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| Shore |
Ed Wood: (Howard Shore) It's fitting that a
somewhat fictionalized biopic of the life of cult filmmaker Ed Wood
would run into its own kind of production misery. The director of 1950's
B-rate science fiction movies has long been popular in the industry (and
especially its aspiring younger generations) because of his bizarre
persona, his unwillingness to let studios squash his dreams, the truly
awful quality of his films, and, of course, the angora sweaters he was
so fond of wearing. The troubled production of the 1994 story of
Ed
Wood experienced scheduling delays and studio conflicts over the
fact that director Tim Burton, who had to step in late during the
process to lead the project, insisted that the film be shot in black and
white. While Touchstone swept in to rescue the film from Columbia, the
box office performance of
Ed Wood didn't merit the risk. Despite
positive reviews that led to several Golden Globe and Oscar nominations,
including wins of both by Martin Landau in an outstanding performance as
Bela Lugosi, audiences found no interest in rehashing the bittersweet
tale of the transvestite filmmaker. Another oddity of
Ed Wood was
the temporary departure of composer Danny Elfman from his otherwise
enduring collaboration with Burton. The two had experienced a petty
argument at the conclusion of
The Nightmare Before Christmas not
long before and took a few years before they would meet and (rather
easily) patch things up. The lone entry during the interim for Burton
was
Ed Wood, for which he turned to accomplished suspense and
horror composer Howard Shore. While Shore was still many years away from
true mainstream recognition for his work on
The Lord of the
Rings, he had already demonstrated a versatility and intelligence in
his typically morbid suspense and drama music that matched the style of
Burton and parts of this particular assignment quite snugly.
In fact, Shore succeeded well enough in addressing the
1950's era of kitsch mambo, jazzy funk, and orchestral cheesiness in
Ed Wood that many casual listeners may not notice a significant
difference between Shore's approach and Elfman's similarly quirky
mannerisms. Elfman collectors did get to hear the composer let rip with
the sound of the stereotypical 1950's theremin in
Mars Attacks!,
but not in the really authentically nostalgic manner with which Shore
accomplished for
Ed Wood. Several source pieces were employed by
Burton for the soundtrack of this film, though Shore's enthusiastic
tribute score still managed to stand out in this environment. It remains
as much a cult hit within a small crowd of lingering vintage exotica
listeners as the film itself. One of the interesting debates that has
long existed about the distinctive music that accompanied the worst
horror schlock of the 1950's is whether a fresh digital age
reconstruction of that sound would be more palatable than the original
recordings of the era or not. Shore answers that question, emulating
every aspect of that tone in a way that will either tickle your love of
yesteryear or repulse you as much as Wood's films did. The tone of
Shore's
Ed Wood is all over the place, from the Latin bongo
percussion and off-kilter, loungey atmospheres to the wailing of a
theremin and Ondes Martinot and straight orchestral sentimentality. The
source pieces by mambo great Perez Prado and organist Korla Pandit set
the tone for Shore's propulsive material, much of which is so
hilariously bad that it's difficult to tolerate. The performer of the
theremin, a Russian related distantly to the instrument's inventor, was
late in arriving to perform with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, so
Shore substituted the Ondes Martinot for some of the recordings; while
later theremin performances replaced some of those on the Ondes
Martinot, the two instruments sound so similar when in a supporting role
that they are pragmatically interchangeable. The Tchaikovsky favorite,
"Swan Lake," was incorporated as a melancholy reference to Lugosi's
decline.
Shore's original themes yield much of the most
compelling material in
Ed Wood, highlighted by a love theme for
woodwinds in "Ed & Kathy" that is reprised in "Elysium" and with a sense
of heavy resolution in "This is the One." The actual main theme of the
film, which adds cimbalom and ridiculous synthetic additives, is best
heard alone in the outrageous "Ed Wood (Video)" and will severely test
your patience. Secondary motifs for sneaking ("Angora"), marching
victory ("Eddie Takes a Bow"), and grim desperation ("Sanitarium") are
faithfully developed by Shore as well. The victory march in "Ed Takes
Control" and "Eddie Takes a Bow" ends the score on a satisfying note,
though the journey to that point is challenging in its schizophrenia.
The tone recalls memories of Les Baxter and Bernard Herrmann (the latter
especially with the theremin and muted trumpets), but on album, Shore's
music is best tailored for devoted enthusiasts of the film. The original
1994 album was arranged with this audience in mind, a significant amount
of dialogue performed by Landau and Jeffrey Jones (the psychic Criswell)
inserted into cues that film score collectors would rather have heard
without the references to the film. Some of these quotes won't make much
sense to anyone unfamiliar with the story. In 2013, the composer's own
Howe Records remastered the same presentation and added about twelve
minutes of additional material at the end for a 20th anniversary
"collector's edition." The sound quality is remarkably crisp on this
expanded product, the specialty elements like theremin and castanets
especially sharp. As for the four additional cue attached to the end,
"Brown Derby" and an alternate version of "Elmogambo Jazz" don't really
add significantly to the overall experience, but the duo of the humorous
"I'm the Director!" and resigned "Back to Work," while short, are both
solid entries that enthusiasts of the film will appreciate. Ultimately,
Shore must be credited with stepping in admirably for Elfman and
yielding an effective result, but the score is difficult to casually
appreciate on album for anyone not interested in Wood's notion of the
unknown, the mysterious, and the unexplainable.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: ****
- Music as Heard on the Albums: ***
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For Howard Shore reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.56
(in 25 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.32
(in 101,260 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 1994 Hollywood album includes no extra information about
the score or film. That of the 2013 Howe album contains notes about both, as well
as a list of performers.
