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| Holkenborg |
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: (Tom Holkenborg) Credit
concept creator George Miller for sticking with his obsession to develop
his post-apocalyptic vision of Australia, bringing the concept into the
2020's with his fifth film of the franchise,
Furiosa: A Mad Max
Saga. Rather than continue telling of the endless, dusty trials of
Mad Max Rockatansky himself, this entry instead functions as both a
prequel and spin-off of the Furiosa character introduced in 2015's
Mad Max: Fury Road. As an origin story, the movie shows how
Furiosa navigated the wastelands and their corrupt and disfigured biker
gangs to become a respected killer. She does the rounds as a sex slave
before losing her arm but still becoming a valuable mechanic, and she
eventually proves herself in battle against the newest silly villain,
Dementus. Miller certainly has a knack for conjuring memorable names for
his characters, though none of the Roman influence for Dementus and
others in this film can compete with Lord Humungus from
Mad Max 2:
The Road Warrior. Despite losing track of the original franchise
storyline, Miller managed to reassemble most of his crew from the 2015
entry for
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and reprising his role is
composer Tom Holkenborg. His entry to the cinematic series completely
tossed aside the artistic strategies of Brian May and Maurice Jarre from
the original trilogy despite their efficacy and cult status, instead
satiating a new generation of listeners more in tune with Hans Zimmer's
sound design methodology. On the upside, Holkenborg's rather early
career effort for
Mad Max: Fury Road did balance its brutal wall
of sound for the action sequences with a handful of heroic orchestral
interludes and dramatic, accessible themes that strove for better Zimmer
memories. For
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, he ignores most of the
development from that work and instead refocuses on the viciously
processed and aggressively nasty action music, modulating that
approach's intensity depending on whether he needs suspense or outright
conflict. Perhaps this stale take on the concept isn't surprising, as
there's only so much variation Miller can achieve with people wearing
silly costumes and driving ridiculous vehicles for aimless reasons other
than testicular satisfaction. The almost cartoonish shock value of May's
original score, so prominent and memorable in context, has been long
buried by angry sonic wallpaper like so much else in the industry. It's
as unnecessary as it is expected.
Listeners hoping to hear the Furiosa material from
Mad Max: Fury Road deconstructed and given its own origins
posture here will be disappointed, because there doesn't seem to be any
such intelligence in the design of the prequel score. Instead, this
heavily processed extension of first score's lesser action material
abandons all of the heroics and barely supplies any drama. The score for
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga does open with the same nasty bass string
notes, however, and Holkenborg and his team are quick to double down on
the terrible distortion effects for any hint of adversity. The music is
almost entirely comprised of rhythmic texture, with constant blurts of
distorted low brass on key. A pitch slurring effect for horror starts at
key and descends or vice versa. As typical with these Remote
Control-related efforts, entire cues can simply drone on key with only
the modulation of intensity and overlaid sound effects altered. In this
case, a deep wailing siren noise often interjects, as at the start of
"Dementus' Diatribe" and "The Darkest of Gods," likely as the most
intelligent representation of the villain that Holkenborg can muster.
There is seemingly a growling lion sound effect early in "The Darkest of
Gods," too. Respites from the constantly menacing and unpleasant tone
exist but are fleeting. A duduk is the only organic highlight of note,
concentrated early in the score. A choir joins sparingly, as in "You Are
Awaited." A promisingly dramatic orchestral fantasy crescendo for a
moment early in "The Bullet Farm" is followed by a lesser version that
tries to emerge early in "Dementus is Gaining" with the choir.
Thematically, some motific devices for the chasing do return, but they
were never memorable to begin with. A nebulously rising, four-note
rhythmic motif occupies the latter half of "You Are Awaited" over
militaristic snare and is adapted to brass at the end of "The Bullet
Farm." The quick moments of tonality for character development are
consolidated into just a few cues, including all of "Wives' Quarters"
and "Epilogue" on strings, the first minute of "A Noble Cause" on a less
breathy duduk, and the end of "Dementus' Diatribe" on that same
instrument. Ultimately, though, it's the mass of oppressively obnoxious,
overly processed action droning that defines the score for
Furiosa: A
Mad Max Saga, and it's a considerable wasted opportunity to build
upon or foreshadow the prior score. The tiring album contains narrative
dialogue in "The Pole of Inaccessibility" and "Epilogue" that is very
nicely mixed, actually, though the latter insertion obscures the tonal
string material. Seek only the aggrieved mood from this music, not any
greater purpose.
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| Bias Check: |
For Tom Holkenborg reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.16
(in 19 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.48
(in 5,292 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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There exists no official packaging for the digital version of this album.
