Richard Marvin’s background and long experience with electronics really enhance this fluidly constructed score that balances emotional weight and action without undue bombast or melodrama. Marvin’s approach is definitely less is more, as the short feature film (88 mins.) doesn’t contain a massive amount of score.
There’s also a strong orchestral presence that dominates cues, particularly when it involves the painful relationship between the film’s lead detective and his wife, whom he probably hasn’t seen in years since the death of their child. His only interaction is through his wife’s robotic avatar – something he puts into stasis at the end of each work day – and his need to reconnect with the woman he loves is beautifully expressed in the delicate “Cam’s Apt. / Greer’s Apartment”, as well as “I Want You,” with lovely solo piano.
The flipside of Surrogates has action cues that are a perfect marriage of percussion textures and a driving, unrelenting ostinato played by the strings. The best cut is “Foot Chase / Warrant” with gradual layers of interlaced rhythms, as well as flaring trumpets and low, malevolent brass. The cue actually has three parts which are tied to a chase that eventually has the detective pursuing his subject into a kind of forbidden zone. Beginning in a helicopter, the chase resumes after a massive crash, with the detective running and jumping across rooftops with a gun, but minus an arm.
As he runs through a designated sanctuary of rebels who’ve carved out a robot-free zone, Marvin uses his musical elements to create a swirling motion of chase, combat, and swarming rebels determined to hunt down and destroy the detective’s robotic avatar like a humanoid virus. Blended into the lengthy cue are some vintage synth sounds, including flanging metallic hits, and a bass pulse reminiscent of John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981).
Marvin creates a lot of rich colours with his orchestra, and it’s a memorable score that evokes a futuristic world while keeping a grounded connection to the detective’s personal struggles with his wife, and life outside of the shielded apartment where he interacts with the exterior world through his robotic self.
Click HERE to read an interview with composer Richard Marvin.
© 2010 Mark R. Hasan
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