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| Mansell |
Sahara: (Clint Mansell) The character of Dirk Pitt
has come a long way on the big screen in the last 25 years, but not
necessarily in the same way you'd think of other famous characters'
progressions. When last we saw Dirk Pitt in an action/adventure film
like
Sahara was in 1980, when the character was played by Richard
Jordan in the outrageously expensive
Raise the Titanic. In 2005,
we get to see the character dumbed down to Matthew McConaughey levels in
Saraha, a project which caused original writer Clive Cussler to
throw tantrums about its adaptations. To have perfectly adapted his
novel to the screen, a running time of four hours would have been
required, but that didn't stop Cussler from rejecting several drafts of
the script (which was as painstakingly loyal as possible) before he
eventually went ahead and sued Paramount over the final draft that was
shot for the theatres. Perhaps audiences should have sued Cussler, for
the plot is so outlandishly silly that a person has to turn off his or
her brain to enjoy it. A Confederate ironclad ship from the American
Civil War, full of untold treasures, is left buried under the sands of
Africa, having ventured there when there was obviously more water in the
area. An adventurer, his obligatory sidekick, and the usual beautiful
female aid worker team up to search for the good of humanity and the
good of whatever's aboard the ship. Twenty or so wildly illogical steps
later, we have
Sahara, an eye candy affair with an equally
unlikely composer at the helm of its score. British arranger, producer,
and performer Clint Mansell is the newest in a series of rock band
converts to the orchestral film scoring genre, a trend starting with
David Arnold ten years ago.
Lending his services to several bands in the 1990s,
most notably Nine Inch Nails, Mansell began providing low-budget,
electronic scores for B-films in 1998. While not a remarkable work in
and of itself,
Requiem for a Dream served as Mansell's initial
calling card, though even that score could not prepare him for the
expansive variety of sounds necessary for
Sahara. Given those
circumstances, the finished score for
Sahara is not only a
thrilling and effective score in the context of the film, but a guilty
pleasure in the making on album. The score has all the same positives
and negatives of Nathan Furst's
Dust to Glory earlier in the
year, with obvious influences in style calling for forgiveness simply
because they're cool. Thus, if you're seeking something intellectual, go
somewhere else. Mansell's work here ranges from straight-forward
orchestral bombast to the reverse angle of ethnically rhythmic vocals
and general world music. Depsite some influences when a sense of
"coolness" is called upon, Mansell restrains the rock elements to
subsidiary roles, never rocking the listener with guitars or overbearing
electronics. But in the marriage between electronic and orchestral
arrangements, definite similarities can be drawn between this and David
Arnold's large-scale works, thanks to the work of common orchestrator
Nicholas Dodd.
Given Dodd's talents of bringing pop and rock artists
into the symphonic fold, scores like
Sahara beg for the man to
venture into composition for himself (though to do so might reveal some
of the true talent behind Arnold). Choral use will recall
Stargate in several places, especially in "A Clue." Cues such as
"All Aboard!" will be just slightly too Bond-like in their wailing brass
for some listeners, causing some curiosity about whether or not
Goldfinger is poking around out there in the desert with them. In its
favor,
Sahara has all the structural traits of a satisfying
modern adventure score, with a title theme for the quest and a two-note
submotif for brass that pop up where appropriate. Extensive
incorporation of Middle-Eastern and African vocals into several cues
lends a third dimension to the score. Along with African percussion, two
cues in the score will be downright foreign to the Western listener,
sounding as though plucked from an East-African marketplace. Other cues,
such as the "Celebration" finale, offer magnificent blends between the
different cultural sounds and the symphony. On album, the mere existence
of a score album is an unlikely, but pleasant surprise given the lack of
widespread success for the film. Only a remix of the title theme at the
end (which itself isn't as invasive as some of Arnold's Moby remixes for
his scores) joins a solid 75 minutes of Mansell's score.
Sahara's
music may not be quite unique enough to inspire a lengthy search and
expenditure, but it will be a great used-CD or bargain/clearance buy for
any score collector.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
