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| Silvestri |
Judge Dredd: (Alan Silvestri) Unless you were an
enthusiast of the comic on which this film was based, there wasn't much
to be impressed about with
Judge Dredd, a 1995 Danny Cannon
venture that allowed Sylvester Stallone to continue his
Demolition
Man mode of operation of stubborn, pissed-off rebelling. Mocked by
critics for its inability to turn its sources of inspiration into
anything particularly original,
Judge Dredd is a messy
combination of elements from the aforementioned Stallone action/comedy
and
Blade Runner and
Robocop. It tries to interject humor
and notoriously poor dialogue in such awkward ways that the film's
visual elements are diminished to a level of stupidity that only
contributed to the era's stereotypes about summer blockbusters. Stallone
and a competent array of character actors exist in a bleak, futuristic
Earth where crime rules the land and super-cop "Judges" like Stallone
are given the ability to arrest, sentence and execute criminals on the
spot. When Stallone's character is framed for a murder and his evil DNA
clone decides to switch sides, the battle is on. Without Jurgen
Prochnow, Max von Sydow, and especially Armand Assante chewing on the
awful script in supporting roles,
Judge Dredd would be
intolerably bad. Also fighting to salvage the film is Alan Silvestri's
score, which came at a time in his career when the
Back to the
Future and
Predator composer was frustrating his fans with a
series of far fluffier projects often residing in the comedy realm.
Luckily, this assignment added to the wide range of very satisfying
bombast to emanate from Hollywood that summer, holding Silvestri's
action collectors' interest until the composer's significant return to
the genre in the early 2000's. One of the most intriguing aspects of
Judge Dredd is the influence of legendary Jerry Goldsmith on the
production. The veteran was the original choice to write the music for
the picture, but scheduling circumstances placed this film's recording
period on top of those of
First Knight and
Congo, forcing
Goldsmith to abandon
Judge Dredd. This wasn't before the composer
was able to write a propulsive percussion and brass-led, one-minute
piece for the film's trailer, however. Many of the rhythmic
sensibilities of that short recording seem to have inspired Silvestri's
score, even down to the finished work's progressions.
Silvestri disputes any connection in
Judge Dredd
to Goldsmith's existing ideas, however, claiming that the production did
not encourage him to retain any of that material's concepts for the
final work. Still, Silvestri's music, perhaps not surprisingly, sounds
like a combination of Goldsmith's standard action fare, Bill Conti's
Masters of the Universe, and his own
Predator. That's not
a bad combination in any circumstance. The similarities between
Silvestri's accomplishment and Goldsmith's mannerisms may be a
coincidence, though there's no doubt about what sound the filmmakers
wanted to hear in their movie. Much like Conti's predicament with the
dreadful He-Man film a decade prior, Silvestri was tasked with
compensating for the many weaknesses of a doomed
Judge Dredd
production by creating an orchestral monstrosity of a score that could
overwhelm the listener with its explosive bravado. Damn near everything
in this score is big, bloated, and bombastic. With the exception of a
few conversational revelation cues ("We Created You") and a
The Hills
Have Eyes kind of ethnic creepfest in the middle of the score
("Angel Family"),
Judge Dredd taxes the stamina of the Sinfonia
of London almost continuously. It's the kind of score that often
maintains its harmoniously exciting level of instrumental and choral
depth like John Debney's contemporary
Cutthroat Island, another
score that fights to compensate for a filmmaking disaster.
Instrumentally, the snare and tuba are prominent in this mix, both
performed without much restraint in much of the work. And when the
volume isn't cranked to the max or the snare isn't hitting a
synchronization point with angry emphasis, the more dramatic material
still exudes a menacing character. Silvestri is faithful to his various
melodies in
Judge Dredd, most of them intriguingly structured
around five-note phrases. The primary theme's overblown heroic stature
is where listeners will hear some similarities to Conti's He-Man score
(at least in its unashamedly brazen major-key tone), but the idea does
receive some softer attention, including pronounced woodwind treatment
in "The Law" and "Hidden Photo." When in more muted martial mode, the
theme takes on personality traits of
Back to the Future,
especially when paired with heroic trumpet as in "Parking Penalty." The
identity's grandiose performances of dramatic suffering, as in "Say It
Ain't So," are sometimes a bit overwhelmed by the immense weight of
their own choral force.
Although the main melody's rendering is a bit more
authentic in addressing Stallone's actions on screen in
Judge
Dredd than the typical mindless action fare, listeners may be more
interested in the secondary themes Silvestri offers. Usually also in
five-note phrases, these ideas range from the thumping rhythm that leads
up to a confrontation (and the title theme), and opposing ascending and
descending string figures for drama and villainy that, especially when
combined with resounding choral accompaniment, remind of
Predator's space-related theme. There is both quality and
tonality in almost every moment of this score, the exotic percussion and
electronic embellishments of "Angel Family" the only exception. The
score's weakness comes in the form of the rather transparent
applications of the main theme; don't be surprised if you appreciate the
bridge section of the theme on horns much more than the primary phrase.
A powerfully darker cue like "Judgement Day," however, with its
impressive exploration of the drama theme in the middle, complete with
rampant harp, represents Silvestri at his most massively melodramatic.
Despite this cue being cut from the film, it remains arguably the
highlight of the entire score. The score was released on a combination
commercial album in 1995, containing 40 minutes of Silvestri's work
after a variety of incongruous rock songs. Minus the "Angel Family" cue,
this listening experience was highly enjoyable, though die-hard fans
long sought a 67-minute score-only bootleg that divided up the retail
album's score suites into a choppier presentation with added filler. The
Goldsmith trailer music, as well as a competently arranged five-minute
suite from the Silvestri score, was enthusiastically performed by the
Royal Scottish National Orchestra for Varèse Sarabande's
outstanding "Hollywood '95" compilation. In 2015, Intrada Records
compiled a comprehensive 2-CD presentation of
Judge Dredd that
includes the full score and a bevy of alternate takes made while trying
to fine-tune the music to the film, along with some of the major album
arrangements and the original version of Goldsmith's trailer cue. Be
aware that some early copies of the album accidentally pressed the RSNO
performance of the Goldsmith cue instead of the studio version. (The
label offered exchanges on the product and rectified it for further
pressings.) The longer listening experience for Silvestri's score
illuminates some nice secondary passages, including the softer variants
on the main theme. The alternate takes are quite entertaining even if
the divergence isn't always significant. On any album,
Judge
Dredd remains highly recommended, a truly solid Silvestri romp.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.46
(in 41 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.34
(in 39,966 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 1995 album unfolds into an ugly poster but includes no extra information
about the score or film. That of the 2015 Intrada album contains extensive notation about both.
