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| Silvestri |
Ready Player One: (Alan Silvestri) It had been ten
years since director Steven Spielberg unleashed a true blockbuster
fantasy film on audiences, and while there will always likely remain
some grumbling about the plot and execution of
Ready Player One,
the 2018 film nevertheless represents an important return to fiscal
success for the director. Your tolerance for supercharged nostalgia from
the period of 1975 to 1995 will be tested to the extreme by this
adaptation of Ernest Cline's novel, the project lovingly targeting
audiences familiar with that era's pop culture through its monumental
and potentially tiresome saturation of references that require extensive
lists to summarize. The story retains themes typical to Spielberg films,
including parental abandonment (Seriously, can the man make a movie
about a normal family ever again?) and depictions of dystopia commenting
heavily on society's preference for an imaginary life over a real one.
The premise of
Ready Player One suggests that by 2045, a
massively popular worldwide virtual reality called "the Oasis" will be
the place where everyday people in a filthy, downtrodden world escape to
mingle and live their fantasies. One of the creators of this game, upon
his death, informs the world of three hidden keys in this realm that, if
obtained by any one or group of players, will lead to ownership over the
Oasis and the inheriting of the founder's mind-boggling fortune. Five
people in America's heartland team up to tackle this quest while facing
corporate interference and, of course, learn about all the things that
are important in real life rather than any particular lesson to be
gleamed from virtual reality. Spielberg, while incredibly reverent
towards movies, television, and video games of primarily the 1980's,
makes it clear that these glitzy representations of nostalgia are
actually unhealthy if not appreciated in moderation. The visuals of
Ready Player One are so overwhelmingly futuristic in the Oasis
that the director sought for a combination of vintage pop songs and
traditional symphonic fantasy score to bring additional familiarity to
this universe.
The songs of
Ready Player One are a vital component
of the overall soundtrack, occupying all the most obvious placements in
the story, including a significant portion of the movie's first third.
Because these songs sometimes address action scenes, the score material
is confined more frequently to conversational scenes. Regular Spielberg
collaborator John Williams was long attached to this picture, but given
the complexity of the assignment and his schedule, he deferred to
another 1980's film score icon, Alan Silvestri, with whom Spielberg had
worked as a producer several times. Silvestri was well qualified to
plunder significant references to relevant film music of the era, having
written a number of the most famous scores of the 1980's an 1990's
himself. From the perspective of a film score collector, there are two
ways to look at Silvestri's approach to
Ready Player One, first
as a functional, stand-alone score and second as a work rich with
referential nuggets meant for appreciation by aficionados. From both
perspectives, there are positives and negatives to the finished product,
Silvestri succeeding at his task in general at forming a satisfying
narrative that is littered with familiarity, but he fails to achieve
greatness in either respect. While his seeming inability to collect his
thematic ideas into a truly cohesive narrative may be blamed to a degree
on the presence of all the songs, there are many places in the score
where a desired thematic connection is lacking, making the secondary
original motifs of the score largely useless outside of their demeanor
in performance. The ensemble for the film is extremely familiar to
Silvestri's action works, his standard orchestral fantasy tones joined
by choir, minimal solo vocals, and reasonably calibrated electronics for
the villains. This presence of vintage Silvestri action, modeled mostly
after his
Back to the Future scores, will alone be enough to
satisfy many listeners. As for the referential nuggets, the composer
supplies such nods in excess in some places and not at all in others,
making the score an intriguing study of spotting session strategy. Just
as Spielberg and the lead screenwriter removed some of the novel's
references due to licensing problems, perhaps the same issues
unfortunately existed with the score.
The thematic foundation of
Ready Player One
consists of two main themes, the most obvious one of adventure for the
quest in general and, by association, the lead character. This theme
debuts in "Hello, I'm James Halliday" as the quest is first described by
the game's creator, assigning the theme a more general purpose than any
one character. The theme disappears until the soft shades of "Welcome to
the Rebellion" and finally stretches its legs in the first minute of
"High 5 Assembles." The idea punctuates all the victorious moments in
the latter stages of the film and anchors the first half and final
fanfare of "Ready Player One - Main Title." It's a nicely malleable
theme akin to
The Abyss in its deliberation as it maintains a
noble, relatively static progression to appeal to a better morality. The
second theme is more familiar to Silvestri's softer strokes of melody in
Forrest Gump and
Contact, a delicate and melancholy
identity for the game's co-creator who conjures the quest. Heard often
on piano and chimes and introduced at the outset of "Why Can't We Go
Backwards?," this idea accompanies many of the flashback scenes of the
character's life and finally flourishes to its fullest symphonic grace
in the poignantly revelatory "What Are You?" before wrapping up the
latter half of "Ready Player One - Main Title." Outside of these two
dominant identities, Silvestri plays around with a few secondary motifs,
but none of them makes much impact in the film. The opportunity for love
theme development between the two leads in real life is inexplicably
missed, the composer providing such an identity at the end of "There's
Something I Need to Do" as the movie concludes on a mushy note, but this
theme is not explored or even adequately foreshadowed by the composer
either in the emotional separation moment of avatars at 2:27 into "Real
World Consequences" or anywhere in the tender, face-to-face meeting
between the leads' real life identities in "Welcome to the Rebellion."
The female lead's avatar does receive a somewhat vintage Hans
Zimmer-like brass anthem, complete with string ostinato, at 1:50 into
"Real World Consequences" and more muscularly at the outset of "Hold On
to Something." Born out of the same beefiness is the mass rebellion
motif, congealing in the latter moments of "Wade's Broadcast," that
eventually takes on the heroics of
The Avengers by "She Never
Left" and the second half of "Looking For a Truck."
Finally, the villains of the story are treated with
primarily an electronic ambience that is bit more cleverly constructed
than one might expect. Since the main villain, Ben Mendelsohn's
executive baddie, Sorrento, is essentially a fraud, Silvestri chooses
not to even dignify him with an obvious motif. There is an ominous
bass-string idea early in "Wade's Broadcast" that may be such an
identity. However, when he consorts with a bounty hunter in the Oasis to
track the protagonists, his muscle-bound alter ego is afforded a
menacing theme heard at the outset of "An Orb Meeting" on brass and 0:13
into "Real World Consequences." This identity morphs into a
super-maniacal villain's triumph in "Orb of Osuvox;" by the end of the
cue, the character and the orb he acquires are treated to an almost
primal motif of choral magnificence. Meanwhile, the rather humorous,
posture-related antics of the bounty hunter are afforded a solo string
waltz worthy of a Zimmer
Pirates of the Caribbean score, albeit
with a few
Harry Potter melodic twists, in "An Orb Meeting" and
later in the middle of "Orb of Osuvox." The remainder of the melodic
infusion into
Ready Player One is largely inspired by other
works, often in direct quotation. Spielberg, after the shellacking he
took with his disastrous
1941, was hesitant to parody any of his
own films' themes, and, likely as a result, you don't hear many direct
references to John Williams melodies, unfortunately. Several scenes that
could have used a quick blast of a famous theme slid by unaddressed as a
result, once again raising questions about whether this decision was
made by Spielberg artistically or by licensing restrictions. Most
obviously, the whole of
Ready Player One is informed by
Back
to the Future more than anything else, even when references to that
movie are not present. Much of the famous 1985 work is based upon
phrases consisting of trios of notes, whether in the main theme or in
the Doc Brown suspense stingers, the magical time-travelling motif on
chimes, or the snare rhythms of its action sequences. These straight
carryovers are led by the Doc Brown stinger, a three note descending
phrase of comedy and failure, and Silvestri uses it liberally in this
score, especially in the final few cues. It's heard fullest during the
chase in the latter half of "Hold On to Something" and even accompanies
the henchwoman's punch of Sorrento at 2:34 into "There's Something I
Need to Do."
The
Back to the Future snare and cymbal rhythms are
heard at 2:14 into "Why Can't We Go Backwards?" (the DeLorean car shines
in this scene) and persist in "Looking For a Truck" (and the expanded
version of this cue as "Ready Player One - End Credits") and "Hold On to
Something." The straight Doc Brown comedy antics are reprised at 1:09
into "Looking For a Truck," meanwhile. The two more recognizable
Back
to the Future motifs referenced are the film's main theme and the
two, three-note descending phrases denoting the sense of "magic" on
chimes. Interestingly, neither of these references exists in conjunction
with the DeLorean itself. Rather, they exist together to represent the
"Zemeckis Cube" device that turns back time in the game during one action
sequence. For this sequence, Silvestri, pairs the main theme and magic
motif nicely at 1:13 into "Real World Consequences." The lack of the
"magic" motif in the remainder of the score is a bit of a disappointment
given how prominently it was heard in the film's trailers. But the
composer does provide one very intelligent inverted form of the motif in
conjunction with harp at 2:08 into "This is Wrong," indeed suggesting
that something is not quite right. As for the remainder of the
references to other music of the era in
Ready Player One,
Silvestri introduces audiences to the Oasis in his first cue with a
clear homage to Karl Jenkins' 1990's new age hit "Adiemus," but without
even half of the same resonance of depth. A quick reference to Danny
Elfman's
Batman theme was sorely missed here. Johann Sebastian
Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" opens "Hello, I'm James Halliday"
as we see the Oasis creator in a casket fashioned like the torpedo Spock
was sent off in during
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; a brief
quote of James Horner's music for that film would have been perfect
instead, though you do hear the trademark, delayed Horner bass chord
technique applied at 1:31 into "Ready Player One - Main Title." The "Why
Can't We Go Backwards?" cue is rich with potential; the original car
race scene through New York intriguingly went unscored, but when the
lead player figures out that the trick is to drive backwards through the
race, this second try is offered outstanding music by Silvestri. After
the creator's theme opens the cue, we transition to the race with a
fanfare at 1:19 that finally announces Silvestri's score in full
force.
Continuing with "Why Can't We Go Backwards?," the
Back
to the Future rhythms for the DeLorean commence at 2:14 under the
main theme. Silvestri ignores the T-Rex from
Jurassic Park
(surely a blast of the four-note descending theme of terror could have
been inserted here) but he offers an outstanding rendition of Max
Steiner's
King Kong theme at 2:41 that segues beautifully into
Silvestri's own main theme before wrapping up the fanfare from earlier
in the cue. At the end of this cue, the creator's theme is presented in
its reverent "wizard" form that some have commented gives the identity
the feel of the conclusion of
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
The latter half of "An Orb Meeting" contains some unique enigmas,
starting with a loving reference to Williams'
1941 theme during a
humorous scene of celebrity; in the last minute of the cue, Silvestri
provides the score's only stereotypically haunting solo female vocals
(albeit processed) during a scene of contemplation that didn't really
require such musical style. The electronic ambience for Sorrento that
runs from late in "Real World Consequences" through "Sorrento Makes an
Offer" is rather uneventful, but by early in "Orb of Osuvox" it begins
to exude some of the punchiness of a Mark Snow "X-Files" episodic score.
The last minute of "Sorrento Makes an Offer" accompanies a terrifying
execution scene that interestingly builds to a crescendo with pairs of
notes and tapped snare resembling Williams'
Jaws theme but with
the phrases descending. A chance for some Trevor Jones
Excalibur
material was missed during the chants of "Orb of Osuvox." It should
probably be mentioned at this point that the second of the three
challenges in the quest of the Oasis takes place in the Overlook Hotel
from the Stanley Kubrick adaptation Stephen King's
The Shining,
painfully recreated digitally here. The main theme by Wendy Carlos and
Rachel Elkind for that film was adapted by Silvestri for the transition
to this setting, and several of the classical pieces featured in that
horror film are reprised here in kind. None of this material is to be
found on the score album for
Ready Player One, leaving a rather
large hole in the product's narrative. In the film, however, this music,
along with the visuals, is awe-inspiring to the point of dark humor. In
"Sorrento Punked," Silvestri returns to his electronic realm, with some
thumping bass presence and ostinatos that are bit too modern compared to
the rest of the score but makes sense in context.
For listeners awaiting some
Avengers moments in
Ready Player One, note that Silvestri does throw out a bone at
the end of "Wade's Broadcast." The suspense music during the female
lead's imprisonment in the villain's headquarters is rather unremarkable
in "Arty on the 'Inside'" outside of a brief snippet of the Sorrento
motif near the end. The "Looking For a Truck" cue is rich with solid
material, accompanying the mass attack sequence in conjunction with the
third challenge and the real-life pursuit of the protagonists in their
postal truck. Silvestri could have referenced a ton of themes in this
cue, including Michael Kamen's
The Iron Giant most prominently,
but he holds his stock in Akira Ifukube's main theme from 1954's
Godzilla instead, expressing a lengthy tribute to the theme at
2:13 as the villain takes control of a Mechagodzilla avatar. It's really
an awesome statement featured prominently in the film's mix as well.
Perhaps coincidentally, there is a sequence strikingly similar to John
Williams'
Amazing Stories main theme earlier in the cue. While
the rhythms of Silvestri's own
Predator are not prevalent in this
score, there is a short, ascending passage at 4:33 into "Looking For a
Truck" that reminds of that classic score. A series of effective but not
quite as memorable cues ensues, though "She Never Left" is a worthy
suspense interlude. The electronic Sorrento material in "Last Chance"
yields to a faint echo of the
Godzilla theme at 2:21 before
continuing without much interest in "Get Me Out of This." After some
long references to the last action cue from
Back to the Future in
"Hold On to Something," Silvestri switches gears to his choral majesty
from
The Abyss in "This is Wrong," interrupted by chase material
for the real world as needed. The solo flute and piano tones at the end
of "What Are You?" are appropriately heartbreaking, representing the
composer at his absolutely most sentimental. The final nuggets in the
score exist late in "There's Something I Need to Do;" at 3:52, Silvestri
briefly alludes to Williams'
Superman mannerisms before launching
into a version of the love theme at 3:56 that is eerily reminiscent of a
song from Andrew Lloyd Webber's failed sequel for
The Phantom of the
Opera,
Love Never Dies. (Incidentally, the film failed to
make connections to the greatest stage hits of the 1980's. Certainly,
either
The Phantom of the Opera or
Cats could have figured
somehow given how engrained they were in pop culture at the time.)
Overall, it's really challenging to evaluate the score
for
Ready Player One because there are so many measures by which
it could conceivably be judged. Regardless of your approach, Silvestri's
score functions well enough in the film to serve its purpose of driving
the nostalgic sound of his own and John Williams' music of the era. His
thematic attributions are not always clearly enunciated, however, a
result of some suspect decisions during the spotting of the music. A
person could also argue that there could have been 20 more brief musical
references, licensing permitting, given the parade of such cameos in the
script, and these would have been received with great affection by fans
if handled properly. Short, three or four-note phrases representing
everything from
Dune and
Aliens to
Krull and
Tron could have been interpolated into the score, and it's
moderately surprising not to see anything from
The Matrix
pilfered given the subject matter. The lack of
Jurassic Park,
Excalibur, and
The Iron Giant musical references are
particularly notable. Ultimately, the decisions about those placements
were likely Spielberg's, and he is notoriously cautious about such
things. The score remains highly entertaining in context regardless of
these intellectual quibbles, but don't expect such satisfaction with the
album situation. If ever a comprehensive song and score combination
album was required for a fantasy film, this is it. At the very least,
even if not presented in chronological order (there would be four songs
in between the cues of "An Orb Meeting" and "Real World Consequences,"
representing the nightclub scene), the collection of both score and
songs needed consolidated on the same album. Unfortunately, that's a
pipe dream, as the music would span about 150 minutes and three CDs if
you threw in all the material from
The Shining. The score was
originally offered as only a download option of 84 minutes in film
order; it later transitioned to CD, where its dynamic sound quality can
be best appreciated. The songs of the film, meanwhile, are not all
provided on the album dedicated to them. Aside from the passages from
Overlook Hotel, there are a few original Silvestri cues not released on
the score album, including some of the material of lamentation for the
lead character in his van. In the end, this is not a perfect soundtrack,
nor is there a really satisfying album for the film, but the project
must still be categorized as a success for Silvestri. His collectors
have been waiting years for him to crank out a score with the
personality and size of
Back to the Future,
Judge Dredd,
and
Van Helsing, and
Ready Player One is that
appropriately nostalgic resurrection.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.46
(in 41 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.34
(in 39,968 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes a list of performers and the standard note from Steven Spielberg
about the film and score. The packaging of the physical product smells especially foul.
