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The Enforcer
Jerry Fielding
The Enforcer
Genres: Pop, Soundtracks
 
  •  Track Listings (13) - Disc #1

"The Enforcer" was the third film of the five film Dirty Harry series, and the only of the films composed by the late composer Jerry Fielding. The other four films all boasted scores by Lalo Schifrin. Aleph Records, ha...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Jerry Fielding
Title: The Enforcer
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Aleph Records
Original Release Date: 1/1/2006
Re-Release Date: 6/26/2007
Album Type: Soundtrack
Genres: Pop, Soundtracks
Style:
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 651702635924

Synopsis

Product Description
"The Enforcer" was the third film of the five film Dirty Harry series, and the only of the films composed by the late composer Jerry Fielding. The other four films all boasted scores by Lalo Schifrin. Aleph Records, has also released the scores for the first two films of the series, "Dirty Harry" and "Magnum Force." The entire original score for "The Enforcer" has never been released, only excerpts from the score appeared on the original soundtrack LP.

"The Enforcer," of course starred Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry Callahan. The film also starred Tyne Daly as Inspector Kate Moore, his rookie partner. Callahan and Moore are on the hunt for a group of terrorists blackmailing the city of San Francisco. Though at first he is not pleased to be partnered with Moore, and in truth, Callahan s partners have not fared well in the past, Moore proves herself an able partner.

Composer Jerry Fielding had a long and storied career. He began in the 40s as a bandleader with his own television show and fell victim to McCarthysm, blacklisted from Hollywood in the 1950s. His return to Hollywood came in 1962, hired by Otto Preminger to compose the score for" Advise and Consent." He began working in episodic television, scoring episodes of both "Mission: Impossible" and "Star Trek." It was his work on "Noon Wine" that started Fielding s relationship with Sam Peckinpah, which would lead Fielding back to the big screen.

When Lalo Schifrin, composer of both "Dirty Harry" and "Magnum Force," was unavailable to compose the score for "The Enforcer," the job fell to composer Jerry Fielding. Fielding was perhaps best known for his collaborations with Sam Peckinpah, ("The Wild Bunch," "Straw Dogs," "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia") and Michael Winner ("Scorpio," "The Big Sleep," "Lawman"). For Fielding "The Enforcer" led to future collaborations with Clint Eastwood films like "The Outlaw Josey Wales" (his third and final Academy AwardTM nomination), "Escape From Alcatraz," and "The Gauntlet."

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CD Reviews

Good
William R. Nicholas | Mahwah, NJ USA | 07/30/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)

"Trivia game: There are five Dirty Harry films, and Lalo Shifrin composed all but one of their soundtracks. Which one?



Well, it is The Enforcer, where Jerry Fielding took the wheel. It is interesting to look at his approach vs. Shifrin's. Shifrin made his Dirty Harry scores funk jazz and ran recurring themes through the soundtracks. Here, Fielding does a jazz score, but has chosen to work with all types of jazz--swing, dramatic swoops, and an absolutely scruptious piece that copies Herbie Hancock's Camelon. Hey, unless you want to go back to a caveperson beating a rock, every great composer is a thief.



All the music here ranges from good to excellent, though none of it has the menice of Shifrin's offering for the first, 1971 Dirty Harry film. This might not be Fielding's doing--Dirty Harry movies became more about Calahan's quirks as time went on; wry action fare rather than cage-shaking, question-posing films about how society deals with sociopathology. So you really can't fault Fielding for this score not being the musical attack dog Shifrin assembled for the first movie.



But Fielding might have been mistaken when he chose not to use a repeating musical theme to tie this score together. All the ideas are good, and probably worked quite well on screen, but as a score, The Enforcer does not have the instant recognizability of Shrifrin's Dirty Harry work.



Still, this has some great music on it, and is a lot of fun. Definatley worth obtaining.



Just don't buy it looking for a classic."