Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you consider yourself a devoted fan of the Highlander franchise and seek a decent, though underwhelming culmination of musical styles throughout the years of its run. Avoid it... if you are only a casual observer of the cult phenomenon and hoped for a big, thematic, and symphonic score for the closing of the franchise. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Highlander: Endgame: (Stephen Graziano/Nick Glennie-Smith) In the end, there can only be one. That is, unless you have several motion picture sequels, a few television series, and an array of comic book spin-offs. Even fifteen years after the success of the original Highlander film, the concept's cult following seemed to have an immortality all in itself. The television series of the mid-1990's picked up the slack for the truly terrible direct sequels that had been inexplicably launched at the big screen. Miramax didn't let the fact they obviously weren't familiar with the genre stop them from cashing in on the possibility of merging the two storylines in Star Trek: Generations fashion. In the plot of this final installment, the legendary Connor MacLeod and his small screen equivalent, Duncan MacLeod, team up to fight yet another nasty immortal (is there an endless supply of these power-hungry dorks?). Realizing that Christopher Lambert was starting to show his age (which may or may not be an acceptable turn of events for an immortal warrior, not to mention that he'll never look as cool as Sean Connery), a mighty climax of the storylines is a necessary passing of the torch, and if plain common sense doesn't spoil the film for you, then the track listings of the album certainly will. It would make sense that after the franchise rotated between countless composers through the years, this final production would provide for a momentous score to symbolize everything that had transpired in the previous fifteen years of the story, something to make fans' heads roll with delight. Alas, it was not to be so. Media Ventures product Nick Glennie-Smith, whose scoring career was already headed down the tubes by 2000, wrote a score for Highlander: Endgame but reportedly departed the production at the last moment, refusing to allow his name to be attached to it. The same thing, interestingly, happened to him on The Rock, and perhaps it's because of this little problem he kept having that his career never went anywhere. In the final hours, Miramax brought in trailer and television music master Stephen Graziano to fill in the remaining material, combining it with some of Glennie-Smith's score to form a muddled result. What the two composers' music (along with that of a couple of other contributors to single cues) has in common is a reliance on synthesizers and a handful of specialty instruments. The lack of a symphonic score for this last Highlander film is really disappointing, for the score sounds distinctly cheap in all of its parts. Even within the composers' own music, the primary style changes genres frequently and the little thematic development is too sparse to be effective. There are pieces of traditional Scottish themes and instrumentation mixed with hard electric guitars, harmonicas mixed with fantastic female vocals, and bagpipes dubbed over standard, trashy Media Ventures keyboarding. If a cue starts to click, and a few of them do start to crank up the mysticism, you can rest assured that you won't hear that motif again. The highlight of the soundtrack is, perhaps not surprisingly, the arrangement of two traditional Scottish songs performed in Enya style by Jennifer McNeil. The first of these is significant because of its usage in the television show. Graziano's original material is more innovative per se than Glennie-Smith's, utilizing McNeil's vocals and energetic electronic rhythms in an almost-Gothic atmosphere. The ripping of electric guitars for the slashing fight sequences is easily his music's greatest weakness. Glennie-Smith produces exactly what you'd expect from a Media Ventures veteran: electronic chorus, broad brass and string samples, and simple chord progressions. It is very functional music, and in "Killing an Old Friend" and the latter half of "Heather Cuts Her Hair," it is predictably attractive, but overall his contribution is nothing spectacular. Because of its functionality and whimsical changes of tone and style, which is probably logical given the drastic time shifts of the saga, fans of the film will likely find much to enjoy on the album. That inconsistency is a double-edged sword, however, and don't be surprised if you keep coming back to only the vocalizations of traditional arrangements. The final track is an unrelated and unimpressive tribute piece by neither composer and does not appear in the film. Despite some strong stylistic expressions in parts, the album is not quite as immortal as many might have hoped. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 62:29
* traditional arrangement by Stephen Graziano ** score by Stephen Graziano *** score by Nick Glennie-Smith ^ score by Stephen Graziano and Nick Glennie-Smith ^^ music by Chris Neel, not contained in the film All artwork and sound clips from Highlander: Endgame are Copyright © 2000, GNP Crescendo. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/4/00, updated 6/30/08. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2000-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
