Alan Silvestri's Captain America

Alan Silvestri is nothing if not predictable consistent. If someone had asked me to write a score that sounded like it was written by Alan Silvestri, this is pretty much what I would've come up with. It's the familiarity factor. It may not even be his fault. It's just what the people he works for ask expect him to do. I for one can't stand his sappy romantic/comedy scores but there's something about his action scores that I just can't help enjoying (for the most part). I think it's because he's still willing to go for a certain old-school dramatic flair and play big moments, well, big.

If you're a fan of Alan Silvestri's action music (as I am) there's a lot to enjoy here.

Big brass, pounding percussion and swirling strings and woodwinds. Everything you've come to expect is here. If, however, you're expecting something fresh and groundbreaking and you're a fan of Alan Silvestri, well, you should know better. It's still fun to listen to and it's been interesting listening to Silvestri streamline his action scoring over the course of the last ten years eliminating pretty much everything that's unnecessary. Back to the Future, Predator, Judge Dredd, The Mummy Returns, Van Helsing; they're all here.

There was something oddly familiar about the main theme. Here it is:



And what it reminds me of can be found here (sorry, embedding was disabled).

I'm not saying Silvestri stole the theme because this is actually pretty standard fare if you're going for that "modern" Americana sound (and it's easy to sound like this). I just find the similarities striking.

A few thoughts on the film itself. This may be the best of the Avenger films. I think that perhaps one of the reasons for this is that it wasn't made by a young director. Joe Johnston's films have always had more than a hint of nostalgia and old-Hollywood to them (The Rocketeer, Jumanji). I think that had a younger director attempted to make this film there would have been a great temptation to try to be a little ironic about capturing the spirit of America during WWII. This is also why I think that Alan Silvestri's score is pitch perfect for the film. It captures that Americana spirit with an exceptionally bold - if somewhat unoriginal - theme and Johnston seems to encourage it throughout the film. The album is a generous 74+ minutes and is a lot of fun to listen to. Basically, if you're a fan of Silvestri's work, you'll love this score. If you find his music insipid and dumb, you're not going to like it.

And just to finish off, here's the end credits march: