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The Phantom: (David Newman) In the middle of the 1990's, there
was a short-lived push to bring a second tier of radio and comic action icons to
the big screen, highlighted by the popular failure of 1994's
The Shadow.
Carrying a less interesting cast and a plot with an equal number of cliches,
director Simon Wincer's
The Phantom bombed to an even greater extent, pushed
aside by the heavy-weight summer releases of 1996 (such as
Independence Day
and
Twister). The fad of adapting comic book legends had died off for a
while (though the resurrection of the studios' attempts with 2000's
X-Men
were a predictable reboot of the same idea), but the film scores of that genre
remain as curiosities at the very least. The scores for these fantasy concepts and
the manipulation of time allow for large scale experimentation on the part of the
composers assigned to give them a lasting identity, allowing them to weave a
diverse fabric of thematic and unconventional instrumentation into rousing pieces
of music, both in the respective films and their albums. Even relative newcomers to
film music who are vaguely familiar with the style of composition of David Newman
know that the son of the infamous Alfred Newman is capable of writing large,
melodic themes for dramatic movies. His ability to highlight a score with a
spontaneous cue of orchestral marvel has not gone unnoticed. His score for
Hoffa has arguably the most memorable and consistently strong thematic
material of his career, and even a project as silly as 2000's
Bowfinger
offers a short, but brilliant orchestral piece for the film's outlandish ending.
Most collectors of David Newman's work, which has been restrained mostly to dumb
comedy through the years (he collaborated with Wincer on the wretched
Operation
Dumbo Drop a year before this), will be interested in knowing if
The
Phantom has any of the memorable traits of his work for
Galaxy Quest the
following year. Overall, the strength of the writing is the same, but the
development of ideas in
The Phantom remains somewhat inferior by comparison.
While Jerry Goldsmith's
The Shadow is still a cult favorite many years
later, Newman's
The Phantom sadly failed to capture the same interest in the
film score community. As a novelty object, the score is still debated in the
fantasy circles, but something about Newman's work for the film lacks the energy
and distinction to elevate it to memorable status.
Movies of this genre need, more than perhaps in any other, a
strong, easily-identifiable theme. Whether it's corny, over-the-top, or deadly
serious, fantasy films with a shadowy heroic villain depend heavily on a simple and
recognizable theme (or even less complicated motif) to herald the entrance and exit
of the title character. Subsequently, a style of exciting orchestral music is
required to push the fantasy element and exaggerate any difference in setting and
the time of the story. On this second task, Newman succeeds above and beyond the
call of duty, providing a substantial amount of impressively large orchestral music
for
The Phantom. His incorporation of the exotic flute (as a representation
of the remote beach where the original phantom was marooned) is an excellent
choice. Also included for dramatic effect is a beefy male chorus that figures
strongly in the first and last cues of the score. A more dramatic presence of those
elements probably would have helped distinguish
The Phantom as a more
enjoyable piece overall, because the orchestra itself is the most lacking element
in the equation. The performances of
The Phantom by the London Metropolitan
Orchestra often lag in their enthusiasm and are poorly orchestrated. Their mixing
is particularly flat, and it is this lack of lofty sound that causes the superhero
score to unforgivingly slip by without notice in several sections. The most unique
and interesting moment of the score is Newman's use of soft "phantom" chants at
the beginning of the title cue. These were abandoned for the remainder of the score,
though even with those choral elements, Newman's orchestra didn't release enough
flighty energy to substantiate the composition on paper. Also of note is the fact
that Newman places the title theme on the back burner for quite a few lengthy cues,
also neglecting to explore interesting motifs established early in the score.
Goldsmith's
The Shadow succeeded so well in context for being the exact
opposite: a wildly thematic score with several outlandish motifs for percussion and
electronics. Newman does make a few attempts at incorporating electronic
distortions into the mix, but without much memorable success. Nevertheless, the
score, even with its occasional blasts of unbearable noise, contains several strong
moments of orchestral filler material. Pieces of it have been used quite often in
trailers for subsequent films. For the fan of the fantasy character genre,
The
Phantom is a decent entry, but mainstream fans are more likely to pass it over
for cult favorites like
The Shadow or modern classics such as Danny Elfman's
Batman. Average work in this genre just isn't good enough.
***
| Bias Check: | For David Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3 (in 10 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.38
(in 16,785 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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