: (Christopher Young) Although Miramax had
high hopes that director Lasse Hallstrom could continue his magic touch with
arthouse crowds,
. While another character drama by definition, the
late 2001 awards contender did not utilize its top flight cast and strong source
material to such an extent that the production could compete with its own
gorgeously forbidding scenery. It's a film that envelopes you in its visual
environment at the cost of the characters in its cold, damp depiction. Somewhat
retained is the tale of survival, adaptation, and redemption that existed in E.
Annie Proulx's acclaimed novel, though an extremely rough chopping of the material
into a condensed screenplay was widely reported to be the production's defining
failure. The picturesque setting wasn't enough to save the film, but it inspired
one of composer Christopher Young's most inspired works. Jerry Goldsmith had been
publicly slated to write the music for the film for a long while, but after a
conflict with his health caused him to bow out, Miramax bypassed a busy Rachel
Portman (who couldn't fit the project into her schedule) to make the curious
selection of Young. Those who eagerly followed the career of the borderline
mainstream composer at the time had their CD shelves stacked with horror and
suspense scores, a genre of music in which Young has made his living. His knack for
capturing fright and suspicion in his mostly orchestral music was among the most
proficient in the scoring community during the 1990's and 2000's. Many awaited the
day when Young would break through the B-film typecast that had followed him since
the infancy of his career, and given his superb level of talent (which he also
utilized by teaching film score composition at USC in and around his scoring
assignments), there was little doubt that he would eventually receive the
assignment that would gain him popular awards attention. Ironically, his first
major awards recognition (in the form of a Golden Globe nomination) would come for
, a frightfully predictable genre of film for such
notoriety, and one that couldn't sound any further from the horror and suspense
material that his collectors often adore the most.
While not entirely inaccurate, to describe the score for
The
Shipping News as simply Celtic would be doing it a disservice. There is a tired
stereotype in Hollywood about what Celtic music should sound like, and James Horner
had been the biggest perpetuator of this myth throughout the 1990's. Horner's
Americanized version of Celtic tradition caused nearly everyone at the time to
think of
Titanic (or Enya, for that matter) when the genre was mentioned.
Young's interpretation of the Celtic descent in the locale of
The Shipping
News is much more in tune with the traditional instrumentation that the genre
was meant to use, and his final product is thus rich in actual Celtic elements that
you don't hear too often in unison for mainstream film scores. With Uillean pipes,
a penny whistle, fiddle, harps, psalteries, and other instruments authentic to the
Celtic tradition, Young doesn't water his music down with American accompaniment of
voice or synthesizer. Contrary to initial rumors that spread around the Internet
during the first weeks of this film's opening, there are no vocals in the score for
The Shipping News. Young compliments the ethnic soloists with the 80-piece
Philharmonic Orchestra in London and a healthy percussion section. The highlights
of the score combine all of these elements (the soloists, the orchestral ensemble,
and the array of specialty drums) for the most obvious representations of the
robust and rugged setting of coastal Newfoundland, Canada. The opening and closing
cues, along with the "Death Storm" cue near the end of the album, offer enjoyably
strong rhythms and the rousing Celtic pronunciations of Young's melodramatic title
theme that most undoubtedly gained the score the attention it needed for awards
consideration. While the performances of the theme can continue almost unaltered
for several consecutive performances (only adding depth to each incarnation), the
theme is beautiful enough to warrant such attention, perhaps coincidentally
borrowing a procedural page from Portman's string-dominated music for this kind of
dramatic topic. The ten or so minutes of full ensemble performances of this idea,
lead by a blustery penny whistle on top and light percussion underneath, are a
highlight of Young's entire career, utilizing the kind smooth harmony that many
listeners don't often associate with the composer.
While the highlights of
The Shipping News qualify as
nothing less than four-star material (if not greater, for unapologetic romance
collectors), the remainder of the work is introverted, chilly, and perhaps less
substantiated. The lengthier cues of pipes will be grating for some ears, though
the duets for harp and guitar are pleasant in every case. A lack of warmth is the
enemy of these cues, failing to adapt the tone of the title theme into engaging
conversational material. Although the instrumentation may not be the same, the
demeanor of
The Shipping News (in its best parts) is remarkably similar in
tone to Horner's
The Spitfire Grill. The scores differ, however, in their
complexity of identity. Young's theme for
The Shipping News is of a simple
construct, and rather than building upon the complexity of the story's characters
through intricate alterations of that theme, he allows that function to be served
by the plentiful variety of instrumentation. An accomplished balance of the mix of
individual performers is perhaps the score's greatest asset, allowing the Celtic
elements to flourish in an equal relationship with the ensemble. As a whole, the
listening experience is overwhelmed by three or four cues, with much of the
material in the mid-section of the work passing without much notice. Several
extended fiddle cues offer less character than most people could want and might
jeopardize the success of
The Shipping News for some listeners on album. A
sloppy handling of the release of that product was easily the most unsatisfying
part of the equation. This score was initially touted as the glorious debut album
of the fledgling Miramax Records label, an offshoot of the studio that would use
the marketing tools of the RED Ink Company to sell the scores to its films. It
would not have been surprising if the album was immediately in red ink simply due
to its disastrous method of release, though. Originally set for a street date in
mid-January of 2002, the score was still unavailable a month later in much of the
United States and all of the online outlets, allowing the hype surrounding the film
to fade before taking advantage of the studio's publicity machine. Pre-release
copies surfaced outside of America, but after Miramax Records dumping the project,
the CD was pressed by Milan Records in February of that year. The unorganized mess
caused by Miramax's handling of the album was an unfortunate detraction from
Young's moment in the spotlight. Still, if anyone needs proof of the composer's
wide range of talents, look no further.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Christopher Young reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.48
(in 27 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.17
(in 10,923 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
