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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you enjoy the few truly beautiful and successful merging of Western orchestral power and Eastern instrumental and vocal authenticity. Avoid it... if an Oriental variant on the basic dramatic structures of the likes of John Barry, in conjunction with Kitaro's synthetic experimentation, override the appeal of simplistic harmony. Original Review, by Christian Clemmensen
Heaven & Earth: (Kitaro) Oliver Stone's trilogy of films inspired by his own experiences with the Vietnam War ended with Heaven & Earth, following the critically and popularly praised Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. Never experiencing the same success as its predecessors, Heaven & Earth suffered from a lack of satisfying continuity in its script and drew disappointing returns despite featuring Stone's typically lavish visual sense. The story of Heaven & Earth is based on the autobiographical books of Le Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese woman whose tragedy in her worn-torn homeland led to an unpredictably successful business career in the United States. After being tortured as a girl by both sides of the war, her journey from her village leads to a marriage proposal from a dissolutioned American soldier. Together, they reside in San Diego, forcing her to endure both the disdain of her in-laws and acclimation to the new society of excesses. The torments shown in the film's first half are gut-wrenching, though they represent the more engaging narrative material. Balancing the ideas of heaven and earth for Stone would be an unlikely choice for composer for the film, with his collaborator for the project before and after Heaven & Earth (John Williams) unavailable during his busy 1993 scoring schedule for Spielberg films. Perhaps the unlikeliest hiring came when it was announced that Japanese musician Kitaro was assigned to the project. Kitaro had written a small handful of scores in the 80's and had contributed production talents to a few others. His experience in large-scale Western scoring for Hollywood films was non-existent, though after Stone's questionable treatment of music in Platoon, few were surprised. Kitaro would go on to write one other major film score in 1997 (The Soong Sisters) before devoting his time to performing as an actor in films instead. His concert work and album compositions, however, live on, and are by far the source of Kitaro's larger fame as a composer through the decades. Kitaro's work for Heaven & Earth would overshadow Schindler's List at the 1994 Golden Globes, however, winning the award that year for "Best Score." There are so few scores that perfectly balance the magnificence of a Western orchestral ensemble with the delicate sensibilities of Eastern instrumentation, but Kitaro managed to negotiate the differences with fantastic results in Heaven & Earth. His music is massively rendered, with a full orchestral ensemble joined by specialty instruments from around the Far East, wildly creative percussive arrays, and a variety of vocal effects ranging from source performances by the lead actress in the film to operatic and ensemble choral contributions. On top of this, Kitaro employs various synthetic elements so seamlessly integrated into the score that they only barely give the music a slight new age tilt. In basic structure, there are two distinct halves of the music for Heaven & Earth, arguably split between the two concepts. For the idea of "heaven," Kitaro writes harmonic and grand thematic material for the full ensemble, lead by the huqin (Chinese violin) and mixed choir. While simplistic in progression, this heavenly music is nothing less than gorgeous, making sweeping use of upper range percussion and woodwinds, along with the synthetic sounds of blowing wind, to offer a completely unashamedly positive outlook on life. The recording's mix between the ensemble and each specialty instrument is precise and satisfying. This form of crossover music extends through the first four cues, including the concert-worthy "Land Theme" and the huqin-led "Love Theme." The most impressive bombastic piece is the monumentally powerful "Saigon Reunion," with grand percussion rips and brass domination. Finally, the exquisite "End Title" suite presents extended operatic and other stylish performances of the score's themes. With the strings leading the theme while brass eloquently performs supporting whole notes (as well as the ethereal voices and pinpointed timpani use), many of these sequences will remind listeners of John Barry's music, though with much more robust style and variance here. The remainder of the score, representing "earth," consists of savage percussion pieces, sometimes interrupted by frightening choral effects (as in the opening to "Village Attack"). The throat singing and chanting of monks expands the score's horizons even further. The primordial sound of some of these cues will be fresh to Western ears (outside of one similarly percussive approach by Jerry Goldsmith early in Rambo III), though to call them readily listenable is suspect. The use of synthesizers only irritates with the heartbeat effect heart for the duration of the disturbing "Steve's Ghosts." The synth keyboarding in the "End Title" is almost identical in sound to the high pitch equivalent in Goldsmith's Under Fire. A positive inclusion by Kitaro throughout the score are adaptations of traditional Vietnamese folks pieces, performed in parts once again by the lead actress of the film. Hiep Thi Le's vocals are somewhat sparse in their direct mix, and her tone may be harsh given the force with which performs her language. One respite from the dissonance in the middle of the album is "Ahn's House," a cue featuring both a Le vocal and a lush performance of the love theme to conclude the scene. Overall, however, Kitaro's first major film score can be considered nothing less than a work of beauty. Conducted and orchestrated by Hellraiser III's Randy Miller, Heaven & Earth is rare blend of elements that will provide you with half an hour of stunning harmony. The horror cues amount to less than half of the album's length, and are concentrated in the center of the product. With Heaven & Earth being one of the most engaging scores of 1993, fans of Kitaro and this score continue to be disappointed by the composer's lack of activity in the scoring world since 1997. Some of the same cross-cultural ideas would be utilized by Klaus Badelt in his 2006 score for The Promise, and although Kitaro doesn't match the snazzy style of that equally powerful score, his Heaven & Earth is an achievement in basic beauty that shouldn't be discounted by any film score collector. *****
Review #2, by Jon Turner
Heaven & Earth: (Kitaro) Being a fan of Kitaro, I was surprised to hear that he actually did the music to Oliver Stone's critically underrated Heaven & Earth. Film scores are not Kitaro's style (although his works have been impressive and experimental), but considering that this is the only film score he has ever done, this score is a masterpiece. In fact, it was so successful a debut, that this score earned Kitaro a well-deserved Golden Globe Award. Too bad Heaven & Earth didn't have similar success at the box office, because the film is one of the most powerfully heartrendering films I had ever seen in my life, and this music was the main reason why I liked it. The opening track is impressive; it opens with a pan pipe of some sort, then a synclavier begins playing, right along with the orchestra, a slow, sad descending scale, right along with a chorus. Then, we hear a brief chinese violin solo, and the orchestra builds up and performs a powerful, majestic, evocative pastoral, musically painting a picture of Vietnam (which is where this movie takes place). If you haven't seen Heaven & Earth, you should; this music is the perfect mirror image of Vietnam. The score also recaptures the horror and brutality of the Vietnam War, particularly when at times, the music starts to get furiously percussive, and the orchestra plays a pretty, yet scary war cry that is powerful enough to make us want to run from danger, as the Vietnamese do in this film. In addition, Kitaro creates extremely sad music for some of the film's most heartbreaking scenes, such as Le Ly Hayslip (our main character) suffering the war, losing her father, losing her family, losing her home. The music is so sad during these points, that it makes us want to cry (I certainly almost did, from seeing the movie and hearing the music along with such scenes!). Even on pretty tracks, such as "Ahn's House", there are brief moments of horror. About two thirds through the song, we hear aggressive percussion rumbles, while the choir sings an anticlimactic, depressing hymm. Such an abrupt change of pace is violent, but no more violent than the scene it goes over (in this case, this happens when Le Ly's mother gets really mad when she discovers her daughter is pregnant after sleeping with Ahn). Sometimes, if war veterans listen to this music, they might regret that they were ever a part of such a brutal war, particularly in the case of one of the film's characters, Steve, a well-meaning soldier who is tormented by past memories of killing many innocent Vietnamese in the war. This is recaptured spectacularly with "Steve's Ghosts." The music isn't full, its just a bing of a triangle and a bit of ambient, lonesome music from the synthesizer. But what really makes it emotional is that while all this is going on, we hear, at the same time, heart beats. It really gave me the creeps when I first listened to this track, as it probably will to many others who do so. Heaven & Earth is not a musical, but there are three songs on this album that appear at different times during the film. "Sau Dau Tree" and "Please Come Visit My Village Of Hoa Qui (on the "Ahn's House" track)" are sung by Hiep Thi Le, who plays Le Ly in the film. Her vocal performance to the songs bring out a certain spookiness to leave us memories of a terrible pasttime, but at the same time, it is also a great way to let us know we are in Vietnam. The same thing is true for "Trong Com", even though it is more of a children's song. It's a traditional Vietnamese Folk Song, as mentioned in the album's credits, and it sounds a little more lighthearted than the rest of the music. I guess the album producers (to my surprise, the director of the album is Oliver Stone -!-.) wanted to also give us an innocent side to Vietnam, as well. The album has a lengthy amount of music (I don't remember hearing much more music in the film than what is here on this album), and the sound quality is excellent. The only complaint that some might have is that most of the tracks just "blend" into each other without pausing between breaks. This has been true to many of Kitaro's other CDs, but this is no big deal at all. It is the music that counts. This is a score that will leave you in tears every time you listen to it, and with something to think about. If you don't already own this CD, you should get it; I very highly recommend it. *****
* Vietnamese folk music, produced by Budd Carr
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