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Review of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (James Horner)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you appreciate James Horner's ability to capture the
sense of innocence and curiosity in natural settings with lovely
rhythmic progressions for piano, synthetic choir, and other elements of
minimal volume.
Avoid it... if you are deterred by the fact that this score makes use of only Horner's previously established techniques and instrumentation, no matter their rearrangement into an effectively impactful package.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: (James Horner) A
British production from Walt Disney's United Kingdom division, BBC
Films, and Miramax, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a strongly
praised adaptation of the depressing John Boyle novel that was publicly
termed "unfilmable." Director Mark Herman makes little attempt to hide
the mostly British origins of the cast, allowing their natural accents
to speak towards issues of class and history that often inhabit many of
the country's best arthouse productions. The tale of The Boy in the
Striped Pajamas is as harrowing as you expect it to be, telling a
Holocaust story from the perspective of a young German boy whose father
is transferred to a job as a warden at a concentration camp during World
War II. He befriends a Jewish boy through the barb wire of the camp, and
it is through their innocent eyes that the majority of the tale unfolds.
The film contains an unrealistic, horrific conclusion, though Herman's
ability to maintain the environment of a child's perception through even
these events is the primary attraction to an otherwise bleak plot.
Veteran composer James Horner, himself Jewish, reportedly lobbied the
director for this assignment, ultimately receiving it and placing much
personal effort into its recording, including serving as his own
orchestrator and performer. The score represented a return by Horner to
a genre and quality of film that could have earned him Academy Award
consideration, and although neither he nor the film received the awards
recognition that was speculated upon release, the quality of his writing
indicates that perhaps some greater promotion by Miramax could have
earned him better odds. Horner's music for The Boy in the Striped
Pajamas is minimal in volume and scope for most of its running time,
saving its only orchestral performances of full volume for the scenes of
realization at the story's conclusion. The work is saturated with
Horner's easily identifiable styles of writing and orchestration,
utilizing techniques that will be familiar to many film score
collectors. While potentially troublesome, this fact is compensated for
by the composer's ability to once again adapt that sound into a slightly
new form, using the same building blocks to shape a remarkably powerful
score. There is a sense of gravity to the music of The Boy in the
Striped Pajamas that rarely develops from such minimal volumes. Like
James Newton Howard's Defiance, this score captures the
intricacies of war and its effects on individual perceptions without
overstating the environment.
There is fine craftsmanship to be heard in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Granted, there is technically nothing new in the ingredients. Horner's piano performances are the heart of the recording, rolling through an elaboration of his theme for Swing Kids with grace and precision. The major-key sensitivity in these performances occasionally embodies the exuberance and hope of a child's view of the world, pushing the rhythmic density towards the territory of A Beautiful Mind. Through the addition of notes and the flourishes of different sections of the theme, Horner applies the idea in extremely effective emotional variants, though slight, from "Boys Playing Airplanes" through "Remembrance, Remembrance." Subtle emphasis in performance is key to appreciating these alterations of mood, but the highest praise for Horner needs to point to his ability to strike a weighty chord while also using simultaneous devices to raise the spirits of the music in ways that only a child's imagination could accomplish in such stark circumstances. A proper and trim attitude at times, including the reprise of the score's lofty thematic performance from "Boys Playing Airplanes" in "The Train to a New Home," may be difficult for some listeners to appreciate, though the piano material ironically becomes its most enchanting when combined with faithful stylistic accompaniment from countless other Horner scores. Beginning in "Exploring the Forest" and extending to "The Boys' Plans/From Night to Day," he again proves that nature is perhaps his best source of inspiration. From the light tapping of a triangle, the elegant and rambling piano, and a lonely solo oboe to synthetic choral effects, these pieces breathe life into Horner's usual ambient minimalism at its very best. Almost always tonal, these cues in the middle section of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas are delicate cousins to the forest material heard in The Spitfire Grill and The New World. The synthetic vocal effects, whether imitating a distant, breathy ensemble or a boy soprano (both are heard simultaneously in the disturbingly beautiful "An Odd Discovery Beyond the Trees"), add a touch of eerie atmosphere to the equation. The sense of curiosity in this style develops into an even higher register of optimism in "The Boys' Plans/From Night to Day," a devastating cue of false hope that rolls in waves of piano and synthetic vocal performances that attempt to defy fate with stubborn innocence. Together, the nature-related cues in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas are heartbreakingly beautiful without resorting to cheap melodramatic ploys that betray the necessary perspective of the work. The overarching maturation of Horner's music for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas counters expectations by the time it turns sinister and then truly somber in its closing moments. Despite the hints of darkness in "Black Smoke," the score is a relatively relaxing and undemanding listening experience, potentially leaving some hoping for a strong dramatic punch in the concluding cues. Horner saves that energy for "Strange New Clothes/An Impending Storm," a lengthy crescendo of dissonant string layers that is appropriately painful compared to what has come before. Along with the solitary depression that grips the quiet piano solos in most of "Remembrance, Remembrance," the end of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, while likely making the greatest impact in the film during these cues, is surprisingly not the highlight of the overall work. Even "The Funeral," with its bare bones expression of solace, uses resonating harmony from The New World that is easy on the ears in a lightly dramatic fashion. In this cue, Horner also employs the dreaded four-note "motif of evil" that is arguably the most recognizable single idea of his career. Interestingly, however, Horner translates its onto solo trumpet and slightly slows its tempo, as if to signify that the evil has already struck and what we now hear is a faint echo of the motif's explosive personality from his other works. As such, the use of the motif is actually quite effective in this context. Another connection between this recording and Horner's prior albums is the use of sound effects in a natural setting. For The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the sound of trickling water is heard at the very outset of the album, slowly yielding to the piano's first phrase of the title theme. In sum, this score isn't the type of Horner music that will attract much attention to itself. The choice by Hollywood Records to release the album as a digital download-only product may have contributed to this lack of recognition; it took until 2018 before Intrada Records provided an identical presentation on a limited CD pressing. Those who appreciate the ambience of the morbidly haunting "Two Worlds; The Past and the Future" cue from Horner's The Life Before Her Eyes earlier in the same year will appreciate the style and personality of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. As Horner's forthcoming collaboration with James Cameron for 2009's Avatar reached its popular fever, it was easy to overlook the gracefully restrained, classical touch of this unusual Holocaust score. Horner's work triumphs in capturing the event from both the innocence and curiosity of a child's perspective, transcending to a level of engagement that competed with the year's best film music despite the score's short duration and slight stature. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
All Albums:
Total Time: 52:22
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no packaging for the 2008 release. That of the 2018 Intrada
product includes extensive information about the score and 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 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas are Copyright © 2008, 2018, Hollywood Records, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/1/09 and last updated 5/29/18. |
