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Die Another Day: (David Arnold) With the entry of
Die Another Day in 2002, the James Bond series surpassed the
20-film mark, an extraordinary achievement considering that a handful of
those movies existed on many people's "worst films of all time" lists.
Unfortunately, this particular 007 adventure by director Lee Tamahori
proved to be among the worst of the worst, decelerating the franchise so
quickly that it concluded the Pierce Brosnan era and left a lengthy
break before Warner Brothers, MGM, and producer Barbara Broccoli, among
others, managed to reboot the concept with the help of Daniel Craig in
the far superior
Casino Royale. That circumstance didn't stop
Brosnan, completing his fourth film as Bond, from teaming up with the
super-hot Halle Berry in an effort to thwart the world's newest big, bad
billionaire madmen who seek domination with special crystals, remote
fortresses, secret satellites, and other tired staples of the Bond
franchise. While the film was digging the concept into a bigger hole,
composers Monty Norman and John Barry were battling it out in court to
decide who exactly could claim the ownership of the infamous James Bond
theme. David Arnold, meanwhile, expanded upon his tenure with his third
and weakest score for the franchise. The news about
Die Another
Day was practically all bad, and for film score collectors, the
disintegration of Arnold's mastery in the Bond franchise was
particularly disappointing. He burst onto the Bond scene with the highly
acclaimed score for
Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997, a work that
would lead to two albums and the rejoicing of fans of traditional Bond
music from the pen of Barry. His touch for capturing the spirit of
Barry's 007 music (and Norman's theme in particular) and merging it with
his own sensibilities had yielded an exciting and relieving sound.
Arnold's music for
The World is Not Enough was a
techno/electronica experiment with the same concept, shifting the
emphasis of some of the action sequences from orchestral dominance to a
leading roll for synthetic accents, usually in the form of ripping and
slapping loops. This technique left many Bond collectors out in the
cold, and for those fans in particular,
Die Another Day was an
even greater nightmare.
Before discussing the score for
Die Another Day,
however, the title song begs for its fair share of whipping. The songs
in the Bond franchise are more important to the greater movie-going
masses than the underscores, their legacy extending into nearly every
generation of American culture, and many casual music buyers purchase
the Bond soundtracks only for the title song. The songs since Brosnan's
resurrection of the franchise in 1995 had been mediocre at best. From
Tina Turner to Sheryl Crow and Garbage, the best of lot was ironically
k.d. lang's title performance for
Tomorrow Never Dies, which was
rejected and sent to the end credits of its film. When Madonna was
announced as the performer for the title song of
Die Another Day,
many Bond fans were cautiously optimistic. The female performers of Bond
songs have traditionally featured a lustful, mature voice, and Madonna's
tone had grown into exactly that type since her popular, slower ballads
began to hit the air-waves in the mid-1990s ("Take a Bow," "You'll See,"
"Frozen," "The Power of Good-Bye," etc). Additionally, her spectacular
singing performances for the film
Evita in 1996 exhibited a
further ability to combine romance and pizzazz on the big screen.
Breaking with tradition, however, the title song for
Die Another
Day was not written by the score's composer; instead, it was the
result of Madonna, songwriter Michael Colombier, and producer Mirwais
Ahmadzai, all of whom having collaborated on the singer's pop album
releases of the era. Unfortunately, for the Bond franchise and all of
its loyal fans, Madonna's "Die Another Day" is the worst disgrace ever
to tarnish the opening credits of a James Bond film. It's even more
insufferable than Jack White and Alicia Keys' "Another Way to Die" for
Quantum of Solace. There exists no insult that can adequately
describe the hideous and inappropriate trash that Madonna and her
partners smeared on
Die Another Day. The most commonly cited
problem with the song involves the fact that it ignores any tradition of
the Bond franchise. The title song in Bond films is either a pop rock
song or a love ballad, and there's no sense in trying to fix something
that isn't broken by flailing around with experimental genre-bending
exercises.
The songs submitted just prior by Crow and Garbage, while
neglecting the romantic aspect of the tradition, at least played to the
mainstream rock audience. Unquestionably, "Die Another Day" is an
enormous leap out of the mainstream and utilizes a digital techno and
electronica style of editing and mutilation that renders it useless for
both the film and for the average listener. Forget the longtime Bond
fans who owned all the Barry LP soundtracks; the song in
Die Another
Day repulsed people well beyond that small group. The editing in
particular is a fatal characteristic. The recordings of both the voice
and the backing orchestra are digitally chopped into a nearly
incomprehensible garble of noise that may honestly make a listener
believe for a moment that there is a horrible problem with his or her
stereo system. There is no flow to the song, which hides perhaps the
total inadequacy of the song's melody (or lack thereof). That melody is
a simplistic range of just a few notes, rendering it nearly impossible
for Arnold to adapt it well into the score. Arnold himself had no kind
word for the song, admitting that it was a stretch to adapt any melody
into the score. And even though he did manage to do so quite thoroughly
for
Die Another Day, that adaptation yields one of the weakest
orchestral themes in the franchise (despite the composer's valiant
attempts to twist it into something useful for a variety of emotional
settings). The song remains proof that the composers of the scores for
these films really do need to be involved in the songwriting, despite
whatever territorial or protective behavior the performing artists hold
over their own songs' writing. Finally, the lyrics for "Die Another Day"
are even more ridiculous (or lame, if you want the common jargon) than
those of other recent Bond films, making some of even the most
flamboyant and embarrassing entries in the series seem like literary
masterpieces by comparison. In sum, this song is painful to hear at the
beginning of the film, an unequivocal disaster that some viewers joked
as being appropriate for the scenes of torture seen over the rather
unconventional opening credits sequence. Luckily, history hasn't been
kind to Madonna's venture into the realm of Bond.
If you can manage to survive the song at the start, the
score by Arnold is a continuation of the style of thinking from
The
World is Not Enough rather than the true combination of orchestral
jazz and electronic samplings heard in
Tomorrow Never Dies.
Arnold didn't really reach the same strong merging of sounds until
Quantum of Solace, and the harsh, electronica attitude of
Die
Another Day is alone a killing factor for a significant number of
listeners. Arnold seems to have attempted, to some degree, to follow the
lead of Madonna's song, with the hovercraft chase scene chopped up with
the almost identical, nonsensical editing that ruined the song. Portions
of the orchestra are artificially cut to silence for a fraction of a
second, causing a stutter-stop motion to the music that was probably
intended to enhance the pace of the action in the film. Not
surprisingly, the technique is nothing more than obnoxious. In fact,
this same technique taints several cues throughout the score, though to
lesser degrees. Arnold seemingly altered the natural reverberation sound
of the orchestra and electronic programming as well. Notes begin
normally, but end artificially and too soon, and this is continued for
countless progressions in some action cues. The overall sound of the
action cues is therefore defined by unnaturally abrupt edges that
frankly sound dumb when involving a full ensemble in the mix. This is
particularly disturbing in the case of a handful of the larger
orchestral cues, for the original unaltered studio performance has quite
a vibrant sound to it. There are a handful of cues left untampered with,
and you can really hear the orchestra's vivacious power in the
percussion of "Some Kind Of Hero?" and "Antonov." In other sections, the
orchestra's solo performances seem to be edited not with cuts to
silence, but rather with a simple removal of the reverberation, causing
the score to sound as though it was recording in a tiny auditorium.
Another major problem is Arnold's emphasis on sound effects in the high
treble region; some of the zipping effects, likely to emulate a laser
beam given this plot, are difficult to tolerate for any length of time.
As these looped elements from Arnold have progressively gotten higher in
pitch through the years, so too has the music become more
unpalatable.
If the destruction of the music's flow during the editing
process doesn't bother you in regards to the
Die Another Day
score, then perhaps the imbalance between ensemble and synth array will
put you over the edge. Arnold's delicate, but successful balance between
Barry's traditional, orchestral jazz and his own electronica and techno
tendencies in
Tomorrow Never Dies is lost to the relentless
slashing of the electronic programming here. He simply cannot shake the
constant electronic looping for very long, and whenever he begins to
adopt a purely Barry-like progression of strings or brass, the cue is
cut short by electronic laser sounds or the mad pounding of tinny,
electronic drums. Absent from this score are some of the five or six
minute juggernaut cues of orchestral and electronic mastery that Arnold
has produced for his other scores in the franchise. Even the lengthier
action sequences in this film switch stylistic genres of music with such
frequency the listener can have difficulty adapting. A few cases of temp
track influences contribute to this problem, especially in the lengthy
finale sequence aboard the plane. The few moments of more low key
character building (such as the Jinx-related cues heard during her
introductory scenes) show hints of more readily enjoyable and engaging
material, but Arnold never unleashes the full orchestra in these moments
until the very last cue. In terms of creativity in its instrumentation
and rhythms, the score is, in a word, uninspired. It is evidence of a
composer simply going through the motions, and it's not surprising that
many critics and fans were calling for a new composer to accompany the
reboot of the franchise after Brosnan declined to return for the money
offered. Arnold did, to his credit, insert a monumentally mixed choral
sound into
Die Another Day, a rarity for the franchise. The full,
male choral performances are an interesting and perhaps under-explored
method of handling a master villain, though critics still cite an
over-reliance on
Stargate-like sounds in the composer's career.
The lengthy "Antonov" offers a solo female voice as well as an ensemble
chorale, and these sometimes magnificent moments save the score from
being a total waste. A few references to Barry's material for
On Her
Majesty's Secret Service and
You Only Live Twice are cool,
but usually lost in the mix.
Thematically,
Die Another Day seems like a
one-dimensional score because of Arnold's almost constant exploration of
the title theme loosely inspired by Madonna's song. This theme makes a
compelling appearance during the prisoner exchange sequence and is woven
into the fabric of many of the subsequent action cues. In its most
ominous applications, mostly in relation to the villains, the theme
faintly foreshadows the deep brass treatment that Arnold would provide
for the Quantum organization a few films later in the franchise. The
score's most interesting specialty instruments are devoted to the
villains, including the use of an accelerating cimbalom motif for the
North Koreans. The composer also offers the Norman theme a significant
roll in
Die Another Day, ranging in incarnation from loyal solo
electric guitar strumming to wildly frenetic techno variations. The
version of both this classic theme and the title theme for the film were
arranged into an intolerable electronic mess for a rejected end credits
suite (which seems like mostly a regurgitation of the obnoxious parts of
"Hovercraft Chase" repackaged a second time). A theme for Jinx (in "Jinx
Jordan" and "Jinx & James") is not as well adapted into the rest of the
score's material, largely diminishing her character's impact on the
music. A few other secondary themes, some of which quite noble in
intent, peek through in
Die Another Day, sometimes mingling with
themes established by Arnold in previous films. The bass plucking from
the start of the
Goldeneye song is reprised. A descending piano
motif for danger carries over to late action cues. The theme for
Tomorrow Never Dies is heard in the conversational piece after
the prisoner exchange (a clever reference to Bond's career). The pretty
love theme from
The World is Not Enough is heard in this score's
final two cues. Also in favor of this score are several references to
Barry's general style at specific points, including the well known snare
rips that Barry loved to use while the villains were describing their
nasty plans and the descending baseline of
On Her Majesty's Secret
Service under some of the title theme performances. The problem with
these subtle references, however, is that they were drowned out in the
film and mostly missing from the woeful commercial album released at the
time of the film's debut.
Both
Tomorrow Never Dies and
The World is Not
Enough were badly represented by their initial commercial album
offerings. In the case of the latter score, no bootleg was quickly
forthcoming to appease angry collectors. The same was not the case with
Die Another Day, which was spread around in 2-CD bootleg format
within just a few years of its recording. The two previous scores really
did have significant and lengthy, superior material missing from their
commercial albums. While the 2-CD bootlegs of
Die Another Day
will offer some material that will clear up Arnold's thematic intents
and include some of the less irritating action material, they really
don't improve the opinion about the score by great margins. There are
interesting, short cues that will be worthy of an Arnold/Bond
compilation, but nothing of absolute necessity. The "Kiss of Life" cue,
which includes the
Tomorrow Never Dies reference, has a few
minutes of melodramatic conversational backing. The title theme is
elegantly translated onto solo piano in "Peaceful Fountains of Desire"
(as well as "A Touch of Frost"). The strong action cue "Jinx, James, and
Genes" contains the homage to
On Her Majesty's Secret Service and
finishes with a great flourish of Norman's theme at the end. A
traditional guitar performance of the Norman theme in "Gustav Graves
Gravitational Grand Entrance" is interrupted by a terrible, stuttering
performance of Arnold's generic "bad guy" theme that existed in his
first four scores. The cue for Madonna's cameo is surprisingly lush (and
has no hints of the song). Both "Sword Fight" and "Bond Gets the Key"
use the title theme extensively, the former with the usual wailing brass
and the latter with cimbalom. Arnold gets cute with "Virtual Reality,"
ending the cue with an intentional shutdown of declining pitch and one
last guitar strum to show a sense of humor. Fun, but unlistenable. The
subsequent and short "The Vanish" features an ultra cool blend of the
orchestra and techno elements performing the Norman theme. The glory of
Goldfinger's wailing brass explodes in the flamboyant "Bond Goes
to Iceland." The major action piece missing from the commercial album is
"Ice Palace Car Chase," a generic blend of the difficult action material
heard before (and again in "Switchblades").
Sentimental sorts will enjoy how the 2-CD bootleg ends,
however. The film version of "Going Down Together" is perhaps the most
appealing, traditionally orchestral action piece in the score. Finally,
the love theme from
The World is Not Enough finally represents
the longing "Moneypenny" and Bond's affair with Jinx in "Diamonds" with
You Only Live Twice style. In sum, the bootleg is interesting in
the whole and redemptive to some degree, but it ultimately exposes the
reality that
Die Another Day is still the weakest of Arnold's
first five Bond scores. The commercial product remains a clearly
miserable overall product, however. Several aspects of the album are
unsavory, starting with the inconsistent mix of the bass from track to
track. A comparison with the bootleg's very different sound quality in
certain cues will be of interest to die-hard fans. In terms of contents,
there are pieces on the commercial album that are almost laughable in
the context of a Bond franchise that has seen better times. The Paul
Oakenfold remix of the classic Bond theme is sadly predictable and
offers nothing of substance. There is an absence of an end credits song
or suite on the product. The Cuban-flavored source cues (rolled into one
for this album) are barely tolerable. The consistently jarring
stutter-step editing in the early cues will end the listening experience
for some. The album is surprisingly short, continuing a trend at the
time of shorter albums for each successive Bond film. The CD is rich
with enhanced features, including a movie poster gallery from Bond's
history (to coincide with a similar, full size poster collage available
from dealers). The enhanced music features are nearly all dedicated to
the song. Finally, that song, of course, cannot be overlooked when
evaluating this album. Its total disregard for the franchise's heritage
and its unlistenable editing is a waste of Madonna's mature voice and
reduces her to an inflective tone as mousy as that of her hits of the
mid-80's. There is no cinematic sweep on this album, no consistent
action material worthy of the character, and no melodic love theme to
mark the film's place in the rich history of Bond music. It is a
sickening listening experience for which
Tomorrow Never Dies is
the only antidote and, fortunately, the pursuit of a strikingly modern
and edgy attitude for the Bond songs and scores was finally peacefully
balanced in the subsequent
Casino Royale. When soundtracks need
an antidote, you know you're in trouble.
Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
Score as Written for Film: **
Song as Written for Film: FRISBEE
Overall: *
| Bias Check: | For David Arnold reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.33 (in 15 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.33
(in 42,389 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The 2002 Warner album's insert contains credits, but no extra information about the
film, score, or song. The bootlegs feature a wide range of fan-created art.
