S.W.A.T. (Score)
In film scoring's best moments it's easy to forget that it's as much craft as art, at best a shotgun marriage of music and commerce. Which is exactly the challenge veteran composer Eliot Goldenthal faced segueing from his sublimeFrida, the rich, Mexican folk-inflected score that netted him an Oscar, to this more traditional Hollywood action vehicle. Goldenthal ably echoes the film's admirable realism-over-stunts mentality with the same brooding, deliciously dark orchestral sensibility he brought toTitusand the surprisingFinal Fantasy. And then there's the commerce--great dollops of rock guitar and pounding rhythms that often seem grafted on as some sort of marketing enticement. Yet left to his own devices, Goldenthal often proves he's as capable as any of the McClub-oriented tracks commissioned from the likes of Danny Saber and Apollo Four Forty--and on spare, slinky cues like "Don't Shoot Me Baby" and "Three Chords in Two Minutes" (nowthere'sa film scorer's inside joke-title) may just be one step ahead.--Jerry McCulley