A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Now one of the most consistent film composers, it was certainly an enticing prospect to hear what Marco Beltrami might write for the remake of the 1965 movie Flight of the Phoenix (which starred Jimmy Stewart and Richard Attenborough and featured a score by Frank DeVol).  This time round the stars are Dennis Quaid and Giovanni Ribisi, but the plot is broadly the same - the location is moved from the Sahara to the Mongolian desert, but still sees the survivors of a plane crash trying to fashion themselves a new plane in order to escape.

One of the most impressive things about Beltrami's recent career has been the sheer variety of work.  He has managed to escape the shackles of genericism which blight so much film music these days, and come up with genuinely interesting music for a range of different films to the extent that you can never quite be sure what he will come up with next.  The last couple of years have seen the gorgeous I Am Dina, the metallic action of Terminator 3, the colourful and exciting Hellboy and, just recently, the futuristic stylings of I, Robot.  For Flight of the Phoenix he has written a highly-percussive, forceful score clearly designed to act as a psychological barrier in the film, showing that despite being in the middle of an enormous expanse, the characters are actually trapped, and in this way the music works very well.

As an album it doesn't fare quite so well.  There are certainly some excellent moments, but these are accompanied by some slightly dull suspense cues which don't work especially well away from the film.  We'll start with the good though, because that's what the album does.  The opening two tracks don't have much in the way of melody, but are powerful and well-constructed, a bit of a hybrid of the darkest action styles of Jerry Goldsmith and Elliot Goldenthal, if you want a frame of reference.  There are some good moments later on as well - the almost psychedelic "Heat Dream" features an onslaught of effects which are terrific, including "ethnic winds" and "ethnic vocals", and the distinctly Goldenthalian "Model Citizen", with its shrill brass trills, is first-rate.  "Men Hugging" offers a rare moment of warmth, but it's worth waiting for.  It's the first particularly extended version of what may be the main theme and, while surprisingly restrained, it's still very attractive and impressive.  It's reprised to excellent effect for the finale.

In between all this excellent music are some cues of plain percussion or subtle strings which do little for me and I can't see them doing much for many other people either.  The album's only 40 minutes long so not much could have been cut without it becoming unpopularly short, but I guess there's only 20-25 minutes of really interesting music here.  That's still more than in many other scores though so this comes recommended to those, like me, who have been following Beltrami's career with newfound interest these last couple of years.

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Tracks

1. Elliot (3:00)
2. Approaching Storm (3:20)
3. Desert Funeral (1:27)
4. Frank's Plea (2:41)
5. Electrical Storm (1:16)
6. They Can Deal (:59)
7. Night One (2:31)
8. Heat Dream (4:22)
9. Elliot Counts on a Runway (:51)
10. Nomad's Alive (3:22)
11. Model Citizen (3:12)
12. Man Missing (1:16)
13. Heat Stroke (1:38)
14. Men Hugging (1:20)
15. Dangers of the Desert (1:29)
16. Day Labour (1:32)
17. Wing Crash (1:16)
18. Nomad Surprise (3:04)
19. Homeward (1:25)