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Review of Brazil (Michael Kamen)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you smile at the wickedness of satirical comedy at its
finest, Michael Kamen turning a classic tune into a fantastic tool of
dystopic parody for one his best career achievements.
Avoid it... on all of its albums if you expect any sane presentation of the film's music, Brazil long deserving far better treatment to truly reveal the brilliance of Kamen's adaptations.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Brazil: (Michael Kamen) Director Terry Gilliam
parlayed his Monty Python success into a series of 1980's movies that
twisted reality in highly creative ways, and 1985's Brazil came
right in the middle of this period. Competing with 1984 as
commentary on dystopic and dysfunctional bureaucratic states of the
future, Gilliam's trademark absurdist imagination for the topic is
uniquely weird in a fashion perfectly suited for its eventual cult film
status. Through its distinctive use of art direction, surreal story
concepts, and counterintuitive music, the movie tells of a menial
government worker who dreams of being a grand winged hero and saving a
beautiful woman in distress. His gloomy life is upended when he finds
himself embroiled in a silly series of mishaps that lead to a wrong man
being detained and killed by his colleagues' interrogation. In sorting
through that error, he unwittingly becomes the hero of his dreams, if
only momentarily and, ultimately, once again in his imagination. The
film's successful run in Europe reflected the depressing ending that
Gilliam intended while the Hollywood conclusion encouraged for the
American release did it no favors. Still, Brazil has gained
recognition in subsequent decades as a fantastic piece of social
commentary with a remarkable cast, Monty Python irreverence, and popular
soundtrack. For this project and his subsequent The Adventures of
Baron Munchausen, Gilliam turned to rising composer Michael Kamen,
who by that point had written the score for 1983's The Dead Zone
but was best known for his work on Pink Floyd - The Wall and with
other mainstream musicians. Kamen long remembered Brazil as one
of his most satisfying film scoring projects of personal significance,
not only because of how it positioned him for his major success in
subsequent years but also due to its adaptation of a famous song as the
basis for the entire score. Rarely does a non-musical film name itself
after its main song and score theme, but Brazil did exactly so.
Nothing in the plot actually has anything to do with the country of
Brazil, but the lyrics of the long-existing song inspired the film's
dreamy atmosphere. The legacy of that song has thus shifted greatly
afterwards, representing not only the county's beauty on one hand but
the charm of satire on the other.
The classic 1939 samba song "Aquarela do Brasil" by Ary Barroso, otherwise known as simply "Brazil" in English, remains one of the most popular to ever originate from Brazil, with English-language covers coming from the likes of Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Harry Belafonte long before and after the song's adaptation into this 1985 movie. Kamen loved this song and crafted it brilliantly into Brazil. The original samba performances of "Aquarela do Brasil" were not really all that attractive unless you have an affinity for its distinct cultural personality. Kamen managed to pull that tone and melodic structures before adapting it into a variety of functional modes for both song and film score applications, ranging in genre from 1930's mainstream pop to later jazz and romantic film music conventions. By the end, he even applies it as an all-out action piece akin to something you might hear in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The interpolations of the piece and its counterpoint lines are phenomenal, the main string melody often carrying the optimistic wonder of the doomed main character while brass and other elements are tasked with exploring the underlying lines for suspense and battle. By "Harry Tuttle (A Man Consumed by Paperwork)," even the underlying rhythmic riff has become a tool of danger. The massive scope of some of these performances, especially in the concluding hallucinatory scenes of confrontation, apply space opera proportions, including apocalyptic choir and chimes in "Mother Funeral (Forces of Darkness)." In their accessible and tonally impressive bravado, the immensity of these late cues remarkably eclipses Kamen's later major action scores in appeal. When the film reveals its spoiled ending of tragic irony in "Escape! No Escape!," the composer reduces the idea down to waltz-like strings of lament. The most alluring performances of the Barroso theme come in Kamen's lovely string-led fantasy portions, highlighted by "Sam Lowry's 1st Dream (Brazil)," "Waiting for Daddy/Sam Lowry's Wetter Dream 'The Monoliths Erupt'," and "Jill Brazil (Power Station)," the 1930's nostalgia factor in full force with flowing harp. The orchestrations in these cues and the remainder of the score are sublime, elements from wood blocks to subtle synths providing outstanding coloration to the ensemble. The brass employment in action cues like "Truck Drive" compete favorably with the Die Hard scores in muscularity. Flute and clarinet also receive remarkable solos in a few cues. Notable in the soundtrack for Brazil, of course, are the song renditions of this main theme. Kamen recorded three of them for the film, but only two were used. The opening credits Geoff Muldaur version of "Brazil," starting with an extended whistled rendition, is closer to the samba origins of the song, which are openly embraced in the ensemble party explosion with wildness over the end credits in "Bachianos Brazil Samba." (The personality of this performance, complete with catcalls, whistles, percussive aids, and shrieks from the crowd, is a really good capturing of the film's insanity in its juxtaposition of style.) Kamen also recorded a more romantic ballad version of the song with Kate Bush, but Gilliam didn't include it in the picture. Instead, the instrumental version of "Sam Lowry's 1st Dream (Brazil)" heard in context was long unattainable since the Bush performance took its place on the albums. With significant flourishes of percussion, this instrumental version remains a glaring absence from the album presentation, but Kamen didn't take the opportunity to rectify that when he assembled the new recordings for his 1998 "Michael Kamen's Opus" compilation. Instead, he remained loyal to his favored version with Bush, layering her vocals over a more robust, digitally-recorded performance in what remains the better version of the song. The vocals are pushed a little forward in the mix despite their inaccessible elegance, maintaining the song's balance of innocence and sinister madness. The remainder of the soundtrack includes a few outright comedy renditions of the melody, led by the use of typewriters for the underlying rhythmic parts of the song in "Central Service (The Office)" and the humorously accelerating "The Elevator." A touch of 1950's vibe occupies "Ducts" as well, one of several source-like jingles Kamen wrote for the picture. On album, these cheeky recordings mingle with the composer's straight romance and action material, the latter most concentrated near the end but placing some vital cues earlier in the presentation out of order. The albums for Brazil have long frustrated, the one consistent presentation for decades presenting the non-chronological ordering amongst the film's quotes and omitting the first dream sequence. A remastered product in 2006 adds an interview with Gilliam but is otherwise unnecessary. Ultimately, though, this soundtrack lives on as a cult favorite, the "Central Service (The Office)" cue even appearing in 2014's Mr. Peabody & Sherman. It remains one of Kamen's most admirable career achievements, a strikingly smart and compelling work that forever changed the destiny of its adapted song.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1992/1993 Milan Albums:
Total Time: 38:18
2006 Milan Album: Total Time: 49:29
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts of all the albums include information about the score and film,
including notes from the director and composer.
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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 Brazil are Copyright © 1992, 1993, 2006, Milan Records (Europe), Milan Records (America), Milan Records (International) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/28/24 (and not updated significantly since). |
