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PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Contagion (Cliff Martinez)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you have clearly established yourself as an enthusiast
of Cliff Martinez's music outside of only Solaris, because
otherwise Contagion will test your patience with its inability to
mature and adapt the composer's tired style.
Avoid it... if you demand that Martinez enhance the thrill of the film's concept rather than very basically reflect it in several derivative and obnoxious ways.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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. *
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 45:26
NOTES & QUOTES:
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.
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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 Contagion are Copyright © 2011, Watertower Music and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 9/12/11 (and not updated significantly since). |
