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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you wish for a simple, but refreshingly new approach to a heroic tragedy with a full and diverse orchestral ensemble. Avoid it... if you've heard just a few too many superhero themes already for your liking, and aren't interested in yet another variation on the cliche. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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