Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,835
Written 2/21/12
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Buy it... if you wish to place yourself in a catatonic state, in
which case this innocuously inoffensive and pretty score on repeat for a
week might do the job.
Avoid it... if you appreciate Randy Newman's feather-light touch
when hearing his sensitive character themes but you also require
interludes of deeper weight or much variation in tone throughout such
scores.
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| Newman |
Awakenings: (Randy Newman) Depending on your frame
of mind, the 1990 movie Awakenings could either reaffirm the
hopeless optimism you feel in your heart or throw you into the pits of
despair with its depiction of futile medicine. Based upon the true story
of a neurologist played by Robin Williams (in a serious role), the movie
explores his frustrating efforts of the 1960's to awaken patients who
have spent decades in a catatonic state, using outside stimuli to
interact with the trapped minds with varying levels of success. He
eventually tests the use of a new drug on one patient (Robert De Niro)
who, almost miraculously, emerges from his catatonic state and is
suddenly able to carry on a nearly normal lifestyle. Soon, however, the
limitations of the drug are exposed as this patient (and others who were
treated the same way) begin to deteriorate in their condition until they
slip back into unconsciousness. The film concentrates on the process of
rebirth and the realizations of the limitations of time, an exercise in
persistence against medical odds. The movie represented the first
project by director Penny Marshall since her mainstream debut with
Big a couple of years earlier, and her efforts were rewarded with
universal critical acclaim and three major Academy Award nominations.
The movie came at a time before Marshall struck up a collaboration with
emerging composer Hans Zimmer, utilizing Randy Newman instead for this
assignment. After Newman's memorable success for The Natural in
1984, he followed a brief period of relative inactivity with a trio of
serious, small-scale dramatic scores that ranged from Parenthood
in 1989 to Awakenings and Avalon the following year. Many
years before his hit scores and songs for animated features, Newman was
known for his respectful handling of intimate Americana topics (with the
occasional flair for the dramatic). In this trilogy of scores, you hear
Newman toil with the melodic grace close to his heart, restraining its
usual waltz or jazz rhythms to often barely audible levels of activity.
At times, this sound expands out to define the larger scope of American
society as a whole, especially in his ragtime-style retro mould that
would extend to 1950's purity in Pleasantville. In the uniquely
somber dramatic portions of these specific 1989 and 1990 scores,
however, you encounter a tender side of Newman that is nothing less than
charmingly relaxing at best and inoffensively atmospheric at
worst.
Newman's approach to
Awakenings is about as
innocuous as one could imagine. Newman's ensemble relies upon solo
woodwind, harp, and piano performances over whimsical strings for nearly
the score's entire length, only bringing the brass in for rare
flourishes of counterpoint outside of the score's one beefier expression
of suspense in "Escape Attempt." In many regards, the result of Newman's
instrumental applications is similar to what Jerry Goldsmith might have
used at the time (minus electronic embellishments in rhythm) for his
numerous, similar character scores of intimate appeal. Clarinets, oboes,
flutes, and piano are the most common identifiers of theme in
Awakenings, often wafting through Newman's ideas over softly
plucked, rising harp figures. Melodically, Newman expresses a number of
ideas, but the most intoxicating is the one immediately introduced in
"Leonard" (for the lead patient played by De Niro). Its elusively
descending phrases are appropriately childlike and difficult to grasp,
inexorably devolving to a partially unresolved finish as necessary. In
between the statements of this idea to open and close the score, Newman
allows the theme to mingle with his other identities, foremost the
equally tranquil, slightly jazzy tone of the doctor's theme in "Dr.
Sayer." A certain stateliness in this theme is a firm contrast to the
prior idea, which is intentionally dreamy to almost a fault. The most
interesting secondary idea is one of romance heard in the latter half of
"Rilke's Panther" and at the outset of "The Reality of Miracles" that
will make you believe after its first few rising phrases that Ariel the
mermaid is about to start singing about her world. The flow of the score
is remarkably even throughout, the hopeful increase in pace in "Outside"
and the stern tone of brass and percussion in "Escape Attempt" the only
deviations from an otherwise streamlined conversational tone. A piano
solo by Newman in "Dexter's Tune" could be a tribute to jazz legend
Dexter Gordon, who had a non-speaking cameo role in the film. The album
also features a cover of the song "Time of the Season" in its
mid-section, which is fine in and of itself but detrimental to the flow
of the listening experience. The sound quality is crisp in all but the
solo Newman piano performance, the remainder providing 35 minutes of
truly effortless and pretty material that takes practically no chances.
A listener could take the slower-tempo parts of this,
Parenthood,
Avalon, and
Pleasantville to generate a compilation of
lovely but somewhat inconsequential character melody of a feather-light
personality. It's perfect music for a person seeking a self-induced
catatonic state.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Randy Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 20 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.11
(in 22,943 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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