| CLOSE WINDOW |
|
FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Ed Wood (Howard Shore)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you are familiar with the film and seek an
outstanding companion piece to the Ed Wood experience, in which case
Howard Shore's music (along with dialogue from the film) will be equally
entertaining.
Avoid it... if you're investigating the score blindly, because even enthusiasts of B-rate 1950's sci-fi and horror schlock may find this throwback score too challenging in its often grating authenticity for casual enjoyment.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1994 Hollywood Album:
Total Time: 43:58
2013 Howe Album: Total Time: 55:51
NOTES & QUOTES:
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.
Copyright ©
2010-2024, 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 Ed Wood are Copyright © 1994, 2013, Hollywood Records, Howe Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/20/10 and last updated 5/4/18. |
