: (Angelo Badalamenti) From a studio point
of view, you know that your motion picture is especially troubled when
the production problems don't end when the film is released. Such is the
case with 20th Century Fox and Danny Boyle's
, which ran
into a multitude of issues relating to creative differences and an
abysmal adaptation (an outright butchering) of Alex Garland's 1996 book.
But that proved minor compared to the confrontation Fox eventually had
with the government of Thailand (going all the way up to its Supreme
Court) in regards to the studio's careless flattening of a pristine
beach in the country to better suit the desired look of the film. While
the titular location of the filming was eventually ruled to be an
environmental disaster that Fox was responsible for restoring, the 2004
tsunami in the region ironically ended up saving the studio some of that
labor. Money was never the issue;
made a profit of
nearly $100 million due to the explosive star power of lead actor
Leonardo DiCaprio in his first post-
role. Audiences
flocked to the 2000 picture despite dreadful reviews brought about by
terrible alterations to the book's plot that made the movie nearly
incomprehensible in its second half. A trio of tourists is on vacation
in Thailand when a Scotsman about to commit suicide reveals a map that
will take them to the most perfect, idyllic beach in the world. They
make the trek to the location, but discover a band of naturalists made
up of former tourists and, more immediately troubling, a production
facility for well-armed marijuana smugglers. Between the criminals, the
naturalists (who have bizarre religious rituals, no less), sharks, love
triangles, and other tourists inadvertently making the trip to the
island, conflict is bound to happen. By the end of the film, an
over-sexed DiCaprio character loses his mind and runs through a forest
fighting hallucinations that seemingly place him in a video game.
Indeed,
Given that this film was a reuniting of
Trainspotting's director (Boyle), producer (Andrew Macdonald),
and screenwriter (John Hodge), it should have come as no surprise that a
musical identity consisting of bad-ass techno/electronica and hard rock
songs was destined to define it. The collection of such songs yielded an
extremely successful song compilation CD at the time of the film's
release. What only sharp cinematic enthusiasts who happened to
appreciate
The Beach (the few in existence) realized was the
intrigue regarding Angelo Badalamenti's score for the film as well. Best
known for his associations with director David Lynch, Badalamenti is one
of those composers capable of surprising you with each and every new
score. He can break your heart with flowing orchestral romanticism in
Cousins and
The Comfort of Strangers but also repel you
with electronic dissonance so awful that scores like
Arlington
Road will make you nauseous. He can also straddle the eerie line in
between lyricism and ambient dissolution with ease as well, a style that
defines
Blue Velvet. Compilations of his work are fascinating to
behold, if only because of the man's incredible range of capabilities.
For
The Beach, Badalamenti ended up working with Orbital's Barry
Adamson to fuse an orchestral presence with heavy techno elements of a
level of brutality not much different from Orbital's influence on
Michael Kamen's
Event Horizon. There is a striking range of moods
in the resulting score, though even in the most beautiful portions by
Badalamenti, unease lurks in a slightly dissonant haze. The terrifying
half of this score is truly unlistenable. Much of it is backed by
aggressive strings and brass contributions, but the synthetic pounding
over obnoxiously harsh loops is too daunting for even this foreign of an
environment. With the channel-bouncing applications of sound effects,
some of which mimicking the sounds of handheld power tools and
screeching tires quite well, the boundaries separating music and effects
are regularly crossed. Between "Bizarre City" and "Dreamburst," among
others,
The Beach will test your limits of tolerance.
The more subdued variations of the darker half of this
score in "Daffy's Done" and "Grassmark" maintain a very disturbing and
vague ambience of keyboarded fog. The action sequences unfortunately
obscure some very forceful orchestral recordings with the synthetic
slapping and thumping; it would be fascinating to hear these orchestral
sessions prior to the irritating overlays. While those crossing over
from the song compilation album will probably be interested in the
electronica, however, film score collectors will clearly gravitate
towards the almost mysterious title theme, performed in grand harmony by
full orchestral ensemble and children's choir. This theme is enunciated
in full several times throughout the score, starting with "Swim to
Island," and informs the more subtle, longingly romantic variations in
"Mournful Myth," "Starnight," and "Blue Sex" (hey, no
Avatar
jokes). Its enticingly simple structure stays with you long after the
album or film has finished, likely the main cause of the score's
legendary status in the collector's market. Utilizing acoustic guitar,
harp, and easy-going keyboarding and fantastic metallic percussion,
these cues really do represent what you'd hope to hear upon visiting a
perfect beach. The deceiving choral innocence in these cues exists
somewhere between James Horner's application of voices in
Titanic
and the whimsical side of John Barry's vintage fantasy tendencies. You
could assemble fifteen minutes of truly magical, digestible majesty and
light romance music from Badalamenti's score, but the immense beauty to
result may not warrant the price of the collectible score-only CD for
The Beach that disappeared from stores not long after its street
date. It was offered by London Records several months after the song
compilation (to coincide with the home video release of the movie), and
its tracks are in an incomprehensible order that ruins the listening
experience. Sound quality is absolutely crystal clear, a great benefit
to the orchestral portions of cues like "Grassmark" (notice the muscular
brass in the background of this otherwise forgettable cue) but also a
nuisance when those wacky sound effects start buzzing in your ears
during the score's relentless techno rhythms. Overall, Badalamenti hits
a home run during the highlights, but the rest of the score is a
mind-bogglingly and depressingly difficult challenge.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
