So the Pikey threw down and I have accepted the challenge. It's hard to wittle 450 film score recordings down to your 10 favourite cues. Unlike the Pikey, though, mine are in no particular order as the aforementioned task was difficult enough. Miklos Rozsa got kicked off the island for crying out loud!
Anyway, here's my list, some thoughts on each and some of the runners-up.
The Big Rescue – Superman (John Williams) – This is the moment that would make or break this film. The entire cue (fugue and all) is captivating and brilliantly paced with a near-perfect dramatic shape.
The White Tree - The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Howard Shore) - First of all, let's call it what it really is, the Lighting of the Beacons. I nearly wet myself when I first saw this scene in the theatre. Is there really anything that has to be said here? It's one of the most beautiful blends of music and picture ever run through a projector.
Journey to the Line - The Thin Red Line (Hans Zimmer) - As has been discussed before, I'm no huge fan of Zimmer. I care for this movie even less (don't say I don't get it, either, unless you really want me to pounce). But it is necessary to give credit where it's due. If you were to tell me that I had 10 seconds to come up with the single greatest cue Hans has ever written I would only need 2 and this would be it. All comparisons to Barber's Adagio for Strings aside this is probably one of the most subtle, detached (therefore emotionally heightened) and gorgeous pieces Hans has ever written.
The Hand of Fate, Part II - Signs (James Newton Howard) - This won't be the last one the Pikey and I have in common. This is a perfect complement to the climax of the film. Few directors think about their films the way Shyamalan does. He eschews convention. Even in this instance he chooses not to use the opening stinger in the film because it's "obvious" and a cheap scare tactic. One of the things I think is so brilliant in this particular cue is the way it more-or-less encapsulates the camera movements in the film. For much of the film Shyamalan ignores fancy camerawork and quick editing and let's his film breathe through the performances of its actors. The first real sense of motion in the music is reflected in the first real motion of film where there's that beautiful, swooping crane shot that covers Graham and the kids and moves into the house with Merrill and the alien. Can you tell this is one of my absolute favourite films?
Overture (Main title) - North by Northwest (Bernard Herrmann) - I know the accepted attitude is that Vertigo is Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece and that there are few greater marriages of music and film in the history of cinema than the scene d'amour when Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) finally makes over Madeleine (Kim Novak). That being said, North by Northwest is my favourite Hitchcock/Herrmann collaboration. The suits at MGM originally wanted something jazzy and "Gershwinesque" for the opening title sequence (by the perennially brilliant Saul Bass). Instead Herrmann incorporates South American dance rhythms into the overall substance of the score. Somehow it works brilliantly.
Riding the Fire Mares - Krull (James Horner) - This is one of the standout cues of the score. In it Horner demonstrates his full powers as a master of variation technique and orchestral colour. It was a bit of a toss-up between this and The Widow's Web from the same score with its cascading arpeggios and Herrmannesque orchestral crashes but ultimately this won out. I know that Krull is bad. Really bad. It's one of my absolute favourite bad movies. It is, though, my absolute favourite Horner score. Nowhere in his entire output is he as melodically inventive and full of orchestral colour as he is here. Also there seems to be some sort of internal logic that holds the score together very nicely where it seems to have a feeling of inevitability at every climax point. I have done no analysis to back my claims up, though. It's more of a feeling.
Valhalla/Viking Victory - The 13th Warrior (Jerry Goldsmith) - Again the standout cue of the score despite the fact that Crichton had Goldsmith rescore the actual battle music in favour of a more atmospheric, electronically-dominated approach. Don't get me wrong, I love the battle music here, but it's actually the music that bookends the battle that really does it for me. The prayer sequence in particular demonstrates Goldsmith's mastery of building tension. So much so that Ridley Scott would dump the very good cue that Harry Gregson-Williams wrote ('Rise a Knight') in a similar scene in Kingdom of Heaven and use Goldsmith's music.
Toccata and Dreamscapes - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Elliot Goldenthal) - I think that if I were asked to cite my favourite example of modernist film music that could instead have been written for the concert hall this would be it. I know the Pikey chose the 'Adagio and Transfiguration' but that's because he likes Richard Strauss.
The Demise of Mrs. Baylock - The Omen (Jerry Goldsmith) - This is sheer choral and orchestral terror. 2 minutes and 42 seconds of it. I can't imagine how much fun it must have been to write this piece and just unleash all hell's fury.
The Battle of Hoth/The Asteroid Field - The Empire Strikes Back (John Williams) - I'm with the Pikey on this one. They may be separate cues, but it's essentially one continuous cue. And it's a (thematic!) 20-minute orchestral tour-de-force (pun intended). I'd just like to see one of the Zimmer boys attempt to come up with something like this! And just to be clear it's 6(!) cues on the 1994 boxed set strung together as one forming a coherent, unified and dramatic whole.
Runners up, or, Those that I could live without but would be grumpier to do so:
The Mission - The Sum of All Fears (Jerry Goldsmith) - Easily the highlight of this score and wretched film performed by up-and-coming soprano Shana Blake Hill.
Theology/Civilization, Wifeing - Conan the Barbarian (Basil Poledouris) - Because there should be pretty tunes somewhere on one of these lists. I guess. If I have to.
Prelude/Outer Space/Radar - The Day the Earth Stood Still (Herrmann) - This is simply brilliant and one of the most amazing orchestral combinations you'll ever encounter anywhere. Electric violin and bass, high and low theremins, four pianos, four harps and 30 or so brass make up the orchestra. The energetic, propulsive staccato piano figures capture the foreboding and the mystery of what is to come.
Ontological Shock - The Matrix (Don Davis) - Everything about this cue feels right. It did absolutely what it had to do in capturing the inevitability of this moment. Using wonderful modern techniques I might add.
Desert Chase - Raiders of the Lost Ark (John Williams) - Perfectly (and entertainly) photographed and edited in nearly every way, this isn't a chase, it's an 8-minute ballet.
The Flying Circus - The Rocketeer (James Horner) - Another wonderful cue that demonstrates Horner's mastery of variation technique and orchestral colour.
Those We Don't Speak Of - The Village (James Newton Howard) - Tense, gutwrenching and, ultimately, one of the most gorgeous pieces in the entire score.
Tournament Speech - Shrek (Harry Gregson-Williams/John Powell) - This cue makes me laugh every...single...time...I listen to it. Why? Two words: falling brass.
Main Title - The Great Train Robbery (Jerry Goldsmith) - A fun-filled and entertaining romp through Victorian England. Goldsmith perfectly captures (as usual) the charm of Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland's characters and clearly as a good time with the score. It's amazing that he wrote this score in the same year as Alien and Star Trek: The Motion Picture simply because their diversity.
Battle in the Mutara Nebula - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (James Horner) - Once again Horner creates an early splash before his ideas (those that were actually his) became tired and worn. This cue, though, captures everything this movie is about and sounds like an epic seafaring adventure that just happens to be set in outer space adventure (Horatio Hornblower in outer space is how Nicholas Meyer described it).
Exiled - The 13th Warrior (Goldsmith) - Two from The 13th Warrior?!? He must be off his rocker for sure now. Listen to it. Behold the glory that is 8 French Horns playing in unison! Not to mention it's rousing as all hell.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Monday, July 17, 2006
O, for a Muse of fire!
About this time every year the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival presents their outdoor production of Shakespeare in the Park. This year's production is one of my personal favourites, Henry V (the honors for my favourite belong to Macbeth).
Die Frau and I went out twice. Once about two weeks ago and again Friday night. When you're watching a good production of the Bard you get pulled in, almost forgetting it's theatre. Wait a minute. Isn't that the point?!? There are, however, fewer things more agonising than watching bad Shakespeare (or worse, being forced to listen to your high school classmates read it aloud in the most boring possible!).
The production was quite good. The acting, for the most part, was terrific. Except the Dauphin. I told J (as in J and C, J who still doesn't have a blog, hi J) that he acts like he wants to be Harry Lennix when he grows up. He was good. Just a little tooooo melodramatic. The costuming and set design were fantastic. Though I wouldn't have wanted to wear one of those costumes Friday night as it was still around 85 degrees and humid as hell an hour after sundown! There was music. Some of it played as underscore but it mostly played during scene changes. I'm not sure what the attempted effect was but it seemed a bit distracting to me. The "Royal Music" sounded a bit too "Welcome to 79th Academy Awards!" and the "Peasant Music" was a little too Titanic, but I suppose it did it's job.
I'm convinced that there are fewer speeches written in any language that, when done well, can make you want to take up arms quite like the St. Crispin's Day speech.
Goosebumps.
Twice.
Oh sure, the speech that precedes the battle of Sterling in Braveheart is good. That is, it's good until you understand that it's modeled entirely after the St. Crispin's Day speech. Way to go Randall Wallace.
The other plus of the festival is that, since there is no charge for admission, you can BYOB. Which we did. And food. Good wine, good food, good friends, good Shakespeare. Good grief! That's what I call a good night.
Die Frau and I went out twice. Once about two weeks ago and again Friday night. When you're watching a good production of the Bard you get pulled in, almost forgetting it's theatre. Wait a minute. Isn't that the point?!? There are, however, fewer things more agonising than watching bad Shakespeare (or worse, being forced to listen to your high school classmates read it aloud in the most boring possible!).
The production was quite good. The acting, for the most part, was terrific. Except the Dauphin. I told J (as in J and C, J who still doesn't have a blog, hi J) that he acts like he wants to be Harry Lennix when he grows up. He was good. Just a little tooooo melodramatic. The costuming and set design were fantastic. Though I wouldn't have wanted to wear one of those costumes Friday night as it was still around 85 degrees and humid as hell an hour after sundown! There was music. Some of it played as underscore but it mostly played during scene changes. I'm not sure what the attempted effect was but it seemed a bit distracting to me. The "Royal Music" sounded a bit too "Welcome to 79th Academy Awards!" and the "Peasant Music" was a little too Titanic, but I suppose it did it's job.
I'm convinced that there are fewer speeches written in any language that, when done well, can make you want to take up arms quite like the St. Crispin's Day speech.
Goosebumps.
Twice.
Oh sure, the speech that precedes the battle of Sterling in Braveheart is good. That is, it's good until you understand that it's modeled entirely after the St. Crispin's Day speech. Way to go Randall Wallace.
The other plus of the festival is that, since there is no charge for admission, you can BYOB. Which we did. And food. Good wine, good food, good friends, good Shakespeare. Good grief! That's what I call a good night.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Swash Me Buckles!
It's Film Score Friday kids!
Today's list takes us swashbuckling through the high seas and across the stars!
1. Pirates of the Caribbean (duh)
2. The Sea Hawk
3. Cutthroat Island
4. Treasure Planet
5. 7th Voyage of Sinbad
6. The 13th Warrior
7. Hook
8. Jason and the Argonauts
9. Krull
10. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
11. Waterworld
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Blogging Superman
I was originally going to post my thoughts on Superman Returns last Wednesday morning after Tuesday night’s premiere. But then I decided to give it a few days in order to mull it over a little more.
Before writing anything else I have to back up. The original Superman films (I & II, we’ll pretend like III and IV never happened) hold a special place in my adolescence and awareness of film in general. Superman was the first film I truly fell in love with as a kid. To this day it's still one of my very favourite films. It was the first film with which I became cognizant of music in film and its ability to tell a story. For my tenth birthday my grandfather gave me a VHS copy of the film. I think I wore out the first 5 ½ minutes of the tape watching the opening titles over and over and over. The old soundtrack album was one of the first compact discs I ever bought. I think I might even have more copies of the score than The Pikey. For me, few moments in cinema/music are greater than the moment during the helicopter sequence of Superman: The Movie in which Christopher Reeve pulls his shirt open to reveal the “S” to the accompaniment of John Williams’ theme in the home key of C major. It just tells you musically from the outset that everything is going to be okay. Rarely since have I encountered moments in film that were so perfect, so inevitable. The Lighting of the Beacons in The Return of the King springs to mind as one of those moments of perfect melding of music and picture.
With that in mind one can hopefully gain a greater grasp of what this new film means to me.
My initial reaction to Superman Returns was one of awe and joy. I hadn’t experienced that much excitement and energy from an audience in a movie theatre since the Special Edition of A New Hope in 1997. Also since I’d never seen any of the original films in the theatre I’d waited 28 of my nearly 29 years to see that title sequence and hear that music on the big screen. WOW!!!
I think that Brandon Routh was cast well enough. Obviously they went out of their way to find someone that looked like Chris Reeve. I think he was a little uneven at times but we should cut the kid a little slack. He’s got big boots to fill and it’s his first film. I think that Kevin Spacey makes quite a good Lex Luthor. I think he gets to explore the darker side of the character in a way that Gene Hackman never really got to. That’s not a slight against Hackman, either. We all know how terrific he can be in those roles. James Marsden is, as always, quietly terrific and has what is probably the most sympathetic role in the film. I think that the weakest performances in the film are in the female roles. Parker Posey, who I think is terrific in Christopher Guest’s films, is flat-out boring here. It seems like she more-or-less phoned it in. This may be a result of direction, too. I don’t know. While Posey was a yawn I think Kate Bosworth was a downright poor casting decision. I think this part would have been better suited for someone like Miranda Otto who we all know can be tough and vulnerable rather than flat and bad. I think that perhaps the strongest casting choice was Frank Langella as Perry White. I enjoyed the fact that he wasn’t high-strung and barking orders like Jackie Cooper in the original films or J.K. Simmons in Spiderman. Cool, calm and collected=good.
As far as the film itself is concerned it’s obvious that it was made with a lot of love. They served up enough trivial minutiae that those of us who know the originals well were able to get all geeked up about certain aspects of it (like the piece of kryptonite that was found in Addis Ababa in the third film that Lex and Co. stole from the Museum of Natural History). Production values are tremendous. The special effects are wonderful and the airplane sequence is downright breathtaking.
As far as the music goes, John Ottman proved that he actually can write a warm melodic score when given the chance. I think his incorporation of the original themes are well done. It's just that, too. An incorporation. It's not like the sequels where there's little or no new music, just the original cut-and-pasted. My biggest problem with the score is actually in the performance of the main title itself. I realise it's *a march* and that it's not supposed to be about subtlety. It is, however, supposed to be about musicality and the Hollywood Studio Symphony's performance isn't shaped nearly as well as the LSO's performance from the original recording (this could also be a mixing issue). I suppose that my other quibble musically is how Ottman hit us over the head with the theme when Superman first appears. There's no inevitability about it. John Williams' build-up to the theme during the helicopter sequence of the original is textbook for building tension. With Williams we have to wait until 3 minutes into a sequence that is almost 6 minutes before we get the first true statement of the theme! But when we get to it, it sounds perfectly natural and even inevitable.
The shortcomings of the film are things inherent to the genre. The characters are all ultimately 2-dimensional; the female sidekick to the bad guy always has a change of heart; the story is pretty thin. Just like the first film it’s basically a land grab by Lex that drives the plot. I understand that writing a good story for a comic book film is a difficult thing to do; too simple and you wind up with the mess that is Batman and Robin; too weird and you get The Avengers (okay, technically not a comic book film, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway) too complex or convoluted and you get the unintelligible The Hulk; non-existent and you get Spawn. You get the idea. I do also wonder where they are planning to go with their little subplot. It could ultimately become a serious story liability in the sense that they have written themselves into a corner with it.
There was one story element that I had a serious problem with. When Lex is in the Fortress of Solitude it appears that the hologram of Jor-El doesn’t recognize Luthor and just assumes that it’s Kal-El. There’s a scene on the DVD of the original that’s not in the theatrical prints (and I’m pretty sure was never in any of the television versions either) in which Superman is clearly interacting with the hologram (or whatever; it just seems easiest to use this term) and that it’s not pre-programmed with every possible response. Also, in Superman II he pretty clearly interacts with his mother to the extent that she appears to take physical form. I realize that Marlon Brando is dead, but that problem has been digitally circumvented before with Oliver Reed in Gladiator and Sir Laurence Olivier in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Come to think of it Olivier has been resurrected twice. There’s a scene that was reinserted into the DVD of Spartacus in which the audio had degraded beyond the point of usage and they had Anthony Hopkins come in and do his best Laurence Olivier impression (bet you didn’t know that, did you?). But I digress.
Ultimately I loved the film. It is not as good as the first or second film in the series but I saw it as a continuation of those stories. A lot of critics have kind of showed their dissatisfaction with the fact that Routh is too much like Reeve, there is too much incorporation of the original music and there are too many little hommages to the original films in the series. I tend to see it quite the opposite. I think that, for those of us that were raised with the originals, it doesn't matter who you put in the suit, we're going to see Chris Reeve. And as far as the music goes, why not incorporate it? Is anyone actually going to write music that captures the spirit of the character better than John Williams? I don't think so. I think Bryan Singer and the writers were just tipping their hats to the originals and knew that they were creating a story that should feel like a natural extension of the originals. This does, however, give them the freedom now to explore new territory in the sequels.
Before writing anything else I have to back up. The original Superman films (I & II, we’ll pretend like III and IV never happened) hold a special place in my adolescence and awareness of film in general. Superman was the first film I truly fell in love with as a kid. To this day it's still one of my very favourite films. It was the first film with which I became cognizant of music in film and its ability to tell a story. For my tenth birthday my grandfather gave me a VHS copy of the film. I think I wore out the first 5 ½ minutes of the tape watching the opening titles over and over and over. The old soundtrack album was one of the first compact discs I ever bought. I think I might even have more copies of the score than The Pikey. For me, few moments in cinema/music are greater than the moment during the helicopter sequence of Superman: The Movie in which Christopher Reeve pulls his shirt open to reveal the “S” to the accompaniment of John Williams’ theme in the home key of C major. It just tells you musically from the outset that everything is going to be okay. Rarely since have I encountered moments in film that were so perfect, so inevitable. The Lighting of the Beacons in The Return of the King springs to mind as one of those moments of perfect melding of music and picture.
With that in mind one can hopefully gain a greater grasp of what this new film means to me.
My initial reaction to Superman Returns was one of awe and joy. I hadn’t experienced that much excitement and energy from an audience in a movie theatre since the Special Edition of A New Hope in 1997. Also since I’d never seen any of the original films in the theatre I’d waited 28 of my nearly 29 years to see that title sequence and hear that music on the big screen. WOW!!!
I think that Brandon Routh was cast well enough. Obviously they went out of their way to find someone that looked like Chris Reeve. I think he was a little uneven at times but we should cut the kid a little slack. He’s got big boots to fill and it’s his first film. I think that Kevin Spacey makes quite a good Lex Luthor. I think he gets to explore the darker side of the character in a way that Gene Hackman never really got to. That’s not a slight against Hackman, either. We all know how terrific he can be in those roles. James Marsden is, as always, quietly terrific and has what is probably the most sympathetic role in the film. I think that the weakest performances in the film are in the female roles. Parker Posey, who I think is terrific in Christopher Guest’s films, is flat-out boring here. It seems like she more-or-less phoned it in. This may be a result of direction, too. I don’t know. While Posey was a yawn I think Kate Bosworth was a downright poor casting decision. I think this part would have been better suited for someone like Miranda Otto who we all know can be tough and vulnerable rather than flat and bad. I think that perhaps the strongest casting choice was Frank Langella as Perry White. I enjoyed the fact that he wasn’t high-strung and barking orders like Jackie Cooper in the original films or J.K. Simmons in Spiderman. Cool, calm and collected=good.
As far as the film itself is concerned it’s obvious that it was made with a lot of love. They served up enough trivial minutiae that those of us who know the originals well were able to get all geeked up about certain aspects of it (like the piece of kryptonite that was found in Addis Ababa in the third film that Lex and Co. stole from the Museum of Natural History). Production values are tremendous. The special effects are wonderful and the airplane sequence is downright breathtaking.
As far as the music goes, John Ottman proved that he actually can write a warm melodic score when given the chance. I think his incorporation of the original themes are well done. It's just that, too. An incorporation. It's not like the sequels where there's little or no new music, just the original cut-and-pasted. My biggest problem with the score is actually in the performance of the main title itself. I realise it's *a march* and that it's not supposed to be about subtlety. It is, however, supposed to be about musicality and the Hollywood Studio Symphony's performance isn't shaped nearly as well as the LSO's performance from the original recording (this could also be a mixing issue). I suppose that my other quibble musically is how Ottman hit us over the head with the theme when Superman first appears. There's no inevitability about it. John Williams' build-up to the theme during the helicopter sequence of the original is textbook for building tension. With Williams we have to wait until 3 minutes into a sequence that is almost 6 minutes before we get the first true statement of the theme! But when we get to it, it sounds perfectly natural and even inevitable.
The shortcomings of the film are things inherent to the genre. The characters are all ultimately 2-dimensional; the female sidekick to the bad guy always has a change of heart; the story is pretty thin. Just like the first film it’s basically a land grab by Lex that drives the plot. I understand that writing a good story for a comic book film is a difficult thing to do; too simple and you wind up with the mess that is Batman and Robin; too weird and you get The Avengers (okay, technically not a comic book film, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway) too complex or convoluted and you get the unintelligible The Hulk; non-existent and you get Spawn. You get the idea. I do also wonder where they are planning to go with their little subplot. It could ultimately become a serious story liability in the sense that they have written themselves into a corner with it.
There was one story element that I had a serious problem with. When Lex is in the Fortress of Solitude it appears that the hologram of Jor-El doesn’t recognize Luthor and just assumes that it’s Kal-El. There’s a scene on the DVD of the original that’s not in the theatrical prints (and I’m pretty sure was never in any of the television versions either) in which Superman is clearly interacting with the hologram (or whatever; it just seems easiest to use this term) and that it’s not pre-programmed with every possible response. Also, in Superman II he pretty clearly interacts with his mother to the extent that she appears to take physical form. I realize that Marlon Brando is dead, but that problem has been digitally circumvented before with Oliver Reed in Gladiator and Sir Laurence Olivier in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Come to think of it Olivier has been resurrected twice. There’s a scene that was reinserted into the DVD of Spartacus in which the audio had degraded beyond the point of usage and they had Anthony Hopkins come in and do his best Laurence Olivier impression (bet you didn’t know that, did you?). But I digress.
Ultimately I loved the film. It is not as good as the first or second film in the series but I saw it as a continuation of those stories. A lot of critics have kind of showed their dissatisfaction with the fact that Routh is too much like Reeve, there is too much incorporation of the original music and there are too many little hommages to the original films in the series. I tend to see it quite the opposite. I think that, for those of us that were raised with the originals, it doesn't matter who you put in the suit, we're going to see Chris Reeve. And as far as the music goes, why not incorporate it? Is anyone actually going to write music that captures the spirit of the character better than John Williams? I don't think so. I think Bryan Singer and the writers were just tipping their hats to the originals and knew that they were creating a story that should feel like a natural extension of the originals. This does, however, give them the freedom now to explore new territory in the sequels.
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