Search - Elliot Goldenthal :: Cobb

As good as the film

Stuart M. Paine | Arlington, VA USA | 05/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Elliot Goldenthal's score for COBB is similar to the one he would do two years later for A TIME TO KILL (1996) in that it combines dark and brooding orchestral writing with old-timey source music. In this case: a hymn, rags and honky-tonk. Very effective. Goldenthal explains in the liner notes that his theme for this score was "collision" - the collision of Cobb's precise, almost "classical" study of the game of base-ball with the fanatical intensity of his play on the field.



The composer speaks of Cobb's internal psychological "collision". He doesn't and needn't mention that of all players in the history of professional baseball, no other man's reputation has been more inextricably built upon and bound up with such brutal violence and hostility both physical and verbal directed toward others as Cobb brought to the park day after day. In Cobb's case, that conflict was with not only his opposition but also his own teammates. It commenced during his rookie season and continued for the length of his career. Something about Cobb which is usually overlooked in favor of more facile explanations of his behavior and attitude is that Cobb was a very proud Southernor, a descendent of leaders of the Confederacy, in fact, who made his living in the Yankee North. Excepting perhaps those occasions when the Tigers were in St. Louis to play the Browns, Cobb felt himself constantly to be in enemy territory - even "at home" in Detroit. Wherever he went, he was taunted and razzed. Cobb was always aware of his Southern-ness - and always agitated.



Parts of the score sound like two or three different pieces being performed at once. "Newsreel Mirror", heard during a film presentation at the Hall of Fame, superimposes (musically) Cobb's fears of public disclosure of past sins upon the "actual" musical accompaniment on the newsreel - the newsreel music being heard through a haze of reverb and phasing in and out. "Georgia Peach Rag" and "The Baptism" do likewise and have Goldenthal's trademark howling saxophone. Other favorites are: the "Cooperstown Arias", which have a remorseful ALIEN3 kind of sound; "Nevada Nightlight", a smokey jazz version of the "Cooperstown" tune and "Reno Ho", a frantic chase which begins with and culminates in a brass fanfare reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. The final score track is Goldenthal's great tormented fugue, "The Beast Within", borrowed from ALIEN3 of the previous year.



Also, although I don't usually pay much attention to whatever song plays over a film's end credits, I just love Sister Wynona Carr's "Ball Game" which closes this disc. What an appropriate and inspired choice! A song about life as a ball game umpired by God - perfect for this compelling drama about an old man, arguably the greatest baseball player ever, and his lifelong losing battle with his own demons. Fantastic vocal, too."