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The Alamo: (Carter Burwell) For nearly two weeks in
1836, 200 Texans of all sorts of origins and values held the crumbling fort
at the Alamo against a massive siege of forces under the command of Mexico's
dictator, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. The outcome is never in doubt
--for those who paid attention in their American history courses, that is--
and the film makes little attempt to force a happy ending beyond our
knowledge that U.S. General Sam Houston does eventually track down and
defeat the Mexican armies. Historically speaking, the film treats its events
like a documentary, and for its entertainment value, director John Lee
Hancock makes
The Alamo into a detailed character sketch in order to
keep audiences' attention during the build-up to the inevitable. Thus, the
film is more of a character story of Colonel William Travis, General Lopez
(whose depiction reminds of greasy Mexican leaders interpreted in
Hollywood's yesteryear), and legends James Bowie and Davy Crockett. Critics
and audiences only moderately embraced the film, with the extended character
and dialogue sequences boring many viewers who weren't big enough history
buffs to enjoy the premise of a documentary masked in Hollywood glamour. The
production values of the film are among its strengths, with lavish set
design, costumes, and a highly integrated score serving as eye and ear
candy. Hancock had worked with composer Carter Burwell on the feel-good film
The Rookie, and insisted before production on
The Alamo even
began that Burwell be assigned to the musical duties for the project. The
film would require that source music be used in several scenes throughout
its length, and Burwell was therefore tasked with adapting traditional
Mexican pieces before filming began. The musical highlight of the film,
mentioned by many critics in their analysis, is the scene in which Crockett
takes his fiddle and plays counterpoint to the Mexican bands during the
actual siege. When not utilizing the small ensemble for this source music
(and its extension into the actual score), Burwell assembles over 150
orchestral players for the massive scale needed to accompany the actual
historical event.
With an extraordinary number of players for even a film of
this size, the New York recording of Burwell's underscore is curiously
underdeveloped. A slight Celtic influence mingles with traditional Mexican
elements for several cues before we hear the ensemble in full; the score
does take a while to build some steam (likely due to the extensive character
development involved). Burwell's heartwarming title theme is countered by
broad action strokes in the lower brass ranges. The maintenance of most of
the action material in the lower ranges causes an almost brooding atmosphere
in the score, with little outwardly heroic material heard outside of the
smaller thematic performances by piano and strings. This may have been
Burwell's intent (painting the true picture in the individual characters),
and the score is certainly serviceable in its selection of instruments. How
the ensemble was written for and mixed, however, is where Burwell's
The
Alamo stumbles over its own weight. The score sounds as though it was
written for an ensemble of 80 players and performed as such by 150. There
are over two dozen brass players, and about 100 string performers, and in
each of their own sections, the instruments are not well layered. The
sections seem to play in unison, accomplishing what half the performers
could have done with one simple overlay dubbing. An example of where this
writing hinders the score is in the "Last Night" cue, for which a heroic
performance of theme by brass is accompanied by the ethnic flute in higher
ranges. And yet, the brass is so focused all on the same note that it nearly
completely drowns out the flute. The only exception to this writing and
mixing technique seems to be the snare drums, which flatly pound over the
top of several cues. In whole, the score hits many of the right notes, but
does so without much grace in writing or elegance in performance. Even the
much-discussed Crockett fiddle performance with the Mexican band seems flat.
On the other hand, Burwell's title theme is a very enjoyable piece, even
though it could very easily have served a film like
The Rookie
without much alteration. Overall, Burwell likely succeeds in the basic
musical needs of the film, but stops short of writing a rich and
well-layered score for an event of this magnitude. The right ideas were
there, but the execution seems lacking.
***
| Bias Check: | For Carter Burwell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 2.2 (in 10 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.67
(in 8,190 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes a note about the score by director John Lee Hancock, although the font is so tiny that it is
difficult to read.
