way the electronics rain yet the orchestral fury succeeds has all got to do with the choral magnitude that eclipses everything in its path.

The score is paced with good sides and bad ones but luckily the good ones are so good that you accept the bad ones with it. And it are the good ones I really love. 'Main Title (Ustao)' is a short but beautiful choral hymn which is expanded at the end in 'Ustao (Risen)' and is just like all choral hymns (The Peacemaker, The Hunt for Red October, Crimson Tide) just perfect in all its effectiveness. It is also in the first track that you briefly encounter the main theme and even if it is a bit too heroic or patriotic in its sound, it will give you cheers when it explodes with orchestral momentum at the end. The second track 'Golden Gridiron Pilot' already has a cool version of it, in heroic brass a la Warriors of Virtue. 'The Skies of Sarajevo' by then shows the other side of the score, which in time will become one of the bad points of the listen. In here and further a more electronic edge with clangs is added, something like Powell's The Bourne Identity but definitely Davis' effective edge is a lot easier to appreciate and signals wonderfully the technologic edge the Sarajevo's have upon American soldier Burnett. Every time they appear they work fine as the effective tool for the film but also they can appear a bit too much in the score that it loses its point also. The middle with various tracks such as 10, 11, 14 and others can get a bit wearing after a while. Nonetheless it are the orchestral moments that sizzle. Like the orchestral theme variations in 'Burnett on the Run' at the end before some great suspense score, or in 'Persistent Piquet'. The military drum marches equally appear and represent Gene Hackman's character, appearing in equally track 15 and at the end of 20.

But as said before, there is also some choral magnificence and apart from an emotional hymn, it can equally explode with feel on screen. I simply loved the scene where Burnett walks away until he pulls his cap of his head, and here in 'Burnett's Body' after a minute of synthesized noise and a half minute of building orchestral tones a choir simply blows you away with a wonderful heroic punch. Also the choral climax in 'Jet Smash' works amazingly and around 3.20 in 'Burnett Bereavement' the choir just doesn't stop in amazing you. But there is still one track that doesn't have choir, just 20 seconds of synthesizer clangs and 5 minutes of over the top patriotic music, but in all the commotion 'Battle on Thin Ice' becomes a Don Davis highlight because the music is so orchestrally riveting it hurts that a lot of people will not hear this piece for sure. This simply makes for my part a score that contains good moments and bad a promo to have. For 67 minutes the sound is spectacularly sharp and this without doubt to Davis' harsh mixing, but this equally includes that the orchestral and choral explosions don't stop giving you a smile before they are through. Behind Enemy Lines is indeed a score with harsh moments and the synthesized clangs can work against you, but the good, no spectacular moments this score exhibits are way too important to miss if you ever stumble upon its release. If you don't believe me, the movie delivers all what is said here. If you still don't believe me, the score is cool in every sense of the word.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Main Title (Ustao) * (1.14)

2. Golden Gridiron Pilot (1.33)

3. The Skies Of Sarajevo (1.25)

4. Jet Smash (2.07)

5. Off Mission (0.59)

6. Stranded Stackhouse (1.34)

7. The Stack Interrogation (3.49)

8. Burnett On The Run (4.13)

9. Piquet Pemicious (1.03)

10. The Treacherous Tracker (3.07)

11. Field Of Death * (9.34)

12. Piquet, Pourqoui? (1.36)

13. Wire Worry (0.50)

14. Racker Tres Terrible (3.07)

15. Persistent Piquet (1.54)

16. The Near-Fatal Dozeoff (0.32)

17. On Their Way To Hac (0.34)

18. Burnett's Body (1.55) Excellent Track

19. Burnett Bereavement (9.46)

20. Zbogom Dazda (4.29)

21. Airborne Rescue (0.55)

22. Battle On Thin Ice (7.08) Excellent Track

23. Ustao (Risen) * (2.31) Excellent Track

* Text by John Moore

Total Length: 67.32

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: Don Davis ===