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Don Juan DeMarco: (Michael Kamen) This Jeremy Leven film of
1995 offers the story of Johnny Depp's delusional character, who claims to be Don
Juan (the world's greatest lover) and thus also claims to have rolled around in
the sack with more than his fair share of beautiful females. His psychiatrist,
played by Marlon Brando (who allegedly showed up at filming sessions naked from
the waist down), must analyze his patient to sort out strands of reality and, at
the same time, live up to the romantic aspirations of his wife (played by Faye
Dunaway). With lush flashbacks from the psychiatric sessions to the adventures of
Don Juan in Mexico, the film is the ultimate romantic comedy. Some people have
claimed that the entire Don Juan reference is false, because Depp's actions in
the film more closely resemble those of Casanova rather than Don Juan, but that's
beside the point. The film's charm resides in masterful dialogue performed
flawlessly by the ensemble cast and Michael Kamen's spirited Latin score. One of
the most successful songwriter/composer pairings in Hollywood during the 1990's
consisted of Kamen and Bryan Adams. After their dominance of all music charts and
some awards for "Everything I Do..." from the 1991 film
Robin Hood: Prince of
Thieves, for which Kamen wrote the score, the two would collaborate once
again for
Don Juan DeMarco, a project which contained the promise of equal
blockbuster potential. The song co-written by Adams and Kamen for the production
follows the consistent line of being adapted throughout the score as the
orchestral theme of the film. Not that many people would notice this fact,
however, because most audiences immediately grew attached to "Have You Ever
Really Loved a Woman?" and unfortunately disregarded the score. Going on to all
of the same awards recognition, the song was strangely the last major success
story of the Kamen/Adams collaboration, an unfortunate turn of events. In many
ways,
Don Juan DeMarco was a better match for the two guitar enthusiasts
than
Robin Hood ever was, injecting considerable authentic personality
into the later score. More importantly, Kamen managed to address the comedic
flair of the tale without even approaching the boundary of parody.
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Along with the Adams performance of the title song, a
traditional Spanish rendition was also provided in the film and on album, and
this was another major attraction for fans of
Don Juan DeMarco. Film score
enthusiasts should not be fooled by the actions of the general population,
however, because Kamen's accompanying underscore is fabulous. That music is
simplistic in its harmonically emotional appeal, drawing out the element of
romance in the film and the song's theme with the same spirit as a typical Rachel
Portman affair (and
Chocolat specifically, with the same flavor). The
song, of course (as with the usual Adams sound), is rich with acoustic guitars,
and Kamen takes this identity a step further. The alternating Spanish, Mexican,
and Arabian accents on the adoringly lovable theme provide for very easy
listening for the length of the 40 minutes of the score's duration. Kamen
surprisingly utilizes richly authentic rhythms and performance characteristics of
both Mexico and Spain, with even a habanera (a slow, pronounced Cuban dance)
thrown into a track of that name. Slight hints of tango and waltz rhythms
sometimes tug at the same performances. The solo performances by strings in
Don Juan DeMarco offer both the passion and the comedy of the score,
taking the main theme and an alternate idea and repeating them with immeasurable
variations of style throughout the effort. Upon first listen, the score could
seem highly repetitious, and like Portman's romance music,
Don Juan
DeMarco does revolve around the same constricted base material for its entire
length. But the key to enjoying the score is to become enveloped in the spirit of
each interpretation of the theme and accept Kamen's work as a whimsical walk on
the beach. There are moments when the full London orchestra achieves a sense of
movie magic (and they even pull a woodwind rhythm from the
Conan the
Barbarian scores for use as an Arabian motif), and these fully symphonic
performances of the title theme are in many ways more enjoyable than the song.
Nevertheless, the song is certainly the main event on the
Don Juan DeMarco
album, and people who wish to deprive themselves by seeking only the song can do
so on Adams' own "18 Till I Die" album. Overall, this remains Kamen's most
playful, heartfelt, affectionate, and smoothly listenable career score.
**** Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
| Bias Check: | For Michael Kamen reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.14 (in 14 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.22
(in 32,684 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
