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Review of Island of the Sharks (Alan Williams)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you enjoy the expansiveness of John Barry's dramatic
1980's string writing and the rhythmic flair of Jerry Goldsmith's 1990's
jungle rhythms.
Avoid it... if you easily become annoyed by scores that make no attempt to conceal the origins of their influences, no matter how adept their adaptation of those styles.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Island of the Sharks: (Alan Williams) Among the
many IMAX films to bring a distant location to a really big screen near
you was 1998's Island of the Sharks, a standard nature
documentary about the area surrounding Cocos Island (off the coast of
Costa Rica). This film deals primarily with the underwater creatures,
utilizing the ever-evolving technology of underwater IMAX filming to
capture awe-inspiring scenes of animal interaction and movement. As the
film's producer, Michele Hall, states, films like Island of the
Sharks "require a big sound." And audiences have been trained to
expect a significant score for such pictures since the mid-1990's as
well. Proving himself capable of providing such music at the time was
composer Alan Williams, whose career has proven to be defined by IMAX
projects in the years since. He was provided a 70-member orchestra with
which to play for Island of the Sharks, and he would, for some
listeners, use the opportunity to eclipse his work on the IMAX film
Amazon, which had gained him significant attention and praise two
years earlier. In a procedural sense, Williams' technique of adapting
proven ideas from other scores is likely the central talking point of
Island of the Sharks. At times, you hear so many influences from
other modern works in scores like Amazon and Island of the
Sharks that some listeners will be too dismayed by such references
to be able to enjoy each new entry. But then again, if the sound isn't
broken, then there's no reason to fix it. By not reinventing the
concepts in Island of the Sharks, Williams provides a score that
will heavily remind veteran film score listeners of John Barry, Jerry
Goldsmith, James Newton Howard, and a handful of others. The trick to
Williams' success, though, is his ability to adapt all of these styles
into a cohesive whole that works extremely well for Island of the
Sharks (moreso than in Amazon) despite the somewhat shameless
nature of the inspirational pull.
Right off the bat, listeners will be treated to expansive string-led themes using the same dramatic weight as any typical John Barry theme of the 80's or 90's. There is absolutely no question about the original of this inspiration, and the interesting aspect of these performances in Island of the Sharks is the fact that Williams applies the Barry brush without the typical repetitions that often render Barry's music stagnant. This title theme for Island of the Sharks is somewhat upstaged by the mass of Spanish-flavoured subthemes in the middle portions of the score, used often to represent the funnier and more innocuous creatures of the ocean. These portions are directly influenced by two Jerry Goldsmith scores. In "Underwater Currents," Williams utilizes a rolling drum rhythm almost identical to that of The Ghost and the Darkness, but Williams' instrumentation has a far more appropriately sub-tropical feel. The secondary theme he performs here is pure Goldsmith magic, and in its reprise in "Rain and Rebirth" is a highlight. Later, by the time we reach segments about "Sea Stars" and "Sea Turtle and Hermit Crab," Williams has fully embraced Goldsmith's Medicine Man. These latter cues, despite being the lowest in volume, contain the most infectious personality in Island of the Sharks, using the same percussion and acoustic guitar array (along with more tropical specialties) as an aide to the orchestra in such a pleasant sense as to almost overshadow the quality of Goldsmith's work. Some pan pipe work in "Fairy Turne" harken back to Goldsmith's 80's work for Under Fire. Other secondary motifs include ideas for the fierce creatures, and between the Howard references in "Hammerheads" and the inevitable bass string/John Williams references in "Shark Attack," the darker moments of Island of the Sharks are to be skipped. Overall, though, this score is as gorgeous as any you'd expect to hear from an IMAX film in this location; Williams takes each of these inspirations (or temp tracks, perhaps... it doesn't really matter) and does such a good job adapting them that you forgive their derivative nature. Unlike Amazon, Island of the Sharks was only released as a promotional product in 1999; most of Williams works have been filtered to collectors in this fashion. A pleasure all around. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 35:19
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a note from the film's producer, Michele Hall:
The musical score that accompanies a film's images plays an integral part in the outcome. Images filmed in IMAX are big and descriptive. They deserve -- no, they require, a big sound. It takes a special talent to compose big sound for that big picture, with the specific requirements of playback in an IMAX theater. From the first time I heard an Alan Williams' film score, I knew that he was the one I wanted to musically capture the emotion of Cocos. One of the thrills for me as the Producer of Island of the Sharks was watching Alan conduct the 70-piece orchestra gathered for the recording session on the scoring stage at Sony Pictures. His dedication to this project paid off on that day as the film images came to life when accompanied by his soundtrack."
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Island of the Sharks are Copyright © 1999, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/21/00 and last updated 10/16/07. |
