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Review of Final Solution (John Sponsler/Tom Gire)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you appreciate strong, harmonic integration of African rhythms,
orchestral instrumentation, and ethnically charged vocals.
Avoid it... if the striking multicultural sound of dynamic, stylistically-African scores in 2003 saturated your tolerance for that genre's often lamenting tone.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Final Solution: (John Sponsler/Tom Gire) With high
praise from both within the international Christian community and from mainstream
critics, the 2002 apartheid film Final Solution is a tale of personal
transformation, redemption, and confrontation of past crimes. Its premise
revolves around the character journey of a young, white South African whose
childhood circumstances led him to adopt the idea of genocide as a solution for
South Africa and its "black danger." After training paramilitary white groups to
viciously strike at blacks, the man is slowly shown and cured of his prejudices
by his love interest, as well as a pastor. The film presents a mob scene
confrontation that allows the story of this man to unfold, and a fairly expected
amount of religious discovery offers him the ultimate opportunity for salvation.
Produced for showings in film festivals, on PBS, and in churches, Final
Solution was a film created by a partnership of Christian filming and
distribution companies. Despite the mainstream theatrical limitations that
typically arise for films distributed by such religious organizations, the high
quality of Final Solution extended the film beyond that restrictive
nucleus. One example of this expanded reach exists in the form of the soundtrack
release for the picture. Composed by John Sponsler and Tom Gire, the score for
Final Solution was recorded in South Africa with a moderate orchestral
group, a local chorale, and several instrumental and vocal soloists. Some veteran
collectors of John Debney's soundtracks may already own a snippet of John
Sponsler's work, as he collaborated with Debney to provide music for the
television show "Doctor Who" in 1996. Since then, Sponsler continued to provide
music for television and video films, and Tom Gire had often composed additional
material for Sponsler's assignments of the early 2000's. It is likely that
Final Solution was their most emotionally charged challenge to date, with
a recording process that the composers unequivocally recounted in 2003 as among
their very best professional experiences. The score foreshadows an interesting
trend in film music in 2003, a year that was surprisingly rich in the integration
of authentic African elements into the environment of a traditional, Western
orchestra.
With differences evident in scores ranging from Hans Zimmer's Tears of the Sun to Niki Reiser's Nowhere in Africa in 2003, yet another stylistic approach to the same recipe is taken by Sponsler and Gire for Final Solution. Avoiding stereotypes and synthetic meddling, the ingredients of the music for Final Solution are much more similar to Nowhere in Africa, but with a smaller orchestral presence and a less pronounced thematic performance by those orchestral players. The success of Sponsler and Gire's work stems from the masterful use of the traditional vocalists who often overlap in their solo and ensemble performances. The use of a female lead vocalist, with a deep male choir and rich percussion often in the background, is hauntingly combined with string and woodwind sections to produce a sound that very well balances the need to identify with Western audiences while also adequately representing the tones of the native cultures. While several cues feature only the percussion and solo vocalists to reflect the actions and emotions of the blacks in the story, it is most likely that Western ears will be attracted to the several cues that feature passages of harmonic, orchestral and fully choral explorations of the score's numerous melodies. Ironically, there are a handful of cues that offer electronic keyboarding of a Zimmer methodology, ranging from the uplifting (with a redemption cue very reminiscent of Zimmer's The Preacher's Wife) to those which buttress the African rhythms, as was done in Tears of the Sun. In the end, however, the Final Solution recording remains considerably more rooted in tradition and authenticity than Tears of the Sun, and it is this character which likely assisted the film in its immense popularity. The duo of "Final Solution" and "Interrogation" represent six minutes of superb harmonic material (especially with use of the lovely whistle in the first cue) that belongs on any representation of the best film music from 2002 or 2003. Overall, if you appreciate strong collaborations between African rhythms, Western instrumentation, and ethnically charged vocals, then the relatively rare Final Solution promotional album will be well worth your investment. Those who purchased and enjoyed Nowhere in Africa will especially appreciate this score as an impressive extension of that multicultural style. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 38:47
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a note from the composers and a full list of
performers.
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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 Final Solution are Copyright © 2003, Magicbox Music and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/1/03 and last updated 3/17/09. |
