Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you want to hear Carter Burwell's plain, down to Earth style of character writing stretched out for 150 performers. Avoid it... if you demand that your large historical films be accompanied by rich and well-layered performances that provide elegance along with bombast. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 55:46
* Contains adapted traditional material All artwork and sound clips from The Alamo are Copyright © 2004, Hollywood Records. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/10/04, updated 4/11/04. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2004-2005, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
