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Review of Operation Mincemeat (Thomas Newman)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if there is no limit to your respect for Thomas Newman's atmospherically brooding methods of underscoring drama, those techniques stretched here without many distinctive highlights.

Avoid it... if you require more than just a few minutes of tonal gravity from a full orchestral ensemble, Newman saving his engaging moment of grace for one lovely cue in this otherwise drab work.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

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.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 69:41

• 1. Submarine Rises (3:22) • 2. Iris (1:21) • 3. Room 13 (1:45) • 4. Fresh as a Daisy (2:21) • 5. Briefcase in Madrid (3:31) • 6. Our Story Begins... (3:13) • 7. Single Diamond Ring (2:13) • 8. I'm Going to Get Lit up (When the Lights Go up in London)* (2:37) • 9. Gulf of Cadiz (5:01) • 10. War Hero (1:45) • 11. Deader and Deader (0:56) • 12. Last Lovely Golden Day (2:33) • 13. Haversack Ruse (1:39) • 14. Toast (0:50) • 15. Holy Loch (2:19) • 16. Dull as Ditchwater (1:01) • 17. Fishwife (1:31) • 18. Jean Leslie (1:21) • 19. Peckin'** (3:41) • 20. The Burial is Set (1:16) • 21. Officer in the Royal Marines (1:56) • 22. Dangerous Waters (1:36) • 23. A Missing Eyelash (2:20) • 24. Fifth Column (3:35) • 25. A Spy Under My Roof (2:29) • 26. Operation Mincemeat (6:10) • 27. Limited Casualties (2:44) • 28. Fallen Soldier*** (1:57) • 29. Personal and Most Secret (3:07)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

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