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Contagion: (Cliff Martinez) The flash point for the
end of the world is Minneapolis in
Contagion, a nice location
from which a virus to wipe out mankind is introduced into an unprepared
American population. Director Steven Soderbergh's vision of an
ultra-deadly contagion is developed with realism in mind, depicting all
of the expected responses, from public panic to governmental
conspiracies involving terrorism, to a disease that kills within days.
Convenient to the movie is a strong ensemble cast, several heavyweights
serving in
Crash-style supporting roles that predictably examine
the epidemic from the perspective of those chasing and succumbing to it.
Despite the high profile cast and crew, as well as the potential that
any mainstream doomsday thriller typically enjoys,
Contagion was
not considered by Warner Brothers to be very promising. In fact,
projections indicated that the movie would not recoup its $60 million
budget at the domestic box office. Positive critical responses and a
surprising opening weekend, however, gave hope to
Contagion in
the midst of weak late summer competition. As expected, Soderbergh
turned to regular collaborator Cliff Martinez to provide the music for
Contagion, a project that didn't really require much from its
score to be effective. Although Martinez has been providing music for
films as far back as
Sex, Lies, and Videotape in 1989, his score
composing career reached its pinnacle with the trio of
Traffic,
Narc, and, most notably,
Solaris consecutively from 2000
to 2002. In the years since, his output for feature films of any
significance has been sparse, and 2011 represents a major resurrection
of his career in this genre. His attachment to
Contagion follows
The Lincoln Lawyer and
Drive, offering enthusiasts of his
electronic textures an extension of the sound with which he made his
name a decade or more earlier. Unfortunately, it seems that since that
period of heightened recognition in the early 2000's, his style has not
matured one ounce, for a casual listener will be hard pressed to find
much, if anything, different in the tone and substance of his music in
2011. And, to make matters worse, there isn't anything really different
about what you hear in
The Lincoln Lawyer,
Drive, and
Contagion, the same atmospheric dissonance and abrasive synthetic
edge evident in all three. Some pleasant tonal passages in
Drive
and the main theme in
Contagion are the only noteworthy
highlights for Martinez in these scores, to the detriment of the lot.
Martinez's style of writing has been described as
"mind-numbing," and this is precisely the case with
Contagion
once again. Ominous, contemporary dissonance from synthesizers and piano
reflect the generally fearful environment of the film without creatively
enhancing it. The tone of Martinez's samples is a bit more abrasive this
time, and in the statements of the score's main theme, you get the
feeling that he's gone slightly retro, perhaps in response to the
popularity of the music for
Tron: Legacy and
The Social
Network. There is some basic contribution by an orchestral ensemble,
starting in "Chrysanthemum Complex." But unlike
Solaris, where
there is a greater organic result from such tones, it's difficult to
care if what you hear in
Contagion comes from real players or
sampled ones. Blaring brass siren effects, for instance, would sound
just the same either way, especially with how Martinez brashly
manipulates them. The best moments of the score instrumentally is the
piano heard in "They're Calling My Flight" and "Contagion;" in the
latter cue especially, you hear the composer develop the main theme with
the soft pedal held to the floor to allow all of the notes to bleed
together after a while. Additionally, there are faint erhu tones in
"Chrysanthemum Complex" and "100 Doses." Otherwise, the collection of
synthetic loops, wails, and drones in
Contagion is static and
underachieving. Only in the middle of "Get Off the Bus" does Martinez
explore much variation in them. The theme itself is very weak, often
distinguishable from surrounding ambience because of the retro
keyboarded styling of "They're Calling My Flight," "Affected Cities,"
and "They Didn't Touch Me." A rising pitch to an accented note in these
performances is a throwback to Vangelis'
Bladerunner. On the
whole,
Contagion is an extremely simplistic score with few
highlights. It almost sounds as though Martinez is trying to accomplish
for the 2000's what David Shire did for thrillers in the 1970's, but
with only a fraction of the intelligence in the result. There is
absolutely zero narrative flow to
Contagion, defying any logical
notion that the score begin tonally and disintegrate as panic ensues.
It's simply bland from start to finish and adds nothing but basic
background noise to the concept. Those who found some merit in
Martinez's prior two scores of 2011 may be able to zone out to this
music, though there are moments of intolerable noise to punctuate scenes
of fright. The buzzing alarm clock sound effect that occupies the
entirety of "Placebo" has to be among the most insufferable noises in
recent film score history. Martinez is proving himself to be a one-trick
pony, a reliable composer for atmospheric dissonance of a contemporary
tone, but one whose music is increasing obnoxious in its inability to
mature and adapt.
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The insert includes a list of performers but no extra
information about the score or film. As in many of Amazon.com's
"CDr on demand" products, the packaging smells incredibly foul
when new.
