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The Punisher: (Carlo Siliotto) First appearing as an
auxiliary character in a Spiderman comic in 1974, Frank Castle would
eventually gain his own comic series (and international fame) in the
mid-1980's. His story being one of emotional torment, Castle is a former
decorated Marine who abandons his service when his family is gunned down in
cold blood, becoming "The Punisher" as an expert, freelance crime fighter.
For the film, some of the facts of the original comic have been twisted to
suit a more modern age, but the table is still set for Castle to become his
own superhero of sorts and, in this case, take down the wealthy, criminal
Florida family which wrongly killed his own. The most important aspect of
the Castle character remains intact: his ability to fight as a superhero
without any supernatural superhero powers. He relies simply on good hand to
hand combat tactics and a mastery of weaponry in order to seek his revenge.
Conversely, on the far other end of the spectrum of humanity is Italian
composer Carlo Siliotto, a man in his mid-50's who, as he states, spends
most of his time sitting at a piano composing music. It would be the mere
luck of the phenomenon known as 'the distinctive demo tape' that would land
Siliotto for the 2004 film adaptation of the comic,
The Punisher.
Writer and director Jonathan Hensleigh (in his directorial debut after
writing screenplays for several major summer action hits) claims that of all
the demo tapes received for
The Punisher, Siliotto's demo --an
excerpt of a theme from his 1992 score for
Flight of the Innocent--
was not only different from all the others, but seemed to capture the
tragic, but equally heroic spirit of the title character.
Siliotto, originally an arranger of popular Mediterranean
songs, wrote dozens of scores for mostly European films in the 1990's and
2000's, but
The Punisher is his first venture into the large stage of
mainstream American cinema in a while. Reading about his enthusiasm for the
film, it is easy to get the impression that Siliotto was excited by this
opportunity and therefore put considerable effort into creating a musical
identity for Frank Castle. By no means did Siliotto create a masterpiece of
complexity for
The Punisher, but in the simplicity of the score's
construction comes a refreshing sense of good and evil defined in clear
tones of black and white. The hero's theme is an amalgamation of major and
minor key ideas from every genre cliche and other hero theme that we have
heard before. Its performances are often focused solely on the primary
theme, without regard for counterpoint, depth of instrumentation, or even
layering of its own instrumentation. The solo trumpet for the war veteran,
mirrored by a flute for a sense of innocence, yields to a string interlude
that sounds cookie cutter in creation. And yet, it's the kind of simplicity
of focus that a man like Castle perhaps needs, and the theme --no matter
your regards for its rather sparse layering and depth-- will be floating
around in your head for no less than a week after your first listen of that
theme in film or on album.
What Siliotto has done with
The Punisher is create
an environment in which the cliches of the superhero genre flourish in their
own excess, nurtured by their assembly from the point of view of a Hollywood
outsider and his sense of care in preserving the strictly orchestral nature
of the entire package. For instance, if you take a cue such as "Castle's
Loneliness" (misspelled on the score album packaging), you hear the rolling
sounds of lower woodwinds a la Danny Elfman and the broad strokes of brass
whole notes in a supporting role a la Basil Poledouris, and, in the
subsequent "Call Me 'The Punisher'" cue, you hear a cello lament lost
romance in a fashion typical of a Rome street corner story of love long
gone. These defining moments throughout the score are what give Siliotto's
music for
The Punisher such grip for its surprisingly simplistic
substance. A sense of propulsive rhythm does not escape Siliotto, greeting
us with marching drums in "Otto Krieg" (along with the usual solo female
vocal that seems mandatory these days), determined string, piano and guitar
rhythms in "Setting a Trap" and "Joan's Suffering," and one outstanding
finale performance of the title theme in "The Skull." A female vocal and
pipe organ announce the start of battle with grand style in "God's Gonna Sit
This One Out." A toll of a bell and distant wail of an electric guitar
signal the entry into an enemy lair with adequate cool suspense.
The most surprising aspect of
The Punisher is its
overall pleasant demeanor, with the soft piano theme for Castle's family
(and general softer side) appearing several times throughout the score
during contemplative moments. A hint of Italian romance prevails in
The
Punisher... a strange, but strikingly effective approach to the tragedy
of the film. Even the "Massacre" scene is scored less with horror and more
with dramatic agony. Entire five-minute sections of the score can pass you
by with the elegance of Siliotto's piano writing, and you can then pass into
a cue of stealth and killing without the inconvenience of a jarring
interruption by brass or percussion. On the whole, the score doesn't
overwhelm you with its power or complexity upon first listen, but its strong
character more than compensates for the lack of orchestral depth to some of
the main thematic performances. Hearing parts of this material performed
with greater intensity and a larger ensemble could place it in historically
rare territory. On album, the lacking moments are campy at the worst and
addictive at best, and the greatest strength of
The Punisher is the
loyalty that Siliotto has shown to the cause of orchestral action scores.
With the film originally featuring a re-write of the original story and a
song album upon its release, general expectations about the underscore were
bleak. But Siliotto's effort is highly commendable, and his hour of material
on the subsequent score album is easily listenable in its entirety and
highly enjoyable in individual cues. A mild rock song and the inclusion of
the opera piece "La Donna E' Mobile" from "Rigoletto" round out the album.
Without a doubt, the score for
The Punisher will send many fans in
search of other Carlo Siliotto works.
****
The insert includes detailed information about the score or film, including notes from the composer and director. The album incorrectly lists total time as 65:37 (seemingly omitting the opera song at the end in the total).
