: (Christopher Young) The story of
Johnny Blaze has taken almost an eternity for Columbia Pictures to
release on the big screen, with Nicolas Cage signed on to the title role
many years ago and countless delays ensuing for a variety of reasons.
Left in the cold since 2001 have been fans of the Marvel Comic, a source
of inspiration that the film is reportedly very faithful to. The opening
of the movie rides quickly though the circumstances of Blaze's deal with
the devil, losing his soul to save a loved one, and then being forced to
obey that evil when asked to hunt down the demons conspiring with the
devil's son to control the world. The battle between Blaze's "Ghost
Rider" alter ego and those demons is the fun part that the film details
with great style, and the final year-long delay in the film's
post-production process alone allowed the special effects artists plenty
of time to dazzle. Composer Christopher Young is no stranger to
franchise-style horror and action, with the genre defining some of the
best material in his career; later this year, he is signed to fully take
the
reigns from Danny Elfman. The world of
is different, however, because, as Young states, "it's just a
very dark storyline" and "had to have gothic in it." Since the location
of the story exists outside of the cities, Young's first inclination was
to create a gothic Western, though with the incorporation of guitar
performances by two members of the Nine Inch Nails, "the score ended up
more industrial than Western." Young is proud of the effort because the
resulting mass of "cool evil" in the
While the story in the film technically involves a
character with two personalities, Young's score arguably has three: the
obvious duo for the main character, and that large gothic Western sound
that he initially attempted to create for the overarching story before
getting overwhelmed by the "Ghost Rider" side of the story. The good
news is that two of three sides to the score are nothing less than
outstanding, truly among Young's most wickedly enjoyable music in years.
The downside is that the third side of the score --the raging industrial
part-- occupies the majority of running time. If they were to be
labeled, Young's three influences could be classified as gothic,
Western, and industrial, with a few of the more intriguing cues
combining all three into furious action pieces. The gothic element
exists in the title theme, performed by a massive orchestral ensemble
(with Young's trademark brazen muscularity in the brass section) and a
mighty chorus of adult wordless vocals and chants to rival the intensity
of
Hellraiser II. You can't discount --in any fashion-- the power
of the brass in the full performances of the title theme, most notably
in the opening and closing cues. If only every action film score
featured this depth in medium range horns, the world would be a better
place. Rhythms established by snare and electric bass move these
thematic explosions with style, expanding upon the "gothic coolness" of
the opening titles of
Hard Rain with layers of brute force. The
two primary themes themselves aren't spectacular, but Young proves in
the title theme that any generic Western-laced progressions can sound
great when beefed up to religiously horrific proportions.
A secondary theme in "A Thing for Karen Carpenter" and
"Serenade to a Daredevil's Devil" returns to the score's Western roots,
using an acoustic guitar to guide the string section's secondary theme
into some moments of surprisingly enjoyable "lonely hero" character
development. From there, the score splits along straight
action/non-action lines, with the simmering non-action cues providing
extended sequences for the choir, light percussion, and electric bass to
meander through series of ominous progressions that won't win any awards
for complexity, but are bursting out the top of the style meter. The
trio of "Penance Stare," "San Venganza," and "Blood Signature" roll with
resolute movement through slow performances of the title theme in
bass-heavy orchestral contemplation. The only wild flair that Young
provides for the location is in "San Venganza," for which a Hispanic
trumpet, snare, and guitar lead a deathly procession that Robert
Rodriguez would be proud to include in an
El Mariachi film. The
third and final side of the score is the heavy-metal influenced
industrial one, dominated by electric guitars with such a formidable
bass presence that nearly everything else (other than the equally strong
rock band percussion) is drowned out. In both "Blackheart Beat" and
"Artistry in Death," as well as several subsequent action pieces, the
overwhelming guitars raise strong hints of Cage's
Con Air, a film
with a score that most collectors would like to forget. While the choice
of the guitars was great, and their interpolation into the score in some
parts contributes the distinctly appropriate style of the title
character, their powerful mix at the forefront of the ensemble severely
disrupts the otherwise perfect balance of the score.
There is no doubt that as a listening experience on
album,
Ghost Rider would have greatly benefited from a more
balanced mix of the industrial elements. But when you're trying to
maximize the coolness of the character on screen, it's perfectly
understandable that these elements are featured heavily at the
forefront. While they will make some cues completely unlistenable for
many film score fans, Young does make an attempt to blend them with the
gothic and Western elements in a few of the action pieces. How
successful that blend sounds to you depends on just how much ruckus your
ears can handle; "More Sinister than Popcorn" rips with the
genre-bending complexity of style that Elliot Goldenthal fans will
appreciate. Fans of Young's pure horror sensibilities will enjoy
"Nebuchadnezzar Phase," a cue that combines the high choir wonder of
Species with some of the more standard, slashing orchestra hits
you hear in Young's frequently mundane B-rate horror efforts. While the
industrial side of
Ghost Rider causes for some quick trips to the
fast-forward button on your stereo, there's plenty of intoxicating music
in the gothic and Western parts to keep it at the front of your
collections. You'll remember the superhero theme after it's finished,
you'll be able to use fifteen minutes of it as ultra-cool background
listening experiences while you do other things, and you'll summon the
religious choral chanting at the end of the final cue to make your
neighbors think
the end is nigh. If you can dig the industrial
rips in the action sequences, then
Ghost Rider has no discernable
flaw. Otherwise, if you take the cues "Ghost Rider," "A Thing for Karen
Carpenter," "No Way to Wisdom," "Penance Stare," "San Venganza" (the
first half), "Blood Signature," "Serenade to a Daredevil's Devil," and
"The West Was Built on Legends" and press them on your own compilation,
you'll have 20+ minutes of truly unique, blazing superhero music like
nothing else in your collection.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Christopher Young reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.4
(in 25 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.1
(in 9,087 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
