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| Silvestri |
Here: (Alan Silvestri) In a striking reunion of the
cinematic team that brought
Forrest Gump to life thirty years
earlier, 2024's
Here represents a radical filmmaking strategy the
leaves the camera angle pointed in one single direction from a fixed
place for nearly the entire film. It's a film partly about the human
condition but also one about the complexities of history in an exact
place, showing a summary of events from that single viewpoint from the
extinction of the dinosaurs all the way through modern times. After the
meteor strike, the subsequent ice age, and the restoration of the
planet, the role of humans in that one location is shown over several
hundred years. From Native Americans through the COVID-19 pandemic, the
highly personal stories of all the inhabitants of this place, and in
particular those that pass through the living room of a home built there
in the early 20th Century, are seen in non-linear fashion by the
audience. The constant shifting of time happens in carefully
choreographed panels of the screen, and extensive de-aging technology is
applied to follow almost the whole life of the Tom Hanks and Robin
Wright characters, with the latter's heartbreaking performance
dominating the movie. Critics and audiences overwhelmingly disliked the
end result, disregarding its highly creative methodology and
fascinatingly real characters by lambasting the sappiness of the whole
affair. Admittedly, director Robert Zemeckis doesn't pull any punches
when yanking tears, but the film also may not connect with viewers for
whom specific places (or even rooms in a home) don't have a special,
anchoring impact on their lives. For those of nostalgic heart,
Here is a powerhouse experiment, one accentuated at certain
points in the narrative by Alan Silvestri's blatantly melodramatic
score. This project represents the 20th collaboration between the
composer and director, and it builds upon the tenderness of
Forrest
Gump without restraint in choice scenes. The role of original music
is actually highly restrained in the picture, with Zemeckis preferring
an extraordinarily wide range of diegetic source music that dominates
the soundscape during much of the story.
With everything from pop culture classics to even a touch
of Max Steiner thrown in, the soundtrack of
Here is a
kaleidoscope of tunes and television clips from the past 100 years.
Silvestri's score is spotted very judiciously whenever a radio or
television isn't contributing the sound, and the amount of unique score
material in the narrative is around half an hour. Interestingly, several
major cues written by Silvestri weren't incorporated into the film, the
cue titles suggesting that the initial version of the film had more
scenes involving the Earth of the far past, including depictions of
floods and mammoths. (Perhaps cost overruns eliminated these scenes.)
These scenes are tackled by the composer with all the gusto of his
Predator to
Judge Dredd years, but outside of these
diversions prior to humanity, Silvestri instead follows a softer but
still orchestrally engaging demeanor that is a combination of his own
tendencies and those of James Horner, Rachel Portman, and Marc Shaiman
of the 1990's. There is no attempt by Silvestri to restrain his
emotional swells of grandeur in several places during the story, no
doubt contributing to the audiences' allergic reaction to such
obviousness. Most of the score is tastefully subdued, though, with harp
rhythms holding many of the cues together. Solo oboe is key to the
emotions throughout, and a violin performs as representative of one
family (the home's first occupants) with a daughter who plays the
instrument. Piano performances are a clear emphasis for the concept of
family. There is tasteful, very restrained choral backing to "This is
Here" and "I Love It Here," that possibly sampled group additionally
contributing to the fantasy element of the action cues. The instrumental
base is charming to almost a fault, and the action cues spread
throughout the album release for the score assist in keeping the
atmosphere fresh. These explosions of force are blissfully pure
Silvestri in their character, even down to the double-struck snare hits
that define his works from
Back to the Future to
The
Witches and many in between. Thematically, the composer provides a
collection of melodies that are all based upon initial five-note phrases
that change their direction depending on the needs of individual
character groups. Secondary lines meander longer, but most of the
pertinent melodic structures all resort to variations on the five-note
base.
Silvestri's applications of the five-note foundation in
Here represent the changing times while remaining rooted in the
same basic melodic heart. Each group of humans is given a variation
except the rowdy, fun-loving bohemian couple of the 1930's and the
African-American family that occupies the home last and suffers from the
pandemic. (That final group is arguably forced into this narrative for
socio-political reasons, but their life is shown as so bleak and sterile
by the 2020's that Silvestri's music really cannot represent them.
There's an interesting discussion that could erupt on the side about
that.) The core of the film is its main theme for the Hanks and Wright
couple, an ascending, light character theme anchored by Silvestri's
default five-note phrasing that opens and closes the film. This theme
starts "Opening" on piano over a bed of pleasant harp, strings, and oboe
but launches into massive action mode at 0:44 into "Extinction." It's
soft on flute at the outset of "This is Here," where it builds to full
ensemble renditions repeatedly with brass for majestic drama before
reducing to solo violin and flute to close the cue. A huge moment of
1960's John Barry brass and choir at the start of "Mammoth" (with those
aforementioned double snare strikes) boldly reinforces the idea with
extreme resonance, but it turns whimsical and explores different
phrasing thereafter on piano. The main theme is tentative on flute at
the end of "Circle of Life," tries to hold the cue together at the end
of "I Think She's Going to Leave Me," and wanders through a variant that
doesn't as closely follow the melody in "The Great Flood." It supplies
somber, slower tones in the middle of "I'm Going to Sell the House"
before finally realizing its purpose of remembrance in "I Love It Here."
In that climactic cue, Silvestri provides the theme on piano at 0:38
before adding solo violin and other elements; the massive finale at 2:02
throws the full ensemble and choir at the theme, with solo oboe and
violin phrases closing the film softly, the former a de facto
representation of the hummingbird spirit that runs through the movie.
The theme begins "End Credits" on solo piano and is joined by oboe, the
solo violin counterpoint reminding of the vintage era girl at 0:56. This
passage is the only original portion of that track's assembly, the suite
reprising highlights for flute and the full ensemble in "This is Here,"
the "Extinction" burst of force, and the "Opening" cue.
Before diving into the four variants on the five notes
from the main melody for the other themes of
Here, it's important
to first recognize that Silvestri provided the main theme of the movie
two different secondary bridges, each serving as an interlude for
specific applications of that theme depending on the time period. The
first version of the bridge sequence is the score's most gorgeous and
dramatic idea, introduced at 0:31 into "Opening" and swelling to massive
size. (A brass flub at 0:57 is distracting.) Reprised at 1:48 into "This
is Here" on acoustic guitar and then full strings, this line is as
attractive as anything Silvestri has ever written in his career. It is
reduced to tender oboe at 1:29 into "I'm Going to Sell the House," and
becomes more optimistic at 1:28 into "I Love It Here" as Wright's
character's memory returns and builds to a huge finale for the ensemble
as the camera finally (and almost shockingly) starts panning. This
interlude is revisited at 0:27 into "End Credits" on piano with elegant
solo violin counterpoint and then the full ensemble, including guitar,
later returning at 3:17 in a straight reprise. The other secondary
bridge sequence is used by Silvestri to supplement the main theme's need
to adapt for the colonial portions and other older spirits of the tale.
Heard at 1:14 into "This is Here" on woodwinds over distinct cello solo
counterpoint and acoustic guitar, this idea serves as a lovely extension
at 1:32 for flowing strings and returns at 2:57. It wraps back to offer
a slower resolution at 0:51 into "I'm Going to Sell the House" and
recurs at 2:43 and 4:15 into "End Credits" with acoustic guitar and solo
cello in reprise mode. Again, these interludes are absolute winners in
the score, providing a touch of class and elegance to the history
audiences are witnessing over time, and they make for sublime portions
of the score on album as well. As for the four variants on the main
theme proper, listeners may not even really pick up on their nuances as
much as they'll appreciate the changes in tone that Silvestri conveys
for each tangent. A discovery theme turns the five notes into a concept
of slight, curious wonder at the beginning of "Why Am I Here?" on piano
and oboe over violin sustain. An altered version hesitates at the
nervous start of "God Help Me" and is similarly tentative on piano at
0:53 into "The Necklace" as a piece of the location's history is
revealed for its current occupants. A clarinet struggles with the idea
early in "I Love It Here" as dementia is shown clouding the
interaction.
Among the other five-note variations of the main theme
is that for nature, one that is highly reminiscent of James Horner's
handling of wildlife and used for shots of the location prior to the
house's existence. Itself an adaptation of the discovery theme, the
nature version evolves into its new form at 1:47 into "Why Am I Here?"
on oboe and becomes elongated in the worried mystery at the start of
"Extinction." It is deconstructed on woodwinds throughout "I Think She's
Going to Leave Me" and again previews the monumental action in "The
Great Flood." Meanwhile, a related theme for the Native Americans is
informed by the first interlude variant to itself become a five-note
identity in "Necklace of Shells." This idea is reprised in largely the
same form in "Circle of Life," continues in "The Necklace" with more
tragedy, and persists on soft flute at 2:36 into "The Great Flood."
Finally, Silvestri creates one final five-note offshoot of the main
theme as a representation of loss. Previewed in fragmentary form during
the realization of "I Think She's Going to Leave Me," this idea turns
highly melancholy throughout "Sell the House," with solo violin near the
start to represent the girl that liked the home originally. This theme
then recurs early "I'm Going to Sell the House" on clarinet. Together,
all of these variations form a deceptively complex tapestry for a score
that otherwise seems very simply generated on the surface. Don't let the
syrupy orchestrations and overall demeanor fool you into thinking this
work isn't deeply intelligent. The album reveals just how carefully
Silvestri wove these ideas together, but the film struggles to utilize
this music to define the narrative as cleanly. Part of this challenge is
obviously the constant interruptions by source music, but there is also
a fair amount of silence employed by Zemeckis for key character
interactions. And, of course, several noteworthy cues were simply
dropped, in part because scenes were deleted from the picture. In
context, the opening cue nicely establishes the tone, and the nature and
native themes thrive when the story shifts to the far past and thus
avoids the source music. But it's really the powerhouse duo of "This is
Here" and "I Love It Here" that together yield the five minutes of true
Silvestri and Zemeckis magic on screen. These pivotal dramatic cues, in
conjunction with the very impressive action cues, unused or otherwise,
produce the best overall Silvestri music in many years. The remainder
creates a well-rounded, 40-minute album that is consistently pleasant
and emotionally inviting, compelling testimony that melodramatic scoring
can still succeed brilliantly if you're in the mood for pure nostalgia.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Heard in the Film: ****
- Music as Heard on Album: *****
- Overall: *****
| Bias Check: |
For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.45
(in 40 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.35
(in 37,960 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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There exists no official packaging for this album.
