: (James Newton Howard) So many
films attempt to perfect the "gotcha" scenario and so few actually
succeed.
put writer and director M. Night
Shyamalan on the mainstream map for good because the 1999 film's twist
of story is so well executed that even hardened veterans of the theatre
may not have seen the ending coming. Bruce Willis plays a child
psychologist who attempts to assist a young boy (Haley Joel Osment in
his breakout role) with his ability to see and interact with ghosts and,
along the way, views his relationship with his wife (and the world) in a
frightening new perspective. Composer James Newton Howard's
collaboration with Shyamalan would continue to yield fruit for many
years to come and, in retrospect,
seems rather
generic and conservative by comparison. Of the several mainstream
horror, suspense, and fantasy scores that Howard produced for Shyamalan
over their first ten years together,
is arguably
the least interesting standalone score. It is, however, an example of
music that works very well in the film. This is definitely a score meant
to be partnered with its visuals, for less than ten minutes of it
translates into a compelling (or even interesting) listening experience.
The restraint with which Howard allows the story to unfold is
remarkable; only when necessary does he develop the score to levels that
match specific action in the picture. His work is constructed much like
the film's story, revealing fragments of what will eventually be the
great "revelation cue" that dominates the work at the end. So much of
the score is aimed at preparing the listener for that final five-minute
cue (and even just 30 seconds within it) that the payoff might not be
worth a short album with little to grasp on to before that finale. Since
the film is largely conversational, however, this technique works.
The score can be broken down into three sections: the
thematic material for Willis' character, the traditional horror strikes
for the film's few outwardly scary scenes, and the significant lengths
of ambience for the conversational scenes in between. The majority of
music on album consists, naturally, of these long, drawn-out sequences
of barely audible atmosphere. This material is largely harmonic, though
its extremely restrained volume makes it only marginally interesting.
Some sequences function more as eerie sound effects rather than music.
In the bridges between this slight plucking on the strings (and
meandering piano) and the pulsating dissonance of the violins for
suspenseful situations, there are moments during this score that have
hints of
Devil's Advocate and
Flatliners. Sudden,
electronically-aided thumps and whines of the ensemble exist in "Suicide
Ghost," "Hanging Ghosts," and "Kyra's Ghost" (obviously the scenes in
which the boy is frightened by his ability to see them), though these
techniques are pretty much standard for the genre. The magic of
The
Sixth Sense rests in a few key moments in the score, with the cues
of thematic development for Willis' lead character existing four times
on album but contributing significantly to only two scenes in the film.
This same phenomenon would happen in
The Village (in which two
gorgeous performances of the title theme on violin stood out far beyond
the remainder of the score, albeit a superior one to
The Sixth
Sense in its remaining material). The harmonic cues here have the
same somewhat gothic tendencies of other Howard scores for the genre
(especially in the seemingly sampled vocal effects for several cues in
the second half of the score), even reminding in progression of John
Debney's eventual score for
Dragonfly. The theme used for Willis
also seems to envelope the strained love story.
This theme for Willis is barely touched upon in "De
Profundi" before experiencing hints of fuller development in "Malcolm's
Story" and "Tape of Vincent." It finally reaches its comfortable
resolution in "Malcolm is Dead," which follows a
Devil's
Advocate-like crescendo of revelation (and a really powerful one at
that) with two minutes of further exploration. "Tape of Vincent" and
"Malcolm is Dead" are the aforementioned two cues that steal their
scenes in the film, mostly because they express the theme's underlying
rhythm in its most menacingly resounding form. The surprisingly tender
theme itself is a cross between Mark Mancina's
Return to Paradise
title theme and Howard's own closing to
The Interpreter, the
latter using a significant chunk of "Malcolm is Dead" for inspiration.
There also exists a sub-theme on clarinet, used in "De Profundi" and
"Tape of Vincent," that is reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's
Poltergeist score, perhaps an unwitting emulation by Howard (or
maybe not). On album, the score lulls you into a feeling of false
security before cranking up the tension in its middle portions. With low
volumes and an unsettled balance in tonality, it entices the listener to
jump ahead to the final few cues. In most cases, this diminishes the
impact of a score's setup, though with
The Sixth Sense, the final
cue really is all you would need with which to represent this score on a
Howard compilation. The title of that cue is an unforgivable spoiler of
the film's plot, however, ruining the careful setup of the film for
anyone who has not yet enjoyed it. Someone at Varèse Sarabande
really needed to change that cue title to something less revealing.
Overall, the music for
The Sixth Sense is easy to respect, but
without the thematic splendor or instrumental creativity that Howard
would provide for subsequent Shyamalan films, it stands as more of a
functional work rather than an inspiring standalone piece.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Score as Written for Film: ****
- Score as Heard on Album: **
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.4
(in 70 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.36
(in 86,462 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
