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Alexander: (Vangelis) There have been surprisingly few
films about the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great in the history of
Hollywood, and none in recent decades. Living from 356-323 B.C., Alexander
built an empire by sweeping his superior armies through 90% of the known
world, traveling 22,000 miles in eight years, and establishing Greece as a
dominant culture that would ironically remove most of the obstacles that
might have restrained the subsequent Roman Empire. After the outstanding
success of Ridley Scott's
Gladiator in 2000, a whole slew of people
came up with the idea of producing a modern film about Alexander all at
once. While this Oliver Stone film is the first to make it onto screen,
similar productions by Baz Luhrmann and Mel Gibson (for HBO) have been in
pre-production for years, with Luhrmann's version starring Leonardo DiCaprio
being the most likely remaining film to actually finish. The cast and crew
power behind Stone's film, however, gives it a distinct advantage, first and
foremost with a cast that extends from modern pop-culture stars to veterans
Anthony Hopkins as Ptolemy and Christopher Plummer in a bit role as
Aristotle. Thinking back on
Gladiator, it would have been easy to
assume that 2004's
Alexander would be a scoring project built for the
masculine sounds of Hans Zimmer or, due to their previous collaborations,
maestro John Williams. But Stone had a more geographically-minded and
intriguing idea in mind, one that would ensure his film as Oscar-bait and
one that could reach out to a more historically relevant Greek sound. His
idea was Vangelis, a varied and extremely popular international artist who,
aside from being Greek, has a knack for producing a massive piece of music
once every two years or so that could surely cement
Alexander as an
awards contender. On the other hand, Vangelis does not take film score
assignments as readily as he did back in the 1980's. But, as the composer
states, "I've always admired Oliver Stone's films... and Alexander the Great
is a story that's a natural part of my heritage."
Vangelis, whose real name is Evangelos Odyssey Papathanassiou,
has a distinct, electronically-driven style of composition that has gained
him awards in several genres of music across several international borders.
In the film score realm specifically, Vangelis plucked an Oscar from John
Williams (and
Raiders of the Lost Ark) in 1981 for
Chariots of
Fire and his better known subsequent scores are those for
Blade Runner and
1492: Conquest of Paradise. While the first
two mentioned were predominantly focused electronic efforts,
1492:
Conquest of Paradise was a revelation for score fans around the world
(the album is certified gold/platinum in 17 countries and the title theme
has been a successful single in many of those countries) because of its
choral use, and begged questions about the possibility of Vangelis' maturing
abilities leading to a breakthrough orchestral project at some date in the
future. In the 2000's, that transition has been realized to its fullest,
with Vangelis offering a muscular orchestral, synthetic, and choral opera
for NASA's Mars exploration called
Mythodea in 2001-2002. After 12
years away from the big screen,
Alexander is a continuation of
Vangelis' trend towards seeking the perfect harmony between synthetic and
orchestral elements. The result is what fans of
1492: Conquest of
Paradise will likely fall in love within the first five minutes, with
the electronically-conceived score enhanced by Vangelis' decision to employ
a full orchestra and massive choir to provide harmonically rich and
overwhelmingly powerful statements of theme. There is more instrumental
diversity in
Alexander than there had been in
1492: Conquest of
Paradise, with this new score taking on some of the fluid personality of
an actual film score rather than playing like a new age album tracked to a
film. There may arguably (repeat: arguably) be no single theme as memorable
or bankable as the title theme to
1492: Conquest of Paradise in
Alexander, but the extent of the thematic grandeur has been extended
to include several main themes over four or five tracks.
You have to listen to these Vangelis scores with a clear idea
of how the man structures his music, however. If you enjoy the subtle
nuances, the jarring shifts of emotion, and the carefully pinpointed cue
changes that will comprise a typical film score, then Vangelis will
admittedly drive you nuts. Despite his best efforts to provide a score that
travels the world with the conquerors and changes the color of its mask in
every other cue,
Alexander is still easily identifiable as Vangelis
music because it seems inherently structured as an album first and a score
second. Each cue is lengthy in structure and features its own unique
instrumental spin on Vangelis' overarching ideas. Very little overlapping,
cross-referencing, or reprising of themes in different emotional settings
occurs in Vangelis' music, causing classically-trained orchestral
enthusiasts to dismiss Vangelis's music for events such as
Alexander
as that of an amateur who simply knows how to make a whole lot of impressive
ruckus. This belief sells him short, though.
Alexander does takes
steps to appease those folks, but if you're like the majority of film music
fans who appreciate that Vangelis ruckus for what it is, then
Alexander will knock your socks off in parts. The phrase "in parts"
is important, because
Alexander can be divided into two sections:
that in which Vangelis unleashes the ensembles and his electronics in a
massive bombardment of rhythm and theme, and those in which he attempts to
provide realistic underscore to the erotic and/or Eastern sequences. These
more subtle cues are clustered on the album between tracks five and ten,
moving from exotic dance pieces to straight new age/rock rhythms with a
heavier emphasis on instrumental solos over an electric bass and synthetic
soundscape. The "Roxane's Veil" cue specifically bridges the gap between
Vangelis'
Chariots of Fire-inspired, electronic post-modernism and
this particular effort, and will likely appeal to mainstream crowds. Opening
and closing the score (with the exception of the final cue, which yanks the
score back into a modern, romantic guitar sound) are the cues representing
the glory of Alexander's conquests, and these are where the money will
change hands.
The title theme, "Titans," is a repetitious, simplistic
tune centered around a primary statement of three notes for choir or brass,
and this theme of war is the Vangelis calling card that you'll likely be
hearing performed during the Oscar introductions of the five best score
nominees. The introductory "Young Alexander" cue and "Titans" merged
together are the highlight of the album. More romantic secondary themes
grace the score's latter half, as dreams and betrayals are realized and the
full-fledged glory of Vangelis' best silver-screen ideas are extended over
ten minutes of majesty. These four-minute string-dominated cues are each a
highlight in and of themselves, swaying from the sheer weight and magnitude
of their own performances. As expected, Vangelis relies upon awe to win you
over, for none of these performances has any deeply layered complexity worth
mentioning. Therein lies both the one consistent aspect of the entire score
(from the grandiose portions to the underscored dancing and conversing in
the middle) and, some would argue, its greatest weakness. This isn't music
that will impress you with its structure. This isn't John Williams at work.
It is music that takes you on a journey by maintaining a heavy rhythm that
propels you from track to track and produces an excess of noise that is
beautiful in its pompous simplicity. Ironically, the more spectacular
moments of the
Alexander score are exactly the sound that Media
Ventures composers have been attempting and failing to reach for years: the
perfect, ultimate harmony between chorus, orchestra, and synthesizer. The
rhythmic nature defines Vangelis and
Alexander, and keeps you
interested in the score from the battle scenes through even the stewing
underscore of "Chant" and "Immortality." The only straight (and overdue)
reprise is the title ("Titans") theme in "Dream of Babylon" near the
conclusion. There are a few curiosities to be found along the way; subtle
thematic "lifts" from traditional songs (including the 'Silent Night'
Christmas carol) seem to arise because of Vangelis' tendencies to keep his
themes simple enough (and thus have a better chance to 'remind you of
something'). Also, a distinctly Christian attitude is relayed in "Titans" as
the chorus chants "Gloria" even though this story takes place in a
pre-Christian time.
On the whole, however, you could run with these arguments
all day about the technical merits of
Alexander and much of Vangelis'
more recent work. A very interesting essay contrasting this score with
Gabriel Yared's rejected
Troy work could be written. But when you get
down to the meat and bones, you listen to Vangelis for its majestic scale,
and
Alexander will not disappoint you when you're in one of those
moods to impress your friends with your film score collection. If you're
bothered by the general simplicity of Vangelis' constructs, then this will
likely still peak as a four-star score for you. Additional consideration has
to be given to the fact that this is the artist's first film score in a
dozen years, though, and nearly all score fans do wish that he would venture
more often into this genre of music. On album, the score doesn't play with
the same fluidity as
1492: Conquest of Paradise because the middle
sections of
Alexander do contain a more varied attention to location
and situational changes. But Vangelis certainly did his best to provide that
flowing listening experience that you've come to expect from him, with each
cue connected by an instrumental overlap or, for instance, the sound of a
solemn wind blowing between "Dream of Babylon" and "Eternal Alexander." In
typical modern Vangelis fashion, the mixing of the album is weighted heavily
towards the wet, echoing mixing philosophy of enhancing the magnitude of the
music through a perceived increase in recording studio size (similar to the
Lord of the Rings recording and mixing technique by Howard Shore). In
its attempts to insert a synthetic element into music for this general
historical period,
Alexander succeeds better than Zimmer's
Gladiator ever did due, also, to the fine mixing of all the elements
at play. Best of all, if you are a Vangelis score fan, then you now have a
perfect amount of material from
1492: Conquest of Paradise,
Mythodea, and
Alexander to produce your own compilation of
Vangelis' best thematic grace and bombast. You have to tip your hat to
Vangelis for expanding upon the true niche he has found in the world of
music.
*****
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
