Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #2,041
Written 9/1/21
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Buy it... if you've collected a pandemic-proof collection of
hallucinogenic compounds in preparation for this avant-garde mash-up of
medieval folk, religious hymns, and post-modern electronic sound
design.
Avoid it... if you demand passion, decency, and warmth in your film
music, Daniel Hart's intellectual journey providing a maddening blend of
grimly wretched, inconsistent ambience for this laughably awful film.
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| Hart |
The Green Knight: (Daniel Hart) Some films are
likely much better when viewed while on hallucinogenic drugs. One such
entry is David Lowery's aesthetically brutal 2021 revision of the 14th
Century story of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," taking liberty with
the tale to extend its psychological challenges. The execution of The
Green Knight is as memorable as it is laughable, its personality
grim and otherworldly to the extent that it crosses into parody
territory surprisingly often. During a feast on Christmas day at the
Round Table of Camelot, Gawain foolishly accepts a ridiculous challenge
from a mysterious and powerful Green Knight who not only knocks out all
the lights with his presence but also unleashes a wicked laugh after he
is decapitated by Gawain. A year later, Gawain must travel through the
magical wonders of medieval countryside to receive the same fate. Along
the way, he encounters mysterious babes, becomes attached to his magical
girdle, and converses with animals, giants, and odd human characters.
While Dev Patel has been highly acclaimed for his performance as Gawain,
it's hard not to get the giggles watching him act through this muck.
From the opening scene of animals pecking away at each other in front of
a house fire to one of cinema's more bizarre depictions of a semen
explosion, The Green Knight generates multitudes of
head-scratching moments of amusement. Given all the dark and hazy
filters used on the cinematography of the picture, it should come as no
surprise that Daniel Hart's score strives for an equally stylish effect.
Hart continues a long collaboration with Lowery that yielded Pete's
Dragon and A Ghost Story most prominently in the late 2010's.
To his credit, Hart took an extraordinarily intellectual approach to
this assignment, writing a hybrid score that serves as both source
material aimed at the era and post-modern electronic and vocal
atmospheres seeking to augment the fantasy element. To describe his
intent as avant-garde and the result polarizing would be an
understatement. While the instrumental ensemble for The Green
Knight is fascinating, the choral performances in the work are where
Hart really concentrated. When not exploring period folk and religious
stereotypes using instruments most closely representing current
conceptions of what music of the era actually sounded like, he supplies
almost poetic vocal expressions of timelessness that seem to include
sopranos performing a senseless mash-up of different languages.
While the vocalized passages in Hart's score for
The
Green Knight will earn the most recognition, there is intelligence
also in his instrumental palette for the occasion. Solo viola, lute,
recorder, and hurdy-gurdy are joined by fuller strings at times to
represent the oppressive, sparse environment witnessed, especially in
the Camelot setting. There are no truly firm themes in the score but
rather vague motifs ranging from common progressions to atmospheric
renderings that remain consistent for certain characters. The Green
Knight is afforded the most dissonant of these ideas, manipulated
electronics, woodwinds, and vocals lending a grating presence to
"Greatest of Kings," "One Year Hence," and in the resolution of "Now I'm
Ready, I'm Ready Now." More prevalent are the mystical layered
vocalizations for Morgana le Fay and her far-reaching influence,
starting with "In Stori Stif and Stronge" and continuing in "One Year
Hence" and many subsequent cues. A little more tolerable is King
Arthur's material of fuller strings in "Tell Me a Tale of Yourself, So
That I Might Know Thee" and "Remember It Is Only a Game." Among the more
intriguing but no less enjoyable ideas is ancient source-like singing
for the giants Gawain encounters in "Aiganz O Kulzphazur" and "The
Giant's Call." Unfortunately, none of this well-researched and carefully
executed music can sustain a functional score for the film, however, in
part because of the music's own quiet schizophrenia and in part because
its application is so inconsistent in the film. The score in
The
Green Knight is a spotting disaster, its presence too mum to
function, not there at all, imposing beyond all reason, or, worst of
all, applied in such a way as to encourage thoughts of parody. The two
main decapitation scenes (early with the Green Knight and later in
Gawain's vision) are so terribly scored that they make the scenes funny.
The opening, "In Stori Stif and Stronge," switches its gloomy,
understated madness on and off with the opening titles to equally
humorous effect. Some cues needed significant amplification in the mix,
especially during the more disorienting scenes involving Gawain. The
impressive soprano vocals of religious source-like application will save
the day for some listeners. In the end, though, Hart tries valiantly to
write and record the ultimate medieval avant-garde score and may
arguably succeed, but whatever pleasure that can be derived from the
awkwardness of that product is countered ten times over by its
ineffective mix in context and its absolutely wretched album
presentation full of bouts of awkward silence. There are times when a
composer tries too hard to impress with intellectual experimentation.
This is definitely one of them. Don't lose your head over it.
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- Music as Written for the Film: **
- Music as Heard on Album: *
- Overall: *
