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FILMTRACKS.COM
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Review of Ladyhawke (Andrew Powell)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you still have big hair and can't get enough of
that sickeningly upbeat, early-80's Alan Parsons Project keyboard and
guitar sound, in this case paired with often meek orchestral consolation
to the topic of this film.
Avoid it... on any album if you were as horrified by the inappropriateness of the score in the film as 98% of the public, for the expanded presentations on successive products for Ladyhawke only extend the agony further.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Ladyhawke: (Andrew Powell) In the rush to
capitalize on the popularity of the blossoming fantasy genre in the
early 1980's, studios had to be somewhat nervous about the offerings
they were each about to produce in 1985. Most of them were complete
failures, including Red Sonja and Legend, though
Ladyhawke actually managed to become a moderate success at the
box office. Director Richard Donner as an established force, the cast
was filled with young stars and old favorites, and the story was
romantically set in a familiar medieval universe. That plot loosely
involves a curse that has caused two lovers (Michelle Pfeiffer and
Rutger Hauer) to take the shape of animals against their will, one at
night and one during the day, so that they can never be together. Their
encounters saving the life (and utilizing the services) of a mousy
Matthew Broderick provides the action. The film has a loyal cult
following even several decades later, and the project is a rare example
of a circumstance in which it has always been controversial because of
its music. Donner had worked with both John Williams and Jerry
Goldsmith, though with Williams on tour and taking a break from film
scoring and Goldsmith mired in the disaster of Legend for Ridley
Scott, Donner came up with the idea of plundering the services of
orchestrator Andrew Powell and taking advantage of the pop culture music
fad invading fantasy films at the time. It's hard to figure exactly
where the genre switched its allegiance from the robust orchestral
fantasy scores of Williams, James Horner, Trevor Jones, and Basil
Poledouris to the more contemporary 1980's rock scene. Some point to
Toto's strangely effective Dune score in 1984 as the source. But,
in any case, 1985 fantasy films hastened the popular demise of the genre
through this "popification." In the last gasps of the Conan
franchise, Ennio Morricone would infuse his orchestral score with rock
elements, while Goldsmith's score for Legend would be tossed by
the studio in favor of a Tangerine Dream replacement. And for
Ladyhawke, Donner and the producers reportedly heard music from
the Alan Parsons Project while scouting locations in Italy and decided
to incorporate it as part of their film as well. The end result is one
of the most widely mocked soundtracks in the history of film, a poppy
cop-genre comedy score with token orchestral fantasy elements that was
soundly panned even at the time of its release. In retrospect, it's even
worse than one remembers it from back then.
For Ladyhawke, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London is largely supplanted by music directly out of the Alan Parsons Project, with the same musical producer and engineer for this film that also produced "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd, among others. Performances here include their normal guitarist, Ian Bairnson, as well. Powell never made a career of film scoring, before or after Ladyhawke, and the lack of experience in integrating the orchestral and rock elements of the score is its fatal flaw. Critics actually laughed at the score in their reviews at the time, and reviews of the movie's DVD release have been even less kind to the score due to its very aged sound. When describing the music of Alan Parsons, some people refer to it as cheesy disco holdovers from the 1980's, some use the technically correct terminology of "80's progressive rock," and most people write it off as "painful 80's synth crap." For collectors of tradition film scores, Ladyhawke is an insufferable tragedy and unsuccessfully begs to be forgiven as a blatant mistake of its era. Even a significant portion of Alan Parsons Project collectors going back to the LPs of the early 80's find the score distracting in the film. And it certainly is. There's nothing as bizarre as hearing 80's progressive rock in a sword and sorcery film, and what makes the situation in Ladyhawke worse is that it's alternating with ten to fifteen minutes of really decent orchestral material by the London ensemble in the film. You get bludgeoned by the 80's rock rhythms and electric guitars over cheesy keyboarding for the first half of the film only to be treated to some significantly rendered orchestral passages in the third quarter, only then to be slapped once again by the non-descript rock at the end. The rock passages all sound alike, with the heartbeat effect from "Dark Side of the Moon" leading a whining synth brass theme and occasional early-80's digital orchestra hits. Both nauseating and punishing, these sequences accompany fight scenes, conversation pieces, and travel sequences with little regard for pacing, scene change, or any other cue identifiers. Ironically, one cannot find relief in the lesser, suspenseful underscore cues of the picture (of which there are many short ones), with Powell's approach to these sections sometimes taking sound effects and manipulating them into dull background sounds. Or he simply meanders about with the orchestra, in effect yielding organic ambient droning. A plethora of source material, led by liturgical chants, only emphasizes how awful the dichotomy of tone can be in this work. The most frustrating aspect of Powell's score for Ladyhawke, as any true fantasy fan will know, is the potential it shows in its more traditional moments. The love theme for Ladyhawke is beautifully tragic, and while it is used without any effect by the rock style in the opening of the film, Powell introduces the listener to its orchestral side with longing woodwinds and strings in "She Was Sad at First." Unfortunately, a mass error in the string section at about 1:45 in that cue nearly ruins its listenability. Despite representing the lost love at the heart of the film's mysticism, the theme is badly underutilized until the "Final Reunion," which is the orchestral highlight of the score. The triumphant statement of this theme is very compelling in this finale, with well-conceived brass counterpoint to the string performance. Once again, the performance is ruined by three factors: first, the end titles are immediately mixed into the final notes of the theme, forcing the orchestra to engage with the terrible keyboard opening of the rock version of the theme. Secondly, the string section is not powerful enough to carry the theme over the counterpoint of the far-more engaging horns, leaving the horns in the intriguing position of providing their own sort of solo theme at the end. Third is yet another heinous performance flub about 39 seconds into the cue, which seeming fades in arbitrarily at its start. Other themes for both leads and the secondary characters show promise at times, especially in how Powell overlaps them in sensitive moments, but that intelligence in construct cannot compensate for the terrible renderings. The orchestration and arrangement of the orchestral portions are poorly handled throughout, meaning that any compilation performance of the otherwise outstanding love theme from Ladyhawke would have to be significantly arranged for that purpose. Fans of the Parsons side of things delighted in a late 1995 CD pressing that expanded the available music from the film. The original LP releases of Ladyhawke included less than 40 minutes of music, often leaving off the more compelling, non-rock recordings. A little-known Italian CD release under the Genoa label in 1993 featured identical contents in a limited 2000-copy pressing. The 1995 GNP Crescendo album adds another half hour of score, including, most importantly, the full finale music. A 2015 La-La Land Records album pushes the presentation out to truly insufferable lengths and offers very inconsistent sound quality in its plethora of undeserving additional cues. While the expanded releases are commendable for concept fans, the score is still an atrocious mess; most of it is nothing less than painful to tolerate by today's standards of pop culture and orchestral music. Tread carefully with this one.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1995 GNP Crescendo Album:
Total Time: 63:40
2015 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 129:28
* Previously unreleased ** Contains material not used in the final film *** Early version # Film version
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1995 album includes no extra information about the score
or film. That of the 2015 product contains extensive notation about both, including
a partial list of performers.
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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 Ladyhawke are Copyright © 1995, 2015, GNP Crescendo Records, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/13/96 and last updated 11/27/15. |
