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Review of Ghost Rider (Christopher Young)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you want a blazingly unique superhero score for
massive orchestral ensemble, gothic chorus, and modern industrial
guitars, bass, and percussion.
Avoid it... if the domination of the score's majority by its industrial elements, led by overwhelming electric guitars, isn't worth 20+ minutes of more conventional and grand gothic style.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Ghost Rider: (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 Spider-Man reigns from Danny Elfman. The world of Ghost
Rider 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 Ghost Rider score is a step
beyond anything he's ever written before.
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. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 58:29
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film,
and the credits are only partial (missing key crew members).
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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 Ghost Rider are Copyright © 2007, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/10/07 (and not updated significantly since). |
