Buy it... if you can't resist a harmonically grandiose score that dazzles from start to finish with its simplistic choral and orchestral beauty.

Avoid it... if nothing can surpass the effectiveness and importance of Max Steiner's original 1933 score, especially a modern remake score that pays little tribute to its style.

Howard

King Kong: (James Newton Howard) The last thing any fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy thought writer/director Peter Jackson would tackle next was another remake of King Kong, but to his credit, the 2005 version of the classic metaphorical tale has garnered fantastic success from critics and box office results alike. As to be expected, a film that was supposed to be about 140 minutes in length ended up running about 190 minutes, and yet the quality of the epic causes it to easily eclipse the 1976 version and stand as worthy modern counterpart to the 1933 RKO Radio Pictures classic. The overall plot for King Kong hasn't changed much over that time, with the notable change being the affection that the young actress feels in return for the ape in the 2005 version. All deep meanings behind King Kong aside, it is essentially a monster film for the majority of audiences, and with its endless dazzlements in the special effects department, the Jackson film offers up creature scenes that put Jurassic Park into surprising technological perspective. When speaking of film scores, you will hear little argument against Max Steiner's 1933 scoring being the first major film score ever to exist in a motion picture. Because of that fact, some background on Steiner's achievement should be discussed before the inevitable comparisons between it, John Barry's 1976 interpretation, and James Newton Howard's 2005 interpretation on the same story.

Steiner's score was such a novel idea in 1933 that every part of the composing, recording, and production processes were being invented on the fly. With only a maximum of 46 performers, and some having to run across the stage between instruments to play them at the right moment during a cue, the Steiner achievement is quite amazing. It was fierce in its brass, and defined the Golden Age of film music with its strings, and its statement of theme and motif, while inspired (like everything) from Wagner, presented moviegoers in 1933 with a score that laid the foundation for much of what we hear today in film music. John Barry never had a chance to capture the same momentous action in 1976; he was badly mis-assigned in that project, perhaps with the studios stuck on the romance of the epic rather than the action. In 2005, Peter Jackson would immediately make one change from the approach of Steiner's original. Instead of allowing lengthy dialogue sequences without underscore, as Steiner had done (the original is a short score), Jackson would require over three hours of music for his remake. That seemingly wouldn't be a problem for composer Howard Shore, who had written countless hours of music for Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy between 2001 and 2003, and had received three Academy Awards for his efforts. In a move that still has the film music world dumbstruck, Jackson and Shore parted ways late in the production process due to the always vague "creative differences" reason. Immediately, shades of Gabriel Yared's rejected Troy score --one that received much more interest after the film's release than the replacement score by James Horner-- came to the collective mind.

Exactly two months before the film's release date, and with five weeks to completely write, record, and edit a replacement score, Hollywood veteran James Newton Howard was hired to unceremoniously replace Shore. With most of the Los Angeles players already booked for other major holiday soundtrack recordings (there are only a limited number of players and recording studios in L.A. for these endeavors, and they are booked individually or as groups well in advance), and a great distance between Jackson in his usual New Zealand location and Howard in L.A., the process required a significant employment of internet technologies to realize. Jackson and Howard would sometimes both view feeds of the recording sessions remotely (with Howard composing while the score was being recorded across town), and all three locations would be linked for communication purposes. Amazingly, the composer and director would not meet in person until the highly touted debut of the film. Howard's production of three hours of music didn't allow him to get overly creative with the score, and despite a promising possibility of actual interpretations of Steiner's crucial historical score for this 2005 interpretation, very little influence from Steiner's work would be evident in Howard's final score. It would be very interesting to determine if Shore's firing was due in part to some kind of more faithful interpretation of Steiner's themes and general rhythmic and instrumental approach.

One thing is for sure: Howard has provided an outstanding score given the time constraints and the numerous headaches of actually producing the recording. King Kong is easily Howard's most straight-forward orchestral score to date, robust in its basic construction and shying away from the electronic and solo instrumental creativity that has often defined his career. From the time of Steiner to Howard, film music has become much more fluid in its progressions, due partly to the career of John Williams, and whereas Steiner would blast his score with all the available power of 46 performers in quick rhythmic fashion, Howard follows the more standard modern format of subtly foreshadowing themes, slowly developing them, varying their instrumentation, and ultimately building to the usual choral finales. Today's technology has allowed the concept of density to be established in film music whereas Steiner could not rely on such nuances to make a substantial impact. Perhaps Howard's tip of the hat to Steiner exists in the relatively simplistic, single-layered structure of the majority of this score, but then again, maybe that was simply done due to time constraints. One funny aspect of Howard's score is a four-note descending brass theme for Kong, maybe indicating that Steiner's three-note descending Kong theme is no longer sufficient in the modern epic (everything must be done today just a little bit larger, no?).

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Quick brass rips and percussive rhythms in the final "Beauty Killed the Beast" cues touch at the edges of Steiner's sensibilities, but by the time you hear a solo boy's voice in the finale, you realize that Howard as truly taken his own approach to the score. A theme for Skull Island is the other major idea in Howard's King Kong, and is used with grandiose effect on several occasions. Overall, this Howard score is very enjoyable, though one wishes that he would have made a few more nods to Steiner's work and incorporated more of the Kong-like sound effects outside of the island cues. A harmonically pleasing score from start to finish, Howard succeeds in the bouncing rhythms of his more playful interludes, as well as the broad strokes of strings for the love interest. An almost religious sensibility shines through in an ultra-dramatic series of cues at the end of the score, maybe due to the metaphorical struggles behind the Kong story, and while this may be a 180-degree turn from Steiner, it certainly excels in its mere beauty. Howard has produced the most easily listenable score of his career, but by no means his most creative or intellectual, and while this work will capture the attention of most casual film score collectors, it may not resonate as well with fans of the composer's eclectic styles. With only roughly a third of the score from the film on album (some cues for key sequences from the island are missing), look for an expanded album in future years if the film continues its success into the awards season. Howard has received around half a dozen Oscar nominations to date without a win, and look for King Kong to provide him with another opportunity to take home the golden statuette. In the end, though, Steiner is still the king of Kong. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.31 (in 53 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.16 (in 58,041 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.