The Enforcer

Music by Jerry Fielding

 

 

 

 

 

Between suspense dissonances and jazz tradition the score for The Enforcer (1976), the third film in the Dirty Harry series, is almost a summary of the work of Jerry Fielding.

The suspense atmospheres the composer manipulated so well on several occasions here are refined to a unique instrumental quality. The ambiance of Warehouse Heist, with piziccatos in eco and synthesizer lines, reminds of modernist classical music. The film opens with the merge between marching and jazz in Main Title for the aereal shots of Sao Francisco. Tiffany Number Eleven is a be-bop in more relaxed climate and the best moment is the explosive big band sequence in Rooftop Chase. The short theme for bass recurrent in the soundtrack (Kidnap Zap) somehow functions as the theme that was never written for Harry. But is in suspense passages that the composer´s inventiveness speaks louder and sustains the film. Alcatraz Encounter and The Shooting Nun are brilliant in their alternation of weight, tension and suggestion. Fielding can, as producer Nick Redman says in the liner notes, "fill the film with music of tension and controlled fury". Somehow Jerry Fielding was the Harry Callaham of film composition with his radical and insurgent talent. Concluding de edition, the track Elegy For Inspector Moore, is a beautiful track for strings. The team of musicians includes bassist Ray Brown, saxophonist Art Pepper, keyboardist Ian Underwood and drummer Harvey Mason. Available by Aleph Records label on the series dedicated to the Dirty Harry series.