by Paul Tonks
score -- n. / Pron. “skôr”
1. The notation of a musical work.
2. The written form of a composition for orchestral or vocal parts.
3. The music written for a film, play, or other viewed entertainment.
4. The resounding cheer of ‘high-fiving’ Producers getting music that’s close enough to the Temp Track, without being sued.
WAS 2003 DEVOID OF GREAT FILM MUSIC?
There’s a nasty rumour going around about 2003. Something about there not having been any great film music this year. To that I say – pish! I hear this woeful summing up each 12-month cycle, and while many recent years I’ve conceded the general point, I do not this time. I see – or rather, hear – lots that makes me optimistic about the craft.
Before immersing myself in that optimism, with a an honest hand upon heart, I would like to own up to where I did go wrong through 2003. At the beginning of the year, I wrote a piece here recommending the TOP 50 (ISH) SCORES DEMANDING YOUR ATTENTION. Here are all the ones I was wrong about…
BASIC by Klaus Badelt.
BULLETPROOF MONK by Eric Serra.
THE CORE by Christopher Young.
DREAMCATCHER by James Newton Howard.
GIGLI by John Powell.
GODS AND GENERALS by Randy Edelman & John Frizzell.
CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE by Edward Shearmur.
2 FAST 2 FURIOUS by David Arnold.
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN by Trevor Jones, replacing Mark Isham.
TIMELINE by Brian Tyler, replacing Jerry Goldsmith.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN by Klaus Badelt et al, replacing Alan Silvestri.
LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER: CRADLE OF LIFE by Alan Silvestri, replacing Craig Armstrong.
Despite my enthusiasm for all the movies and their respective scores, none of the above did anything for me. Some of the composers did much better work elsewhere during the year (see below). 2003’s biggest bad however, was in its astonishing number of “tossed” scores. The last 4 in the list above show who replaced whom. Sadly, that ain’t all of ‘em. I may well be forgetting some, but here’s an additional list of replacement scores:
IDENTITY by Alan Silvestri, replacing Angelo Badalamenti.
OPEN RANGE by Michael Kamen, replacing Basil Poledouris.
THE CAT IN THE HAT by David Newman, replacing Marc Shaiman.
THE EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING by Christopher Young, replacing Michael Kamen.
MINDHUNTERS by Tuomas Kantelinen, replacing David Julyan.
HULK by Danny Elfman, replacing Mychael Danna.
The question of course, is if any of these films were better served by these replacements? My gut instinct is that they probably weren’t, if only because of the pressure upon the second composer to function within an impossible new deadline.
To finish off with the negative, I should also mention the 4 scores I singled out as those I was least looking forward to. I gave individual reasons for each, mostly citing that the projects were not worthy of the composers’ talents. Sure enough:
FINAL DESTINATION 2 by Shirley Walker. As predicted, WILLARD was an outstanding score, seen and heard by almost no one in comparison to the hordes of teen horror nuts who wasted their $$$ on this by-the-numbers sequel. Sigh.
BAD BOYS 2 Mark Mancina was replaced by Trevor Rabin and additional music from Steve Jablonsky, Dr. Dre, Trevor Morris, and Paul Linford. Sigh.
DAREDEVIL by Graeme Revell. As soon as I learned various bands were being groomed for use in the movie, and especially when I learned there was a website dedicated to their songs, I knew this would be a pointless exercise for Revell. Funny thing – film music fans are still moaning about not hearing a superhero theme (whatever that’s actually supposed to be) in SPIDER MAN, but there’s no similar debate on Revell’s effort. Sigh.
FREDDY VS. JASON. By coincidence, it ended up being Revell again on this project, despite the Internet Movie Database teasing that it would be Charles Bernstein & Harry Manfredini originally. Frankly, there was no way any composer could ever have hoped to deliver an artistic career high on a project like this. Sigh.
AND NOW THE POSITIVE
I may be rather easily dismissing a lot of work, but it’s only so as to more quickly reach the projects that truly stood out this year. Happily, I believe I was correct to recommend and look forward to each of the following:
TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES by Marco Beltrami. Despite some brou-ha-ha over using Brad Fiedel’s theme, Beltrami turned in something I feel stands very well on its own. The fact this movie and score didn’t completely suck, was one of the first indications to me that the year had the potential to rise above the usual level of tired Hollywood regurgitation and mediocrity.
Then there were all of these unique and extremely well suited scores:
MASTER AND COMMANDER by Christopher Gordon, Iva Davies and Richard Tognetti.
FINDING NEMO by Thomas Newman.
KILL BILL by RZA et al.
MATCHSTICK MEN by Hans Zimmer.
SEABISCUIT by Randy Newman.
And then there were the most anticipated, and thankfully the best delivering scores:
X-MEN 2 by John Ottman. I can’t even begin to imagine what sort of effort it took for Ottman to edit and score this project. But hoorah that he did. There may not be the winking marriage of the two that’s evident in THE USUAL SUSPECTS, but one craft clearly informed the other. As for the daring use of Mozart in the opening scene –
this just clinched it for me that the year was seeing some truly innovative thinking at work behind the wheels of the Hollywood machinery.
THE MATRIX RELOADED / THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS by Don Davis. Whether the films lost their grip on you or not, there’s no denying the mastery of Davis’ contribution. Minimalism subtly gave itself away as a style subtly relying on subtler themes. The only let down is the dratted collaborations and songs that will date the movies far more quickly than technology and fashion.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING by Howard Shore. After that review which appeared here – astonishing me in the amount of mail it generated by somehow being the first commentary on the album – I have only come to love the work more. Nothing has diminished, not even by seeing the movie. The only thing that saddens me is the certainty that there will never be anything to match the size and success of this project again. And that is a certainty simply because there is no other work in literature that matches the size and success of Tolkien’s novel. Films and scores of magnificent interwoven intellectual design will come and go. But no one will ever again achieve the operatic heights to which all Golden Age great composers aspired.
Everything mentioned so far hails from last year’s list. What tipped the scales of my opinion on favour of 2003 bearing better fruit than many years before, were the scores from out of nowhere. Those that foxed my radar and brought me pleasant surprise. They were:
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE by Jon Brion. (We get some films later here in the UK)
ADAPTATION by Carter Burwell.
WHALE RIDER by Lisa Gerrard.
THE ITALIAN JOB by John Powell.
SWAT by Elliot Goldenthal.
THE LAST SAMURAI by Hans Zimmer.
But it doesn’t end there. As I write there are scores written this year that I’ve yet to see either by a delayed UK or international release. Each of these has already had some exposure however, and good word preceded them:
COLD MOUNTAIN by Gabriel Yared.
BLIZZARD by Mark McKenzie.
BIG FISH by Danny Elfman.
JERSEY GIRL by James L. Venable.
In all, there are some two dozen scores from this year that I feel genuinely merit optimistic appraisal and consideration. At a rate of a couple a month, that more than outweighs the state of things over the last decade or so. Wonderfully, things don’t end there. As film music fans know only too happily, one of the great things about being a collector is how much else there is to choose from. 2003 brought along many great re-releases, re-recordings and collections. Here is my pick of the best albums that also came our way:
DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN.
ROMANCING THE STONE.
PREDATOR.
All the JAMES BOND re-issues.
DARK CRYSTAL.
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.
BERNARD HERRMANN: THE CBS YEARS VOL’s 1 & 2.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD.
DRACULA & OTHER FILM MUSIC BY WOJCIECH KILAR.
HELLRAISER: THE CHRONICLES
Taken as a whole, I’m delighted with what 2003 did for film music. Can 2004 possibly do more of the same? Find out next time when I gather all the ingredients for Humble Pie in:
