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Review of Shipwrecked (Patrick Doyle)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you seek a complete collection of Patrick Doyle
albums and would be inclined to appreciate even one of his less mature
early efforts on a rare, shortly-produced CD.
Avoid it... if you expect the more structurally balanced orchestral action and comedy of Doyle's writing later in the 1990's, the lack of muscle in the brass section an especially troublesome flaw in this otherwise swashbuckling music.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Shipwrecked: (Patrick Doyle) Produced in Norway
under the name of O.V. Falck-Ytter's original book, "Haakon Haakonsen,"
Shipwrecked swept through theatres there in 1990 before being
purchased by Walt Disney Pictures for distribution in America, where it
debuted in March of 1991 without much fanfare. Despite the misconception
that this children's film was an animated venture, the movie was the
unfortunate live-action offering to coincide with the release of
Beauty and the Beast at the time, and it's no wonder why
Shipwrecked slipped by audiences unnoticed. Despite receiving
warm reviews from critics, Shipwrecked was long rejected for many
years in even the realm of home entertainment, with only foreign region
versions of a DVD release available for a long time. The story of the
film involves a young Norwegian boy of the 1850's working on an English
sailing ship as a cabin boy. After the crew is taken over by a pirate
posing as a naval officer (the always mysterious Gabriel Byrne), the
ship is sunk in a hurricane and the boy and a young girl who stowed away
on the ship are stranded on a tropical island where they find the hidden
treasure the pirates were after. Of course, they manage to sneak it all
the way back to Norway through some ingenuity and luck. It's a feel-good
variant of the "Treasure Island" story that's decent enough to distract
the kids for a short period of time. It's not often that a composer
storms the mainstream of moviegoers' attention with the gusto of Patrick
Doyle; in 1989, his score for Henry V was a pleasant surprise
from out of nowhere, and immediate fans of the composer would look to
Shipwrecked about a year later, Doyle's second feature film work,
for a continuation of that quality. After the solemn and serious tone of
Henry V, however, Shipwrecked was quite a departure of
demeanor for Doyle. That said, it represented the introduction of the
composer's lighter adventure mode, and music similar to this entry for
Doyle would include Into the West and Quest for Camelot
later in the decade. Despite the fact that the scope of his work had
been mostly limited to radio, television, and theatre in the 1980's,
Doyle gave a valiant effort to raise the spirit of the Erich Wolfgang
Korngold era of classic Hollywood swashbuckling music for
Shipwrecked, with varied results.
At a fundamental level, Doyle's music for Shipwrecked suffices for the purposes of the film, but collectors of the composer's works over the subsequent decades might find that the score is a portrait of the composer just getting his sea legs. Like Into the West a few years later, Doyle seems to restrain himself in the adventure genre; his Shakespearian scores never often required the kind of swing and bombast for such sustained lengths with a full orchestral ensemble. In light of that, both Shipwrecked and Into the West show that Doyle had the right idea in mind, but often failed to execute the substance and depth in performance to back it up. The title theme for Shipwrecked is easily its highlight, although one major criticism that could be leveled against the work is the endless repetition of that idea, especially in early scenes. Its exuberance and flourishing string swells are trademark Doyle in their optimism and fluff. The strings are the key to the score, for Doyle relies upon them heavily to provide swirling effects during both the action and the sneaking around of the kids in the film. Slapstick effects are thankfully held to a minimum, though the plentiful woodwinds set prancing rhythms in the lower ranks while the omnipresent flute flutters along with the violins. The weakness of Doyle's Shipwrecked, however, is that he assigns the strings to perform lines of melody and accompaniment that swashbuckling music usually demand from the brass. In fact, the very diminished role of brass in the score is its eventual downfall; Doyle's theme and upbeat underscore could very well have excelled had some of the string performances been replaced by brass. And when horns and trumpets are employed, such as in "Mary is Rescued," they seem to be either lacking in numbers or poorly mixed. Without any convincing muscle in brass depth, Shipwrecked is downgraded from a very strong composition as originally written on paper to a lightweight (of arguably Alan Menken proportions) in actual performance. In the end, the score is certainly well-natured and an effortless, enjoyable 40 minutes on album. That CD product, however, was pressed shortly by Disney in 1991 and quickly pulled from production. Original copies sold for over $60 just a couple of years after its release, as Doyle's career became solidified. Overall, however, unless you have expendable cash and time, the Shipwrecked album should be one of the lesser Doyle priorities for you due to that scarcity and the unsatisfactory daintiness of the score's tone. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 37:53
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a short description of the film but no
extra information about the score.
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