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| Poledouris |
Mickey Blue Eyes: (Basil Poledouris/Wolfgang
Hammerschmid) With
The Sopranos making waves on television and
Analyze This showing that there was indeed a market for comedies
involving mobsters,
Mickey Blue Eyes was conceived as a loveable,
romantic counterpart to the same popular theme. Unfortunately for
Mickey Blue Eyes, its cast was a dismal failure pretty much
across the board; any time critics identify Hugh Grant as the strongest
performance in a film like this, you know you're in trouble.
Essentially, the story involves the bumbling Grant as an New York
auctioneer who proposes marriage to Jeanne Tripplehorn's school-teaching
character. Unfortunately, she declines because her father is the screen
face of Sonny Corleone and she doesn't want the likeable Briton to
become involved with the business. Perseverance leads to a tug of war
between the three characters, and Grant inevitably is asked to provide
his best Italian tough guy accent. The film failed to live up to
expectations despite having a funny concept, and it never generated the
same buzz as the other mafia-related projects at the time. In terms of
its music, the film's producers were perpetually obsessed with battles
over which song to use where, digging up so many songs they wanted to
use that they couldn't fit them all into the picture. Still, when you
watch
Mickey Blue Eyes, the songs are really all that stand out.
In fact, it's one of those films where you really don't notice a score
at all, for most of the original music contained in the film could be
easily mistaken for source music from some other place. In both the song
selection and the limited amount of score employed for the film, the one
overriding factor that becomes clear immediately is that everything
about the music was meant to be overdone. The songs used are defined
best by the flamboyant "Mambo Italiano," performed famously by Rosemary
Clooney, with each succeeding entry painting an even more obvious
picture of pop Italian culture of yesteryear. As a collection of songs,
the album by Milan is lineup of Dean Martin and Louis Prima beltings
that served as the clear selling points of the product.
And what of the score? Well, the producers must have
considered it an afterthought, for its role is so diminished and
fragmented that it doesn't have much impact on the film. The amazing
thing about this is the involvement of veteran composer Basil Poledouris
as the primary composer on the project. After almost a year's absence,
Poledouris graces
Mickey Blue Eyes with a pretty, but completely
inconsequential score. His contributions on album constitute only eight
and a half minutes, and only one of his cues actually makes an impact on
the film. The rambling grand piano elegance of "Gina Runs from
Ambulance" is a gorgeous excerpt of what you'd probably have heard
Poledouris play in his own home, backed by a moderate orchestral
ensemble of strings, brass, and sparse percussion. Solo woodwinds
interject when Poledouris' title theme --yes, there actually is one--
offers the stereotypical Italian flavor. For such little running time,
and with the ill-fateness of Poledouris' final years of production, you
can't help but smile and appreciate the uniqueness of a track like
"Truckers on Time" in his career. Of course it's dumb and stereotypical,
but its merging of
Il Postino and
Only You is nevertheless
a guilty pleasure. His oboe and accordion theme is a lightweight to be
sure, and his more dramatic "Gina Runs from Ambulance" is the only true
compilation piece. German newcomer Wolfgang Hammerschmid was brought in
primarily for the last few major scenes requiring score, with the
circumstances of Poledouris' departure unknown, but possibly due to
illness. Hammerschmid's music has a much more robust recording quality,
with the larger ensemble handling the one action cue and the wedding
reception and waltz music. Some listeners have noted that Hammerschmid's
contribution is actually more impressive than Poledouris', and in a
technical sense that's true. Hammerschmid is responsible for the
wretched source music from the Chinese restaurant proposal scene,
however, a piece unfortunately tacked onto the end of the album as a
bonus track. Overall, unless you're a fan of the genre of songs included
on the album, there's little for score fans to use as justification to
purchase the product. Only Poledouris' lovely two-minute "Gina Runs from
Ambulance" cue deserves your attention.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Basil Poledouris reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.54
(in 35 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.3
(in 36,800 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes a note from the film's co-producer, Elizabeth Hurley, about the songs.
