Heaven & Earth: (Kitaro) Oliver Stone's trilogy of
films inspired by his own experiences with the Vietnam War ended with
Heaven & Earth, following the critically and popularly praised
Platoon and
Born on the Fourth of July. Never experiencing
the same success as its predecessors,
Heaven & Earth suffered
from a lack of satisfying continuity in its script and drew
disappointing returns despite featuring Stone's typically lavish visual
sense. The story of
Heaven & Earth is based on the
autobiographical books of Le Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese woman whose
tragedy in her worn-torn homeland led to an unpredictably successful
business career in the United States. After being tortured as a girl by
both sides of the war, her journey from her village leads to a marriage
proposal from a dissolutioned American soldier. Together, they reside in
San Diego, forcing her to endure both the disdain of her in-laws and
acclimation to the new society of excesses. The torments shown in the
film's first half are gut-wrenching, though they represent the more
engaging narrative material. Balancing the ideas of heaven and earth for
Stone would be an unlikely choice for composer for the film, with his
collaborator for the project before and after
Heaven & Earth
(John Williams) unavailable during his busy 1993 scoring schedule for
Spielberg films. Perhaps the unlikeliest hiring came when it was
announced that Japanese musician Kitaro was assigned to the project.
Kitaro had written a small handful of scores in the 80's and had
contributed production talents to a few others. His experience in
large-scale Western scoring for Hollywood films was non-existent, though
after Stone's questionable treatment of music in
Platoon, few
were surprised. Kitaro would go on to write one other major film score
in 1997 (
The Soong Sisters) before devoting his time to
performing as an actor in films instead. His concert work and album
compositions, however, live on, and are by far the source of Kitaro's
larger fame as a composer through the decades.
Kitaro's work for
Heaven & Earth would
overshadow
Schindler's List at the 1994 Golden Globes, however,
winning the award that year for "Best Score." There are so few scores
that perfectly balance the magnificence of a Western orchestral ensemble
with the delicate sensibilities of Eastern instrumentation, but Kitaro
managed to negotiate the differences with fantastic results in
Heaven
& Earth. His music is massively rendered, with a full orchestral
ensemble joined by specialty instruments from around the Far East,
wildly creative percussive arrays, and a variety of vocal effects
ranging from source performances by the lead actress in the film to
operatic and ensemble choral contributions. On top of this, Kitaro
employs various synthetic elements so seamlessly integrated into the
score that they only barely give the music a slight new age tilt. In
basic structure, there are two distinct halves of the music for
Heaven & Earth, arguably split between the two concepts. For the
idea of "heaven," Kitaro writes harmonic and grand thematic material for
the full ensemble, lead by the huqin (Chinese violin) and mixed choir.
While simplistic in progression, this heavenly music is nothing less
than gorgeous, making sweeping use of upper range percussion and
woodwinds, along with the synthetic sounds of blowing wind, to offer a
completely unashamedly positive outlook on life. The recording's mix
between the ensemble and each specialty instrument is precise and
satisfying. This form of crossover music extends through the first four
cues, including the concert-worthy "Land Theme" and the huqin-led "Love
Theme." The most impressive bombastic piece is the monumentally powerful
"Saigon Reunion," with grand percussion rips and brass domination.
Finally, the exquisite "End Title" suite presents extended operatic and
other stylish performances of the score's themes. With the strings
leading the theme while brass eloquently performs supporting whole notes
(as well as the ethereal voices and pinpointed timpani use), many of
these sequences will remind listeners of John Barry's music, though with
much more robust style and variance here.
The remainder of the score, representing "earth," consists of savage
percussion pieces, sometimes interrupted by frightening choral effects
(as in the opening to "Village Attack"). The throat singing and chanting
of monks expands the score's horizons even further. The primordial sound
of some of these cues will be fresh to Western ears (outside of one
similarly percussive approach by Jerry Goldsmith early in
Rambo
III), though to call them readily listenable is suspect. The use of
synthesizers only irritates with the heartbeat effect heart for the
duration of the disturbing "Steve's Ghosts." The synth keyboarding in
the "End Title" is almost identical in sound to the high pitch
equivalent in Goldsmith's
Under Fire. A positive inclusion by
Kitaro throughout the score are adaptations of traditional Vietnamese
folks pieces, performed in parts once again by the lead actress of the
film. Hiep Thi Le's vocals are somewhat sparse in their direct mix, and
her tone may be harsh given the force with which performs her language.
One respite from the dissonance in the middle of the album is "Ahn's
House," a cue featuring both a Le vocal and a lush performance of the
love theme to conclude the scene. Overall, however, Kitaro's first major
film score can be considered nothing less than a work of beauty.
Conducted and orchestrated by
Hellraiser III's Randy Miller,
Heaven & Earth is rare blend of elements that will provide you
with half an hour of stunning harmony. The horror cues amount to less
than half of the album's length, and are concentrated in the center of
the product. With
Heaven & Earth being one of the most engaging
scores of 1993, fans of Kitaro and this score continue to be
disappointed by the composer's lack of activity in the scoring world
since 1997. Some of the same cross-cultural ideas would be utilized by
Klaus Badelt in his 2006 score for
The Promise, and although
Kitaro doesn't match the snazzy style of that equally powerful score,
his
Heaven & Earth is an achievement in basic beauty that
shouldn't be discounted by any film score collector.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
