: (James Newton Howard) Veteran director Ed
Zwick gives audiences another history lesson involving an obscure
wartime event in
, a depiction of the real-life events
detailed in historian Nechama Tec's 1993 book. During World War II, a
trio of Jewish brothers in Belarus decide to elude Nazi efforts by
taking refuge in their dense local woods where, eventually, they lead a
group of over a thousand others. Testing the limits of their endurance
by braving harsh conditions, these individuals form a camp that
remarkably succeeded in its task despite Nazi aerial bombing and
incursions by land. The film stirred early hopes of Oscar gold, though
slow pacing and lack of emotional engagement with the audience were
cited early as detractions awaiting the film's wide release at the end
of 2008. When considering the music for
collaborator, James
Newton Howard. The director and composer had considerable discussions
about what distinct instrumental personality to convey in the score.
While the violin has long been known to accurately represent that
historical age of the Jewish culture, its use by John Williams and
others in well known productions about the atrocities of World War II
gave Zwick and Howard some pause. They weighed the possibilities of
using a cello, clarinet, and even traditional Klezmer music. Though, in
the end, the allure of the violin proved to be too powerful. Thus
entered the young sensation Joshua Bell, whose performances on the
instrument in 1999's
contributed to John
Corigliano's Academy Award win for the work. Still, the composer and
director were cautious in their application of music into the picture.
"It is essentially a minimalist score, with a substantial amount of what
you'd call ambiance to it," Howard said. "The music in all of Edward's
work has been a very strong component; the spotting, where the music is
used, how its used, is restrained." The final result of Howard's work
employed only 50 to 60 musicians and utilized both the violin solos and
a few sparse performances by the cimbalom for distinction. Simple
harmonies were Howard's primary intent, allowing the voice of Bell's
instrument to, as Howard continued, "express the great longing and loss
which is so strong in the story."
Indeed, the majority of the score for
Defiance
exists in an environment of respectful restraint, sometimes as minimal
in volume as the lone, slow tapping of a bass drum. There is very little
in terms of dynamic layers to the music; Howard is more comfortable
exploring singular, linear melodic thoughts rather than developing them
in counterpoint or by manipulation of their structures. When the score
is not rumbling in the depths of soft, slight dissonance, Howard usually
provides performances of one of the score's four main themes. The most
attractive of these ideas, likely representing the plight of the Jews
and infused with character by Bell's solos, is the extremely lyrical
theme heard early in "Exodus," "Escaping the Ghetto," in the latter half
of "Nothing is Impossible," and at the end of "The Bielski Brothers."
This is the heart of the score, owing not only to Bell's extremely
fluid, weighty, and evocative performances, but also in its extremely
elegant progressions. The sense of doom is captured by Howard in a
second theme of adversity that is aimed at the darker, encroaching
forces; heard extensively in "Defiance Main Titles," "Make Them Count,"
plaintively in "Police Station," and at the outset of "Nothing is
Impossible," the ominous tones of this theme are carried by the lowest
regions of the brass section in conjunction with bass strings. The
spirit of these two main themes is juxtaposed when their representative
instruments, while not actually performing the elegant violin theme
clearly, battle at the one-minute mark in the opening titles cue. Two
secondary themes are seemingly related in their intent to address
character development in the story. The softer love-theme variant is
heard lightly at the beginning of both "Tuvia Kisses Lilka" and "The
Bielski Brothers," featuring a progression of simple melodrama that
raises memories of
Blood Diamond. The second theme, which
develops out of the prior idea immediately in "The Bielski Brothers,"
also occupies the middle portions of "Camp Montage" and stirs a feeling
of hope in its full ensemble performances in both cases. These
sequences, and especially the one in the album's final cue, are
reminiscent of the redemptive and slightly victorious quality heard in
the closing cue in
The Interpreter (though obviously with
different soloist accents.
The score definitely takes a fair amount of time to
really establish its themes (outside of the cold, bass region one
representing the approaching death), but by the last trio of tracks on
the album release for
Defiance, Howard allows each to flourish in
their maturity. The highlight of the score is easily the lengthy
"Nothing is Impossible," which opens powerfully with the theme of dread
before yielding to several performances of the primary violin theme over
satisfyingly resonating bass string accompaniment. The use of harmonic
brass counterpoint over crescendos of thematic expressions in this cue
are also reminiscent of
The Interpreter's final cue, and they are
equally pleasant to the ears. The most interesting key to the success of
both this cue, as well as "Exodus" and a few others, is the
incorporation of an ostinato on the violin that is almost as expressive
in its churning mechanisms as the straight forward performances of the
theme itself. Howard collectors will recall that this extremely graceful
style of violin ostinato was employed with great beauty in
The
Village. There are individual, often short portions of
Defiance that compare favorably to that material in
The
Village (though the rendering is a bit more sparse here), and it
wouldn't be surprising if the majority of listeners return to these
sequences most frequently when revisiting this score. Also of note in
Defiance are a few remarkable sequences of action and dissonant
crescendos; the former element is heard most prominently in "The Bielski
Otriad" and is merely average in Howard's career. The sharp and
difficult "Bella and Zus" and "The Wedding" are detractions. On the
whole, the only general weakness of Howard's score is the fragmentation
of the score's themes; with so many identities at work in
Defiance, he doesn't quite wrap them into a package that would
allow one to truly define the spirit of the picture. The theme performed
by Bell is the closest such identity, though its placement on album is
perhaps too slight to make a memorable punch. Otherwise,
Defiance
is a gorgeous score that requires close attention, excessive volume for
many of its softer cues, and an appreciation of emotionally charged
violin ostinatos and thematic performances that may border on cliche
(but function well nevertheless). Howard's prospects for this awards
season appear strong.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.4
(in 70 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.36
(in 86,418 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
