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Rating: BACKGROUND
It's 1982, while Bearzot's national team was crowned world champion and the Falkland War between Argentina and England was being fought, director Michael Winner was dealing with the second chapter of the Death Wish saga, namely "The Vigilante of the Night", naturally with Charles Bronson still in the role of Paul Kersey.
Menhaem Golan (producer) had given the director free rein to dive deep into the most brutal violence, and this was, after all, the blueprint of his Cannon Film, which is remembered for memorable action, science fiction, and horror films of that now distant plastic decade (I wonder if it still makes sense to call it that, considering the current days).
These were the cards on the table, and if in the first 1974 film there was still an air of a cinema empyrean (Paramount) and the release of Garfield's bestseller was fresh, in this case, it was in the realm of the properly called B-Movie, where a face that could break through the screen could be the major incentive to go to the cinema. That said, the music for such a film couldn't have been entrusted again to a great jazz musician like Herbie Hancock, who in any case had ventured into a midnight movie like Freeman, the Harlem Agent. This time they needed someone to cynically score scenes of rapes and murders and the urban decay of a Los Angeles that was indeed a lovely place at that time. Who could be more suitable than someone who had plundered and violated black American music and pushed it to the extremes of technique; it was even too easy to convince Jimmy Page, who was Michael Winner's neighbor.
THE RECORD
Page, well accompanied by excellent musicians and the GLC Philharmonic, plays acoustic, electric, and synth guitars, synthesizer, bass, and theremin (a singular instrument of Soviet manufacture that boasts a wide range of sounds).
Who's to blame: As it starts, it seems like In the evening from Led Zeppelin's last album "In Through the Out Door", but the black voice of Chris Farlowe (who will work again with Page) bursts in, not Robert Plant's. In the film, the song accompanies the opening credits, without voice and with the background of the Los Angeles radio news briefing the crime news.
The Chase: Begins as a slow hard blues of just guitar then bombarded by drums and keyboards that prelude to solos and a perfectly orchestrated thrilling atmosphere.
City sirens: An opportunity to hear the voice of Gordon Edwards, in one of the most carefree tracks of the entire soundtrack.
Jam Sandwich: Undoubtedly the masterpiece of the record. The track closest to early Zeppelin. Martial drums, a vigorous riff, and solos full of adrenaline and concentration. Memorable is the scene where the gang, including a not yet known Lawrence Fishburne, listens to the piece on the radio before harassing Paul at the amusement park with his daughter and companion (Jill Ireland, Bronson's wife).
Carole's theme: A classic and poignant composition. The drama of poor daughter Carole unfolds while her executioners are at large. Kersey begins to meditate his revenge and return to the streets.
The release: Starts as a lofty composition and then chameleonically turns into a visceral street Rhythm'n blues.
Hotel rats and photostats: Gloomy airs, screeching violins, and frenzied synthesizers. An ideal piece to listen to on the mp3 player while passing through the most infamous areas of one's town.
A shadow in the city: A shadow roams the city, it's our Paul Kersey. Minimal sounds alternate with Prog and Kraut-flavored sonorities, while in the finale it transitions to a march between the psychotic and the macabre.
In Jill's theme Tribalisms and crybaby prelude to an orchestral execution at times giddy and sometimes melancholic, winking at Williams and Hermann, while in Prelude the ballad tempo interweaves with the guitar taking center stage. Big band, sax and violence starts with unusual cheerfulness and an exuberant sax, paving the way to a funkier and more carefree reprise than the previous Jam Sandwich. In Hypnotizing Ways (Oh Mamma) Farlowe's voice returns, for a classic rock song form with a Page solo where he can finally indulge in what made him famous.
A soundtrack that perfectly fits the film's shoes. Chameleonic in its alternation, obsessive in underlining a revenge painted against the backdrop of a putrid metropolis that, as perceived from the closing credits, continues to live its night as if nothing happened.
Tracklist
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