Featuring Original Music By Harry Gregson-Williams
Lakeshore Records will release the CONFIRMATION – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on April 15 and on CD May 27, 2016. The album features the film’s original score by Harry Gregson-Williams (THE MARTIAN, GONE BABY GONE).
“Confirmation was a particularly rewarding undertaking because of its focus on an incredibly important moment in American history,” said Gregson-Williams. “I was immediately struck by how neutral the film stayed, offering very intimate and complex glimpses into both Clarence Thomas’ and Anita Hill’s lives while this trial was occurring,”
In July 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Judge Clarence Thomas to fill Justice Thurgood Marshall’s seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. In October, during the final days of Thomas’ confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, both Newsday and NPR broke the story that one of Thomas’ former employees, law professor Anita Hill, had accused him of sexually harassing her ten years earlier. These revelations triggered a maelstrom of events, with both Hill and Thomas testifying about the allegations before a stunned and riveted television audience.
CONFIRMATION looks behind the curtain of Washington politics, depicting a pivotal moment in American culture that became a turning point in workplace equality and gender politics. Kerry Washington portrays law professor Anita Hill, with Wendell Pierce as Judge Thomas and Greg Kinnear as Democratic Senator Joe Biden, who presided over the hearings as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Jeffrey Wright plays Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, Professor Hill’s lead attorney during the hearings, and Eric Stonestreet portrays Ken Duberstein, former White House chief of staff under President Reagan. Jennifer Hudson portrays Angela Wright, another Thomas accuser, who was subpoenaed but was never called to testify before the Judiciary Committee.
“From my perspective, there were four different thematic areas that needed exploration musically: Anita’s psyche, Clarence’s psyche, the semi-omniscient, procedural perspective offered by the archival news footage, and the circus-like absurdity that encompassed the judicial system and the media during the scandal,” Gregson-Williams explained. “Through a mixture of rhythmic textures, achieved through the use of string obstinate and interweaving synth pulse patterns, I tried to create a sense of impetus and energy which reminds the audience of how high the stakes were during the course of this historical event.”
Harry Gregson-Williams is one of Hollywood’s most sought after composers, whose scores span the spectrum of high-profile projects from action to drama to animation – each infused with the emotional punch and atmospheric intensity that mark his distinctive musical style. He was the composer on all four installments of the blockbuster SHREK franchise; garnered a BAFTA nomination for the score for the first SHREK; and received Golden Globe and Grammy Award nominations for his score to Andrew Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
His long list of film credits also includes the critically acclaimed THE TOWN, marking his second collaboration with director Ben Affleck. Gregson-Williams first worked with Affleck as the composer on Gone Baby Gone. He has worked multiple times with other directors including Joel Schumacher on the films Twelve, The Number 23, Veronica Guerini and Phone Booth; Tony Scott on Unstoppable, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Déjà Vu, Domino, Man on Fire, Spy Game and Enemy of the State; and Ridley Scott on Prometheus and Kingdom of Heaven His other recent scores include the blockbuster The Martian, Miss You Already, Disney’s Monkey Kingdom, and The Equalizer. His upcoming projects include The Zookeeper’s Wife, Ben Affleck’s Live by Night and Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant.
HBO Films debuts CONFIRMATION on Saturday, April 16 at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT). Lakeshore Records will release the CONFIRMATION – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on April 15 and on CD May 27, 2016.
TRACKLIST
1. Thomas Nominated
2. Black Man In America
3. The Senate
4. One Of His Victims
5. Allegations Revealed
6. Reporters Swarm
7. Anita Visits Home
8. Morning Of The Hearing
9. Anita Speaks Out
10. Paparazzi Assault
11. Anita’s Opening Statement
12. “Hi‐Tech Lynching”
13. Angela Wright
14. Biden’s Dilemma
15. Confirmation