Probably my favourite film directed by Robert Redford, Quiz Show is an impeccably-made chronicle of the scandals which rocked American tv quizzes in the 1950s, in particular the show Twenty-One hosted by Jack Berry. Ralph Fiennes and John Turturro give brilliant performances to anchor the film, which serves as an allegory towards a general loss of innocence happening in the country as the decade drew towards a close.
After the wonderful A River Runs Through It, Mark Isham scored most of Redford’s subsequent movies, with a few exceptions. He was wonderfully well-suited to Quiz Show, which allowed him to write a score dominated by a jazz sound appropriate to the period. The composer himself is of course one of the great jazz trumpeters of his generation, and performs many of the solos in the score.
It’s interesting how Isham manages to write for much of the score in what is a pretty straight jazz style and make that music serve as dramatic underscore, not source music (which is what you may think it is from listening to the album). The opening score cue (which follows a Lyle Lovett song, “Moritat”) is the wonderful “The World’s Smartest Man” which sets the tone very nicely indeed; then comes the marathon, eleven-minute “The Oversight Blues”, highlighting some great bass playing alongside the silky trumpet.
After another great track, “The Underdog”, which like the opener has a delicious big band influence comes the romantic “Your Secret’s Safe With Me” – it’s a straightforward jazz piano solo, unaccompanied, and is quite delightful. The big band returns in the dazzling “Hunting in your Underwear”.
I suppose there are two caveats I should place alongside my praise – you really do have to be a fan of 1950s jazz/swing/blues to appreciate this, and in the first half it really doesn’t feel much like a film score at all, more an album of really good standalone pieces of music.
That changes for the score’s second half however, beginning in the melancholic “On the Shoulders of Life” – there’s still an exquisite trumpet solo, but now we’re firmly into more traditional orchestral underscore territory, where we remain for much of the rest. There’s a real bite to “A Chance is What I’m Giving You”, musically you can just hear that loss of innocence which the film is about.
“Television on Trial” is a great piece, full of sadness but also dramatic weight, noirish elements coming to the fore. Then everything comes to a head in the concluding “Everything Has Its Price” – again there is an underlying sadness to the piece, but there is also a great beauty, particularly when the stunning trumpet solo kicks in. It’s a perfect conclusion to a really strong album, one in which Mark Isham gets his chance to show off his skills as both composer and musician.
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