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The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca: (Mark McKenzie)
It was with great passion that director Marcos Zurinaga examined the
circumstances of the death of revered poet Garcia Lorca during the
Spanish Civil War. Based on two books by Ian Gibson,
The
Disappearance of Garcia Lorca makes its anti-Franco statement while
also treating the subject of differing levels of respect for living and
dead artists. The topic of the apparent assassination is explored
against the backdrop of a narrative that involves a 14-year-old boy who
meets Lorca shortly before he disappears. Many years later, after his
family has moved to Puerto Rico, the grown boy returns to Franco's Spain
to search for the truth about what happened to Lorca. Despite some
moderate star power and a decent critical response,
The Disappearance
of Garcia Lorca failed to gain traction in theatres and has since
disappeared itself. The project was one of many obscure entries for
orchestrator Mark McKenzie, whose transition to the role of composer
often produced enjoyable results even if the industry hadn't taken much
notice. Working once again under strict time limitations, McKenzie had
only a matter of a few weeks to integrate this highly passionate and
ethnically tilted score into the film while battling challenging shifts
in ensemble. The film required an extra level of emotion compared to
many of the composer's other projects, as well as a specific ethnic
identifier. McKenzie succeeds in the task, composing a deep and moving
symphonic piece with flamenco influences that differ from anything else
he had written in the 1990's. The resulting score is not only
effectively melodramatic in the film, but also makes for an enjoyable
album. As with his other scores, McKenzie's music for
The
Disappearance of Garcia Lorca is lush with theme, with never more
than a few minutes passing before a statement of one of the three major
themes returns. Those who enjoy the often powerful string performances
in McKenzie's works will not be disappointed. In both the first two and
last two tracks on album, as well as few selected cues in the middle,
full concert-like performances of these melodies are the center of
attention.
There are drawbacks inherent to this redundant style of
performance, however. This is indeed a score best represented by its
concert arrangements of about 16 combined minutes. The remainder
unfortunately does not vary much in tone. A writer for Boxoffice
Magazine noticed the same trait, though went a little too far in stating
in a review of the film that "an offputting score is simple-minded in
its support." Another unfortunate aspect of the final recording is its
inconsistency in its mix on album; due to the score's hectic recording
schedule (the score was recorded haphazardly in three days with three
different groups of players), the sound quality, as well as the quality
of the performances themselves, sometimes varies noticeably from cue to
cue. The most notable of these differences comes after the magnificent
sound of the "I Sing His Elegance," after which "Five in the Shadow of
the Afternoon" is a tad flat in depth and gravity by comparison. Still,
individual performances assist in connecting the dramatic thematic
statements by the full ensemble. Several lightly elegant piano and
acoustic guitar performances highlight the score. To spice up the score
with the Spanish flavor necessary to capture the spirit of the poet,
McKenzie, after a perilous search (and a good story), found flamenco
singer Manolo Segura. In the tracks "Main Title," "Blood of a Poet,"
"Death Calling" and "Lorca's Elegy," Segura provides a distinct sound
that some might confuse with Native American chanting. The sound of
three flamenco singers is actually the one performance tracked three
times, a technique that McKenzie uses masterfully in his scores to
compensate for smaller ensembles. On the whole, this score further
demonstrated McKenzie's growing maturity in the art of composition at
the time. Even though he maintained a healthy career as an orchestrator
(especially for Danny Elfman), his scores in the latter half of the
1990's qualified him for better assignments that unfortunately never
came. His achievements in the area of combining thematic development
with a growing sense of ethnic form would become even greater with his
1999 score for
Durango. A generous album release of
The
Disappearance of Garcia Lorca by Intrada Records may be somewhat
redundant, but it's a must-have product for any McKenzie enthusiast.
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| Bias Check: | For Mark McKenzie reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.78 (in 9 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.45
(in 3,022 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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