Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,509
Written 1/30/12
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Buy it... if you want to emulate the depressing journey of the
film, the score alternately frightening you with truly creepy
instrumental techniques for the wolves and urging you to kill yourself
with its dreary dramatic sequences.
Avoid it... if you like to curl up into the fetal position and weep
about how awful your life is, a sure sign that this movie and score will
not cure your ills.
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| Streitenfeld |
The Grey: (Marc Streitenfeld) In the opening scenes
of Joe Carnahan's 2012 thriller, The Grey, Liam Neeson's leading
character nearly carries through with his suicide. Unfortunately for
audiences, he changes his mind. Neeson plays a wolf hunter protecting a
team of Alaska oil drillers, and despite his suicidal thoughts, he
boards a plane to return from the fields with the workers. When that
plane goes down in a blizzard, however, the survivors are harassed by a
pack of wolves and, when they start losing members of their group
because of inadequate shelter and methods of defense, the humans head
off towards a tree line. Despite the leadership of Neeson's experienced
hunter, the wolves kill survivors at a dissatisfactory rate, ultimately
making a person wonder why this movie had to be made in the first place.
Critics have applauded the production for its philosophical approach to
the life and death situations, though it's not exactly the kind of
viewing that would be recommended to anyone who is contemplating the
premature end of their own life. Environmentalists weren't thrilled
about the depiction of wolves as little more than homicidal executioners
in the story, either. Approach The Grey with a morbid sense of
humor at the very least, and if you crash in the wild like these
characters do, stay with the wreckage of the goddamn plane! With Ridley
Scott attached to the movie as a producer, it shouldn't be surprising
that composer Marc Streitenfeld was hired to provide a minimal
underscore for the film. Streitenfeld rose through the ranks of the Hans
Zimmer music production machine and eventually became a regular
collaborator with Scott on his own directorial projects. While his work
for Robin Hood in 2010 did elevate his name to mainstream status,
Streitenfeld has not availed himself of the opportunity to spread his
wings and truly take off in his composing career thereafter, and The
Grey certainly isn't going to help his cause to a substantial
degree, either. This is the type of film that really doesn't require an
underscore for most of its length, the sounds of nature and human
desperation seemingly better accompanied by the eerie loneliness of
silence. It's surprising that the score for The Grey was not
limited to the scenes up to the plane crash and the final confrontation,
though it should be noted that the music is only barely audible in much
of the middle portion of the film anyway. Had it been intentionally
restrained altogether to the start and finish, though, its impact
probably would have been far greater.
In all facets of his approach to
The Grey,
Streitenfeld clearly sought to play his role extremely conservatively.
Outside of a few stingers and extended moments of troublesome dissonance
in the central portion of the score to accentuate the horror of the
killing sequences, his drama and suspense techniques are universally
understated. His ensemble is orchestral, but only sparsely rendered.
Strings receive primary duty, performing the composer's only thematic
material alongside tastefully muted keyboarding. A range of softly
pulsating sound effects waft through the score, sometimes oblivious to
the other lines of action in a cue. A varied percussion section offers
downright primordial tones in the chase and death sequences, rattling
with intimidating effect elsewhere. A creepy plucked element emerges
late in the score as well, taking over duties on what little melodic
structures exist. By far the most interesting instrumental element in
The Grey, however, is a pair of bass saxophones, which is used by
Streitenfeld very explicitly to simulate the terrible growl of an angry
beast. The dread of this technique is overpowering in "Eyes Glowing,"
where it is combined with pitch-wavering strings and skittish
percussion. It's difficult to determine if these mind-numbing sequences
are produced with entirely organic tones or with some synthetic
enhancements. A clue like "Last Walk" actually contains the rhythmic
insertion of the sound of an old wooden gate swinging and swooshing
noises that emulate exhausted breathing. These sounds are neat but
inconsequential when heard out of context. The score's only accessible
portions come at the beginning and the end, both of which state
Streitenfeld's two themes. The yearning two-note pairs in "Writing the
Letter" and "Last Walk" exist alongside a warmer, slightly more
propulsive motif introduced in the middle of "Suicide" that eventually
blossoms into the score's representation of fate in "Alpha" and "Into
the Fray." The keyboarded version of the latter identity over strings in
"Alpha" punctuates the standoff with the menacing deep sax and
atmospheric synthetic tones of the wolves, yielding the score's
highlight. Even in these more palatable cues, however,
The Grey
remains a cold and depressing score. It presents very little of
redemptive value when heard on its 35-minute album. Once again, if the
music had disappeared after "You Are Gonna Die" and the trek of the
survivors had been left silent until "Last Walk," the re-emergence of
the music would have been infinitely more powerful, essentially
signaling the appropriate call of death to open and close the picture.
Unless you fell in love with the picture, approach the short, depressing
album with caution.
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