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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Civil War (Ben Salisbury/Geoff Barrow)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... because, for whatever reason, you decided against
spending your money on hookers and beer instead.
Avoid it... if you prefer your film music not to beg questions about whether you could conjure a more effective amateur score than the paid composers.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Civil War: (Ben Salisbury/Geoff Barrow) California
and Texas joining forces in a civil war against the American federal
government? Fans of the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys taking up
arms together!? Really? The premise of the 2024 thriller drama Civil
War is so insanely ridiculous that all hope for any believable logic
in the picture is dashed up front. In some near-term dystopian future,
the United States breaks apart into numerous oddball factions in
reaction to a tyrannical president of the northeastern states, and the
"Western Forces" allied with California and Texas go on an ass-kicking expedition
that results in that president's glorious execution. But that's not
actually the point of Civil War. It's meant to be a drama about
photographers and journalists seeking a good story and a great shot,
several of them conveniently killed along the way. Their journey is
filled with hateful encounters and senseless death at every turn, making
the film a commentary about how awful all Americans must seem to the
rest of the planet. Its cold and depressing message might be poignant if
not for the endless logical fallacies of the plot, the kind the schlock
that a teenager might write for a school project. Amazingly, though,
critics were fairly receptive to the movie, and it performed pretty well
for a purely independent, R-rated venture. English writer and director
(there might be part of the problem right there) Alex Garland has a
tendency to infuse ambient soundscapes into the mix of his projects, and
for Civil War, he strangely sprinkles in six or seven songs ranging widely
in genre from the 1970's to 2010's for various scenes of despair in the
narrative. In between those awkward entries is an original score by British
composing tandem Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow, band musicians who
write film and television music as one aspect of their careers. Their
collaboration with Garland runs back to Ex Machina in 2014, and
their subsequent scoring duties have yielded a handful of rather
uninspiring albums since. Those familiar with their work will recognize
the atmospheric approach for Civil War, groaning synthetic haze
that has nothing in common with the songs selected for the movie and,
for better or worse, only runs for 23 minutes on album. For most casual
listeners, those 23 minutes will be far more than enough.
Film music like Salisbury and Barrow's for Civil War exists because some directors want a generic wallpaper of sound in the background of their movies. It's that simple. Think of it like the science fiction shows where you hear the constant hum of background engines or life support systems. This score may as well be such a sound effect track, because it barely enunciates itself as actual music for most of its running time. The synthetic droning alternates between sustained notes without a purposeful direction. There is nary a variance in emotional appeal to be heard, only in "Body Pit" the composers opting for outright horror dissonance. The remainder of the score is so non-descript that it doesn't really offend; instead it puts you straight to sleep. The slight guitar additions to the aimless keyboarding and processed trombone, saxophone, and clarinet are mind-numbingly simplistic. Sometimes, the recording bounces left and right in the soundscape like a bad dream, but creativity is otherwise totally absent. Even the sampled tones offer no particularly interesting comment about the story. There's nothing to denote the location, the time period, the gravity of the situation, or the warmth of the interpersonal relationships that struggle in the plot. There's just nothing. That is, except for a main theme that accomplishes so little that it may as well not exist. Slowly plucked away on acoustic, lap steel, or electric guitar, this identity contains four or five notes over and over again, though it's sometimes reduced to just two notes. The idea is likely an accompaniment for the lead duo of photojournalists in "Flashback," "Aftermath," and "Moving Out," but the attribution doesn't really matter. A related secondary synth theme of meandering nothingness exists in "Headshot" and "Twilight Zone" and may inform "Refugees" as well. Again, though, these concepts are so diluted and bludgeoned in their performances that no importance can possible arise from them. The score is therefore ineffective at all but basic sound design duties, failing to form any narrative whatsoever. On album, that story was made even more completely impossible by a random ordering of the tracks. In the end, Civil War is as useless a film score as any in recent times, failing to provide any emotional base. It doesn't even annoy or scare, which is unforgivable. For a film with such a grim storyline, the music should at least rub you raw in some way. Expect no reaction at all from this result, except, perhaps, to ask yourself why composers actually get paid for producing such drivel. *
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 22:58
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for this album.
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2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
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 Civil War are Copyright © 2024, A24 Music and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/24/24 (and not updated significantly since). |
