: (Mark
McKenzie) An entire industry exists to promote the world's religious
institutions and their faiths in the B-rate genre of inspirational
movies. One such entry out of Mexico in 2011 and directed by Disney
writer and storyboard artist Bruce Morris is what some might call a
Catholic propaganda film, aiming its focus at encouraging faith through
the lens of 3D animation. The story details the troubles of three people
in contemporary times, all of whom dealing with loss and sickness in
unforgiving urban environments and requiring the help of disguised
guardian angels to steer them into their local parish. While the issues
these ordinary people face are typical, the depictions of their
experiences in the cathedral are quite frightening and spectacular in
their literal display of angels and demons at work. The audience for
is likely a targeted constituency of those
seeking to solidify their beliefs in redemption, and although the movie
was distributed in America as
the same year,
its alternative purpose as a tool of conversion is likely defeated by
the extremely dated look of its animated renderings. Although utilizing
3D technology to enhance the splendor of certain scenes,
may have better resonated with neutral audiences had it not
attempted to resurrect late-1990's animation technologies and stuck
with flat 2D renderings instead. The production is one of those rare
events for which its soundtrack is practically its only claim to fame,
composer Mark McKenzie integral to the success of the movie and
advertised as such. McKenzie is a career orchestrator for a variety of
major Hollywood composers, his associations with John Williams, Jerry
Goldsmith, Danny Elfman, John Barry, Alan Silvestri, James Newton
Howard, and other top names dating back to the late 1980's. Throughout
the 1990's, he made a concerted effort to break into the mainstream with
his own composing, but despite a series of very strong scores for B-rate
movies, he was never able to hit it big with a popular solo assignment.
In the 2000's, while continuing his orchestration work, he limited
himself to inspirational family dramas for productions of a Hallmark
variety, though all of his activity tapered off as the decade closed.
His sparse compositional career, much like Cliff Eidelman's, has been
the source of much frustration for dedicated film score collectors, and
It is difficult to separate the purpose of the movie and
the totality of its religious message from McKenzie's music, if not
because of the obvious spiritual tone in parts of the score, then simply
because of the passion that the subject stirs in the composer. In these
kinds of scores, you often hear about a how a composer's faith
influences his or her writing of the composition (who could forget John
Debney running into a parking lot in the process of fighting demons
while writing
The Passion of the Christ?), and McKenzie's
genuine, heartfelt interest in
The Greatest Miracle manifests
itself so clearly in the tone of his music that this inspiration cannot
be discounted even if you roll your eyes at the film's plot. While
McKenzie has demonstrated a dramatic sense of charm in his scores
throughout the years, this particular effort takes that wholesome
demeanor down an even more openly religious path. Importantly, however,
he expresses this faithful touch without bludgeoning you over the head
with liturgical self-importance, a flaw inherent (possibly by necessity)
in a work like Debney's
The Passion of the Christ. McKenzie
instead offers a score that pushes all the right religious buttons in
his instrumentation and tone while remaining respectful enough not to
overwhelm listeners of agnostic, atheistic, or secular humanist
leanings. This approach yields music that is beautiful enough in the
religious domain to provide a listening experience as satisfying as
Ennio Morricone's
The Mission simply because of its tasteful
execution. The instrumental palette for
The Greatest Miracle is
as expected, starting with a standard orchestra and layering organ,
vocals, and few other specialty instruments into the mix. The vocals
include three separate group performances, including children's and
women's ensembles, though the Libera Boys Choir in London provides the
most spectacular, singular singing accents. The recording of the score
in Seattle (at Bastyr University Chapel, no less) and London likely
assisted with keeping the score's costs down, though the result exhibits
few performance flubs and the mixing of the components back in Los
Angeles matches the efforts of much larger productions. The
composition's weight is largely conveyed by strings, occasional melodic
lines extending into the woodwinds and piano. A harp and chimes/bells
lend their usual tones of grace and gravity to the genre. Brass is often
employed in John Barry-like supporting roles, though trumpet
counterpoint and deep exploration of the demon motif in one cue keep
these players engaged.
A compliment of three major recurring themes and one
minor theme provides the basis for McKenzie's pleasantly tonal
environment in
The Greatest Miracle. Some of them, along with the
lesser secondary motifs, may be character-centric. The three most
frequently referenced themes seem to rank progressively on the
"inspiration meter," each cranking up the religious element another
notch. The primary one is a flowing identity of pure McKenzie heritage,
similar in construct to the composer's hidden gem,
Dr. Jekyll
and Ms. Hyde. This sensitive melody is introduced on album in the
latter half of "Call of the Spirit" and is boiled down from its string
layers to solo piano at the outset of "You'll See." Lovely choral cooing
backs the theme in "Ultimate Love" and blossoms into the score's fullest
expression of beauty during the entirety of "Ascension/Gloria Patri."
This theme, while closest to McKenzie's usual sound, is overshadowed by
the score's other ideas, starting with the driving call to action theme
that some listeners might associate with Morricone's
The Mission.
The propulsion in this idea makes it a uniquely engaging identity given
the otherwise serene personality of the other non-cathedral related
cues. Aided by pulsating bass strings and swirling violins, the voices
in this theme's performances culminate in chanted ensemble tones
reminiscent of the Morricone classic. Similar renditions in "Offerings"
and "Pictures With Black Bow" are joined by more restrained cooing
choral tones in "Ask For What You Want" and "Go in Peace." Even more
divinely powerful is the score's cathedral theme, the broadest
representation of grandeur in the score and sometimes the recipient of
organ backing. Repeated throughout "Entering the Cathedral" and making a
short appearance in the middle of "A Clean Soul," this idea's climactic
explosion of biblical force prevails in the latter half of "Angels,
Demons and Prayer." This last sequence (although presented out of
chronological order on the album) is the closest that
The Greatest
Miracle comes to enforcing the will of the underlying doctrine on
the listener. The score's final noteworthy identity comes in the form of
the theme of fear, a brass, low woodwind, and chopping string
progression punctuating the bizarrely scary red demons of the story. Its
statements are largely confined to the central portions of "Angels,
Demons and Prayer" (the menacing brass reminder at 3:35 into that cue
begs for more development, despite its coincidental similarity to David
Arnold's
Independence Day) , though its initial, rising three
notes in the minor are referenced elsewhere whenever moments of doubt
creep into the equation.
McKenzie spreads his thematic representations a bit
thin in
The Greatest Miracle, supplementing them with unique
ideas in singular applications to further cloud the music's melodic
narrative. Two individual ideas in "I Miss You" include a massive,
timpani-pounding choral sequence followed by a solemn piano performance
(reprised in "Bus Accident"). The redemptive progressions dominating "Go
in Peace" will remind you of, if not their classical origins, Craig
Armstrong's
Love Actually. A snippet of Johann Sebastian Bach
early in "A Clean Soul" provides the more obvious classical connection.
Woodwinds in "That Beautiful Smile" likewise develop another individual
idea. The most appealing of these singular melodies, however, comes in
the Libera Boys Choir's performance in "Benedictus Deus," and it's a
shame that this source-like material didn't find its way into rest of
the score. The fact that none of these themes dominates the soundtrack
becomes less important than the consistent overall tone of
The
Greatest Miracle. McKenzie does tend to spread out the melodic
duties in his scores, and this entry may lack a clear enough of a
thematic blueprint for some listeners. There also isn't much emotional
variance in the score, the dissonant crescendo in "Bus Accident" about
as close to an obvious synchronization point as you will find. Another
potential drawback in this score, ironically, is occasional structural
and instrumental inspiration from James Horner (the irony being that
McKenzie is not a Horner collaborator). The passage from 0:45 to 1:15 in
"Call of the Spirit" very closely emulates Horner's "forest wonder"
mode, even down to the chimes. On the other hand, alternatively there
are times when McKenzie's own trademarks shine through, foremost in
"Ascension/Gloria Patri" when the light string ostinatos and trumpet
figures optimistically reflect similar performances in
Dr. Jekyll and
Ms. Hyde. In the end,
The Greatest Miracle isn't a perfect
score, its top rating tempered by a diluted melodic spread and its
somewhat generic redemptive tone. The score's 41-minute promotional
download presentation was followed later in 2011 by an expanded and
limited BSX Records CD with two additional score tracks (the first of
which a necessity) and part of a suite of music that was performed live
during World Youth Days in Madrid in August, 2011. Because that live
performance was on a make-shift platform in the middle of a city street,
however, the suite on this product is seemingly assembled from the score
itself instead, so don't expect this seven and a half minutes of music
to include anything new. Don't hesitate to seek the lossless, expanded
CD edition of this sentimental favorite, however, continuing proof that
McKenzie's musical voice has too long been buried in the works of
others.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Mark McKenzie reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.9
(in 10 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.39
(in 4,295 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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