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PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of The Musketeer (David Arnold)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you're so desperate to hear David Arnold return to the glory
days of his 1990's bombast that you'll except it in a form that is largely devoid
of unique style or personality.
Avoid it... if almost perpetual ruckus in the vast majority of cues is too overwhelming to tell a balanced musical story, or if you expect to hear the film version of the score on this re-recorded album.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Musketeer: (David Arnold) Within a span of ten years in
the 1990's and early 2000's, Hollywood adapted Alexandre Dumas' legendary story of
"The Three Musketeers" story into three substandard motion pictures. Peter Hyam's
The Musketeer was final of these entries, and with a terrible cast and
careless direction, it has often been criticized as the worst of the lot. The basic
plot of swashbuckling story set in 17th Century France is intact, but The
Musketeer gives you little reason to renew your interest in the topic. It's a
production in which every element was phoned in; a distinct lack of unique style in
this picture reveals that the crew and studio saw this endeavor for its box office
potential rather than as fine art. One of those who offered predictable workmanship
of serviceable but not spectacular quality was composer David Arnold, who used the
project as an opportunity to revisit the glorious style of action heard in his
Independence Day period. In the mid-90's, Arnold was quickly rising as the
uncontested king of orchestral bombast, the newest phenomenon to challenge the
swashbuckling themes of John Williams. Arnold's scores for Stargate and
Independence Day specifically created a new fan base for the composer,
especially with those two works re-used extensively in commercials, public
displays, and other venues. Later in the decade, around the time of the somewhat
underachieving Godzilla, Arnold began to combine his orchestral talents with
his roots in the rock, hip hop, and electronic genres. His popular James Bond
scores were a mix of both of Arnold's two talents, with the stylish score for
Shaft finally drawing the composer nearly entirely away from the mainstream
listeners he had acquired earlier in the decade. After another black culture score
in 2001 (the once again serviceable Baby Boy), Arnold returned without
reservation to the genre of scoring that made him famous. Collectors who missed
this unequivocal style of bombast were delighted with Arnold's return to the
production of orchestral might. At the very least, it proved that Arnold could
switch between scores like Baby Boy and The Musketeer at will.
Unfortunately, The Musketeer marked the composer's last mighty symphonic
work for many years.
There was never any doubt that Arnold summed up a mass of sound for this score that still exceeded that which most any other composer could create at the time. But even with an overworked orchestra and grand themes, The Musketeer stumbles in a few regards. While maintaining the sophisticated complexity of Arnold's other large orchestral works, including some nearly impossible performances by the brass section, his music for The Musketeer lacks that elegant and refreshing edge that made his previous, similarly constructed scores so popular. It suffers from much of the same style of bombast without direction that Godzilla's weaker parts experienced. Arnold's talent for sweeping themes was perhaps best heard in Tomorrow Never Dies, for which he nearly emulated John Barry's heavy handed approach to the presentation of romantic string themes. Another of his notable talents is his ability to consistently quote his themes in nearly every cue for a film, even if those references are only a matter of two or three seconds long and performed by an auxiliary section of the ensemble. In the opening cues of The Musketeer, Arnold introduces a simple, but enjoyable swashbuckling theme with the full power of the performing group. While quotations of that theme do appear occasionally in the rest of the score, they are mainly lost in the ruckus of filler action material that prevails in most of the work. This could be because Arnold chose not to restate (or throttle, depending on your point of view) the theme as much as he had in related situations before, or it could be due to a lack of memorability in the construct of the theme itself. Given the slightly anonymous nature of its progressions, the only lasting impression of the theme exists because of its extremely upbeat major-key optimism. Arnold purists will hear fragments from several other Arnold themes in this idea as well. Another reason for the theme to perhaps become lost is because of The Musketeer's nearly unyielding volume. There is an immense quantity of action material in this film, with very few breaks for character development scenes. Thus, another one of Arnold's strengths, the composition of stunning secondary romance themes, is overwhelmed. There are fifteen or so minutes of softer, romantic material for The Musketeer, led by "I Will Find Him," "D'Artagnan and Francesca," and "Down by the River," but Arnold allows these opportunities to slip away into the obscurity of score's bland personality. With the volume and heroism of the action scenes so overwhelmingly placed, this lack of inspiration in the tender moments comes as something of a surprise, adversely affecting the title theme as well. Potentially in the score's favor for some listeners is its relentless consistency; the music's personality never shifts, with all 50 minutes of music offering no French influence, no choral interlude, and, at a basic level, no interesting instrumentation whatsoever. The lack of diverse instrumentation causes this score to march by without much to stop and grab the attention of the listener. Given the success of James Horner's The Mask of Zorro, it is surprising that, despite the obvious differences in cultures, Arnold didn't provide this work with any kind of diverse element that could have distinguished it (a tepid acoustic guitar in parts is completely inadequate). On the other hand, The Musketeer has one very powerful element working for it: the composer's trademark big sound. It's great to hear Arnold's usual orchestral style of bombast another time, and let's hope that the brass musicians were compensated well for their blistered lips. The album presentation of this noisy ruckus, though, exposes a few problems. It should be mentioned that Arnold recorded the film version of the score in Berlin and the album version later in London, so the performances will obviously not match. One of the factors in the score's lack of bite is the mixing of the London recording for the album. For some reason, the mix sounds muted more than any other Arnold piece to date, with dampening that drowns out most of the vibrant personality of the recording. Instead of sounding as though you are standing in the recording studio while the music is being recorded, it sounds as though you are standing halfway out the door. The lack of crisp sound may be another reason for the score's rather bland attitude on album, though you will likely also notice a few pronounced mistakes by the brass performers (too flagrant for the editing process to correct in the mastering of the score). Nevertheless, there aren't many film score collectors who can argue with the rowdy environment that a large-scale Arnold score can create, and The Musketeer is definitely one of those few scores that could compete with the sound of a nearby vacuum cleaner. If you pay close attention to the album recording, however, you may not be as pleased with this score as you were with Arnold's earlier adventure romps. And, finally, if you believe in bad karma, then take note of the fact that this album was released on September 11th, 2001. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 49:39
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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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 Musketeer are Copyright © 2001, Decca Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/31/01 and last updated 1/30/09. |
