Three years after the biopic “ALI”, Michael Mann, “brandishing” Cruise, goes back to direction and hits the target, considering the good response both from the critics and returns ( $100 million in the USA and almost € 7 million  in Italy) coming from Collateral.

While the eye is totally satisfied by high definition (HD) Viper Thomson/Grass Valley and Sony

HDWf 900 mdp, where the outstanding depth of fields by night plunges the audience into an emotional perspective never experienced before, the use of  music-soundtrack-“collateral” in addition to giving, as usual, lessons of emphasis and know how, evolves in its non conventionality (like the shooting technique used) by estranging itself from the director modus operandi and proving itself different from all Mann’s scores heard up till now, as if the experimental, visual revolution, made while shooting, kept up with the music one.

It is representative as its approach the opening piece “Briefcase” played by Tom Rothrock (producer of Beck) that takes back to Dr Destructo by Tangerine Dream (in Thief soundtrack) and introduces a narrative language in which music and images have a shared and synchronous soul like in the beautiful piece “Air” (taken from Johan Sebastian Bach air BWV 991 in C Minor), the very famous “Air on the fourth chord “ arranged for the piano with astonishing results by Klazz Brothers & Cuba Percussion and that fascinates the audience by taking it away on these charming notes and on the intense aerial shots of Max’s taxi (Jamie Foxx), only to traumatize it through images that become, all of a sudden, shocking for the implicit following crudity, result of the first homicide perpetrated by Vincent’s gun (Tom Cruise).

This music becomes the symphony of a big city, with pieces like “Hands of Time” by the Groove Armada that opens with synth sonorities able to communicate strength and that feeling of belonging to Los Angeles images, as did in the past another director (John Carpenter) to describe a crime story (Precinct 13) set in Anderson Los Angeles “ghetto”.

There is no lack of pieces used in other scores, like “Moxica & His Horse” composed by Vangelis for 1492, an electronic hollow piece which in the film underline Pedrosa (Bruce Mc Gill) and his collaborators conjecture, future witnesses of Vincent determination, which will result in the main scene at FEVER where Paul Oakenfold with his beautiful and rousing “Ready Steady Go” (Remix Korean Style), gives an impressive performance, recalling us who this great dj/producer is, born from “Madchester” movement  in the late ‘80s.

Quotation and self celebrations, Like the homage to The Insider with “Iguazu” by Gustavo Santaolalla (performed here by Antonio Pinto) and to “Exile” by Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke passing through HEAT with “Steel Cello Lament” by Elliot Goldenthal, used in the scene in which Vincent kills one of the witnesses, a jazz player who loves Miles Davis, this latter recalled by the piece “Spanish Key” in the 1969 version with John Mc Laughlin at the guitars, taken from “Jazz Bitches Brew”, album that affected mainly the rock and funk culture and evolution.

But there is more, “COLLATERAL” is a mental and real representation of the situation experienced by the two main characters and the music magnifies both the different introspective peculiarities and the context in which actions occur, plunged as it is in Los Angeles sub culture; a 360° album that ranges over different musical genres with originality  and coherence, including ambient, lounge, jazz without forgetting rap and R&B by The Roots and Cody Chesnutt with the astonishing ballad “The Seed (2.0) (Extended Radio Edit) last success that Mann revives to give voice to the black LA night; but it is the hard and melodious rock of the Audioslave e of Chris Cornell soft voice (sublime ex voice of  Soundgarden, whom Mann showed great admiration for during the press conference of the film at the 61st Venice Festival) to touch the most extreme and collateral emotions with “Shadow on the Sun”, perfect and boundless in its integrity just like perfect and boundless is the scene of the coyotes, masters of LA streets, almost indifferent to civilization as if it were only a fleeting phenomenon. This piece must be listened to carefully starting from 3’ and 11” of the CD track to understand how much this music piece has been instrumental to emphasize Max’s irreversible exasperation and the consequent accident.

“COLLATERAL” is also a stepping stone for the Green Car Motel, also known with the name of Act of Faith through the beautiful and forceful “Destino de Abril” that undeline the talk between Max and Felix (Javie Bardem) at the Spanish place; they are a Los Angeles group composed by eccentric prodigy like the singer, leader and composer of the group, Rick Garcia, Joan Avila (ex bass player of Oingo Bongo), Mike Malinin (percussionist of Goo Goo Dolls) and the guitar player Rene Reyes.

The two music composers, Antonio Pinto (City of God) and James Newton Howard (Signs,Unbreakable) with a lot of Academy nominations, give their best respectively in the beautiful “Requiem”, used at the film end, with “Max Steals Briefcase” and “Finale”, these latters are pieces that recall how much the Chicago director, while keeping up with time, is fond of  classic guitar, synt and the percussion.Percussions listen in Africa during ALI’s Shoots are musical key on Vincent Hops Train,in this cue James Newton Howard readapt it in a long suite not totally edit on the first cd  but then edited on the 2016 complete soundtrack by Intrada Records. Little is known about the  additional pieces of the unknown Zachary Koretz and Thomas Schobel  with the beautiful Driften (European additional composer already listened to in Alien Vs Predator).

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• “Debestar"
  Written by Rick Garcia, Rene Reyes & Cisco De Luna
  Performed by The Green Car Motel
  Courtesy of FastKat Records

• "Love Me So Bad"
  Written by Tom Shimura, Joy Velarde-Malig & The Kingcannon Family
  Performed by Lyrics Born
  Courtesy of Quannum Projects

• "Driften"[Vincent deal with Max before first round]
  Written & Performed by Thomas Schobel

• "En Mi Pueblo"
  Written by Josh Cruze
  Performed by Bandidos de Amor
  Courtesy of BDA Records

• "Iguazu"
  Written by Gustavo Santaolalla
  Performed by Antonio Pinto

• "Steel Cello Lament"
  from Heat
  Written & Performed by Elliot Goldenthal
  Courtesy of Regency Enterprises

• "R. I. P."
  Written by Jose Becerra, Armando Feria, Ernesto Molina, Joaquin Pacheco, Steven Pasillas, Ray Rivera & Luis Vasquez
  Performed by Inner City Soul
  Courtesy of East L.A. Sabor

• "Ven Aca Bonita" from California Rumba Album
  Performed by Bandidos de Amor

• Exile[Felix telling about Pedro el Negro to Vincent/Max]
  from The Insider
  Written by Pieter Bourke & Lisa Gerrard
  Courtesy of Walt Disney Music

• "Moxica & His Horse"
  From 1492 The Conquest of Paradise
  Performed by Vangelis

• “A Roda(The Wheel)” from Abril Despedacado performed by Antonio Pinto

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COLLATERAL Hip-O Records ‎– B0003259-02 ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK

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1–Tom Rothrock Briefcase

2–The Roots Featuring Cody ChesnuTT The Seed (2.0) (Extended Radio Edit)

3–Groove Armada Hands Of Time

4–Calexico Güero Canelo

5–Tom Rothrock Rollin' Crumblin'

6–James Newton Howard Max Steals Briefcase

7–The Green Car Motel Destino De Abril

8–Audioslave Shadow On The Sun

9–James Newton Howard Island Limos

10–Miles Davis Spanish Key

11–Klazz Brothers & Cuba Percussion Air

12–Paul Oakenfold Ready Steady Go (Remix)

13–Antonio Pinto Car Crash

14–James Newton Howard Vincent Hops Train

15–James Newton Howard Finale

16–Antonio Pinto Requiem

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COLLATERAL Intrada ‎– ISC 352 MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE

MUSIC BY JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

1-Max And Vincent Talk 3:03

2-Arriving At Second Hit 2:53

3-Sylvester Clarke 1:11

4-Cut Cuffs 1:09

5-You Like Jazz? 1:21

6-Daniel 1:42

7-Daniel Is Killed (Alternate) 2:52

8-Flowers 1:47

9-Max Steals Briefcase 1:46

10-Fanning At The Morgue 1:48

11-Talk About Parents 1:15

12-Island Limos 1:30

13-Surveillance At El Rodeo 2:26

14-Max Meets Felix 1:50

15-Cops Pursue 2:21

16-Race To Annie 7:19

17-Cat And Mouse 4:07

18-Race To The Metro 2:27

19-Vincent Hops Train (Alternate) 2:11

20-Would Anyone Notice? (Finale) 3:47

The Extras

21-Daniel Is Killed (Original) 1:13

22-Vincent Hops Train (Original) 2:10

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