Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,537
Written 8/2/13
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Buy it... if you allow yourself to become absorbed in Danny
Elfman's small, introspective dramatic scores, this one mundane in many
parts but featuring a few engaging cues of rhythmic urgency and
wholesome piano.
Avoid it... if you expect this score to evoke any true sense of
Americana spirit, its drama tightly contained in a somber, lightly
developed package without obvious themes.
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| Elfman |
Promised Land: (Danny Elfman) The most interesting
aspect of Gus Van Sant, Matt Damon, and John Krasinski's 2012 drama,
Promised Land, is not the fact that it conveys a biased view of
hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and the energy corporations in general,
but reports that the project was financed by a media company owned
completely by the government of the United Arab Emirates, which
naturally has an interest in curbing American energy development. The
modest, $15 million project was originally to be directed by Damon, but
he eventually sought the assistance of Good Will Hunting
collaborator Van Sant to bring the seemingly wholesome drama to the big
screen. Damon plays a "convincer" for the energy industry, an agent who
goes to small American towns and convinces the residents to sign over
the drilling rights of the land to the energy companies for the purposes
of extracting natural gas through the fracking process. The controversy
surrounding Promised Land, of course, rests in revelations that
the drilling practice causes contamination of ground water and, more
intriguingly, unexplainable earthquakes that, as of 2012 had already hit
the Midwest of America most likely because of these activities.
Unfortunately for the political interests pushing the film, critics and
audiences were not impressed by the character drama in which the message
was packaged, and Promised Land ultimately failed to earn back
its budget. The cynicism with which the energy industry is portrayed in
the film caused an immediate and forceful backlash from those
corporations and their political allies, who advertised heavily against
the film in Pennsylvania, where it was set and shot with mostly local
crews. Not from that region but amenable to the liberal politics of the
topic is composer Danny Elfman, who had worked with Van Sant several
times before to mutual satisfaction. The year was an extraordinarily
busy one for Elfman, who stated after his hectic schedule with six
scores in 2012 that he would try to limit his output to only three or
four per year from that point forward. His initial inclination for
Promised Land, which was among his least intensive works of the
year (along with Silver Linings Playbook), was to tackle the
subject with only percussion instruments, a potentially fascinating
method of musically representing the somewhat martial habits of the
energy industry (at least from a leftist point of view) and perhaps even
the mechanical methodology of the actual drilling process. He eventually
abandoned that plan and added woodwind and string elements to the
equation, likely for the warmth necessary to address the townspeople of
the story.
Ultimately, the ensemble that Elfman employed for
Promised Land will be extremely familiar for the composer's
enthusiasts, his light drama sound remaining largely intact through the
years. The softly applied woodwinds and strings are joined by piano,
guitar, xylophone, vibraphone, and a number of synthetic supporting
elements. The composer never allows for the full ensemble to express
deeply dramatic tones of Americana romance, content instead to allow the
players to maintain a pleasantly tonal haze for conversational scenes
and occasional outbursts of more accelerated rhythmic urgency for cues
such as "Classroom" and "Lighthouse," which are arguably the highlights
of the score. The use of all these instruments is somewhat derivative,
with very little creativity employed in attempting to manipulate their
sounds to any degree. The vibraphone is an exception, however, its
dampened, muted presence in the lower ranges a bit obnoxious in its
clunking tones; one could speculate, however, that this intentionally
dull sound is supposed to be some representation of the pumping process
involved in the drilling. The lighter xylophone tones are more pleasing
to the ears, though their employment is only occasional. The piano
provides some much needed sense of propulsion to the score, "Time Lapse"
a faintly James Horner-like expression of movement. In this cue and
several others, the troubling decision pondered by those in the tale is
aided by some dissonant lines from the strings. Also occasionally
unsettling is some synthetic enhancement, though this is barely
noticeable. It would be difficult for Elfman to let
Promised Land
pass without a few insertions of vocal effects, all of which sound
somewhat synthetic in this instance. The boy soprano effect that opens
and closes the score ("Traveling" and "The Speech") is a little too
abrasive in its mix, while the more general high choral mixing in
"Revelation" is a more palatable touch. Thematically, the score doesn't
make much of its own motifs, "Alice's Farm" collecting them nicely for
the piano, though. Overshadowing the score in the film are three song
placements featuring indie folk duo The Milk Carton Kids, whose somewhat
somber tone supplies a good accompaniment to Elfman's music. Initially
released as first a promotional item when
Promised Land had
delusions of awards season success, the score (and only one of the
songs, unfortunately) received a commercial download option in America
and a CD release in Europe. The short, dryly mixed score makes for a
decent, but not always engaging listening experience on album, the lack
of more obvious themes a detriment. At first, a casual browsing of the
work may insist that it is worthy of two stars tops, but the engaging
"Classroom" cue (not the alternate offered on the album), "Alice's
Farm," and other piano highlights allow
Promised Land to barely
scratch out a third star.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For Danny Elfman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.12
(in 95 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.26
(in 154,830 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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