wimpel69
07-10-2013, 07:08 PM
FLAC re-upped. Link see below.
Narrow Margin is a 1990 film directed by Peter Hyams and released by TriStar Pictures, loosely based on
the 1952 film noir The Narrow Margin. The film stars Gene Hackman and Anne Archer.
A Los Angeles district attorney (Gene Hackman) is attempting to take an unwilling murder witness (Anne Archer)
back to the United States from Canada to testify against a top-level mob boss. Frantically attempting to
escape two deadly hit men sent to silence her, they board a Vancouver-bound train only to find the killers
are on board with them. For the next 20 hours, as the train hurls through the beautiful but isolated Canadian
wilderness, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues in which their ability to tell friend from foe is a matter
of life and death.
As with Elliott Gould's character in Capricorn One, Gene Hackman's "Robert Caulfield" is named after Peter
Hyams' old boss from his days as working as a TV reporter.
Hyams was intentionally looking through old movies that might be classics, only not too famous, to rewrite
and remake as a modern film. He finally settled on Richard Fleischer's The Narrow Margin.
The film was shot in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. The train used for both interior and exterior
scenes consisted of a BC Rail SD40-2 diesel locomotive and 12 privately owned passenger railcars, all
painted in Via Rail Canada livery to represent the Toronto-Vancouver passenger train. Some of the distant
exterior shots were filmed using a model train.
Music Composed and Conducted by
Bruce Broughton
Orchestrations by
Marc McKenzie
Don Nemitz
01. Theme From "Narrow Margin"
02. Main Title
03. The Hit
04. The Cabin
05. Siege From Above
06. Chopper Chase
07. The Boarding
08. New Passengers
09. Into the Station
10. No Carol for Wooton
11. Sleeper
12. Monashee Station
13. Stalled Success
14. Caulfield Runs
15. Narrow Escapes
16. Freeze
17. Fat Refuge
18. Wooton, Then Nelson
19. Nelson, Then Katherine
20. It's That Man
21. End Credits
22. Chopper Chase (alternate)
23. Hide and Seek
24. Carol Sleeps
25. Mistaken Identities
26. Fighting Nelson
27. Collared
28. End Credits (original version)
"Narrow Margin: (Bruce Broughton) Among the better forgotten thrillers of the 1990's is Narrow Margin,
a harrowing tale of witness protection from director Peter Hyams that was inspired by its 1950's
film noir predecessor. A deputy district attorney played by Gene Hackman is assigned to protect
a book editor (Anne Archer) who is the only witness of a mob assassination. The attorney's
challenge is to escort her against her will from the wilderness of Canada back to Los Angeles to
testify, eluding the mob's resources along the way. The production rented an entire train on which
to shoot for the majority of its running time, with the rail trek through British Columbia taking
several suspenseful turns as killers from the mob predictably infiltrate the voyage. For train enthusiasts,
this film ranks up with Under Siege 2: Dark Territory and Runaway Train as an exciting modern thriller,
though Narrow Margin has the distinct advantage of featuring two outstanding actors in their prime.
Despite these perks, the film toiled in obscurity soon after its release. Hyams has always been
notorious for his difficult relationships with members of his crew, however, and most notably with his
composers. Having worked with Jerry Goldsmith early in his career and then moving on to half a dozen
composers thereafter, it is no surprise that there was never a consistent composer for the majority of
his films. Having written the music for four of Hyams' projects, however, Bruce Broughton is the most
frequent name on that list (just ahead of John Debney), with entries spanning the late 1980's and
early 1990's. Broughton, whose career was arguably also at its prime, tackled Narrow Margin with
a warranted sense of aggression that remains gritty around the edges throughout its length,
providing one the most frenetic action scores of his career. Assembling a diverse range of orchestral
performers, Broughton's composition is lively and robust, featuring a consistent level of activity to
accompany the film's non-stop suspense from start to finish. Unfortunately for the composer, the
lesson of Hyams' sometimes deranged thinking was not yet learned, and his score for Narrow Margin
would suffer from endless requests for the re-scoring of many scenes, and even after such work
was completed, the finished product was chopped into pieces by the time it was heard in the cinemas.
Rather than providing a distinct theme for any of the film's characters, Broughton offers a
series of four notes that is really only heard in full during the opening and closing titles, with
mutated references of that progression informing motifs throughout the score's contents. On the
other hand, an alternating piano motif of sixteen notes serves as the score's true identity, fitting
more gracefully into subtle places and translating well in wildly frantic, sometimes cyclical string
and brass performances. Those rambunctious action sequences are highlighted by "Chopper Chase"
(before the train enters the film) and "Nelson, Then Katherine" (the finale action scene), both of
which exploding with raw, rhythmic energy and both of which, ironically, extensively re-scored and
then butchered anyway in the final cut by Hyams. The director reportedly preferred the more jarring
effect of single blasts from the full ensemble, adding specific, synchronized accents to each glimpse
of a villain or other scary element, rather than allowing Broughton's music to simply establish an
overall mood through the application of a consistent rhythm. To his credit, Hyams may have
recognized that Broughton used an effective technique with his orchestral blasts in Narrow Margin,
one in which only the lowest and highest ranges of the orchestra produce the sound, omitting
the middle ranges as almost to suggest a polarizing shriek of good and evil at once. But Hyams
was dead wrong in regards to the continuity of Broughton's original cues. As it was originally
written, the narrative flow by Broughton for Narrow Margin is superior. But with both original and
alternate cues cut, moved, or deleted, the composer was best advised to forget about the project
and move on; one cannot hear anything resembling the quality of his work by watching the film.
As a relatively early, 2004 installment in Intrada Records' "Special Collection" of limited albums,
Narrow Margin is presented with both original and alternate cues with which listeners can make
their own judgments. The sound quality is so remarkably clear that you can even hear the
nearly inaudible, whispering strings at the start of the titles and alternate end credits recordings.
The album comes highly recommended to contemporary suspense enthusiasts, and although
the 1,500-copy run of the product went out of print as expected, it long remained relatively
inexpensive on the secondary market. Its presentation thankfully preserves what remains
as one of Broughton's most impressive genre achievements."
Filmtracks
Download Link (FLAC) - https://mega.nz/#!U2IBDZzS!h6vZZjaU2nOtNFGxnygUra3XUBPJbZTONCEDHAILEF4
FLAC re-upped.
Please say thanks below to keep this thread alive!
Narrow Margin is a 1990 film directed by Peter Hyams and released by TriStar Pictures, loosely based on
the 1952 film noir The Narrow Margin. The film stars Gene Hackman and Anne Archer.
A Los Angeles district attorney (Gene Hackman) is attempting to take an unwilling murder witness (Anne Archer)
back to the United States from Canada to testify against a top-level mob boss. Frantically attempting to
escape two deadly hit men sent to silence her, they board a Vancouver-bound train only to find the killers
are on board with them. For the next 20 hours, as the train hurls through the beautiful but isolated Canadian
wilderness, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues in which their ability to tell friend from foe is a matter
of life and death.
As with Elliott Gould's character in Capricorn One, Gene Hackman's "Robert Caulfield" is named after Peter
Hyams' old boss from his days as working as a TV reporter.
Hyams was intentionally looking through old movies that might be classics, only not too famous, to rewrite
and remake as a modern film. He finally settled on Richard Fleischer's The Narrow Margin.
The film was shot in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. The train used for both interior and exterior
scenes consisted of a BC Rail SD40-2 diesel locomotive and 12 privately owned passenger railcars, all
painted in Via Rail Canada livery to represent the Toronto-Vancouver passenger train. Some of the distant
exterior shots were filmed using a model train.
Music Composed and Conducted by
Bruce Broughton
Orchestrations by
Marc McKenzie
Don Nemitz
01. Theme From "Narrow Margin"
02. Main Title
03. The Hit
04. The Cabin
05. Siege From Above
06. Chopper Chase
07. The Boarding
08. New Passengers
09. Into the Station
10. No Carol for Wooton
11. Sleeper
12. Monashee Station
13. Stalled Success
14. Caulfield Runs
15. Narrow Escapes
16. Freeze
17. Fat Refuge
18. Wooton, Then Nelson
19. Nelson, Then Katherine
20. It's That Man
21. End Credits
22. Chopper Chase (alternate)
23. Hide and Seek
24. Carol Sleeps
25. Mistaken Identities
26. Fighting Nelson
27. Collared
28. End Credits (original version)
"Narrow Margin: (Bruce Broughton) Among the better forgotten thrillers of the 1990's is Narrow Margin,
a harrowing tale of witness protection from director Peter Hyams that was inspired by its 1950's
film noir predecessor. A deputy district attorney played by Gene Hackman is assigned to protect
a book editor (Anne Archer) who is the only witness of a mob assassination. The attorney's
challenge is to escort her against her will from the wilderness of Canada back to Los Angeles to
testify, eluding the mob's resources along the way. The production rented an entire train on which
to shoot for the majority of its running time, with the rail trek through British Columbia taking
several suspenseful turns as killers from the mob predictably infiltrate the voyage. For train enthusiasts,
this film ranks up with Under Siege 2: Dark Territory and Runaway Train as an exciting modern thriller,
though Narrow Margin has the distinct advantage of featuring two outstanding actors in their prime.
Despite these perks, the film toiled in obscurity soon after its release. Hyams has always been
notorious for his difficult relationships with members of his crew, however, and most notably with his
composers. Having worked with Jerry Goldsmith early in his career and then moving on to half a dozen
composers thereafter, it is no surprise that there was never a consistent composer for the majority of
his films. Having written the music for four of Hyams' projects, however, Bruce Broughton is the most
frequent name on that list (just ahead of John Debney), with entries spanning the late 1980's and
early 1990's. Broughton, whose career was arguably also at its prime, tackled Narrow Margin with
a warranted sense of aggression that remains gritty around the edges throughout its length,
providing one the most frenetic action scores of his career. Assembling a diverse range of orchestral
performers, Broughton's composition is lively and robust, featuring a consistent level of activity to
accompany the film's non-stop suspense from start to finish. Unfortunately for the composer, the
lesson of Hyams' sometimes deranged thinking was not yet learned, and his score for Narrow Margin
would suffer from endless requests for the re-scoring of many scenes, and even after such work
was completed, the finished product was chopped into pieces by the time it was heard in the cinemas.
Rather than providing a distinct theme for any of the film's characters, Broughton offers a
series of four notes that is really only heard in full during the opening and closing titles, with
mutated references of that progression informing motifs throughout the score's contents. On the
other hand, an alternating piano motif of sixteen notes serves as the score's true identity, fitting
more gracefully into subtle places and translating well in wildly frantic, sometimes cyclical string
and brass performances. Those rambunctious action sequences are highlighted by "Chopper Chase"
(before the train enters the film) and "Nelson, Then Katherine" (the finale action scene), both of
which exploding with raw, rhythmic energy and both of which, ironically, extensively re-scored and
then butchered anyway in the final cut by Hyams. The director reportedly preferred the more jarring
effect of single blasts from the full ensemble, adding specific, synchronized accents to each glimpse
of a villain or other scary element, rather than allowing Broughton's music to simply establish an
overall mood through the application of a consistent rhythm. To his credit, Hyams may have
recognized that Broughton used an effective technique with his orchestral blasts in Narrow Margin,
one in which only the lowest and highest ranges of the orchestra produce the sound, omitting
the middle ranges as almost to suggest a polarizing shriek of good and evil at once. But Hyams
was dead wrong in regards to the continuity of Broughton's original cues. As it was originally
written, the narrative flow by Broughton for Narrow Margin is superior. But with both original and
alternate cues cut, moved, or deleted, the composer was best advised to forget about the project
and move on; one cannot hear anything resembling the quality of his work by watching the film.
As a relatively early, 2004 installment in Intrada Records' "Special Collection" of limited albums,
Narrow Margin is presented with both original and alternate cues with which listeners can make
their own judgments. The sound quality is so remarkably clear that you can even hear the
nearly inaudible, whispering strings at the start of the titles and alternate end credits recordings.
The album comes highly recommended to contemporary suspense enthusiasts, and although
the 1,500-copy run of the product went out of print as expected, it long remained relatively
inexpensive on the secondary market. Its presentation thankfully preserves what remains
as one of Broughton's most impressive genre achievements."
Filmtracks
Download Link (FLAC) - https://mega.nz/#!U2IBDZzS!h6vZZjaU2nOtNFGxnygUra3XUBPJbZTONCEDHAILEF4
FLAC re-upped.
Please say thanks below to keep this thread alive!
