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Review of Anna and the King (George Fenton)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you appreciate the majestic merging of Western
orchestra and themes with Eastern instruments in grand, romantic
style.
Avoid it... if you expect that combination to exude the overtly exotic nature that other crossover scores have featured with the assistance of vocals or synthesizers.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Anna and the King: (George Fenton) Not deterred by
an atrocious animated version of the same classic tale from the previous
year, director Andy Tennant's 1999 dramatic interpretation enjoyed a
strong cast, lush settings, and an outstanding score. Most memories of
the tale on the screen revolve around the classic Rodgers and
Hammerstein's The King and I, and while all the versions maintain
the same inspiration, differences in the tellings exist. Anna and the
King, the most massive of those depictions, was close enough to the
Anna Leonowens story to get the film famously banned in Tailand. Her
claim to fame, of course, is her hiring by King Mongkut of Siam to
educate his son in Western culture. Upon her arrival with her own son,
her feminist, English attitude stirs up cultural difficulties
immediately, and despite the troubles she causes, a suggested and
unrealized romance materializes between her and the king. The casting of
foreign action legend Chow Yun-Fat was the film's coup, allowing the
immensely popular actor to not only stretch his talents into a new
genre, but also help market the film overseas. The story, in the end, is
a double love affair, not only involving Anna and the king, but also his
concubine. Both exude tragedy by necessity, and George Fenton latches
firmly onto these two romances in his thematic identity for his highly
acclaimed score for the film. How Fenton, already an Academy Award
nominated composer, managed to avoid an Oscar nomination for Anna and
the King is one of the greater mysteries of the digital era of AMPAS
failings, for the score has all the makings of the massively
tear-jerking orchestral dramas that have long been a favorite in
Hollywood. For fans of the British composer, Anna and the King
would be a remarkable preview of the robust orchestral majesty often
heard in Fenton's subsequent works for nature-related documentaries.
Many sections of this score, if stripped of its ethnic instrumentation,
would be largely indistinguishable from the flowing, romantic portions
of The Blue Planet, Deep Blue, and other similar efforts
for Fenton in the 2000's.
Fenton wastes no time introducing listeners to his three major ideas and shorter motifs in "Arrival at the Palace," a piece that immediately strikes a fine balance between the Western orchestra and the myriad of Eastern specialty instruments. While the erhu and a variety of percussion will be most prominent in their representation of Siam, Fenton maintains a faint Eastern flavor in even the less obvious places, making Anna and the King a more challenging alternative to a score like Kitaro's Heaven & Earth (though without the vocal effects). Fenton's title theme, after its monumental performance at the outset of the titles, is largely overshadowed by the two dominant love themes. Perhaps the more alluring of the two romances is the somewhat infrequently stated theme for concubine. Introduced in "Tuptim" and developed slightly in "The Rice Festival," this theme receives an utterly heartbreaking performance at the outset of "The Execution." The other theme (for the two primary characters) is rooted in piano and presented with reservations in "I Am King, I Shall Lead," "Flowers on the Water," and "Moonlit Beach" before erupting in three late cues. Between the intoxicating piano-led ensemble performances in "The Execution," "Anna Returns," and "I Have Danced With a King," some of Fenton's finest (if not the finest) romance work is put to the task. This despite the theme's similarity to parts of Fenton's 84 Charing Cross Road in 1986. Regardless of the individual strengths of Dangerous Beauty and Ever After in the previous two years, Fenton excels with his romance writing in Anna and the King to levels far beyond those previous efforts. The grace with which he addresses both the affections of the heart and gravity of the throne (and the worshipping of the king) is remarkably accomplished. Fenton achieves the sense of weight for the latter through his ability to use the timpani and brass section as effective bass dwellers; Anna and the King is remarkably heavy in the bass region despite relying significantly on solo woodwind or erhu performances in the treble to provide the enchantment. The superior mixing of the score is also an important factor in its successful balancing act. The secondary love theme performance in "Tuptim" is provided with a lovely duet between flute and erhu that is mixed brilliantly over the ensemble. Light metallic percussion is provided an enhanced role due to this attention to detail, and floats many of the more subdued moments. Two other parts of the score need mentioning, and while neither is particularly memorable compared to the previously mentioned sections, Fenton adeptly executes them. The three or four action pieces in Anna and the King, spanning "Rajah Attack," "Betrayed," and "The Bridge," are resounding in their percussive force. The two dance pieces, "Anniversary Polka" and part of "I Am King, I Shall Lead," aren't as blatantly obnoxious as much of the source music written for the era. Finally, the song over the end credits has been widely considered a decent counterpart to the score, though it's difficult to reconcile the Disney pop song sound from Joy Enriquez with Fenton's score. The primary love theme is so well performed by the ensemble in the remainder of the score that the pop version, while still maintaining most of the structure of Fenton's idea, is both cheap and irritating. Aside from that song (unfortunately placed at the beginning of the almost hour-long album), Anna and the King is an outstanding and consistent listening experience. The merging of the two love themes in "The Execution" is one of the single highlights of 1999 film scoring, and Fenton's effort as a whole won a place on most of the top-5 or top-10 lists for the year. While romantic mergings of Western orchestra and themes with Eastern instruments had reached the steps of perfection before (Heaven & Earth) and would do so again later (Klaus Badelt's The Promise), Fenton's distinct style lends its own credibility. He does not rely on synthesizers to create the sounds of blowing wind or altered vocals in Anna and the King; instead, the beauty of his work is consistent with more traditional majesty you'd expect to hear for the era. *****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 59:11
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes credits, a short note from the director, and four photos
from the recording sessions.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Anna and the King are Copyright © 1999, LaFace Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/27/99 and last updated 8/25/07. |
