Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you appreciate Patrick Doyle's consistent quality of orchestral respect and seek one of his more varied and percussively creative scores, even if it fails to generate the gravity of melodrama expected for this play's convoluted plotline. Avoid it... if the composer's tepid attempts to address the character-centric thematic core of the topic will fail to adequately generate the tension and conflict you expect for any musical representation of this play. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Hamlet (1996): (Patrick Doyle) While directing Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing and co-starring in Othello, actor, screenwriter, and director Kenneth Branagh had always dreamt of bringing an ultimate version of William Shakespeare's famed "Hamlet" to the big screen. Through history, actors such as John Gielgud, Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, and Mel Gibson had appeared in the title role, and Branagh was prepared to tackle the same challenge with all the authenticity that the original story conveyed. Unlike the other interpretations of the story, Branagh's Hamlet of 1996 was meant feature every word of dialogue from the play, causing a massive running time of over four hours that would necessitate an intermission. Despite this length, Branagh's idea worked, the film providing a much more rounded and understandable tapestry than shorter interpretations. Also of note is the fact that Branagh doesn't force the story to brood in despair, allowing for the more positive moments to shine clearly. Reception of the movie by audiences was cool if only because of the massive running time, but an outstanding international cast led the film to critical success and several Oscar nominations for art direction, costumes, screenplay, and Patrick Doyle's score. By 1996, Doyle's career was almost inseparable from Branagh's works, with only Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility from the previous year standing out as a noteworthy exception. His children's adventure scores of the early 1990's were nearly anonymous and difficult to obtain on album. Doyle's music for Branagh's productions had always been appropriately lyrical and romantic, though often restrained in scope out of respect for the constant overlying dialogue that was usually the purpose of his films. With Hamlet, the size of the picture, as well as several flashback scenes without original dialogue, allowed Doyle to unleash the full force of his orchestra in the fashion of Frankenstein and his other horror works. At the same time, Doyle was instructed to produce fanfares worthy of the monarchy of Denmark, with melodic resonance expressed at levels not yet heard from the composer. The odd thing about his perspective on Hamlet however, is that despite this great opportunity, Doyle wrote one of the more disjointed and confused scores of his career, one of hidden structural torment that may not be particularly easy to grasp for casual listeners. Doyle's usual keen sense of lyricism in Hamlet will provide enough cohesion in the score for some enthusiasts of the composer. But he doesn't very clearly express the totality of his thematic identities, usually content to intellectualize them to the point of subtle sterility. Even with this plethora of interesting characters, high drama, and ghostly politics, Doyle's end result is a whole lot of great ideas that start and die, leaving the score in sum to be lacking in any overarching identity outside of its demeanor. The primary theme for the titular character, a "simple" one by Doyle's admission, is remarkably similar to thematic constructs for his much lesser scores, heard best in the opening, finale, and closing cues of Hamlet. It interestingly shows little remorse or even beauty, for that matter, and it proves difficult to adapt to the contemplative moments of the lead character's soliloquies. Doyle also wrote themes for Claudius and Ophelia, however neither of these themes is enunciated to effective levels and they are typically developed only in the stewing of the tense string section and occasional woodwind fragments. There is still more depth to Doyle's ensemble here than in previous Shakespearean scores by the composer, with "The Ghost" (among other cues) providing outstanding rips of percussion and brass. At the very least, Doyle does accomplish the weight needed to anchor this level of drama, and because of his constant layering of strings, the score suffices at maintaining the necessary tone. But the audience will be confronted by fragments of themes and other motifs, one of which is surprisingly similar to what Basil Poledouris would write for Les Misérables not long after, that never congeal into a delineated, larger canvas, and disappointment sets in as those ideas never reach fruition. Only the main theme, with its grand choral finale, reaches back to the elegance of Henry V to close out the score. Placido Domingo's performance of that theme, "In Pace," is restrained also by the same lack of orchestral power and enthusiasm that haunts portions of the rest of the score. In short, Hamlet, more than any other Shakespearean work (except Othello, maybe), needs strong, obvious musical identity for several characters, and the opportunity to weave those ideas together with obvious contempt and passion is sadly missed here. In the end, for much of its length, the result soothes the listener as did Sense and Sensibility, which speaks directly to the weakness in orchestration, performance, and overall realization of Hamlet. This score teases but fails to deliver on the gravitas of the topic. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 76:25
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