Hollywood Stars: Music from the Films of Mel
Gibson: (Compilation) By the late 1990's, Silva Screen had hit their
stride in their production of large-scale symphonic re-recordings of
film music featuring The City of Prague Philharmonic. As they had done
before and would do again in the future, they released several
actor-specific compilations in the summer of 1998. Under the common
title of "Hollywood Stars," the three concurrent releases of the series
were devoted to films starring Sean Connery, Kevin Costner, and Mel
Gibson. Of the three compilations, this one suffers the most from the
awkward combination of completely different scores spanning several
genres being shoved together onto one album. While softer on the whole
than the other two albums, it has a tendency to become dull at certain
points. As with all compilations, though, there are individual standout
tracks that are very enjoyable, and it's your job to decide whether
they're worth the trouble of buying the entire album for those
performances alone. If you never cared much for Brian May's brass and
percussion heavy music for the first two
Mad Max films, then the
bleak and tinny sound here will be just as disturbing to you. The 1981
disappointment
Gallipoli is represented by a depressing adagio for organ
that drags on almost interminably until Vangelis' track from
The Year
of Living Dangerously finally picks up the beat. As with
The
Bounty later on the album, it's easy to be impressed by Mark Ayres'
synthesized performances of Vangelis' work here... the accuracy is
commendable. The previously-existing Vangelis piece adapted by director
Peter Weir as the theme for
The Year of Living Dangerously is far
more interesting than Maurice Jarre's original score cue for the same
film, despite Jarre's like-minded electronic style.
Forever Young
has a classic love theme from Jerry Goldsmith which is powerful in its
simplicity; it's difficult to perform incorrectly, and is enjoyable
here.
Randy Newman's
Maverick, with its rickety,
Western style, invigorates the album just in time to save it. The
highlight cue from its score, the stagecoach chase is a difficult piece,
and a slight lack of crispness and a few mistakes here tarnish it a bit.
A dapper performance of Ennio Morricone's solemn
Hamlet plunges
the album back into contemplation. A solid, but largely forgotten James
Horner score from the 1990's is
Man Without a Face, and its
lengthy suite is welcome despite the continued slow pace of movement on
the album. The opening titles and love themes from John Williams'
The
River are performed with vitality and the appropriate touch of jazz,
and are together the highlight of the album. The drab
Ransom is a
dismal Horner selection, especially given the ensemble's ability to slow
the tempo of its end credits cue to excruciatingly deliberate levels.
The Bounty,
Lethal Weapon, and
Conspiracy Theory
bring the album back to a more contemporary, urban feeling, with
adequate and sometimes enjoyable synthesizer and electric guitar solos.
While the urban descriptor of
The Bounty isn't exactly what you
expect for a film about a historic sailing mutiny, Vangelis' score plays
better on stereo as usual. The mundane guitar-laden cue from
Lethal
Weapon is a throw-away cut on the compilation, and was a
questionable selection given its lack of genuine attitude. The most
recent of selections on the CD at the time of its release was
Conspiracy Theory; its primary jazz theme is a highlight in
Carter Burwell's career, and the slightly paranoid theme is given a
decent attempt by the performers of Prague. Still, some of the
percussion gets lost in the mix, and perhaps the piece is better suited
for a large jazz or pops ensemble to tackle. The redundant piece on the
compilation is James Horner's
Braveheart, a cue that is treated
reasonably well by the ensemble and chorus, but has been "released to
death" by Silva, including an appearance on the "Warriors of the Silver
Screen" compilation that Silva had released just prior. Overall, this
album as is far more schizophrenic than Silva's other actor-centered
compilations of 1998. Once again, it's your responsibility to decide if
that makes it a good purchase for you; Horner and Vangelis fans
especially should take a second look.
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The insert includes detailed notes about the scores and films.
