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Orchestrated by:
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Penka Kouneva
Paul Henning
Cliff Eidelman
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Release Date:
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March 12th, 2002
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Eidelman | |
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Harrison's Flowers: (Cliff Eidelman) After a few years of sustaining a
career on smaller compositional and conducting assignments, Cliff Eidelman is
beginning to work his way back into the mainstream of film scoring. Last year's
An American Rhapsody marked his first feature film score after two years,
and this year's Harrison's Flowers is his first large scale project in
roughly five years. The story of Harrison's Flowers involves the
emotional and psychological perils about reporting of war around the world, and
how it can affect those close to journalists when they go missing in war torn
areas. In this case, the wife of the journalist, a photographer herself, decides
to pursue her missing husband into Bosnia, and the film follows her frightful
experiences during that journey. The film's somber subject matter is eventually
overshadowed by the fact that it is also a romantic love story, albeit set in
horrific circumstances. Eidelman's job was to capture both the devastating
setting of war while also reflecting the love of the couple in distress.
Instead of heading to the extremes of either war or passion, Eidelman chose to
tackle the task by providing a steady and consistent score in the middle ground.
The sequences of war are not what you would expect. They contain neither fright
nor force in the expressiveness of Eidelman's music. Even the worst of the war's
projection on screen is represented by a mellow, low key meandering of string
and electronic vocals. On the album, this can be heard in the fourth track. It's
surprising, to say the least, that Eidelman was restrained to such an extent.
For a film in which a civilian is shocked by the horrors of war, there's really
little that the music does to contribute to that horror. In the tenth track of
the album, another musical portrayal of war is presented in an artistic sort of
way. Eidelman uses heavy base strings and no thematic material to build up to a
false crescendo during that cue, and this is the extent of the horror for the
music in Harrison's Flowers. No doubt, the music's functionality in the
film is closely tied to an introverted and internalized sensibility by the wife
who goes searching for her lost husband. If there is terror involved, then it is
in the mind, and not an overt expression or explosion. Perhaps the score was
meant to accentuate the drama of the story rather than the extremes of emotion.
Either way, the score for Harrison's Flowers could very well work for a
small town drama in the heartland of America. No ethnic elements that would be
associated with a film about distant war are even attempted.
The other half of the film's emotional grip is that of the love that exists
between the journalist and his wife. The loving moments between them are scored
with the piano in mind --no surprise for Cliff Eidelman fans. The theme between
them is subtle and gentle... barely recognizable in its slight construction. In
the middle portion of the score, this piano work is sparse. The finale cues
(represented by the final two tracks on the album) ofter the most development of
the title theme for the two characters, even crossing over into the strings that
dominate the score. But in the case of establishing a strong romance between
these two characters, the score fails to summon enough strength of heart to
really convey any such emotion. The entire score lacks power, depth, and
emotional enticement. The scenes of war are scored in a remarkably similar way
to the scenes of the two main characters together. The music for Harrison's
Flowers is pleasant in a relaxing and aimless fashion. It has no real
beginning, no real climax, and no real conclusion. Part of that may be due to
the small production values of the score. The ensemble consists of primarily
strings, the piano, and the occasional electronic sampling. It is a low key
score about a significantly more troubling subject matter, and although the
circumstances about why such a under-dramatic score was provided for film are
unknown, there's something about the music that suggests that it plays better on
the stereo than in the film. Depending on how the score is mixed into the film,
that may be so. Even on album, Harrison's Flowers is a score of the same
underplayed level as One True Thing and An American Rhapsody.
Overall, a pleasant, though sometimes uninteresting listen on album. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Harrison's Flowers (1:34)
• 2. Lover's Play (2:11)
• 3. A Lover's Promise (1:27)
• 4. The Bosnian War (2:24)
• 5. The Pulitzer (0:56)
• 6. Lighting the Flame (1:45)
• 7. Pulled Away (1:05)
• 8. Don't Say It (2:05)
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• 9. A Dangerous Decision (2:54)
• 10. Real War (3:57)
• 11. A Site of Evil (1:52)
• 12. Courageous Desperation (1:22)
• 13. Sarah and Harrison Alive (5:29)
• 14. Awakened (2:19)
• 15. I Only Photograph Flowers (4:56)
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Insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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