Soundtrack Review: The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)
This is a review of the motion picture score The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 by Harry Gregson-Williams.
“This is simply great and entertaining material meshed in a tight little package consisting of great electronic sounds which conveys suspense and action in a thoughtful way”
It’s time for another remake. Is anyone getting tired already? Well there’s the prospect of new, updated movie music and then there’s the golden trio Tony Scott, Denzel Washington and Harry Gregson-Williams. The last time they got together was in 2006 for the movie Déjà Vu which in my opinion was a great movie and even better score. The original movie from 1974 starring Walter Matthau and score composed by David Shire was and is widely received as greatness. Having listened to the funky jazzy score by David Shire, I can’t disagree. Harry Gregson-Williams has big shoes to fill, but I have faith!
Track List
- Something On the Track (****)
- “It’s Me, Man!” (****)
- Rigged Contracts (****)
- An Ass Model Named Lavitka (****)
- Money Run (*****)
- Garber Meets Ryder (*****)
- All Others Pay Cash (*****)
- The Train Leaves the Station (*****)
- The Lights Are All Green! (*****)
- Manhattan Bridge (*****)
- “…You a Yankee’s Fan?” (*****)
Entertaining
Harry Gregson-Williams scores aren’t very memorable but usually extremely entertaining. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was neither, a dark spot on the impressive discography of composer Harry Gregson-Williams. The scores he does best are usually not the all-out action ones, but the thriller-action genre suits him perfectly as he proved in Déjà Vu and The Number 23. He doesn’t do themes very well, but his sounds and composition entertains you to the bone.
This is of course incomparable to David Shire’s version from 1974 because of completely different style and premise. While Shire did a funky 70s score, which by the way is really good, Gregson-Williams does a modern thriller type of score which leans slightly more to the action side of things. This is not a bad thing at all because Harry Gregson-Williams can do action very well, especially when mixed with suspense.
The suspense starts a little slow, but keep quite a high standard until about half-way through when it explodes with the short and fiery cue ‘Money Run’ which sounds like something BT could come up with. After that it just gets better as the suspense and action are adjusted to a brilliant peak with ‘Garber Meets Ryder’, ‘All Others Pay Cash’, ‘The Train Leaves the Station‘ and the best of them all ‘The Lights Are All Green!‘.
Doesn’t Do Themes
‘The Lights Are All Green’ sounds a little like ‘Money Run’ and has a distinctive different sound than the rest of the cues. The gnarly guitar in the beginning sounds like Paul Haslinger’s greatest hits and at around the 1:20 mark takes another step up with a pulsating percussion beat to keep you on the edge. It has a little breathing room around half-way through it, but just as your pulse slows down, the cue breaks off in massive fashion. It’s an ubercool cue which is as good an action cue as you can get. Even action-maestro Brian Tyler has to be impressed with this one.
‘Manhattan Bridge’ is another great cue which starts off like ‘The Lights Are All Green’ ended, but it’s like a prologue to the ending cue ‘…You a Yankee’s Fan?‘ which is the closest Harry Gregson-Williams comes to a theme. Like ‘Kayla‘ from X-Men Origins: Wolverine it is a ballad-like cue which shows Gregson-Williams capability to do thematic work. I can’t prove it, but I think Harry Gregson-Williams doesn’t like to do themes (like Tyler Bates for example) which is OK when the material is as entertaining like The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is.
Conclusion
So to conclude, it is a great score which isn’t too far off top marks. What it scores extremely highly on is its ability to constantly entertain you with a strong entity of modern film music making at its best. This is why people love Remote Control Production scores ala Hans Zimmer or Steve Jablonsky (outside of the main themes). This is simply great and entertaining material meshed in a tight little package consisting of great electronic sounds which conveys suspense and action in a thoughtful way. Harry Gregson-Williams bounces back after a disappointing action score for X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Listen to The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 by Harry Gregson Williams below:
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Film Review for The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
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(10 votes, average: 5.10 out of 10)
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Comments
Everyone has different tastes, but I personally believe you have massively overrated this score. But hey – you like it and I don’t – no problem!
Gregson-Williams had an almost impossible task following Shire’s CLASSIC original score (which incidentally, is every bit as exciting as how Gregson-Williams has tried – and failed IMO – to make his).
The new score sounds to me like every OTHER score being whistled or doodled on a keyboard. It doesn’t bring anything new to the modern action score and is singularly unmemorable. As for Gregson-Williams not liking to do themes, might it be more that he can’t actually write a good one?
David Shire NEVER had any worries about his classic score being eclipsed by this one, that’s for sure. His score will be getting repeated listens long after this latest effort has faded from memory (which should take less than a week, I would say)
Jorn Tillnes Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Apart from the main theme, ‘Money Montage’ and ‘Fifty Seconds / The Money Express’ the original Pelham didn’t have much to offer. Great main theme though, really catchy.
As for HGW and themes, he doesn’t like to do them, but when he does they are usually great.
David Shire did some great stuff for the original Pelham, but lacks in entertainment value (except the cues I mentioned). This one holds a high overall standard of modern thriller/action scoring. In my opinion of course
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Soundtrack Seek
Hmm, after reading your review I have to relisten I think. I gave up after 9 track of full electronics… Maybe it wasn’t a good moment to listen to the score back then…
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Jorn Tillnes Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
It certainly isn’t for everyone. It’s standard HGW thriller stuff. If you like his previous thriller scores like Deja Vu or Man on Fire for example, you’ll enjoy this one. If you can’t listen to scores without themes or much variance, then you won’t like this.
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