Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,643
Written 2/6/12, Revised 3/2/13
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Buy it... if you have fond memories of the film's charming wit and
seek the translation of that likeable personality into James Newton
Howard's thematically rich orchestral score.
Avoid it... if you require something other than just a more comedic
and outwardly playful sibling to Marc Shaiman's The American
President.
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Dave: (James Newton Howard) If you're a liberal and
love the gamesmanship of America's national politics, then Dave
is the kind of fantasy that brings a smile to your face every time you
see it. At the top of his game at the time, Kevin Kline plays the owner
of a temporary employment agency who looks exactly like the president of
the United States, and when the real president suffers a stroke during
sex with a White House staffer at a local event, the Secret Service
employs this everyday guy to stand in temporarily. The closest advisors
to the president actually hatch a plan to disrupt the line of succession
by discrediting the vice president and setting up the impostor to be
replaced when the real president dies. Along the way, though, the
impostor proves wildly successful with the public and even rekindles a
relationship with the first lady (who had despised her real husband),
eventually foiling the attempts by his own staff to gain power and
wrapping up the hoax in perfect fashion. The 1993 Ivan Reitman movie was
both a critical and popular success, its plethora of cameo appearances
by politicians and media personalities a funny snapshot of the era, and
it is often considered the companion film to the equally loved dramatic
comedy The American President a few years later. Similar is the
music for the two pictures, Dave featuring a score by James
Newton Howard that builds upon his own, growing experience in the genre
and The American President handled very similarly by Marc
Shaiman. The close relationship between the two scores is understandable
given that the common sound employed by the composers for the general
topic is successful in both applications. Shaiman built his career upon
this affable, fluffy orchestral sound, however, and because this tone is
more of his dominant trademark, it's easy to say that Dave is an
example of Howard channeling Shaiman. Also at play, however, is a touch
of James Horner's equivalent work at the time in the most serious
passages and Howard's previous music for The Prince of Tides,
Pretty Woman, Grand Canyon, and several others. This
period was rich with comedic dramas for Howard, and while many of these
scores exhibit the same saccharine tone, pretty piano solos, and flowing
string melodies backed by noble brass, Dave is an exception in
that it also contains a dose of militaristic movement to represent the
awe and stature of the office of the president. The demeanor of the
result is predictably sappy in a traditional, orchestral manner,
utilizing no contemporary tones while beefing up the percussion section
for the purposes of grandeur and a tingling sense of magic.
While Howard's previous efforts in this realm had
expressed similar emotions, this entry carries weightier symphonic
depth. This move might seem counter-intuitive given that
Dave is
essentially a character story at its heart, but the setting of the White
House and its immense tentacles of power cause the composer to
intentionally bloat all of his ideas so that the sound is as big as
everything in the setting probably looks and feels to the presidential
impostor. Even the thematic material related to the first lady, played
with an iron sternness by Sigourney Weaver, is stated with imposing
orchestral gravity, another recognition of how overwhelmed the main
character likely finds himself. While grand string crescendos of melody
are common in
Dave, Howard allows a fair number of oboe and
clarinet solos to weave in and out of the conversational scenes. Piano
and drums both play intriguing roles, the latter sometimes used as a
straight reminder of the power struggle in Washington, D.C. ("You're On"
adds flutes for a battle of constitutional proportions). The score's
grim moments are few but underscore important aspects of the plot behind
the impostor, "To the White House" building up to the office's own theme
with ominous bass strings and "Dave Passes Out" necessarily accompanying
the climax of the film's hoax. The multitude of themes in
Dave is
the score's greatest asset. The primary idea is the one for the
impostor's real persona, and its lighthearted and likeable personality
graces "Main Titles" and "The Teaching Montage" with almost Randy
Edelman giddiness from piano (not surprising given that Edelman and
Reitman were regular collaborators as well). The main theme naturally
flourishes as it matures during "Into the Fog" and it anchors the "End
Titles" as well. The theme of greatness for the White House debuts with
force in the middle of "To the White House" and features the Horner-like
progressions of impact that are resurrected in "Into the Fog" and "End
Titles." Softly settling into the middle of the score is the theme of
romance for the first lady, expressed in "Do You Like Magic?," "The
Picnic," "The Tunnel," and humorously in "She Hates Me." The soundtrack
maintains outstanding narrative development that was betrayed when the
1993 score-only album arrangement was assembled. With fifteen minutes
missing and some major cues out of order on the short Big Screen Records
product, La-La Land Records rectified the situation in early 2013 with a
complete treatment of the score, supplying numerous alternates and the
entire score in outstandingly crisp sound quality. While the expanded,
limited product is a delightful treatment of the work,
Dave
remains, on either album presentation, the likeable upbeat sister score
of
The American President and a strong entry amongst Howard's
comedic efforts.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.4
(in 70 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.36
(in 86,511 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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