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| Newman |
Operation Mincemeat: (Thomas Newman) British
intelligence successfully passed misleading information to the Germans
in World War II about their plans to invade Sicily, arranging "Operation
Mincemeat" that suggested via an unlikely route that Greece was the
target instead. They dressed up and dumped a dead body off the Spanish
coast, and on that rotting chap were documents that supported the false
plans. Through diplomatic gamesmanship and sleuthing, the British
eventually determined that the Spaniards had indeed shared the faulty
intelligence with the Germans, likely causing an easier invasion of
Sicily as a result. The British historical drama
Operation
Mincemeat adapts a Ben Macintyre book about the plot, and although
the film experienced a limited theatrical release in its homeland, it
ultimately lingered with fairly high popularity on Netflix in 2022.
While the movie leaves all the basic aspects of the 1943 events intact,
it does take some liberty with the characters involved, postulating that
a love triangle existed amongst the spies that organized the operation.
Still, response to the movie was positive, and film score fans were
treated to another historically-aimed score by veteran composer Thomas
Newman. Director John Madden largely replaced his original music
collaborator of choice, Stephen Warbeck, with Newman in the 2010's, and
the quality of the resulting film scores has been unpredictable. Newman,
having recently tackled topics of early 20th Century European war in
several outings, handled
Operation Mincemeat about as predictably
as anyone could have expected, though that strategy isn't necessarily
very satisfying. While the composer has shown flashes of his fully
orchestral, 1990's melodrama during this era, his preference has been
for understated ambience, and that tact dominates this score. Listeners
hoping for a few tonally satisfying ensemble outbursts will receive a
minimal amount of such material in
Operation Mincemeat, but the
score is one that remains more comfortable rumbling in the woofers and
demands a high volume to hear the depth of Newman's layers of stewing.
The instrumentation selected by Newman for
Operation Mincemeat
will surprise none of his collectors, for everything he applies is
typical to his minimalist tones. Electronic droning sets the base
environment, with a variety of muted soloists tinkering above. These
contributors seemingly include the usual dulcimer, recorder, metallic
percussion, subtle guitar, harpsichord, and perhaps even mandolin and
fiddle, though the heart of the score's thematic posture is conveyed by
solo piano and cello.
Despite the dominance of the individual coloration from
the solo players of
Operation Mincemeat, the fuller orchestra is
indeed there, the strings and brass lending force to the few highlights
and occasional humor to a minority of cues. The music rarely supplies
the level of gravity expected for this topic, instead underplaying the
emotional impacts and historical significance of the characters
involved. In fact, the strangest aspect of the music for
Operation
Mincemeat is that there's absolutely nothing in its constructs or
execution that would inform a listener of the story's basic elements;
there is no sense of history or place to this music, and if not for the
vintage source songs littered throughout the album presentation, the
score apart from the film could be mistaken for a variety of genres or
time periods. Newman's thematic applications don't help this situation,
as they are fairly anonymous despite the composer's loyalty to the same
three general ideas throughout the work. Be aware, though, that Newman
does heavily manipulate these three themes as a likely nod to the
cloudiness of the characters' interests and the deceit of the espionage
field. The main character theme of
Operation Mincemeat is a pair
of rising two-note phrases on piano, introduced at 0:09 and 0:56 into
"Submarine Rises" but struggling to complete; it meanders, sometimes
descending, but always using the same, stuttering two-note phrasing.
After challenged extensively in the cue, Newman closes out "Submarine
Rises" with the idea's originally mysterious, incomplete form. At 1:01
into "Fresh as a Daisy," the theme is better formed, faster and rhythmic
but still vague. It opens "Single Diamond Ring" with minimally frothy
accompaniment and develops secondary phrasing on strings nicely for a
romantic touch. The idea dissolves to a minimally rhythmic role
throughout "Holy Loch" and does the same in "A Spy Under My Roof" after
a quick reminder of its original form at 0:06. The "Operation Mincemeat"
cue is the suite-like representation in the score as a whole, and it
mostly reprises the "Submarine Rises" mystery before returning to the
main theme's trepidation at 3:45 and to close out the cue. The piano is
joined by a poignant cello solo line that finally reveals the true theme
in "Limited Casualties," and the ensemble takes that idea at 1:21 with
resolute nobility and melodrama that serves as the work's most
impressive highlight. The main theme then opens "Personal and Most
Secret" in fragmented form again. As primary identities for Newman
scores go, this one is about as anonymous as you could imagine, adapted
well technically but never stated clearly enough for you to care.
A theme likely for the operational aspects of
Operation Mincemeat is built upon a chopping
conspiracy-suggesting rhythm in the minor key. It builds with full force
and a touch of Dario Marianelli at his most brutal at 2:09 into
"Submarine Rises" but quickly shows its malleability once accelerated at
the start of "Room 13" and turned somewhat jaunty and comedic. It
remains slightly amused during "Dull as Ditchwater," and a fuller
variant enjoys a crescendo late in "Jean Leslie." The operations theme
forms a rhythmic base at the start of "The Burial is Set" with slightly
jazzy piano, returning with force in "A Missing Eyelash" and shifting to
more heightened suspense as the churning motif becomes more explicit. A
rare, muscular brass presence gives the theme power at 1:00 into "Fifth
Column." Its full construct from "Submarine Rises" is reprised at 4:21
into "Operation Mincemeat" as well, with notable percussion and electric
guitar in the dissonant crescendo at the theme's end. Finally, the
operations theme nearly overtakes the main theme a few times in
"Personal and Most Secret" with a touch of prototypical Newman
exoticism. The third theme in
Operation Mincemeat is seemingly
for duty, a cyclical series of three chords of faint hope that sounds
very much like a
Tolkien leftover. Heard throughout "Iris" and
near the start of "War Hero," this idea is an undercurrent in the pretty
"Last Lovely Golden Day" with solo cello, guides the atmospherics of
"Officer in the Royal Marines," and returns to solo cello after extreme
deliberation at 0:10 into "Dangerous Waters." It adapts at 3:13 into
"Operation Mincemeat" for heroic brass chords, moves to piano at 0:07
into "Limited Casualties" with a bit of gravity underneath, and follows
the main theme at the end of "Limited Casualties" as a nice conclusion.
These themes cannot salvage the narrative of
Operation Mincemeat,
however, as Newman ensures that the score is one of ambient emotion and
general feeling rather than leitmotific memorability. Most of the
thematic passages are truly unremarkable, though "Limited Casualties" is
the clear exception and provides vintage Newman orchestral beauty that
his listeners often crave the most. If you combine this cue with the
just preceding "Operation Mincemeat," you have a well-rounded,
nine-minute representation of the entire score. The album's placement of
source material throughout the score is jarring. Without those tracks,
Newman's score would lull you into a stupor over its hour of running
time, the atmosphere lacking the positive spirit of
Tolkien or
the sustaining highlights of
1917. The very high quality of
"Limited Casualties" barely salvages a third star for this basically
effective but mostly forgettable score.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Thomas Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.14
(in 37 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.19
(in 60,852 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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