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| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you are ready for a heart-pounding drama with native chants, ominous chorus, orchestral depth, heavy themes, and an excellent array of specialty flutes and percussion. Avoid it... if you are either deterred by Horner's similar thematic structures or are seeking a more intensely personal recording of Native American chants, such as those in Thunderheart. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
More interestingly, The Missing would be the first Horner score in a while not to rely on the contributions of an advertised soloist. Instead, Horner replaces the single solo talent with a strong array of his usual performers on ethnic woodwinds and percussion. This is a move that made the likes of Willow and The Mask of Zorro such memorable efforts, and the same effectiveness could be measured in The Missing, too. Without a doubt, The Missing is Horner's most dramatically impressive score in a great while. He composes the score along a simple philosophy of ethnic variance over a thematic base. As can be heard in the very first minutes of the score, the Native American chanting is mixed over a richly harmonic alternation of broad, orchestral notes. Even as the score would become chaotic --especially in the fast-paced chase and rescue cues later on-- Horner would maintain that thematic (or at least harmonic) orchestral foundation behind the huge variety of crashing, tapping, chanting, and tearing accent sounds. Horner manages this delicate balance between the romance of the story (and the land) and the frightful emotions of the immediate situation very well in The Missing; for a score with horrors around every turn, the sheer determination of the story's primary characters persists though the constant statements of theme, and The Missing is therefore a very listenable score. For Horner collectors (and Horner critics), the score's only weakness will be the similarity between the theme's structure here and that of Legends of the Fall and, to a lesser degree, Titanic. While Horner's positioning of the themes is excellent, the actual themes themselves (with the primary one being introduced in full in the third track) utilize all the same old chord progressions that Horner has built dramatic themes upon in the past. Thus, with the theme existing as an extension of (mainly) Legends of the Fall, more weight would fall on the shoulders of the specialty instruments to carry the unique personality of The Missing. And that they do, with the overall sound of the score varying from Horner's usual orchestral sappiness to appease, at least to some extent, even the harshest of Horner critics. Horner begins with his faithful old shakahachi flute (which he made famous in Willow), and adds a kena flute, bowed mouth harp, panpipes, and a collection of physical items in the percussion section on which to tap, rap, and bang. Perhaps most notable is the widely advertised use of metallic, folding chairs as items in which to tap instead of a snare drum. Horner also includes various electronic sound effects very slightly under the other elements, along with the Indian chants and a traditional chorus. The result of all of these players and singers is a score that resembles pieces of Horner's other efforts, but in a refreshingly new combination. The flutes offer a hauntingly beautiful accompaniment to thematic outbursts at the outset, with a page taken from Hans Zimmer's Beyond Rangoon after about a minute into the score. Horner also reintroduces the panpipes to set a fast, rhythmic mood, as done in Legends of the Fall, in the 2nd and 14th tracks. After the major introduction of theme in the third cue, Horner energizes the pace of the orchestra with the same tingling and clanging percussion used in the disaster scenes in Apollo 13, with the same kind of electronic circuit-clicking rhythms used with a less sophisticated edge. The organic shakahachi (always a distinctively elegant instrument) is performed to suggest a howling wolf in the latter half of the score. The culmination of the native chants, chorus, theme, and specialty instruments exists in "The Brujo's Storm," a monumentally enormous Horner cue that puts everything from The Perfect Storm to shame. With the full ensemble unleashed in excellently mixed sound, this cue, as well as the exciting "Rescue and Breakout" one, offers Horner's most intense and powerful music in several years. In these cues, Horner propels the frightening action with trademark trumpet counterpoint and drum-pounding accents heard in his other efforts, but credit should be given to Horner for resisting the readily overused four-note motif that he usually employs to represent evil (never once is it heard on the album for The Missing). For listeners hoping for a reprise of Thunderheart, which remains one of Horner's most unique and intriguing scores, you may be slightly disappointed. The incorporation of the chanting into The Missing is done without the same intensely personal style as in Thunderheart, and while both are effective in their roles, Thunderheart is still the better, straight score for Native American chanting alone. Both are better than the somewhat less inspiring Windtalkers. Overall, The Missing is evidence that Horner is at his best when he ceases messing around with a famous soloist and concentrates on writing for a richly stocked orchestral ensemble. Due to the repetition of thematic development from previous scores, The Missing is a shade less than perfect, but you can't help but marvel at the lengths to which Horner went to produce a spooky and unique sound for this score. A full album from the Sony family of labels provides Horner's efforts in a very listenable and often heart-pounding presentation. It is a score worthy of serious consideration during the awards season. *****
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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