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8/29/03 - Despite the magnificent musical talent applied to
films and television in the past and present, Thomas Newman unintentionally
stumbled into the scoring business by accident. Over fifty major film scores
later, he has become one of the most sought-after composers in Hollywood, and
this week Filmtracks
celebrates Thomas Newman's career with a Composer Tribute. Since
Little Women in 1994, Newman has been well known for writing
spectacular scores for large orchestral ensembles, and yet he personally
prefers writing for small ensembles and producing quirky, off-beat rhythms (a
la American Beauty). Unceasing experimentation helps define his
approach, and he manages to elicit an enormous amount of the emotional
content of a film without being obvious about it. The directors with whom he
has worked agree that Newman has an original voice and is a genuine
collaborator. In 2003, he overcame his apprehension of the animated genre (a
staple of his cousin, Randy) and scored the biggest blockbuster of the
summer, Finding Nemo. Filmtracks also maintains sixteen other Composer
Tributes.
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8/28/03 - Little Women: (Thomas Newman) "1994 was something of
a breakout year for Thomas Newman. Though he had been working steadily in
Hollywood for more than ten years, like a "rookie" ballplayer whose first
shot at the big leagues comes after years in the minors, Newman finally
scored pay dirt when he was attached to two A-list projects that year (three,
if you count The War), one of which went on to become a modern-day
classic (I'll let you guess which one). Having built a reputation for
himself as the go-to guy for quirky films in need of a quirky musical voice,
Newman wasn't finally thrust for good into the mainstream until the Academy
Awards season of early 1995, when the powers that be took notice of a young
composer who'd somehow snagged not one but two nominations for Best Score.
One was The Shawshank Redemption (the aforementioned classic, which
should have beaten The Lion King). The other was Little Women.
While Newman had amassed an impressive resume up to that point in his career,
including Men Don't Leave, Fried Green Tomatoes and Scent of
a Woman..." **** Read the entire
donated review.
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8/27/03 - The Master of Ballantrae: (Bruce Broughton)
--Updated Review-- "Already known in the television scoring arena for
his The Blue and the Grey score, Bruce Broughton was presented with
the opportunity in 1984 to score this remake of the 1953 Errol Flynn
swashbuckler. The film, which aired on the CBS network in America, was a
lavish production of 150 minutes in length and starred Michael York and
Timothy Dalton in leading roles. Although the budget for the project as whole
was quite large, Broughton only received enough money from the producers to
write a score for an unbelievably restricting 36 musicians. He would strip
the Sinfonia of London down to its bare parts, including only six brass
players. In the face of such adversity, Broughton still managed --somehow--
to provide a score that has moments of large swashbuckling action and drama.
To do this, Broughton inserted as much melody as possible into the score in
order to counterbalance the lack of power to carry the music in the film...."
*** Read the
entire review.
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8/25/03 - My Big Fat Greek Wedding: (Chris Wilson/Alexander
Janko) --All New Review-- "The 2002 smash hit that took everyone by
surprise, this film outpaced many of the year's blockbusters and turned
profits that raised all arthouse films' hopes for mainstream success. Actress
and comedian Nia Vardalos first performed the idea of My Big Fat Greek
Wedding in her stand-up solo comedy routine before the producing husband
and wife team of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson propelled the film onto the big
screen. For anyone who has not had the privilege to know or live with a true
Greek, then My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a must-see experience for
purely educational reasons. While the film makes light comedy out of the
differing cultures of Greek Americans and "Xenos" (non-Greeks), it also
presents a balanced and frighteningly accurate portrayal of Greek
eccentricities. A thirtysomething Greek spinster (Vardalos) falls in love
with and becomes engaged to a Xeno (John Corbett) and thus, from the Xeno's
point of view, a "Wedding from Hell" kind of scenario is put into action. The
music for the film proved to be a popular hit with audiences as well..."
**** Read the entire
review.
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8/22/03 - In twenty short years, Alan Silvestri has transformed
himself from a guitarist, drummer, and arranger in various bands to one of
the world's most in-demand film composers. For the fourth new composer
tribute
addition to Filmtracks this month, a Tribute to Alan
Silvestri is now available. Through late night improvisation and a
willingness to learn any genre of music, Silvestri continues to produce high
quality scores and establish himself in Hollywood as a melody wizard and a
musical chameleon. He has experimented with almost every type of film genre:
comedy, action, romance, science fiction, animation, horror, drama, fantasy,
western, thriller, slapstick, and adventure. Look for a review of his new
large scale score for Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in
the near future, as well as reviews of recent promos such as Lilo &
Stitch and What Women Want. Filmtracks also maintains fifteen other Composer
Tributes.
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8/21/03 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit: (Alan Silvestri) --All
New Review, Three Albums-- "Hailed as one of the most successful
technological breakthroughs in history of the animated film genre, Who
Framed Roger Rabbit was an incredibly popular merging of animated and
live-action filming technologies. And while the seamless integration of these
two genres was heralded to no end in 1988, the film strangely had little
impact on the actual future of animation and live action films. Ironically,
Disney would meet an even greater success by going back to the strictly
animated scene, and would hit the financial pot of gold beginning the next
year with The Little Mermaid and continuing through all of the Alan
Menken projects. Despite the success of the visuals, the project turned out
to have a bigger legacy in the other realm in which it dabbled: cross-studio
character mingling. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was also famous for its
rare collaboration between Warner Brothers and Disney, and the licensing and
copyright nightmare that the film ended up creating would unfortunately make
it a one-time experiment...." **** Read the entire
review.
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8/20/03 - Sommersby: (Danny Elfman) --Expanded Review--
"An Americanized story of the soldier who assumes the identity of a comrade
and returns to live his life, Sommersby was a Richard Gere project for
which Nicholas Meyer had rewritten the story for the Virginia countryside.
The film failed to garner much attention outside of its initial release,
partly due to the film's downbeat ending and poor word of mouth. Despite its
obscurity now, Sommersby remains a well crafted film by director Jon
Amiel, with several spectacular scenes contained within the picture. In the
post-Civil War era, Gere's title character returns from several years of war,
having killed the nasty, real (and nearly identical-looking) Sommersby and
assuming his place in the Virginia village as a changed man. As he helps
improve the town, as well as his family, the film picks up a positive, though
troubled momentum, leading up to discovery of his fraud and trail for his
crimes. Sommersby would be the only collaboration between Amiel and
composer Danny Elfman (Amiel established a working relationship with
Christopher Young after this film), and the choice of Elfman was one of
intrigue..." ***** Read the entire
review.
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8/18/03 - The Hi-Lo Country: (Carter Burwell) --All New
Review-- "Director Stephen Frears took his first adventure in the genre
of the Wild West for The Hi-Lo Country, a spaghetti western which
places one woman as the subject of the affections of two cowboys. The formula
isn't new, with the simple plot of the love triangle playing out on the vast
scenery of New Mexico. The film, while it is a character-driven tale, does
reveal several large vistas and a wide palate of yellow and orange colors.
The project would prove to be the first Western for niche composer Carter
Burwell, who was best known (and still is) for his collabotation with the
Coen brothers on films like Fargo and Raising Arizona, as well
as several dissonant scores for other dark thrillers. The musical
requirements of the New Mexican vistas would present a new avenue on which
Burwell could express his musical talents, and, to some degree, he did just
that. Even with the genre at his side, Burwell continues his trend towards
the composition of complex underscore rather than a more prominent role for
his music...." *** Read the entire
review.
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8/15/03 - With over 200 film scores to his credit, Elmer
Bernstein has finally received a Composer
Tribute at Filmtracks. The legendary composer began scoring films in
1951,
and has continued his output through last year's Academy Award-nominated
Far
from Heaven. Bernstein's fascinating career extends all the way back to a
collaboration with Cecil B. DeMille, as well as unfounded accusations of
Communist activity during the McCarthy era. He remains the only composer
working at the turn of the century to span the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and
Digital Ages of film music, and he utilizes his influence to serve as a front
line crusader for the rights of composers and musicians who do not have his
bargaining power. After 52 years of composing, Bernstein's name, both in the
industry and with his listeners, is synonymous with creativity, versatility
and longevity. Filmtracks also maintains fourteen other Composer
Tributes.
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8/14/03 - Mark Twain's Roughing It: (Bruce Broughton) --All
New Review-- "A lovable Hallmark Entertainment film, director Charles
Smith's depiction of both Mark Twain's younger and older personas offers an
expansive glimpse at the life of Samuel Clemens. Staying true to many of the
facts of Clemens' life, the film tells the tall tales of Clemens' youth
through the adaptation of his own autobiographical novel. He delivers these
stories in the film from the perspective of the 1891 Clemens while speaking
at the graduating ceremony of his daughter's school class. The success of
Clemens' writing career (as Mark Twain) is sustained mainly because of his
ability to relate history in a comical fashion, and the film offers the
visual representations of many of these comedy routines that Clemens was a
part of during his own lifetime. As wholesome entertainment, Mark Twain's
Roughing It is a lighthearted and fluffy work set mostly in the Wild
West, as Clemens' journeys took him to California in search for adventure and
story inspiration. Composer Bruce Broughton is widely regarded as the scoring
industry's foremost expert on Western genre music in the 1990's and
beyond...." *** Read the entire
review.
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8/12/03 - Heat: (Elliot Goldenthal) "Reworked from a failed TV
pilot, 1995's Heat pitted Al Pacino and his elite Robbery Homicide
Unit against Robert DeNiro's no less professional and proficient band of
thieves. With Dante Spinotti's blue-hued palette and the city of Los Angeles
providing ample atmosphere, director Michael Mann sought once again to
compile the moodiest, broodiest soundtrack possible. Who would've guessed
that Mann, he of the slickly produced pop and circumstance, would find a
musical alter ego in esoteric Elliot Goldenthal? An unabashed visualist with
style to burn, Mann has not always been successful in matching his style with
substance, but Heat, arguably Mann's best film to date, served up
unusually high amounts of both. So into a filmography which now includes the
likes of Jan Hammer, Trevor Jones, Randy Edelman and Lisa Gerrard stepped
Elliot Goldenthal. Still building his career through an impressive string of
scores such as Cobb and Interview with the Vampire, the
Goldenthal's heady, classically-based voice may not have seemed the likeliest
match with Mann's visceral kitsch..." **** Read the entire donated
review.
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8/11/03 - Cry, The Beloved Country: (John Barry) --Expanded
Review-- "The Alan Paton novel about the relationship between culturally
different fathers in South Africa who bond after their sons are both killed
in the apartheid struggle has been adapted onto the stage and screen several
times. The most recent 1995 film version offers James Earl Jones as the black
minister and Richard Harris as white father, and although the acting was well
received, the film was not. Considered too light of an adaptation, the film
was disregarded as being too easy on the evils of apartheid. Lacking the kind
of political punch necessary to provide a compelling reason to seek its
message, the film is typically shelved behind the more powerful 1951 Sidney
Poitier rendition of the story. Composer John Barry was no stranger to
composing for the cultural ills of the world, and especially for Africa. At
the height of the composer's activities, in the 1960's, speckled throughout
his James Bond scores were a handful of pieces that Barry had written
specifically for African subject matter, a few of which recognized for
awards. Into the 1990's, Barry had remained a composer best known for
composing to vast scenery and glorious colors...." **** Read the entire
review.
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8/8/03 - Filmtracks has enhanced its Tribute to John Debney
this week. With over thirty Debney
scores
reviewed at Filmtracks, additional quotes and pictures, as well as an
updated biography and career summary have taken the Debney Tribute from its
"regular" tribute size to an "expanded" one. Debney continues to utilize both
his classical training and a strong knowledge of contemporary sounds in order
to easily adapt to any assignment, making him the composer to watch in the
next few decades. His flawless methodology of producing his scores, including
extensive knowledge of temp tracking, fast deadline techniques, and working
with groups of composers has caused him to become one of the industry's most
in-demand composers. It is not unusual for Debney to be involved in five or
six projects per year, clearly out-producing all other major Hollywood
composers active today. Look for continued reviews of Debney's
promotionally-released scores at Filmtracks in the months to follow.
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8/6/03 - Medal of Honor: Frontline: (Michael Giacchino)
--All New Review-- "By the time Medal of Honor: Frontline hit
the gaming market in 2002, the Medal of Honor concept was strongly
established as a premiere war game in the industry. After being recognized
and awarded for his work on Medal of Honor: Underground the previous
year, Michael Giacchino was also becoming an established force in the music
industry, with offers beginning to come in for a wider variety of scoring
projects (though mostly in television). Commissioned to write music for both
Medal of Honor: Frontline and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault,
the latter only required five new cues of material (and thus received no
album release). Medal of Honor: Frontline, however, thrusts the allies
back into the series of games with the daring, if not disastrous Operation
Market Garden (during which the Allies air dropped troops along the German
"West Wall" to capture a handful of strategic bridges on the Rhine River).
For the return of the Allies from the first game, Giacchino was originally
asked to contribute roughly an hour of music for the game...." **** Read the entire
review.
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8/5/03 - Medal of Honor: Underground: (Michael Giacchino)
--All New Review-- "The closing days of the 1990's heralded a new age
in video game music. Traditionally classified as electronic garbage by the
majority of orchestrally minded film and television score collectors, video
game music began a slow, but sure experimentation in the orchestral realm.
The budgeting of such an allotment for the talent needed for a large-scale
video game score began surfacing more often in the first few years of the
next decade, and by 2003, hearing grand, sweeping orchestral music while
wasting away an afternoon on the computer or in front of the television
console while playing a game wasn't so outlandish. One of the key
contributing factors to this trend in video game music was Michael
Giacchino's successful endeavors for the original Medal of Honor game
in 1999. With an orchestral ensemble performing music that matched much of
the intensity and construction of John Williams' similarly themed efforts in
the genre for the big screen, Giacchino proved that not only could an
orchestral score for a game work, but that it should be a standard..." **** Read the entire
review.
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8/3/03 - Presumed Innocent: (John Williams) --Expanded
Review-- "Director Alan J. Pakula's adaptation of Scott Turow's best
selling novel placed Harrison Ford in a role that was becoming more familiar
to him with each passing project. While many will remember his action films
before all others, serious movie-goers will remember Ford's phase during
which he adequately, if not brilliantly, portrayed a scared man. From
Frantic to Presumed Innocent, Ford successfully expanded his
career into the realm of thrillers, with the latter, 1990 film representing
perhaps the pinnacle of such work. Pakula's storied, but sparse career never
established a strong working relationship with one composer over the span of
those thirty years, although he teamed with James Horner for the two pictures
immediately preceding his death in 1998. Presumed Innocent would be
the director's only film featuring the music of film score legend John
Williams. Williams was about to embark on yet another decade of spectacular
film scores, finishing the previous year with multiple Academy
Award-nominated works. Steamy, adult thrillers weren't the usual assignments
for Williams..." ***** Read the
entire review.
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8/1/03 - Filmtracks has completed an abbreviated sampling of
reviews for the works of composer Elliot Goldenthal. No modern film composer
has applied his talents in as wide a spectrum as Goldenthal. With strong
influences from the legends of the classical and jazz genres, he has made a
career out of interpolating these genres into schemes and styles that range
from the post-modern to the highly unusual. His music dances between atonal
dissonance and grand harmony, sometimes in a single cue, and his versatility
is as great as his orchestral creativity. To celebrate his achievements, a Filmtracks
Elliot Goldenthal Tribute has been established. In 2003, Goldenthal's
Othello ballet will be released on DVD, and his new feature film score
for S.W.A.T. will soon be available on CD as well. Look for continued
reviews of Goldenthal's commercially available music at Filmtracks in the
months to follow. Filmtracks also maintains thirteen other Composer
Tributes.
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