Soundtrack Review: American Gangster by Marc Streitenfeld (2008)
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This is a review of the motion picture score for American Gangster by Marc Streitenfeld. Release date: February 19th 2008.
Just to make it absolutely clear, this is not a review of the soundtrack, but the score to this great movie. Marc Streitenfeld is a fairly new composer, and before American Gangster, the only movie he has scored for is A Good Year. What is the connection between Marc Streitenfeld and Russell Crowe I wonder? First, Marc Streitenfeld scores for A Good year in 2006 starring Russell Crowe, the he scores for American Gangster in 2007 starring Russell Crowe, and he will score for the Ridley Scott movie Body of Lies in 2008 starring, yes you guessed it, Russell Crowe. Even though they might be linked in some way, this German composer has really made a name for himself with American Gangster and was nominated for Best Score at BAFTA. This is the track list for American Gangster:
- Images
- Frank Lucas
- Hundred Percent Pure
- On Fire
- Arrival
- Suspects
- Caskets
- Raid
- Morgue
- Chinchilla Coat
- American Gangster
The movie was about 2.5 hours long, so I wonder why the score only contains 11 tracks and a total playtime of 29:06. That is very disappointing. The promo score only had 10 tracks and was missing “American Gangster” which is 7:03. The score itself is very dark, and in many ways feel like the gangster version of 3:10 to Yuma, but with much less variety. Marc Streitenfeld uses the skewed guitar a lot, including backwards, almost like the score to Déjà vu by Harry Gregson-Williams.
It’s a good score while it lasts, but if you don’t like the main theme, you will not like this. All tracks feels a bit like the same track all over again and the 11th track “American Gangster” is like a “best of” where it uses elements from tracks 1-10. I think the score is above average, but the length of it is disappointing, and while it is original for a movie of this kind, it’s extremely repetitive in the score itself. Listen to American Gangster by Marc Streitenfeld below:
http://soundtrackgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/amga.flv
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Comments
I love minimal scores like in No Country For Old Men. They might not be much present in the movies, but you do hear it and it can be very powerful. This is not a bad score by any means as my score tells you, but it fails to leave an impression like for example Carter Burwell’s “In Bruges”
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Sometimes you just don’t notice a good score in a movie. It can be sound effects clouding it out, or maybe it was a more minimal score that didn’t try to overtake you on screen. And then, you go and listen to it on its own and realize, “hey, I missed this, it’s really good!”. Such was the case for 3:10 to Yuma. So when American Gangster got the BAFTA nom and was put on FMW’s Top Ten list, I was puzzled yet intrigued. The score on film seemed underachieving and unmemorable. It had a distinct stylistic feel, to be sure, but it never left a thematic imprint. Yet I figured it had to be worth a listen if such considerations were bestowed on it.
And so I get the promo and I listen to it and low and behold, there is a theme! A grungy Memphis feel takes on the bassline while a jazzy trumpet calls out over it. It’s a good way to represent the character, and musically it’s engaging and rolling. But there’s not too much variation here on this theme and so we are left with roughly the same impression each time we hear it. The rest of the material is good, establishing the gangster material we’re looking for with mostly understated hipness, though that mold gets broken with the thumping “Arrival”, one of the score’s few highlights.
However, there aren’t really any other standout themes. Nothing for Crowe’s character, or even just the police. It focuses completely on the lifestyle of Frank Lucas, a focus that prevents a diverse musical presentation and thus imprisons this score in the “serviceable” penetentiary