Road to Perdition

Thomas Newman - ROAD TO PERDITION (2002) - Soundtrack Suite

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• published: 30 May 2011
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Tracklisting: 00:00 - 01:25 Wake 01:25 - 02:15 The Farm 02:16 - 04:09 Rock Island, 1931 04:10 - 05:09 Road To Chicago 05:09 - 06:47 Cathedral 06:48 - 08:14 Dirty Money 08:15 - 09:33 Meet Maguire 09:34 - 10:38 Shoot The Dead 10:39 - 14:11 Road To Perdition The highly acclaimed Sam Mendes adaptation of a graphic novel, 2002's Road to Perdition was Oscar bait in the making, placing Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, and a strong supporting cast in a compelling story of organized crime in 1930's Chicago. Hanks plays a hitman of high talents, but when he becomes the victim when the majority of his family is executed by the jealous son of his employer, he and his remaining young son go on a journey of revenge, discovery, and healing in the setting's gloomy and dark underworld. The successful collaboration between Mendes and composer Thomas Newman continued with Road to Perdition. It was their pairing just a few years prior for American Beauty that earned them both the most heightened critical and popular recognition of their careers, despite an upset of the score at the Oscars. Newman's music for the 2000 hit had taken on a life of its own, with a second generation of his fans becoming attached to his style of extremely eclectic, low-key tones that would continue in Erin Brockovich and Pay it Forward. Whether Newman was experimenting with these kinds of synthetic scores or building upon his more largely established fan base with his complex orchestral works, he always concentrated heavily on character development and tackled setting and time as a secondary task. While Road to Perdition may be a 1930's Chicago gangster film in setting, the core of its drama is still rooted in the same genre of family tragedy that made American Beauty into such an intoxicating experience for many audiences. The difference, though, is that Newman folds many of the intriguing stylistic mannerisms from his quirky scores of the era into a much larger orchestral scope for Road to Perdition, taking the best of both worlds and wrapping them into a far broader and admirable, Academy Award nominated effort. Not only was Road to Perdition a return for Newman to the vastly complicated orchestral works of his past, but it also features some of his most dynamic and successful character development in the 2000's. Because the film's personality is conveyed in a somber tale of loss and revenge, Thomas Newman's score is no walk in the park. Not only was his aim to compose music to accompany the tragic events on screen, but to also illuminate the thinking of the primary character, a challenge in any such environment. Thus, his music for Road to Perdition is jumpy, unorthodox, melancholy, and colorful all in one. Road to Perdition is a somber, though fascinating score that will appeal greatly to listeners who were eager for the composer's return to the dramatic depth of The Shawshank Redemption. (http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/road_perdition.html)