| CLOSE WINDOW |
|
FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Planet of the Apes (Danny Elfman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you expect a fair amount of chest-thumping aggression
from the percussion and brass sections in a largely dissonant stew of
brutally rhythmic stomping.
Avoid it... on the original commercial album if you demand a well-rounded presentation of the music actually heard in the film (some of which had not been written as of the product's assembly), in which case the outstanding, three-CD set of 2012 should be your goal.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Planet of the Apes: (Danny Elfman) When the
original Planet of the Apes film of 1968 was adapted from Pierre
Boulle's classic novel, it was transformed into an edgy and politically
charged message. Tim Burton's 2001 screen adaptation of the story is a
closer adaptation of the novel, less concerned with an overbearing
political agenda and more in tune with the solid action nature of the
original war story. While decent in its revised form (and even featuring
cameo appearances by Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison, the two human
leads in the 1968 film), the execution of the Planet of the Apes
reboot didn't yield the same kind of appeal as a result of its lighter
socio-political tone. Many sources, including most of those involved
with the picture at the highest levels, admit that this remake was
rushed to the big screen in under a year due to the demands of 20th
Century Fox (it had already been stuck in production hell for a decade).
Because of that forced schedule, Burton didn't have the luxury of
working with a finished script until well into the production; endless
re-writes by teams of writers were the ultimate downfall of the movie. A
new surprise ending is seemingly tacked on with haste at the conclusion
of this version, adding another layer of parallel universes that was
perhaps obligatory but still somewhat unsatisfying (even Burton claims
that it was simply added to open a door for a sequel and wasn't meant to
make much sense). For the bleak message of the 1968 film, newcomer Jerry
Goldsmith wrote a percussive and dissonant score devoid of a memorable
theme and inspired by the style of Alex North, whose popularity was
reaching its heights at the time. Goldsmith's music worked very well in
the context of the film, with a new, alienating form of composition that
was both foreign to the audience and foreign to his own career. It was
the champion of post-modern scoring of the late 1960's, and decades
later, the Goldsmith score for Planet of the Apes is both
worshipped and shunned by film score collectors, rarely leaving fans
residing in the middle. Surprisingly, there is little debate about
whatever similarities may or may not exist between Goldsmith's enduring
score and Danny Elfman's 2001 musical interpretation of the story. At
heart, the style of the two scores is not entirely different, with both
utilizing creative percussion and tense dissonance.
Elfman, however, took the liberty of substantially and aggressively boosting the orchestral might of the sound for his visit to the Planet of the Apes. The composer was initially humbled by the task of essentially competing with Goldsmith's music for the concept, for Goldsmith had long been one of his career idols. Elfman met the challenges of the concept by not attempting to emulate or pay homage to Goldsmith's classic score at all, instead following his standard tactic of choosing a small handful of major scenes throughout the film to score first and testing the results. Once he had established the tone of his liking for those sequences (which included "The Hunt" and "Preparing for Battle"), he worked through the rest chronologically. For the emphasized militaristic stance of this story, Elfman's score relies much more heavily on bombastic percussion and brass rather than the outwardly exotic route of creating a foreign sound for the socially inverted planet. Expectations had suggested that Elfman would take the latter route, producing a mysterious piece with exceedingly bizarre instrumentation. Interestingly, his score is built upon brutal rhythmic power and several layers of percussion and synthesizer overlays rather than straight-forward symphonic creativity. In the plethora of overlays, Elfman himself provided a fair amount of the soundscape, performing his own Indian drums and arranging a variety of samples instead of opting for acoustic alternatives from the larger ensemble. A number of unique percussive effects result throughout the score, led by the slapping, banging, and slashing tones of "Main Titles," but it should be noted that the film's final mix, often emphasizing sound effects over the music, obscures many of these interesting textures. This reality also reduces the effectiveness of the already less obvious thematic structures in Planet of the Apes. An ascending series of extremely harsh, low range trombone notes comprise a theme that suggests the rising of a new ape civilization, heard immediately in "Main Titles" and translated onto strings for a slightly melodramatic tone at the conclusion of "The Return." Even less obvious are the secondary themes in this score, starting with a growling, low woodwind idea for General Thade's evil persona that is almost completely lost in the mix. Equally challenged is a yearning, rising flute theme for the sympathizing ape Ari, doubling as a representation of affection between her and the lead human. In a larger sense, Elfman's score is better remembered for the three general styles of sound that he establishes based upon those early scenes he tackled. The propulsive rhythms of the main theme are the first all-encompassing idea to represent the brutality of the species. Secondly, the hunting scenes during which the apes are chasing and rounding up the humans are among the most primitively toned, with gut-wrenching ferociousness and unrelenting drums. The third rhythmic portion of the score is that which accompanies battle scenes further into the story, and these are the ones that present some of the most clearly articulated thematic statements of the score. Tonal expressions of melody come at a premium in this series of films, and no reflection of Elfman's masterful talents in the area of unbridled harmony and majesty can be heard in Planet of the Apes without some substantial digging. The space station and, to a lesser degree, the humans native to the ape planet, receive appropriately accessible string performances, the station in particular treated to Elfman's only true fantasy (and understandably slightly religious) material aided by choir. Even the tender moments of character interaction are handled with a somewhat oppressive spirit. The highlights of the score are ironically those that lay off the relentlessly pounding drums and cyclical synthetic/brass motifs, despite the fact that those sounds are the heart and soul of the work. The cues for space travel, "Deep Space Launch" and the middle of "The Return," are delicately handled with an appropriate level of wonderment and foreshadowing. A hauntingly beautiful remnant of this material is performed with typical Elfman sadness in the latter half of "Calima," as the fate of his space station is revealed. The first "Ape Suite" track finishes with an attractive, longing performance of the "love theme" on woodwinds, and "Escape From Ape City/The Legend" holds the only glimpse of heroic neatness in the score, utilizing a light choral effect for added color to hint at the "Calima" connection. Along with portions of the score's final two major cues, the optimistic tones for the human savior in the story are provided a sound not too much unlike the noble horns that Elfman later applied in Spider-Man. Both "Old Flames" and "The Return" offer reflective, mellow, and very enjoyable rests from the action material by exploring hints of the exotically rendered romance material for the elusively low flute. As for those nearly constant action cues, they can be described in two different ways, depending on the kind of Elfman enthusiast you are, as well as your tolerance for straight bombast without obvious theme or extended tonality. To the Elfman fan, the mass of Planet of the Apes will be described as "challengingly complex." The "complex" part should get no argument from anyone. This is an extremely brutally layered and sophisticated composition. As for "challenging" part, well, that can easily be countered with the word "noisy." If nothing else, even Elfman's greatest critics must recognize that he has created a sheer amount of noise for Planet of the Apes that had overshadowed any other score of 2001 to that point, including Elliot Goldenthal's Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. For those who don't follow Elfman's career closely, the score, while it likely could have been effective in the film given the right mixing, is a headache waiting to happen on album. The viewpoint that the Planet of the Apes score on album contains not much more than drum beating monotony at high volumes is fine, as long as it is also recognized that the music is impressively constructed at its root. The only totally unlistenable track is the Paul Oakenfold remix introduced at the end of the commercial product, with warped dialogue and unnecessary electronic droning and manipulation. In regards to listenability, the Goldsmith and Elfman scores will be equally divisive on album. Elfman's work for the 2001 film is not entirely pleasant, outside of the few reflective moments described above. But it doesn't have to be pleasant in order to both function and impress, which Elfman's Planet of the Apes does far more aggressively than Goldsmith's original. There are those several places in Elfman's score where, for only a matter of seconds, the music ceases its churning percussion and actually hits a note of easy harmonic appeal, but don't seek the albums specifically for those interludes. The story of the original Sony soundtrack album is an entirely other discussion. There were rumors swirling around online venues just prior to the film's release that 20th Century Fox executives were unhappy with Elfman's work and desired a more accessible, heroic score for the obviously troubled film. Elfman denied these rumors in an official public statement, saying that Fox was actually satisfied enough with the music to say nothing about it (and that additional session dates were cancelled). There was truth, however, to the hectic schedule of Sony's album release, however, which necessitated that Elfman rearrange his recording schedule to accommodate their desired street date. With the score not yet finished, Elfman assembled the key cues he had already written for the film and then wrote the two "Ape Suite" tracks as elaboration on other music in the film (as well as expanding the "Main Titles" and "The Hunt") to simply pad the running time of the album. Interestingly, some of the music in the second suite ended up in the final cut of the film, a curious reversal of the norm. The "Main Title Deconstruction" (a self-described "reversal" of the cue, though it doesn't really sound that impressive), along with some of this other padding, makes the product a bit redundant. The sound quality of the presentation, even though Elfman added extra players to the brass and drum sections and recorded it in the spacious Newman Scoring Stage at Fox, is not as resounding as you'd expect. Choral accents are drowned out, and lost is the potential that deep male chanting or grunting could have added to this work. An expanded presentation of the score debuted in 2011 on CD #9 of "The Danny Elfman and Tim Burton 25th Anniversary Music Box," adding twelve minutes of score that includes the important "Calima" and redundant "Escape." The "Dinner Source" is actually quite appealing despite using the same synthetic and percussive elements as the rest of the score. Fans could also finally hear those two parts of Elfman's overlays alone for "Main Title" and "Camp Raid," as well as the orchestra-only recording of "Ape Suite" material (unfortunately in lossy format on the included USB stick). Still, this extraordinarily expensive set was still missing more than half an hour of music that was actually heard in the film. Solving this oversight was La-La Land Records in 2012, which released a three-CD set of Planet of the Apes that includes the full 96 minutes of music heard in context, the two suites, and a wealth of alternate mixes over two CDs (with the third CD reassembling the original album presentation). This outstanding treatment of the score may not change many established opinions about it, and the quality of sound is not significantly improved, but the product is a resounding alternative to the massive, disappointing 2011 box set that did not afford this score a proper presentation. On any album, Elfman's music for the ape world is difficult and complex barbarian bombast that clearly suffices but will test the tolerance of mainstream ears. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
2001 Sony Classical Album:
Total Time: 58:27
2011 Warner Set: Total Time: 79:44
* previously unreleased 2012 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 212:42
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 2001 Sony Classical album offers no information about
the film or score. The website devoted to the soundtrack, as listed on the
packaging, no longer exists. The 2011 Warner set features some notes from
Elfman about his choices of music for inclusion on the product. The insert of
the 2012 La-La Land album includes extensive information about both the film
and score.
Copyright ©
2001-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
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 Planet of the Apes are Copyright © 2001, 2011, 2012, Sony Classical, Warner Brothers Records, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/19/01 and last updated 3/21/12. |
