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| Newman |
Skyfall: (Thomas Newman) After a long production
delay due to the financial troubles of studio MGM, the James Bond
franchise continued into 2012 with the third entry of the Daniel Craig
era,
Skyfall. While the previous two films had been part of an
explicit "Quantum trilogy" with a carefully connected narrative,
Skyfall disappointingly abandons that storyline and instead
functions as a standalone Bond entry with elements similar to 1995's
Goldeneye. A former MI6 agent turns on the agency and uses
frightening new technologies to wreak havoc on Britain's intelligence
community, guiding the film franchise into a new age of social media and
server hacking. Bond and MI6 fall into this agent's trap and allow him
access to his ultimate target: agency leader "M." The script of
Skyfall clearly shakes off the romantic espionage elements of the
concept's past, favoring technological terror, British politics, and
intense personal drama, forcing Bond to come to grips with his childhood
while also pushing the agency towards a future of network-based
villains. While this new focus pleased critics and audiences, the latter
making
Skyfall extraordinarily successful at the box office, it
also opened the door for an extremely irritating number of logical
fallacies in the story, the most baffling of which coming in the
conclusive battle sequence taking place in Scotland. These fallacies
suggest a grim outlook for the prospects of success for Britain's police
and intelligence agencies, including even a complete failure by a
younger version of technology wizard "Q" in this film, and one has to
wonder if large bands of terrorist thugs with easy access to secret
networks, heavy guns, and assault helicopters could really exist within
Britain's borders. These issues are compounded by a change in the
franchise's use of music as well, director Sam Mendes insisting upon
bringing his own collaborating partner, composer Thomas Newman, into the
production with him rather than trust the successful David Arnold with a
continuation of the concept's existing sound. The scores for Bond films
have historically been defined by the work of John Barry and then
Arnold, the latter taking Barry's traditional methodology and
continuously updating it for a sleeker technological age. Arnold's
approach to
Casino Royale and
Quantum of Solace was widely
praised in this regard, mindful of Bond's romantic heritage and melodic
needs while continuing to develop his own ballsy action style for the
character.
Certainly no slouch in the industry is Tom Newman, who
entered the Bond franchise with a handful of Academy Award nominations
and tremendous respect from his peers. His prior work with Mendes is
impressive and he certainly knows how to touch upon the dramatic core of
on-screen relationships. After his announcement as the next Bond
composer (which initially was attributed to Arnold's attachment to the
London Olympic Games but was later revealed to be solely by the choice
of Mendes), concern was raised about the fact that Newman had never
really had the opportunity to write technologically diverse action or
espionage material with the pizzazz typically heard in the franchise.
His reputation as a master of music for art house topics didn't help,
though his intelligent writing and stated respect for the Bond concept
somewhat calmed the nerves of Arnold enthusiasts who eventually gave him
the benefit of the doubt. Newman stated repeatedly that he respected his
position in the franchise and that, while his own style would obviously
inform the picture, he would adhere to the classic Monty Norman theme
and other structural aspects of prior Bond soundtracks. The production
itself was in some ways careful to preserve the musical heritage of the
concept, even going so far as to use John Barry's own home as the
setting for the residence of "M" on screen. Likewise, the title song
co-written and performed by British star Adele is clearly backwards
looking, paying tribute to the famous and very stylish Barry and Shirley
Bassey tone of the 1960's. Newman, conversely, seemed convinced that the
appropriate way to address
Skyfall was to utilize a balance of
his own exotic, atmospheric inclinations and consult with the John
Powell and James Newton Howard playbooks on how to score a modern
technological chase thriller. The romantic elements of the prior scores,
whether for character or location, are largely stripped from the
equation by Newman. The feeling of panache is also almost entirely
absent from
Skyfall, the sense of coolness attributed to Bond's
character a faint echo of his better days. Most importantly, Newman
seems to have ignored standard procedural applications of Bond norms in
his spotting of many scenes, infusing exotic atmosphere into London for
no reason, toiling with suspenseful undertones when an emotional sense
of lamentation was necessary, and inserting obnoxious,
technologically-minded loops and other contemporary techniques into
scenes with action that degenerates into primordial hand-to-hand combat
in the plot's explicit defiance of technology.
One group of listeners who will be thrilled by
Skyfall is the dedicated Tom Newman fanbase. Indeed, the composer
has created in this score a true "Newmanesque" product. He doesn't go as
wild with his exotic instrumentation as he is known for doing, but his
structures, led by pulsating string notes and slurred, rising figures,
and his plucky sense of rhythm occupy much time in this work (all are
best evident in "New Digs"). His knack for understatement is also a
factor, several of
Skyfall's major character cues barely
registering in volume. Newman additionally is not a songwriter himself,
his usual themes not the kind to be remembered by mainstream moviegoers,
and this trait is a definite disaster in his rendering of this score.
Bond films have always strived for a strong melodic core, a key part of
their romantic appeal, and Newman manages to maneuver through his entire
contribution without concocting a single coherent and consistently
developed major motif. Part of the blame for
Skyfall's total
thematic anonymity rests with the executives of the film, who did not
arrange for the title song to be finished in time for Newman to
incorporate its melody into the bulk of his score. Compounding this
failure for Newman is the fact that Adele's song, co-written by her
regular collaborator, Paul Epworth, is a stunning success. Accompanying
a truly nightmarish opening title sequence that depicts Bond's journey
through a living hell, this song is a throwback to the glory days of
Bond like none other, eclipsing even the recent Bassey/Arnold
collaboration for "No Good About Goodbye," a belated "Bond ghost song"
of immensely attractive prowess that could very well have been intended
for
Quantum of Solace. Adele's "Skyfall" intentionally adheres to
the chord progressions of Norman's classic theme and includes backing by
a 77-piece orchestra arranged by Newman's orchestrator, J.A.C. Redford.
The resulting song is a triumph of the modern age for the franchise and
was declared as such by critics and fans. Its chart performance returned
the Bond franchise to the Billboard ranks and is a ringing endorsement
for an adherence to the days of classic Bond ballads with sultry voices
and stylish brass. The orchestral backing in this song is impressively
muscular, and fortunately for listeners, the abridged film version of
the recording contains most of the best sequences from the full, nearly
5-minute song. Because it was completed late in the production process,
Newman's score could only utilize the theme in "Komodo Dragon," which
was reportedly recorded after the rest of the score to specifically make
at least one token reference to the song in Newman's contribution.
Unfortunately, the overall disconnect between the song and
score in
Skyfall couldn't be greater. Everything that makes the
Adele song great is absent from Newman's score, even the opening piano.
In previous entries, when Arnold had been presented with the prospect of
working without the song theme in his score, as in "Die Another Day"
(Madonna's song didn't actually have a melody he could work with, much
to his stated dismay), he had simply created his own set of themes for
the assignment. Newman doesn't bother with this necessity, however,
missing several opportunities to unleash themes for the love interests,
the villain, and Bond's childhood. The most obvious place for a Bond
score's themes to take flight is in the massive transitional location
scenes, those in which overhead photography of scenery dominates during
a transition in the story.
Skyfall contains three such scenes,
the first in Shanghai ("Brave New World"), a second for the lovely,
aforementioned "Komodo Dragon" boat and fireworks sequence, and finally
Severine's luxury yacht's sail to "The Chimera." These three sequences
are still the obvious highlights of Newman's score, his music expressing
large-scale melodic constructs in each case. But aside from the "Komodo
Dragon" reference to the song (which is bracketed by the location's own
theme that oddly fails to hit synchronization points with the
photography in the final edit), Newman doesn't take advantage of these
scenes to provide
Skyfall with his own overarching theme. Nor
does he use either one to express the romance typically afforded such
occasions in Bond history; the sailing sequence in "The Chimera" would
have been perfect for a massively bittersweet performance of the theme for
Severine. That character's identity is confined to the cue "Severine"
for a merely suggestive shower sequence, and the melody for this
occasion (which only coincidentally has similarities to the Adele song's
bridge phrase) is not only absent from the obviously necessary placement
in "The Chimera," but is also only barely referenced in "Modigliani" (an
arguable misstep) and is inexplicably absent from "Someone Usually
Dies," which more than anything required a suspenseful and suggestive
reference to her theme. The same might be able to be said about the
equally low-key second half of "Komodo Dragon." For those complaining
that the plot of
Skyfall didn't allow for a romantic theme,
that's not correct; Newman simply missed the boat (quite literally!) on
where this theme needed to be placed. Likewise, the new Moneypenny
character could have used some kind of motif or even some suggestion of
their playful interactions in the music.
Another missed opportunity for Newman in
Skyfall is
the lack of a theme for Javier Bardem's deliciously sick, homo-erotic
villain. The composer suggests several motifs for this character
throughout the score, the best of which possibly a rising brass motif
reminiscent of Trevor Jones' reality-altering theme in
Dark City
(as heard in "The Moors"), but Newman never defines him otherwise.
Likewise, Newman fails to provide Bond's childhood or the Skyfall Lodge
location a theme. This certainly would have been the place for eerie
references to Adele's song to exist (in a perfect world), and absent
access to that melody, Newman should have created at least some kind of
pensive woodwind identity in John Barry style for that occasion. The mix
of the score cue "Skyfall" in the film seems to emphasize a choral or
quivering string atmosphere (it's difficult to tell which) rather than
expanding upon the melodic core of the character as prior composers
likely would have done. Too many similar cues by Newman are handled with
extremely vague atmosphere rather than subtly developed thematic
elements. At least Judi Dench's "M" is afforded a motif, a series of
solemn, descending French horn phrases doubling for the concept of MI6
and Britain as a whole, a stark representation of loyalty to the country
that is heard in "Voluntary Retirement" and "Mother." Without a dominant
set of original ideas from Newman, he is left with Norman's classic Bond
theme, and even that isn't applied in particularly interesting ways in
the score. Its application at the end of the film is actually a
re-recorded, abridged version of the arrangement of the theme made by
Arnold for
Casino Royale, an almost sad recognition that Arnold's
absence on this project was indeed felt by the production. Prior to that
insertion, Newman did apply the theme into one token, fuller performance
in the appropriate "Breadcrumbs" cue, a smart choice given the car in
the scene. Even here, however, the performance is rushed, and you get a
sense from Newman's nods to Norman in the action sequences that there
wasn't significant comfort with the interpolations. In "Grand Bazaar,
Istanbul" and "She's Mine," the references are sufficient but lack the
actual fanfare of the theme. The more subtle inclusions by Newman into
conversational scenes are actually more engaging, though don't expect to
ever hear the theme flourish with the panache that Arnold had applied to
it. In fact, the only moment of stylish wailing on trumpets at all in
this score comes at 3:48 into "Grand Bazaar, Istanbul," and it's just
one note. The jazz and pop elements of the franchise's tradition are
diminished to occasional cymbal tapping.
The action cues in
Skyfall are particularly
intriguing, for they were the source of much concern upon Newman's
announcement as the replacement for Arnold. The composer had never
tackled this kind of ferocious, sustained action before, and the
inexperience shows. His pacing in these cues struggles to keep up with
the movement on screen, and he misses synchronization points in the
chase sequences as well (though this may have been the result of editing
after the fact). In terms of style, Newman unfortunately turned to
contemporary norms of string ostinatos and slapping percussion loops to
address the Bond franchise, reducing it to the level of the Jason Bourne
franchise. You could use the words "generic" and "pedestrian" to
describe most of these cues ("The Bloody Shot" an arguable exception),
though in most places, the adaptation of the stock 2010's thriller sound is
abysmally out of place in the context of Bond. In "The Moors," for
instance, when the film had basically dissolved into an intimate fight
that will end with a knife, Newman pushes the technological element to
the fullest. During the chase sequence through the hills towards the
chapel in this scene, the music at 1:37 into "The Moors" is
horrendously out of place in tone and its lack of emotional weight. The
flow of the outright action cues is an issue when compared to Arnold's
scores; Newman just does not seem capable of the ball-busting force that
had existed in the previous scores, his action lacking the number of
orchestral lines and satisfying bass to sustain these scenes in
Skyfall. He also seems unable to maintain a rhythm through an
entire sequence and apply the appropriate level of activity on top of
it, causing several stuttering issues within the major pieces.
Generally, the mixture of symphonic, electronic, and exotic elements in
these cues is very good, however, despite the fact that Newman's awkward
rhythms and exotic instruments do foil a few lighter cues. Perhaps no
moment in
Skyfall is as nonsensical as "Adrenaline," which
immediately follows the Arnold arrangement of Norman's Bond theme in the
end credits and serves absolutely no purpose. Its low-key exotic rhythms
almost sound like something Mychael Danna would write for a lesser drama
and have nothing to do with the rest of the score. Perhaps this
recording makes sense only when you stop to consider how many
narrative-killing atmospheric cues there are in
Skyfall,
"Modigliani," "Enjoying Death," "Voluntary Retirement," "Close Shave,"
"Skyfall," and "Someone Usually Dies" all containing material that's
barely audible and insufficient in plot enhancement.
In the context of the film, despite all of the
structural and stylistic flaws of Newman's composition, the score will
function well enough for many listeners. Newman may have blown his
thematic attributions, run out of steam in some action cues, and
completely missed some opportunities to maintain Bond traditions, but
he's certainly talented enough not to shame himself like Eric Serra did
with
Goldeneye. At the same time, you get the feeling listening
to
Skyfall that Newman didn't really enjoy himself or isn't a fan
of the franchise. Arnold's music certainly bleeds the spirit of Bond,
and even Michael Kamen's lone Bond entry,
Licence to Kill, was
better matched to the concept than Newman's. On album, some of these
flaws can be forgiven, because a cue like "New Digs" at least is so
saturated with "Newmanisms" that it will entertain his collectors. In
that way, parts of the listening experience are quite enjoyable. But
it's interesting that Mendes once stated that he believed Daniel Craig
to be an inappropriate choice for the role of James Bond. He was
obviously wrong about that, and it's possible that he was also mistaken
to force the production to replace Arnold with Newman. Fortunately, the
incredibly memorable strength of Adele's song, which should have been
reprised over the end credits, will excuse Newman for those who don't
care about the minutia of film scoring theory. But that won't help those
film music and die-hard Bond enthusiasts who can tell the difference.
For them, Newman's score is procedural, handing each scene as a
standalone entity rather than a part of an organic whole. Perhaps the
composer was so worried about screwing up the assignment on the macro
level that he got too caught up in the intellectual weeds of individual
cues. One of the strangest things about
Skyfall is the fact that
Newman somehow neglected to express the turmoil and tragedy associated
with the main character, an element that was present romantically in the
prior two films and scores but was dissolved into mere ambient tones for
the familial equivalents in this entry. This type of music, along with
deeply rooted suspense, is where Newman usually excels, and to hear him
waste away so many opportunities for great development, especially in
the Scotland portions at the end, is baffling. Some of the blame for
this muted presence has to fall on Mendes, who left a surprising amount
of the film's running time unscored, another oddity for the Bond
franchise. It is in this combination of silence and barely audible
underscore for scenes that could have used some weightier musical
presence that the perceptions about a lack of passion from Newman for
the topic are generated.
Finally, the album situation for
Skyfall is
simply a disgrace. Of course there are licensing issues to consider, but
the average listener doesn't care. As with
Casino Royale, the
Skyfall soundtrack fails to include the title song with the
score. Frustratingly, these two songs were among the best of the modern
era for the franchise, leaving the scores to fend for themselves on
their products. Likewise, the
Skyfall soundtrack is lacking the
adapted Arnold arrangement of the theme at the end of the film, too,
another glaring omission. There also seems to be missing a few important
snippets of score from the film as well, including the music heard as
the British helicopters descend upon the villain's island to rescue Bond
after the cue "The Chimera." At least the product is well mixed, the
percussion clarity often outstanding (especially the cymbals). Some
listeners may notice a diminished presence of violins (a dreaded Remote
Control technique), and that was apparently intentional. Overall,
however, the arrangement of the album is extremely disappointing. The
labels for these soundtracks, in this case Sony (which also released the
song on its own CD!), need to figure out how to properly obtain the
rights to the Bond movies' music for future soundtracks, for the lack of
the song and major Norman theme performance on any Bond album is simply
unacceptable and only encourages people to illegally download the music
(or listen to it on YouTube all day long). Aside from this failure,
however, Sony did make a few mistakes on their own with the product that
could have been avoided. First, the presentation rearranges the cues out
of film order. The first half is especially jumbled for absolutely no
good reason, separating the opening two action cues. Additionally, an
iTunes-exclusive cue was made available only in lossy form through that
retailer; fortunately, the short "Old Dog, New Tricks" isn't too
impressive (repetition of the same lounge-like string phrase over and
over again in a lazy club atmosphere) and wasn't used in the film
anyway. Ultimately, the
Skyfall score has to be considered a
disappointment, both when it struggles in context and on its exceedingly
long and often understated album. The title song easily out-classes the
score on all levels. Don't be alarmed if you find yourself enjoying
about 10-15 minutes of Newman's action material and being bored by most
of the rest. While Newman shouldn't be excessively flogged for this
entry, in fact barely earning three stars for sufficiently meeting the
very basic needs of the film, it wouldn't be surprising to witness
significant fan demand for Arnold to return to the franchise for the
continuation of the Craig era and possibly the conclusion of the Quantum
storyline. One has to imagine that Arnold is itching for the
opportunity.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Song as Written for the Film: *****
- Score as Written for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on the Album: **
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For Thomas Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 33 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.13
(in 56,043 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
