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Review of Awakenings (Randy Newman)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

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.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

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.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 42:20

• 1. Leonard (4:32) • 2. Dr. Sayer (1:39) • 3. Lucy (3:11) • 4. Catch (1:10) • 5. Rilke's Panther (3:11) • 6. L Dopa (3:09) • 7. Awakenings (5:43) • 8. Time of the Season - performed by The Zombies (3:14) • 9. Outside (1:05) • 10. Escape Attempt (0:50) • 11. Ward Five (3:29) • 12. Dexter's Tune (2:39) • 13. The Reality of Miracles (2:29) • 14. End Title (6:00)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Awakenings are Copyright © 1991, Reprise Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/21/12 (and not updated significantly since).