Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you are an extremely avid John Williams collector and appreciate his soft and very restrained character scores for small ensembles. Avoid it... if you have no interest in hearing one of Williams' most underachieving and ineffective scores for an equally disappointing film. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Stanley & Iris: (John Williams) Nestled in between composer John Williams' lofty and adventuresome scores of 1989 and 1990 was Stanley & Iris. It was one of Williams' relief efforts from his fully orchestral exercises in bombast that he would take once every two or three years. Unfortunately, his respite in the soft warmth of light character drama would not contribute any success to the film itself. Slammed by critics left and right, Stanley & Iris lost the interest of audiences almost immediately. With a screenplay written by husband-and-wife team Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., and directed by Martin Ritt, the film reunited the team that brought Norma Rae and, more recently, Murphy's Romance to the big screen. The purpose of the film was to make a statement about illiteracy, with Jane Fonda as a working class widow attempting to befriend and teach Robert DeNiro, a working class illiterate, how to read and write. With a stock supporting cast of actors typecast from previous films (Moonstruck, Parenthood, etc), the film was sunk by Fonda's unrealistic and unsympathetic performance in a title role. Poor dialogue and predictable plotlines have continued to cause laughter of a mean-spirited nature even 15 years later, and while many John Williams fans may not want to hear it, the score doesn't help Stanley & Iris much either. Basically, the film lacks spark, personality, and any kind of memorable touch to distinguish itself from other character dramas. The exact same statement can be made about Williams' score. Over the years, the collectibility of the score on album has caused an aura of desirability that many fans seem to feel towards Stanley & Iris. Some film music critics hail Stanley & Iris as a superior effort from the maestro, but let's put it in perspective. Williams did nothing to inject much-needed inspiration into the film. Without a doubt, Williams' score for Stanley & Iris is pretty and respectful. It reminds of a more innocent time and place, just as scores like A Patch of Blue and Raggedy Man exist in the same role for Jerry Goldsmith. But Williams' subdued character scores, with The Accidental Tourist most recent at the time, fluctuate greatly between the magical and the mundane, and Stanley & Iris gravitates towards the latter. Designed for piano, woodwinds, and strings, the score's tempos are relaxing and volumes are restrained. Its two sweet themes are simple and repetitive, drawing similar performances from piano and flute in several cues. The piano is the heart of the urban piece, often setting a soothing rhythm in the background while a woodwind performs a central theme in the middle ranges and a moderate string section provides your elevator music accompaniment in higher ranges. An occasional trumpet and French horn repeat the same themes again, with the same rhythms. Then it's the cellos. Then it's back to the piano. Only once does Williams' piano spur the score into showing signs of life; at the start of "The Bicycle," the faster, more ambitious piano performance from the opening of E.T.'s end titles/"Over the Moon"/concert piece get the cue rolling with gusto. Williams is certainly capable of providing truly magical music in the form of small character themes. There were restrained sections of Hook that did just that, and from the same year, the family theme from Presumed Innocent, which shares many characteristics with the Stanley & Iris theme (as heard in the opening and closing cues on the album), presented similar ideas with much more authenticity. The usual, brilliant twists of key and rhythm aren't present in Stanley & Iris; it is about as simple-minded as the composer can get, and compared to his usual level of complexities, the score fails to maintain much interest. The album from Varèse Sarabande is only 29 minutes in length, and fell out of print only a few years after production. It's curious to see collectors shell out over $50 for Stanley & Iris, because it is among Williams' most underachieving and ineffective scores in the modern era. ** Track Listings:
Total Time: 28:56
All artwork and sound clips from Stanley & Iris are Copyright © 1990, Varèse Sarabande. 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 6/13/98, updated 4/3/05. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 1998-2005, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
