Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you specifically noticed the songs or the score's pleasant synthetic tones and female vocals in the film itself. Avoid it... if you expect any basic emotional development representative of the film's brutal story. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Little Boy Blue: (Stewart Copeland) If you've ever felt like your family is too dysfunctional for you to handle, then you need to watch Little Boy Blue and realize that things could be far, far worse. A young man in a small Texas town comes from a trailer and an abusive father, choosing not to go with his wealthy girlfriend to college so that he can stay behind and protect his mother and two younger siblings from his father. Before you think that there's anything normal about the twisted plot of Little Boy Blue, imagine that the boy is having sex with the mother, an older woman comes into the story as an avenging angel and blows everything away, and the father had his penis blown off in Vietnam, so how exactly could he have three children anyway? And that's not even spoiling any of the more interesting twists of the story. Director Antonio Tibaldi seems to have thought that a decent showing at the arthouse festivals could propel Little Boy Blue to mainstream interest, but all he managed to produce was a wickedly disturbing film that critics crushed and audiences appropriately avoided. Given that the story exists in some sort of brutal haze, it's no surprise that Stewart Copeland's score for the picture is the kind of impressionistic music that leaves you thinking you've been clubbed in the head by something... or maybe serves well as the kind of sounds you hear in your head during a hangover. Copeland is the former drummer for the rock band "The Police" and has written several similar scores for the likes of Oliver Stone and Francis Ford Coppola, proving that his pop roots have appeal when directors and producers want a "cool, but different" sound for their films. For Little Boy Blue, Stewart would actually provide a minimal amount of score, with the film utilizing several songs and silence over key sequences. With an underscore like this, it wouldn't be hard to miss it. In fact, it's one of those cases where the songs are for more interesting. Copeland's score is completely devoid of any development beyond the overall, hazy impression of the film's otherworldliness. It's a completely synthesized score, with meandering keyboarding mixed with occasional light rhythm samples, an electric guitar, and a solo female voice overlaid several times. There is no thematic concept outside of the female vocals, which perform protracted Enya-like themes in slightly distorted layers. These progressions have faint similarities to historical American songs, though this resemblance is probably a coincidence. On the surface, these vocal cues, especially "Kids Catch Fish" and "End Titles," are enjoyable in their new age tendencies, but the more disturbing question about Copeland's score exists in its strange attitude towards its own subject matter. Other than some slight high-range electronic dissonance in "Ray Pushes Up," there's really nothing unpleasant about the score for Little Boy Blue. The music provides absolutely no dimension to the psychological horrors of the film, making you wonder if the light, enjoyable tones of the score were some horrible mistake by the composer or actually a request from the filmmakers. The score was released by the Sonic Images label at roughly the same time as Mark Snow's Disturbing Behavior, which featured a score seemingly far more emotionally in tune with the disastrous and hideous social situations of both films. On album, there is only 11 minutes of Copeland's score existing after 21 minutes of songs, any of which will overshadow the score's most vibrant moments. The songs are an odd, but listenable collection of country western and old rock and jazz, adequately representing the location of the story. But they provide no emotional insight into the terrible occurences on screen either, leaving the Little Boy Blue album as one of the most truly curious, disconnected soundtracks of recent times. Because it's easily listenable, the album avoids the lowest rating, but Copeland's score is as devoid of effective dramatic appeal as one can get. ** Track Listings:
Total Time: 32:21
All artwork and sound clips from Little Boy Blue are Copyright © 1998, Sonic Images 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 8/17/98, updated 1/21/07. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 1998-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
