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Review of Bound (Don Davis)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you enjoy engaging and intelligent suspense scores and/or Don Davis' typically strong instrumental creativity.

Avoid it... if you prefer your noir-ish scores to have a strong identity, or were hoping for the score to reflect more of the eroticism of the film.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Bound: (Don Davis) While the collaboration between composer Don Davis and filmmakers Larry and Andy Wachowski is highlighted by the trilogy of Matrix films, their start came two years earlier, in Bound. The Wachowski brothers were in their 20's, college dropouts from Chicago, making their first feature film. And Bound is exactly the kind of debut you'd expect the two to make. A mixture of genres, Bound takes themes from both the Cohen and Marx Brothers and slaps you in the face with a caper film that throws gangsters and lesbians into a slapstick environment and twists you half a dozen times until you feel as though you're part a crime syndicate yourself. It is certainly offensive to many audiences, with graphic violence and sexual undertones throughout, and if it doesn't offend your sensibilities, it could very well leave you puzzled. In the dangerous environment of organized crime, two neighboring lesbians carry on not only a sexual affair, but become involved in the increasing body counts as well. The film was met with a substantially positive critical response, though it flew largely under the radar in theatres because of its arthouse origins. Don Davis was equally anonymous to mainstream collectors in 1996, having composed mostly television episodes for Star Trek and SeaQuest. He paid his bills by serving as a regular orchestrator for both James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith (his credits includes projects as successful as Titanic and Air Force One), among others. But his compositional skills would lead him down a more unconventional path than such mainstream scores would suggest, with Davis' output often resulting in interesting, though difficult scores. Indeed, many of the challenging aspects of the Matrix scores would be foreshadowed in Bound, from a technical point of view. On its own, though, Davis' score for Bound fails to really establish itself with a clear identity in the film or on album.

The score is instrumentally creative, and it is this array of percussive elements and wise use of solos that cooks up the necessary atmosphere in Bound. Davis uses tingling synthetics and outwardly forward (and heavily mixed) drum loops to form the rhythms of his suspense, occasionally building with a full ensemble to bizarre, dissonant crescendos like that at the end of "Thelma and Louise from Hell." Solo performances by piano and bass seem unfortunately lost in the bleak environment that Davis attempts to create, with hints of film noir elements always poking around in the background without pronouncement. One of the more successful elements in Bound is the incorporation of brutally honest brass, with bold, muscular statements in deep ranges often highlighting whole notes in Davis' rhythms with a fantastic sense of menace. In "Chicago's Finest," Davis allows one such rhythm over dramatically rolling strings to boil over in to a glorious statement of intimidation. Horner-haters will enjoy hearing the typical crashing piano in the lower ranges (in "Out of the Closet and Down the Stairs") that has become a staple of James Horner's suspense scores. The emotional roller-coaster created by the numerous rhythmic crescendos works similarly to John Ottman's large-scale debut in The Usual Suspects, but perhaps the most curious aspect of Bound is its lack of sophistication on the sensual front. There is really little in Davis' score to suggest a sultry side of the film, and this surprising absence perhaps gets back to the equally missing noir side of the music. The lack of a strongly coherent theme or set of motifs doesn't necessarily hurt this score, but a clear musical identity for the two lead women, built and evolved slowly in front us from start to finish, may have assisted the score in maintaining an identity. The noir statement of theme at the end, with cymbals crashing and timpani pounding, along with the elegant mambo in the final cue, are a strong finish to the album, and perhaps a glimpse of some ideas that could have been better developed throughout the score. The album was released by Supertracks in 1997 as a promotional item, and is still available occasionally through specialty soundtrack outlets.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 58:25

• 1. Closet Driving (2:49) • 2. Fix My Pipe (5:43) • 3. Rug Rangers Qu'est-ce Que C-est (2:23) • 4. Hand it to Shelley (2:02) • 5. Ravine Cuisine (4:37) • 6. Yodelling in the Canyon (2:38) • 7. Girls Having Fun (2:39) • 8. Ceasar Gets Corked (1:42) • 9. Thelma and Louise from Hell (1:26) • 10. Tang Bangers (5:21) • 11. Dying for his Money (0:21) • 12. I am Gino Marzzoni. Caprice? (2:00)

• 13. Chicago's Finest (2:10) • 14. Jail Bait (0:53) • 15. Curiosity Cops (1:16) • 16. Corky's Peephole (1:07) • 17. Ceaser Bizarro (3:02) • 18. Holy Mackeral (1:39) • 19. In Utero Morituri Te Salutamus (1:21) • 20. Girl Talk (0:32) • 21. Bang the Bangers (2:03) • 22. Out of the Closet and Down the Stairs (6:41) • 23. Mambo Mamasita (3:03)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes a list of Davis' credits and an abundance of sexual innuendo.

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Bound are Copyright © 1997, Super Tracks Music Group (Promo) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/28/97 and last updated 3/12/06.