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| Howard |
Salt: (James Newton Howard) So absurdly
preposterous that it has been compared to the James Bond franchise, the
2010 thriller
Salt finally gave actress Angelina Jolie her
opportunity to launch what many hoped would be a female spy franchise.
The Phillip Noyce film deals with an old cold war scenario in which
Russian spies have infiltrated the American intelligence community and
plot to destabilize the world by assassinating the Russian president
while in the United States and, later on, gaining access to the nuclear
codes necessary to launch a strike against Muslim cities to spawn a huge
backlash against the country. The film initially toys with audiences by
obscuring the counteragents, sending CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Jolie) into
a series of chases that make you guess about her allegiances. The
scenarios in which the presidents of America and Russia find themselves
during
Salt are hopelessly illogical, and without stunning pacing
and photography in the chase sequences, the film was bait for decidedly
mixed reviews. The production turned out to be something of a publicity
stunt by Jolie, who not only replaced Tom Cruise in the lead role well
into development of the film, but injured herself on set while
performing stunts. One of the limited aspects of the movie praised
widely by critics was James Newton Howard's score. The veteran composer
was a more logical choice for
Salt than Noyce's previous repeat
collaborators, James Horner and Craig Armstrong, and Howard responded
with a score that competently meets all the studio and audience
expectations of a Hollywood techno-spy thriller. Unfortunately, that
also means that the score treads uncomfortably close to the territory of
Hans Zimmer's Remote Control clone factory and, as an alternative
generally in the lead of that sound, the music of John Powell. In many
ways,
Salt is Howard's rendition of a typical Powell score of
this kind, emulating the Jason Bourne franchise's music in its most
frenetic parts. Howard's choice of ensemble is as predictable as it
could be, utilizing an orchestra peppered in its mix with synthetic
elements that occasionally dominate the soundscape. Also to be expected
are a few cliched references to a Russian tone, either in progressions
or in the employment of solo and ensemble vocals and a cimbalom in a few
specific sequences. A slight rock-influenced ambience prevails as the
title character is unleashed to her destiny at the conclusion of the
film, one of the many direct references to the
Mission:
Impossible franchise that were precisely the reason Cruise left the
production to begin with.
On the surface,
Salt seems like an
uncoordinated, adrenaline-focused, derivative, phone-in effort from
Howard that would merit only two stars as a separate listening
experience. For those who have no interest in hearing an adaptation of
Powell's standard chasing mechanisms, it could stay there and be
classified as a disappointment. But Howard, thankfully, offers just
enough variation in
Salt to give it the character of a decent,
three-star piece of action fluff. Dominating melodic development was
clearly not the primary intent of the composer, his ideas often vague
and usually exploring tangents in individual cues without much to tie
them together. As such,
Salt is the type of score that features a
handful of highlights of various unconnected ideas that could likely
yield ten to fifteen minutes of solid material for any Howard
collection. A unique female vocal and cimbalom early in "Orlov's Story"
suggests the only overtly Russian tone. The explosive "Chase Across DC"
is a very strong cue that takes Powell's chase norms and bloats them to
larger symphonic accompaniment (including the score's primary theme),
just a step or two short of David Arnold's Bond music. Distractingly
closing with bagpipe source is "Hotel Room Preparations/Parade." The
most insufferable cue is "Taser Puppet," with an extremely obnoxious
electric guitar, bass, and percussion mix that functions better than a
five energy drinks combined. The duo of "You Are My Greatest Creation"
and "Destiny" are tonal high points of
Salt, infusing
Russian-style chorus into their impressively melodramatic ranks. The
choral usage becomes lighter and choppier in "Barge Apocalypse" and "Go
Get Em" (more on that later). In "Not Safe With Me" and "Garroted," the
former exploring another simple melody, Howard coincidentally pulls some
structure, keyboarding, and tingling percussion rhythms from Klaus
Badelt's
Catwoman. The thematically obtuse score concludes by
finally developing its main identity in "Go Get Em," a determined guitar
rhythm and minor-third ostinato as cool and sophisticated as you'd
expect for the concept. Unfortunately, the remainder of the cues are
relatively non-descript, packing an excessive amount of techno-thriller
ambience into generic cues. There has been significant discontent with
the album release of
Salt, limited to download-only and CDr availability
and reportedly leaving out the film version of the choral mix in several
cues. The latter problem is particularly irksome for Howard collectors
after
The Last Airbender; labels apparently now seem content to
respond to challenging economic times by omitting or using sampled
variations of choral accompaniment on albums in order to save money in
reuse fees. No matter your views on this bootleg-inducing issue,
Salt is a functional but not spectacular score with a few notable
highlights.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.4
(in 62 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.3
(in 72,252 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
