 |
|
 |
|
 | |||||||||
| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
| . |
1. Nim's Island 2. The Life Before Her Eyes 3. Horton Hears a Who! 4. Leatherheads 5. The Spiderwick Chronicles | . | . |
1. Moulin Rouge 2. Gladiator 3. POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl 4. Star Wars: A New Hope 5. Edward Scissorhands |
6. Pearl Harbor 7. Schindler's List 8. Titanic 9. Braveheart 10. Home Alone | . | . |
1. Varèse Sarabande 25th 2. The Last of the Mohicans 3. Legends of the Fall 4. Schindler's List 5. LOTR: Return of the King (Set) |
 | ||||||||
|
|
|
Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if the beautiful title theme heard over the prologue of the film is worth the price of an album littered with questionable source music and highly synthetic, turbulent suspense cues. Avoid it... if you expect any consistency in the listening experience, free of intentional, synthetic dissonance at the conclusion of the majority of thematic performances. Original Review, by Christian Clemmensen
While the "Prologue" performance of the title theme is the famous highlight of JFK, Williams transfers the performance to an elegantly rolling piano in "Theme from JFK," much as he would do in Jurassic Park, though this cue ends by dissolving into a terribly dissonant electronic droning effect that ruins the overall track. It's understandable why Williams chose this dissolution, but he forfeits the listenability of the track by taking that route. The album would be padded with reprises of both cues, with the prologue truncated and given an attractive French horn solo at the start in "Finale." The second performance of "Theme from JFK" is identical to its predecessor, leaving the listener with the same awful, dissonant conclusion at album's end. The "Garrison Family Theme" is somewhat anonymous in the score, with its pleasant woodwind performances leading, likewise, to another intentionally muddied, electronic finish. The remainder of the album is interesting in parts, but largely difficult to enjoy outside of small snippets of the usual Williams magic. Both "The Motorcade" and "Garrison's Obsession" would offer stark orchestral and electronic dissonance not typically heard from the composer, alternating between wicked representations of distress (low register piano pounding and atonal brass layers suitable for raptors, among other methods of tragedy) and extremely subdued lengths of synthetic bass note droning. Suspenseful cues, such as "The Death of David Ferrie," offer a synthetic side to Williams' writing, including an eerie electronic chorus not often heard in his scores of the 1990's. In "The Witnesses," Williams experiments with harsh brass tones and his echoing synthetic rattling effects with distinct malice, producing a horrifyingly upsetting metallic crescendo. A few individual moments of musical intrigue litter the score, however, including a rhythmic cue for "The Conspirators" that became surprisingly popular. Led by the sounds of wood block and metronome ticking (likely synthesized), the staggered rhythms of this cue would be expanded upon with a fuller representation in Jurassic Park. The keyboarded meanderings in the bass-heavy cue would be transformed into an on-stage dance piece for the score's nomination performance at the 1993 Oscars. Equally of note are the ultra-tragic string layers of "Arlington," with adagio qualities mirroring the intensity of Presumed Innocent and foreshadowing some of the turbulence heard in the latter two Star Wars prequel scores. This late cue would be another highlight in the film, representing the agony of a visit to the President's memorial flame, but is an awkward floater on the album. On that album, JFK is a completely frustrating listening experience. Williams' music is spread between several source cues, giving the overall experience a split personality. In the case of the two military-related adaptations and/or performances early on the album, Williams' own conducting of the cues alleviates the problem to an extent. But by the time we pass Tony Bennett and get to the bizarre combination of "Ode to Buckwheat" (and the homosexual implications that the film associates the wide-ranging percussive piece with) and the completely unlistenable Hispanic source song "El Watusi" (with its atrocious sound quality... easily one of the most annoying source cues ever to be pressed onto a film score CD), the album has completely lost its focus. Williams' title theme is obviously an outstanding and remarkable tribute to the man and the occasion, but unless you are a huge fan of the turbulent sides of Nixon and Jurassic Park, that theme will be better sought on a compilation.
Score as heard on album: ** Overall: **
Review #2, by Todd China
JFK: (John Williams) When JFK first came out in theatres, I saw it and I carried away from that viewing the snare drum roll-off, followed by Tim Morrison's wonderful trumpet solo as the card "Music by John Williams" came onto the screen. That was the first impression I had of the score, and, several years and many film score CDs later, I still consider JFK to be one of the greatest John Williams scores of the 90's. JFK is unusual in that it lacks a unified style overall. The score can be divided into two different types; there's the noble, dignified, and solemn requiem to President Kennedy on one hand, and there's dissonant and dark "conspiracy" music on the other. The "Prologue" is one of the best pieces of music Williams has ever written, with an elegiac melody that begins with Morrison's solo and becomes grand and sweeping as the rest of the orchestra takes over. This melody, incidentally, is melodically very similar to one of the themes from The Cowboys as well as "Leaving Home" from Superman. "The Motorcade" accompanies Jim Garrison's recount of the assassination during the trial of Clay Shaw. This is a very dark and dissonant, but listenable and impressive, piece of music. It begins with a simple dotted eighth note - sixteenth note motif in the bass clarinet and later builds to a sharp and piercing rendition by the French horns, along with brutally aggressive drum clips. There's some good CE3K-like piano licks in the lower register (ala "Climbing Devil's Tower"), followed by a blaring rendition of the JFK theme accompanied by bagpipes. This piece perfectly captures the chaos that attended the JFK assassination. The low-end orchestral turbulence heard at the end of the "Theme to JFK" and the warm "Garrison Family Theme" connotes the dark ending to the Kennedy story and the continued danger, which I think is a nice touch. The conspiracy music such as "The Motorcade," "Garrison's Obsession," "The Conspirators," and "The Death of David Ferrie" in general is very effective. It's cold, dark, and uncomfortable, which is exactly the way we are supposed to feel about the events on film; the music assists in sweeping us along into the film's urgent, paranoid world. This is most illustrated by "The Conspirators," an incredibly original and innovative piece rhythmically driven by wood blocks, keyboard, piano, and synth choir, all backed by the orchestra. This piece alone has been imitated numerous times by various composers, a testament to its influence in the scoring of suspense music. "Arlington" stands apart from the rest of the JFK score, beginning with a mournful rendition of the theme with Jim Thatcher's French horn and then developing into a full-blown adagio in the string section. In a score otherwise characterized by its emotional aloofness, this piece shines as a stunningly emotional expression of the film's intensely tragic dimension. We see on screen Garrison brooding over the Eternal Flame as a black man stands beside him and points out the flame to his son. This sequence, musically and visually, is very powerful. I have gotten many emails from people asking where they can find the JFK soundtrack. Apparently, the soundtrack to JFK has gone out of print in recent years and cannot be found in any online music store that I know of. JFK really is not a rare item, since a large number of copies were pressed in the initial release, but it is now hard to find. However, I have noticed a large number of JFK CDs regularly showing up for auction on ebay.com. My suggestion to you, if you are looking for this CD, is either to win one of these online auctions, find someone who will be willing to sell you their copy, or hope you will get lucky and find it in a used bin is some hole-in-the-wall record store. John Williams has written some very excellent scores to Born of the Fourth of July and Nixon, and JFK is no exception in the Williams - Stone collaboration. The score is highly dramatic, listenable, and musically impressive, and is strongly recommended to anyone who admires the music of John Williams. ****
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
