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Review of The Mummy (Jerry Goldsmith)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you don't mind hearing orchestras wielded like blunt
instruments for exotic and noisy action romps, this one clobbering you
with narratively inconsistent but overwhelmingly spirited force.
Avoid it... if you expect either the consistent sophistication or prevailing personality in style that Jerry Goldsmith's better adventure scores exhibit, a fantastic 30-minute consolidation necessary here to trim down the tedious album presentations.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Mummy: (Jerry Goldsmith) At times, it's a
challenge to determine if director Stephen Sommers intended his 1999
blockbuster, The Mummy, to actually embody the characteristics of
a serious action flick, because so much of the movie is ridiculously
dumb that there's the possibility that a parody was an underlying goal.
Nothing really remains from the classic 1931 Boris Karloff monster film
of the same name, with the remake a cheap knock-off of the Indiana Jones
concept that resorts to cliches and newly-developed digital rendering
capabilities for a bloated running time. A high priest in 1290 B.C.
Egypt is caught with the pharaoh's mistress and is both buried alive
with flesh eating beetles and cursed for all eternity, as if the being
buried with flesh eating beetles wasn't sufficiently disturbing a death.
He, Imhotep, is the mummy stumbled upon and accidentally released by
Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, who, in their roles as an American
treasure seeker and British historian, respectively, are plundering the
riches of Hamunaptra in the 1920's. As Imhotep is resurrected, he sets
upon unleashing Biblical plagues, among other auxiliary intentions, upon
a population of extras just waiting for an untimely demise. The concept
of Imhotep's attraction to the modern incarnation of his former Egyptian
lover, the central theme of the 1931 film, is only alluded to in the
1999 version. Inevitably, the special effects of Imhotep's
transformation and plagues are the main attraction while the story was
damned by Sommers' own writing missteps. Sommers and composer Jerry
Goldsmith had collaborated on the ridiculous action/horror film Deep
Rising the previous year, and The Mummy came after an
uncharacteristic six-month absence from the film scoring scene for
Goldsmith. Without a doubt, 1999 was the veteran composer's last great
year of production, treating audiences to robust orchestral scores for
this, The Haunting, and The 13th Warrior. Though none of
these films merited much praise, the ambitious quality of Goldsmith's
output, as well as the similarly outstanding characteristics of the
recordings' mixes, have caused these scores to become late staples in
the collections of the composer's fans.
While the music for The Mummy certainly has all the building blocks of a five-star score (or at least a solid four-star one), it stumbles due to its odd lack of consistency in quality and organizational focus throughout. The concept's sequel scores by Alan Silvestri and John Debney, interestingly, used none of Goldsmith's material but were arguably more consistent self-contained endeavors. If you're the kind of devoted film music collector who enjoys Goldsmith's exotic orchestral bombast in its purest sense, then the aimless personality of The Mummy won't bother you. The score was Goldsmith's most densely ambitious "wall of sound" entry of the era, blatantly pulling inspiration from the bloated charisma of the story. It's difficult to determine if Goldsmith approached The Mummy with absolutely serious intentions, for his music certainly makes it seem as though that were the case. But given that the production elements of the film were extreme to the point of parody, one must wonder if Goldsmith didn't let rip with the overwrought tone of this score due to some "tongue in cheek" playfulness. Several of the rhythms in The Mummy are directly related to the militaristic parody movements in Small Soldiers, which could indicate either a nod to the comical elements of The Mummy or perhaps simply the composer's preferred style of ruckus at the time. Much of the style of Goldsmith's rambling, percussive rhythms in The Mummy would be reprised with greater coherence in The 13th Warrior. The sheer density of The Mummy is both its major attraction and its demise. The many thematic ideas in the score are often lost in the shuffle, though it should be noted that each of the four individual themes is above average compared to the composer's tendency in the following years to write scores reliant on some comparative clunkers. While all four ideas receive significant treatment throughout the score, none of them really establishes itself as the primary identity of the film. Two exist for the variations on the location and Imhotep and one is provided to each of the two heroic leads. When one of these themes is being developed by Goldsmith, this score is at its best, for there are some massively accessible, tonal expressions of them on brass and strings. The most impressive of the themes in The Mummy is the ancient Egypt theme, alternately representing the living soul of Imhotep and the curse placed upon him at the outset of the film. This theme is rich with both straight-forward boldness and a few twists of stereotypical Middle-Eastern chord progressions. Its broad performance at the very outset of the film is its most prominent, though it ranges in style from solo woodwind in "Giza Port" to frantic hits and swirls of the ensemble in the opening moments of "The Sand Volcano." Its primary phrase is rarely expressed by Goldsmith after that massive "Imhotep" opening, though it does make an appearance near the outsets of "The Tauregs Attack" and "Closed Door." The sinister side of Imhotep's resurrection and curses is provided with another theme, foreshadowed briefly on low woodwind over choir at the end of "Imhotep" and making itself known in full on brass in the latter half of "The Sarcophagus." Robust performances of this idea are heard as the havoc is really being sent forth upon those unfortunate extras in "My Favorite Plague" and "Crowd Control." It's a relentlessly brutal theme in many of its performances, though Goldsmith does boil it down to solo woodwind at times to foreshadow subsequent mummy-related action. A heroic theme for the film, alternately a straight-laced action motif, is ripped directly from Small Soldiers and used during the more upbeat moments of adventure in the film that involve Fraser's character. Heard first in a minor-key variation in the latter half of "The Tauregs Attack," the idea explodes in full during the midsection of "Night Boarders." Goldsmith allows this theme to truly flourish in "The Sand Volcano," prominently marching its way to victory at about 2:20 into that cue. The fourth and final theme in The Mummy is the obvious love theme, spanning both the relationship between Imhotep and the mistress as well as the one between 1920's treasure seekers. The first hints of this string theme are offered in the ancient Egypt scene in "Imhotep," though it is more frequently referenced as the score progresses. Fleeting performances in "Giza Port" and "Night Boarders," as well as several prevalent statements in the latter half of "Camel Race," cannot compete with the majesty of the theme's performances in the last minutes of "The Sand Volcano," when the choir elegantly joins in. In between all the thematic development in The Mummy is a slew of typical Goldsmith motific devises of more targeted intent, as well as an extremely healthy dose of the composer's more rowdy action material. As mentioned before, these ideas owe heavily to Small Soldiers and would be explored with greater success by Goldsmith in his replacement score for The 13th Warrior. With percussive and synthetic instrumentation appropriate for the region, many have compared parts of The Mummy to The Wind and the Lion, which contains some of Goldsmith's most memorable action material for the region. Instrumentally, The Mummy sufficiently provides the setting with an exotic tilt, and the elements used here for that effect, such as the mandolin-like bouzouki and a wealth of regional percussion, are identical to those heard again in The 13th Warrior. Parts of the two scores, in fact, could be interchanged and few causal fans would notice the difference. The choir in The Mummy is used sparingly, which is a nice alternative in some ways to the outward explosiveness of the voices in The 13th Warrior, but outside of the final moments of "Imhotep" and "The Sand Volcano," the choir doesn't make a significant impact. Electronics are sparsely employed, mostly as a tool to assist with percussive rhythms rather than provide their own spicy accents. When included, they most resemble Star Trek: Insurrection in style. Metallic percussion often takes the place of the composer's tingling synthetic elements, and a pronounced role for xylophone is keenly applied to scenes involving skeletons and insects, a tried and tested scoring technique. The major difference between The Mummy and its two direct cousins, Small Soldiers and The 13th Warrior, is that The Mummy struggles to maintain a cohesive level of quality and, as a result, a consistent personality. The former score's exuberant sense of humor and the latter score's stark sense of antiquity are the kinds of defining characteristics that The Mummy lacks. You can't really rely upon any of the four major themes to carry the whole, for Goldsmith frequently deviates from them for extended sequences that, in some cases, as with "The Locusts," are distractingly divergent from the rest of the work. Likewise, you can't really point to any single instrumental or vocal element as the definition of the score. (The opposite of this would be The Ghost and the Darkness, which exudes a distinct style in nearly its entire length.) Overall, within the subset of Goldsmith's action music of this era, The Mummy is extraordinary in its forceful stance but surprisingly anonymous in its character. Perhaps the sheer volume of the score, with its constant waves of rhythmically powerful action cues clobbering you at every turn, is actually its defining personality trait. If this is true, then the organization of the score's rhythmic and thematic ideas are betrayed by their heavy-handed rendering. Still, the score, which exhibits the same remarkably resounding sound quality as Goldsmith's others in 1998 and 1999 (a perfect balance of detail and reverb), is extremely popular with the composer's collectors, who often hail it as among his best action ventures ever. That enthusiasm has always been somewhat curious, but those fans were given the treat of an isolated score track on the DVD release of the film, from which bootlegs ensued. In 2018, Intrada Records supplanted the bootlegs and original Decca release with a generous 2-CD set containing the full score, a number of alternative takes, and a remastered version of the 1999 album that contains different mixes of the same cues. (The label also provided similar treatment at the time to Silvestri's The Mummy Returns.) It's a lovely presentation of the score, adding entire sections of the work, particularly in the first and second acts, that were neglected on the prior album. But that fuller narrative also exposes more of the general dysfunction in the cohesiveness of the score, the newly available cues often impressive on their own but compounding the work's larger issues of flow. It's an even more exhausting listening experience on the Intrada set, though enthusiasts will appreciate the Egyptian theme's magnificent performance in "Closed Door," the mummy's action theme in "The Flies" (along with swirling, old-school monster music), and the heroic theme blazing across "Airplane Ride." Also of importance is the addition of the noble "Desert Burial" interlude for horns and the engaging "Escape From the Tomb" at the climax. Still, many of the other new cues are filler suspense entries that could make the album experience much too long for many listeners. The score definitely needs some consolidation into a fantastic 30-minute suite to highlight its wealth of four-star material, many of its top moments existing in its opening and closing passages. Despite coming ever-so-close to a four-star rating here overall due to its sheer force of impact, The Mummy really doesn't live up to its reputation as touted by Goldsmith's most ardent collectors. It's tremendous fun but tediously adrift. Be prepared to sift through the sands for those golden cues. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
1999 Decca Album:
Total Time: 57:40
2018 Intrada Album: Total Time: 157:37
* Previously unreleased ** Includes previously unreleased material
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1999 Decca album includes no extra information about the score or film.
That of the 2018 Intrada product includes extensive information about both, with the exception of
a 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 The Mummy are Copyright © 1999, 2018, Decca Records, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 5/16/99 and last updated 1/16/19. |
