 |
| Horner |
Jade: (James Horner) Cinematic disasters are
regular occurrences in Hollywood, though not from as varied a cast,
veteran a director, controversial a writer, successful a composer, and
high a budget from a major studio as
Jade. The 1995 production
cost $50 million to make, utilized a script by sex and thriller favorite
Joe Eszterhas, and offered director William Friedkin another opportunity
to not only shoot another of his famous chase scenes, but expand upon
his history of tackling highly disturbing subjects as well. The mystery
story contained nearly every familiar plot element standard to the noir
genre, putting a detective in between his powerful former lover and her
equally powerful attorney husband. When death strikes the ranks of San
Francisco's executive and governing class, the detective (played with
absolutely no pizzazz by David Caruso in one of his worst roles ever)
has to piece together how the other two members of the triangle are
involved. Fertility masks and bizarre sex rituals involving Linda
Fiorentino join the topics of blackmail and hidden cameras, though none
of this competes with the chance to see Rambo favorite Richard Crenna
involved in the wicked and explicit rituals. And then there was the
controversy. As if an American gross of less than $10 million wasn't bad
enough,
Jade came under fire from Eszterhas (who claimed that
Friedkin mutilated his script so badly that he insisted upon having his
name removed from the film) and stirred further problems when
accusations were raised that Friedkin, in the style of
The
Exorcist and
The Sorcerer, shot subliminal messages during
scenes involving the freaky masks that induced vomiting in audiences
(indeed, there were reports of nauseous viewers staining theatre floors
with their dinners). Whether the film makes you sick to the stomach or
not, it's terrible entertainment, and outside of the one minimally
redemptive car chase through San Francisco's Chinatown,
Jade has
nothing to offer.
Composer James Horner apparently realized just how
wretched
Jade was destined to be when he was offered the
assignment by Friedkin, who very actively sought Horner's services for
the film and still thought highly of him long after this collaboration.
The composer, desiring to have nothing to do with
Jade, did what
some composers do if they are not interested in a project: have their
agents demand a ridiculous sum of money to lock up the contract.
Surprisingly, despite the need for only about 20 minutes of original
music in
Jade, Paramount accepted Horner's offer and, by an
unconfirmed report, paid him $3 million for his services. That kind of
money was at one time typical for a major score performed by The London
Symphony Orchestra and rarely anything less. Thus, Horner was stuck in
an assignment for the only kinky sex thriller of his career, a topic
nestled in between his recordings of
Casper and
Balto.
Should anyone be surprised, therefore, that Horner's finished product
for
Jade was awful? There have long been many unanswered
questions about the composer's involvement in
Jade. First is the
exact amount of music he wrote for the picture, because Friedkin used a
plethora of outside material for the film as well (supposedly dumping
some of the score). Eventually, Horner's contribution was pegged at
about 27 minutes, though the film only used about 20 minutes of it.
Second is the placement of Loreena McKennitt's song, "The Mystic's
Dream," throughout the score in such a fashion that the score would have
to interact with it. Horner did emulate elements from the song into his
work, though post-production editing of the score was more often the
reason for the mingling of the two. Third is a rumor that Horner's
dissatisfaction with the production spanned his entire involvement with
it, creating speculation that he intentionally wrote as wretched a score
for the film as possible. The last question will go unaddressed in this
review, because it's impossible to say if the music is actually poor
(or, at best, "phoned in") by intention.
Of more importance to the discussion about
Jade is
the balance between McKennitt's song and Horner's score, among other
items. Plenty of outside sources came into play in the film (as usual
for the director and his eclectic musical tastes), including Igor
Stravisnky's "Le Sacre du Printemps" ("Rite of Spring"), "Isn't It
Romantic" and "Where or When" by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart, "Last to
Know" by Pat Metheny, and "Pau Rolou" by Egberto Gismonti. But it was
"The Mystic's Dream" that factored so heavily in the film, meandering in
and out of a hazy sound mix during several scenes and eventually
occupying the end credits in full. It's a beautiful song, and it's no
wonder that the majority of the population was confused into thinking
that Horner, who was partial to McKennitt's style anyway, was
responsible for that material. What her tone and instrumentation has to
do with a San Francisco cop thriller with African masks is another
issue... That's why filmmakers fail, no doubt. Friedkin is inclined to
connect it to the emotional side of the title character's eroticism,
though it's tough to match the coolly compelling lyricism of the song
with the film's lack of convincing depth. The tricky part in evaluating
Horner's score for
Jade is that it seems as though the song, or
portions of the song's mix, were arranged into the film before Horner's
involvement, forcing the composer to write bridge material extending and
complimenting sounds from the song into his own score. For instance, the
song contains a deep, two-note motif, rising from a note below key to a
resonating, harmonic key droning. Horner emulates this sound adequately
on his synthesizers. Other examples of this cloudy merging exist as
well; the McKennitt usage is so prevalent that either Horner was forced
to address the song in his original composition or a music editor had a
hell of a tough job for this production. Nothing that Horner produces
for
Jade is as lovely as the heart of "The Mystic's Dream,"
however, and fans of the song will be interested in the fact that the
various layers of the song, whether vocal or instrumental, are often
separated and conveyed in their solo potions (or layered
differently).
Stravisnky's "Rite of Spring" supplies the Chinese
angle to the soundtrack, starting as a morbid, primal march that bounces
on woodwinds in "Main Title" and "Looking for Answers" and eventually
culminates in a wildly exotic, dissonant, descending brass theme over
rowdy percussive pounding. The only notable usage of this Stravisnky
piece in the film comes as the fertility masks are seen on display in
the latter half of "Main Title," and given how strangely reminiscent of
Bernard Herrmann's most zany tendencies this obnoxious (and albeit
older) piece of music is, it's no wonder people in the audience were
vomiting in the aisles. These two cues, along with the first minute of
"Finale" (which once again reflects Herrmann mannerisms in its prickly
excitement), represent the only outwardly orchestral music tracked into
Jade. The dissonance that concludes the film in "Finale" is among
the generic muck to match Horner's lack of enthusiasm for the project.
And what of Horner's actual original material? It's an oddly incongruous
combination of
The Name of the Rose and
Jumanji. The
extremely heavy bass keyboarding and plucky string motif from the
earlier score are reprised here, as are the imitations of the male
choral part of McKennitt's song that are familiar to the previous Horner
score as well. The composer collected his usual group of associates on
specialty instruments and added a few specifically to handle the erhu
and other Chinese-related components. Deeply pounding piano and
percussion, joined by wailing sakauhachi flute, are similar in execution
to
Jumanji. Especially as the score progresses, Horner's
atmospherics are as bland a tone as
Unlawful Entry and the less
engaging parts of
The Name of the Rose. A slight, puffing
electronic choral effect (heard most extensively in
Titanic)
seems to be a tool to connect McKennitt's performances to the original
music. The pacing of the score is incredibly slow, with lengthy
sequences of basic keyboard droning or other inaudible activity. There
are recurring motifs at work here, though all of them relate to
flourishes of awkward instrumental performances rather than readily
identifiable melodic lines. When lines are explored tepidly, as in
"Drive to the Airport" in the original recording, they are too brief and
nebulous to remember.
Most of the basic motifs in Horner's music for
Jade can be heard established in the opening cue, though some of
this material was seemingly replaced by the Stravisnky and McKennitt
interludes. As such, the score was never worth the search for the short
bootlegs that long represented its only album presentation, even for
completists. Sound quality isn't terrible on the variants of the
33-minute bootlegs of (often padded by a five-minute suite at the end),
but it is very muffled. Anyone familiar with the film was better off
seeking "The Mystic's Dream" as the first track on McKennitt's popular
album, "The Mask and Mirror," or as the centerpiece of the album for the
2001 television production
The Mists of Avalon, where it fits
much more comfortably with Lee Holdridge's superior score. From a
production and editing standpoint, the film manipulations of this
soundtrack might be an interesting study for enthusiasts of both Horner
and McKennitt's music, but you won't find yourself revisiting it again
for enjoyment. Interestingly, when the time came for the score's
official debut on a licensed product from La-La Land Records in 2010,
the original recording by Horner was provided alone on the single CD.
While this 27 minutes is joined by a handful of source recordings and
the Stravisnky and McKennitt portions directly from their existing
albums, the product does not try to emulate the film edits of this
music. Granted, there is little sense at times to what Friedkin did with
all of this raw material, but while the original score and Stravisnky
piece don't benefit much from the film edit, the McKennitt music might.
Among the only highlights of the soundtrack are the varying mixes of
extracts from "The Mystic's Dream" featured in the film, and none of
these is included on the La-La Land product. As such, the only benefit
of that album is to hear Horner's score as originally written, and
that's no attraction at all despite crystal clear sound. It should be no
surprise that the album did not fly off the shelves, and the stock of
3,000 copies was reduced in price from $20 to $15 by the label after
only a few weeks of availability. On the other hand, a clear copy of
Stravisnky's mask motif could be an extremely effective tool with which
to suddenly scare the crap out of a sleeping roommate in the middle of
the night. Otherwise, don't lose your sleep (or your lunch) over it.
* @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 108 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 203,346 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
There exists no substantial packaging for the various bootlegs. The 2010
La-La Land album's insert contains notes about the film and score, including quotes
from the director about both, but it unfortunately neglects to discuss the more
controversial aspects of the production.
