It had been 10 years since Lalo Schifrin scored Magnum Force (1973), the first sequel to the original Dirty Harry (1971), when he decided to revisit the infamous good bad cop in Sudden Impact (1983).

The scoring duty for the first sequel, The Enforcer (1976) was handled by the equally skilled Jerry Fielding, but Schifrin's style was more accessible; there were little bits of avant-garde techniques, but the cues were heavily driven by addictive rhythms and any harshness was counter-balanced by a tender, tragic theme for the victims brutalized in each story.

During the intervening ten years, Schifrin had scored a wider variety of genres, including comedies, more episodic television (his original Starsky and Hutch theme and episode scores scream for a commercial release), and horror films (a genre that allowed him to really have fun with all kinds of modern and avant-garde concepts), but when Sudden Impact came along, jazz fusion was no longer the chick sound for action/crime thrillers.

Even in Italy, where fusion crime scores had thrived for a long while, the increasing use of electronics meant jazz was on its way out, and more pop/rock scores were moving in, or at least a blend of orchestral rock with percussion sequencers.

Sudden Impact's opening "Main Title" is funny in that it begins like a acknowledgment of current fashions – sound effects samples (police radio chatter), a rippling/thudding drum sequencer, and turntable scratches – but after a lengthy intro, Schifrin starts to ease in bits of orchestra (initially through string slashes, and then gorgeous, stepped harmonics from strings), as if to say, ‘Okay, I've done the hip intro, I've branded the film with a popular sound, now let's get on with the story and let me do my job,' because the bulk of the score, while often comprised of very short cues, is hard dramatic orchestral writing, with less popular music embellishments like the fat and funky electric bass, and brass chants redolent of orchestral disco.

A few cues with source material – like the intro to “Murder by the Sea” – are written in a kind of fusion lounge that's part jazz and part pop rock, with a ridiculous drum sequencer flatulating around strong improvising on keyboards, but the score is still grounded in a wonderful interplay between melody, and agitated orchestral elements.

In “Too Much Sugar,” for example, Schifrin uses an alto sax to initially play a semi-humane, slightly erotic phrase (faintly evoking the sexualized sax solos in Franz Waxman's A Place in the Sun) but the solo becomes quite nervous, particularly when muted brass and trembling strings move from the fringes and progressively impede the phrase's progression towards more soothing material; the cue eventually closes with an interplay between sax and orchestra, but it's tinged with a strange, unnerving sense of irony, as though innocence is being cajoled and manipulated by dark forces.

That short cue is very lean and beautifully orchestrated, which again demonstrates how a composer can write to drama, add very precise subtext, but never overwhelm using the might of a sizeable orchestra at his fingertips. It's a special skill that seems to come from composers whose preferences aren't rooted in techno bombast, or who've learned there's no need to slam audiences with revolving cacophony (orchestral, sampled, or sound designed) as ‘danger motifs.' A film's elements ultimately dictate the tone and style of a score, but Sudden Impact is a textbook example of how not to give in to trends, and keep one's eyes and ears on the needs of a film.

Some will recognize thematic shadows from Schifrin's first Dirty Harry score, like “Frisco Night,” which contains echoes of the Scorpio theme in a short action bit: there's a brief use of pliable waterphone, and an almost flattened version of the famous noodling bassline Schifrin used whenever Dirty Harry was chasing the repulsive serial killer. Nothing from the theme is stated verbatim, but it's a very discrete connection to Harry facing another brutal force.

More overt, however, is a the lament for Harry in “The Road to San Paolo,” which begins with solo trumpet and keyboards, and kicks into gear using electric bass, drums, and a fast-moving rhythm.

Meatier cues like “Remembering Terror” flow through a variety of material, like a carousel organ, and the combination of waterphone screeches and chamber strings playing one of the score's unnerving motifs - a revolving four-note spiral within which Schifrin shifts chords to emphasize specific mood changes or onscreen torment.

The biggest surprise of Sudden Impact is that it's less steeped in eighties pop music (opening title excepted) than one remembers, and the album is almost an hour long (and includes full versions of material edited down in the final mix) making this one of the longest Dirty Harry albums so far. This is a well-produced score that maintains its dramatic drive in spite of many cues running just under two minutes, and the album closes with an alternate version of the “Main Title” (with retro echoplexed electric guitar and muted sax dominating extended drum sequencers).

Note: four cuts from the film were released on the 1983 Viva album, Sudden Impact And The Best Of Dirty Harry (on LP and tape), but most likely due to performance rights, the song “This Side of Forever,” sung by Roberta Flack, is not present on this CD, nor Aleph's 1998 reissue CD, Dirty Harry Anthology.

Unlike prior albums where the source cues were separate entities, they're cross-mixed with straight, dramatic cuts – something used to unwarranted extremes in the original Rollercoaster (1977) album from MCA – but these musical montages aren't too jarring, and they often mirror Schifrin's use of contrast that arguably creates more tension when the mindless thudding pop dirge at the beginning of “Ginley's Bar” moves into the concentrated, unforgiving theme of the female killer, and her unwavering vengeance.

Aleph's release of the complete Sudden Impact score leaves The Dead Pool as the last chapter in Dirty Harry's onscreen life, but each of Schifrin's scores proves one can write a fresh score and avoid the pitfalls of a sequel by paying notice to the lead character, the changes in his life, and how that character questions his environment with marinated cynicism.

Note: to read an interview with Lalo Schifrin regarding this CD release, click HERE.

© 2008 Mark R. Hasan