Intrada Soundtrack Forum

This is one of Elmer Bernstein's finest scores during a period where most of the films he'd done were forgotten or fallen into obscurity. Devil falls in that category somewhat except that it starred Denzel Washington which has kept it in circulation otherwise without his star power the movie would be completely forgotten and be a curiosity to Bernstein's fans. I know that there were 3 score tracks on Sony's jazz album when the film was released in 1995 but I know there's a heck of a lot more he wrote for the film that wasn't used in the end and what was used was definitely Bernstein's classic noir scores. He'd revisit it in Twilight which starred Paul Newman a couple of years later. Here begs the question, will there be a planned release of this one? Has anyone even thought of investigating it? Aside from 7 min on a song album, there's at least some 50 min that he wrote for it and it deserves to be heard.

No question about it, this is a superior piece of work - not only on Elmer Bernstein's part but of everyone concerned - in turning the basic material into a terrific end result. It all works, and it's a film that deserves to be better appreciated and known than it is.

I've never seen this film, but the idea of another Elmer Bernstein noir score is very appetizing to me. Maybe I'll rent the movie.

I really like his scores for Bill Duke's films; is this anything like that?

I just watched this film for the first time last night. I've been meaning to see it for years but didn't get around to it until now.

I agree it is an outstanding film -- one of the best of the 90s (a pity it was not followed-up with a sequel, as Walter Mosley wrote numerous Easy Rawlins stories). Unfortunately a good deal of Bernstein's score (which I have heard) was not used in the film.

It's a fairly low-key but nevertheless captivating score, with some jazz flavorings. The closest thing I'd liken it to would be his music for the "Harry Canyon" segment of Heavy Metal. It's also one of the few post-Heavy Metal Bernstein scores that's does not employ the Ondes Martenot. Definitely deserving of a release!