The Enforcer [Soundtrack]

Jerry Fielding (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 26, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Aleph Records
• ASIN: B000QEILKG
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,869 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Prologue / Main Title 3:21

2. Harry's World 1:03

3. Warehouse Heist 5:20

4. Code Blue 1:14

5. Rooftop Chase 6:02

6. Raid On Mustafa's 1:17

7. Kidnap Zap 3:45

8. Tiffany's Number Eleven 3:18

9. The Shooting Nun 1:15

10. Alcatraz Encounter 4:26

11. Death On The Rock 3:04

12. Finale (Elegy for Inspector Moore) 2:50

13. Finale (Alternate) 2:56

Editorial Reviews

Review

Though "The Enforcer" was the only "Dirty Harry" soundtrack that Lalo Schifrin didn't write, the composer's Aleph label should get a twenty-one-magnum salute for finally releasing Jerry Fielding's score for the the third Callahan Picture. With such nihilistic works behind him as "Straw Dogs" and "The Killer Elite," Fielding was the ideal choice to accompany the gruff inspector when Schifrin couldn't. Much like that composer's work for San Francisco's finest, Fielding poured on the energetic jazz stylings, dangerously builiding strings and dark percussive grooves. But as Nick Redman states in his excellent "Enforcer" liner notes, Fielding would lend even more psychological gravitas to Dirty Harry's character, a burned-out somberness that plays to Harry's doomed partnership with a fellow inspector played by Tyne Daly (who also lends her musically astute voice to the liners). The result is a score that works both as great '70s cop pop, and as a study in .44 tragedy - a feat that only a darkly driven composer like Fielding could achieve. --Daniel Schweiger, Venice Magazine

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."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good, July 29, 2009

By 

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber Print DJ ... (Mahwah, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Enforcer (Audio CD)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best 'Dirty Harry' soundtracks, July 31, 2010

By 

langleybcguy (Langley, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Enforcer (Audio CD)

There is 1 soundtrack of the 'Dirty Harry' films that isn't composed by Eastwood's friend Lalo Schifrin. Well, it's 'The Enforcer', the 3rd in the film series, and it has to be one of the finest soundtracks created for the series. It's based on a jazz-type theme that Clint Eastwood is apparently so fond of, and this figures prominently throughout the tracks. The main title starts off slow with a couple of string cues as Bobby Maxwell kills 2 gas company men for their van, and as the San Francisco skyline appears a blustering brass motif takes over, before delving into the jazz-type theme so common. It's especially prominent in the 'Rooftop Chase' track as Harry & Kate pursue a man who detonated a bomb in a police building; this one seems to have a theme that's definitely '70s with a lively flute melody along with the saxophone & trumpet jazz themes. Different from most of the tracks is the movie's actual end title (Elegy for Inspector Moore); gone here is the lively jazz theme and even missing is Dirty Harry's own motif which figured prominently as the end titles in 'Dirty Harry & 'Magnum Force'. This one's a longer string melody, very somber as the end credits roll. Very solid composition by the late Jerry Fileding; definitely a must-have soundtrack for fans of Dirty Harry. Get this one!