Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you seek one of the most memorable, purely innocent Christmas scores in the Digital Age of film music. Avoid it... if the hopelessly optimistic, spiritually seasonal nature of the score reduces it to a once-a-year kind of album. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Home Alone: (John Williams) This highly popular and likely overrated children's story written by John Hughes and shot by Chris Columbus tests every limit of plausibility. By the end of Home Alone, any adult who has raised a child will wonder if an 8-year-old with the wit and composure of Macaulay Culkin's character actually exists. In the film, he plays a boy mistakenly left at his home in the Chicago suburbs while his frantic family packs and departs for Paris, and in the time it takes for the neglectful family to realize their error and return home, the boy comically foils a pair of burglars who attempt to invade the home. The depictions of violence are as ridiculously dumb and unbelievable as they could possibly be, and the film attempts to redeem itself with a solid message of Holiday forgiveness. It had been a while since John Williams had composed a score specifically aimed at children (if ever, really) and when he accepted the assignment of Home Alone from Columbus, a close friend, it proved to be an entirely new genre for the maestro to tackle. Not only were the ramifications exciting for Williams' fans, but the composer approached the project with a refreshing new enthusiasm that carried over into the tone of his composition. After a year which included the dramatic, often tense scores for Presumed Innocent, Stanley & Iris, and Always, Williams shed all of that weight and provided what essentially amounts to a perfect comedic Christmas score. Ever since Home Alone first won the hearts of audiences with an outstanding record-shattering showing at the box office, Williams' score has existed among the highest standards for Christmas-related music from Hollywood. The score and its original title song would be nominated for two Academy Awards, and the film cleverly combines the score with traditional but refreshed Christmas carol recordings as well as a few original carols written by Williams himself. Home Alone is an example of a film and score fitting like a perfect glove for a hand, with Williams' music successfully balancing the two sides of the film: the wacky, stupid comedy, and the heartfelt sense of family and religion at the holidays. Williams' own carols are very strong, proving, at the very least, that the composer is among the best classically-inclined artists of our time. His recordings of traditional carols also maintain a hearty holiday swing, and it's difficult to imagine how Williams could have accomplished all of this during the warm summertime of the film's post-production. While critics may claim that the Oscar-nominated title song, "Somewhere in my Memory" is a piece of fluff, it's important to recognize that the spirit of the carol is precisely what makes it effective (the complete opposite to, for instance, the lack of spirit which would sink Williams' Sabrina score a few years later). The underscore is deceptive as well. Seemingly less sophisticated than Williams' larger dramatic efforts, the choice of instrumentation is what makes Home Alone a great success. Williams spared no expense in assembling every tingling instrument he could find, from chimes and bells to synthesized high-octave organ effects. At every moment in the score, a tingling effect is to be heard, and if you thought that inspiration from "Jingle Bells" was below Williams' standards, think again. Slower performances of the major carols are provided with grand orchestral sweeps and lyrical passages from the various songs. Williams also throws in a classical joust to represent the manic chaos of the parents; during airport scenes, Williams utilizes a neo-classical explosion of the orchestra that has a uniquely Western adventure feel to its rhythms. For the two bumbling criminals in the story, Williams makes perhaps his most subtle, but effective choice. Instead of providing an ominous theme with one of the more powerful elements of the orchestra, the villains are accompanied only by woodwinds, an unexpected, but strangely appropriate choice for the idiots that these characters are. The dual performances of a bass bassoon with a clarinet or oboe keep the theme low and mysterious while allowing the flexibility to toy with their quirky personalities. That way, they are never quite that scary to kids in the audience, and Williams can sustain a fluffy atmosphere for even the film's darkest moments. Such usage by Williams dates back to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (and before, to a lesser extent), but the bass woodwinds were never meant to achieve the same suspense here. A standout cue is "Setting the Trap," with a brief, but enjoyable addition of a synthesized rhythm to the otherwise orchestral performances of several themes from the film. Overall, the Home Alone score is a Christmas bonanza. Unfortunately, attempting to enjoy this music anytime during the rest of the year is a challenge, and on album, the score is so well articulated and presented that it's a seasonal event. Despite this inherent weakness, this franchise opener is far more impressive than the rehashed sequel music from Williams for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (and both are far, far better than the substandard music produced by Nick Glennie-Smith for Home Alone 3). Just make sure there's snow on the ground outside before trying to absorb the full magic of Williams' work for Home Alone. **** Track Listings:
Total Time: 57:01
All artwork and sound clips from Home Alone are Copyright © 1990, CBS Records. 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 9/24/96, updated 8/18/08. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 1996-2005, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
