Basic Instinct (1992) - Soundtrack Collection

As good as Jerry Goldsmith's score for Basic Instinct is, and it is very good, it is not the music I most associate with the film. That would be Blue by LaTour, because of its being put to excellent use in the film's trailer. That is what I first 'hear' whenever I am wont to think about Basic Instinct. Which is not all that often, truth be told.

After having worked together with excellent results on the 1991 science-fiction action-adventure Total Recall, director Paul Verhoeven and composer Jerry Goldsmith joined forces for 1992's Basic Instinct. While the creation of the main theme for the former went rather smoothly, the journey to creating the main theme for Basic Instinct turned out to be a frustrating and challenging one.

"Jerry felt the movie needed a 'heart' that would elevate it," Verhoeven shares in the liner notes. "But when he started to play music in his studio, I disagreed with it... I didn't want...a romantic heart, because the movie is too harsh and cold-blooded [for] that."

Goldsmith took it in stride, though. After a piece of music eventually caught Verhoeven's ear and was placed under a scene featuring an intimate conversation between femme fatale Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) and troubled detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas), the film's elusive main theme was discovered at last.

"In a flash, it became clear to Jerry what the score should be," Verhoeven explains. "From then on, he could write the score in one run, and we were sailing with the wind."

Goldsmith's main theme is not an overtly romantic one, as requested. Instead it is a haunting and almost hypnotic one. The liner notes describe it invoking "the feeling of being mesmerized." Which is accurate.

While most of the score plays under dialogue and sex scenes, there are a few moments that allowed for Goldsmith to display his gift for propulsive and brassy action composition. This occurs during an over-the-top sequence involving a bit of reckless driving on a winding Northern California highway. 

As good as the music for the scene is, the way it plays out always struck me as being ridiculous to the point of self-parody. It is probably intentional, but I nonetheless wince at the melodramatic goofiness of the scene whenever I see it.

But that viewing experience memory does not hamper my listening experience whenever I play this expanded edition soundtrack. The music remains an icy delight to this day.