Film Scores: Howard Shore's Darkly Brooding "Cop Land"

[00:00:00]Hello, friends. This is Dave Hurwitz, executive editor at classics today.com here with the new release of the complete, and I mean uber complete, film score by Howard Shore to Cop Land.

[00:00:16]Remember Cop Land? I don't. I don't remember it at all. I know what it's about, but I never saw it, and I don't have any plans to actually. Although the the story looks like a good one.

[00:00:28]Let's see. It was This was It came out in 1997.

[00:00:32]And for those of you who only know Howard Shore's work from Lord of the Rings, you should also remember that he did The Silence of the Lambs, and he did Cop Land, and a bunch of other scores.

[00:00:43]He's a fantastically talented composer.

[00:00:46]>> [snorts] >> And this is the super duper uber deluxe edition issued on Quartet Records.

[00:00:52]Fabulous film music label that seems to have filled in for the the giant gap left when Varèse Sarabande was sucked up by Concord Music, which is now something else. I have no idea where that went. Um but thank God Quartet is here. Yay! And is filling in some of the gaps. Howard Shore's music for Cop Land is marvelous.

[00:01:16]It's incredibly brooding and moody and atmospheric. But in order to understand where he's coming from, it does help to know something of the plot of the film.

[00:01:26]Um believe it or not, whether you watch it or not. It stars Sylvester Stallone as great cast. I mean, it's it's like all famous people. You know.

[00:01:34]Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro and and let's see who else is here.

[00:01:39]Harvey Keitel and Ray Liotta and and and oh let's see who else is in this. Oh, Annabella Sciorra and and and Robert Patrick and let's see. Peter Berg and gosh, it just What a cast. Yes. But that's not the point. The interesting thing is the character of Sylvester Stallone who plays the sheriff who is deaf in one ear because he rescued a girl and found out deaf in one ear when he was a kid and couldn't join the New York City Police Force. He always wanted to join the New York City Police Force. But it concerns he's the sheriff of a corrupt town in New Jersey called Garrison which is very appropriate title. Now, corrupt towns in New Jersey are nothing new.

[00:02:26]Anybody who has worked in New Jersey knows about corrupt towns in New Jersey.

[00:02:32]Just that's only a partial joke because I did a lot of work in New Jersey [laughter] in the real estate business and trust me there are corrupt towns in New Jersey.

[00:02:41]Anyway, the bottom line is is that this town is largely inhabited by New York City cops who live over across the river >> [snorts] >> in New Jersey because it allows them to be corrupt.

[00:02:57]Basically, with the cooperation of Sheriff Freddy who is who is Sylvester Stallone here. Who I'm told from the notes gained 36 pounds for the for the role so that he could look fat and lazy. Anyway, there's a whole crazy soap opera esque embroglio that these cops get into because one of them shoots a couple of of black kids on the George Washington Bridge. It's a great brooding music for the George Washington Bridge.

[00:03:25]I mean I've been over the George Washington Bridge a billion times and it never sounded like that. Anyway, but then again I didn't murder anybody when I was on the George Washington Bridge. He kills these these these two black teenagers for no good reason and there's a cover up.

[00:03:39]They fake a suicide and then they they put him in the hiding in Garrison New Jersey and there's an internal affairs person who's trying to do an investigation. That's Robert De Niro and they're all frustrating his investigation, um and they're also dealing drugs and doing uh it's just it's just a sinkhole of sin and corruption. And the story itself involves Sylvester Stallone finally recovering his conscience as a cop and realizing that he can't protect these people, that he has to do something. And of course, that causes great consternation among the protectees, and they all try and uh some of them kill each other, and they try and kill Stallone, and then Stallone kills them, and then and and you know, one of them turns state's witness and also becomes kind of a good guy, and and you know, there are women who are there for, you know, female reasons, and and then Stallone is still in love with the woman he saved and lost the hearing in his ear, who happens to coincidentally be married to a cop who's corrupt living in Harrison, New Jersey, and he's abusive, but they still have feelings for each other, even though they never really had feelings at the beginning. Anyway, it it's it's a it's a soap opera, is what it is, with guns, lots and lots of guns.

[00:05:04]Uh and it's really a a very sensitive score that Howard Shore has decided.

[00:05:10]Yes, there are scenes of great brutality, and there's a darkness, um because the whole town is corrupt.

[00:05:17]There's a brooding darkness that's sort of undercuts the entire thing. Um and it's just enormously powerful. I mean, he uses electronics very effectively.

[00:05:27]Uh there are some lovely melodies, um some motives that pop up periodically.

[00:05:33]The very opening with with sort of sharp chords interspersed with gentle harp passages. This is very, very unlike what you might expect. It's not in, you know, sort of adventure action movie at all. Um and and and Shore has an ability I think to get to the the human heart of a lot of these things and and still owns character um who's really quite sensitive, uh really does you know, encourage Shore to create uh music that that that's uneasy, disturbed, morally questionable. You know what I mean?

[00:06:12]That's that's what it's all about. So, anyway, that's Cop Land. Now, this reissue, first of all, it's it's it's conducted and produced by Shore. It was by and and sonically, it's absolutely marvelous.

[00:06:26]You get the complete film score uh as it was used in the film. So, that's like oh, a bazillion tracks. It's two discs, by the way. That's disc one. Disc two, you get the original soundtrack album, which I actually enjoy because there's a lot of music of of great similarity here. Tracks that sort of go nowhere, as as always happens when you get the actual film score. Um whereas the original soundtrack cleans it up a little bit and gives you the sort of the longer pieces and the main themes uh in a in a I think in a more digestible way. But, it's either way, it's it's wonderful music. And then you also get a whole slew of bonus tracks, alternatives, things that, you know, made it into the film or didn't make it into the film.

[00:07:12]But, it's all splendidly done. It's over 2 hours of music. It's 135 minutes of music, which is like lots and lots of music.

[00:07:21]Uh and I just think that this is a terrific piece of work.

[00:07:25]Um an exceptional score to a really very, very interesting movie. I mean, I you know, I joke about these things because I'm not going to watch the movie, but but it sounds like a really interesting movie. And the music certainly makes you want to watch the movie. I mean, it makes you I may even watch the movie because I heard this and I'm very curious to know how all of these things slot into what I'm hearing. And that's I think the mark of a really good film score.

[00:07:53]You know, I mean, by the time I got to the end of this, I started out saying what I told you, "Ah, it's a movie. I don't want to see it. I'm probably never going to see it." And then by the end, I sort of thought to myself, "You know, maybe I want to see it."

[00:08:05]Because now I know what it sounds like.

[00:08:08]So, I may want to see what it looks like as well.

[00:08:11]And you know, you can have a listen and decide if you come to the same conclusion. So, keep on listening, friends. Thanks for joining me. Take care.