THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT
Rating: 
Original Review: Sometimes, all a score needs to succeed is a knockout theme, and The American President has an absolute doozy. Composer Marc Shaiman is a past master of creating a memorable melody (think City Slickers), and the main title for Rob Reiner's sweet and sentimental movie is one of his best. Written for a full orchestra with a countermelody to die for (listen for those horns), it is omnipresent throughout the score, and captures perfectly the essence of the film, combining pride and honour with warmth and tradition. It is introduced subtly in the 'Main Titles', and goes on to crop up time and again in shortened forms until the final two tracks - 'President Shepherd' and 'End Credits' - present a 12-minute tour-de-force rendition of the theme, for which the word "lush" seems to be a gross understatement. Having said that, the problem that sometimes comes with having a great theme is that the rest of the music can end up being a little dry.
This happens here only very occasionally and, to Shaiman's credit, he tries to be as inventive as possible within the musical walls he has created for himself. Some cues, such as 'Call Me Andy', 'I Like Her', 'The First Kiss' and 'Camp David', wander along quite nicely on a bed of pianos, strings and woodwinds before lapsing into restrained bursts of the theme, while other selections, such as 'Meet The Press', 'Gathering Votes' and the wonderfully titled 'Never Have An Airline Strike at Christmas' have a real drive and urgency about them, and use percussion and slightly louder and more frenetic strings to great effect. Shaiman has also adapted Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic romantic ballad "I Have Dreamed" into the cue 'The State Dinner' for one of my favourite scenes in the movie, when President Michael Douglas first introduces his new beau Annette Bening to the world at large.
All in all, The American President is a highly enjoyable album and, if the theme grabs you (as it did me), you are sure to get plenty of mileage from this score. Also, the fact that the theme from The American President was so wonderfully used in the trailers for Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, is bringing this score to the attention of a whole new group of people who would, in other circumstances, have probably dismissed it as "just another romantic comedy". To do so would be a great disservice to Shaiman and all concerned with this score. It's one of the best I've picked up this year.
Track Listing:
- Main Titles (2:23)
- Call Me Andy (1:36)
- I Like Her (1:48)
- It's Meatloaf Night (0:40)
- The First Kiss (2:21)
- The Slow Down Plan (1:13)
- The Morning After/Meet The Press (2:11)
- Politics as Usual (0:57)
- Never Have an Airline Strike at Christmas (0:35)
- I Have Dreamed (The State Dinner) (written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein III) (2:57)
- Camp David (1:30)
- Gathering Votes (2:36)
- Make The Deal (3:42)
- Decisions (1:45)
- President Shepherd (7:28)
- End Titles (5:05)
Running Time: 39 minutes 06 seconds
MCA Soundtracks MCAD-11380 (1995)
Music composed by Marc Shaiman. Conducted by Artie Kane. Orchestrations by Jeff Atmajian and Frank Bennett. Recorded and mixed by Dennis Sands. Edited by Scott Stambler. Mastered by Joe Gastwirt and Ramón Bretón. Album produced by Marc Shaiman.
Cinemusic Online
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Movie Wave
Score!: Review by Andreas Lindahl (*****)
Scorelogue
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