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Review of Sleepers (John Williams)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you are prepared for one of John Williams' most
depressing and grim scores of heavy drama, one meant to give you a
feeling of gloomy discomfort.
Avoid it... if you do not prefer Williams' use of stark synthesizers and challenging ambience as a substitute for orchestral presence and thematic focus.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Sleepers: (John Williams) For the film adaptation
of Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel, director Barry Levinson assembled an
outstanding principle cast in Sleepers. The story of torture,
homophobia, and vengeance claimed in the opening line of the film to be
based on true events, a somewhat unsubstantiated point of controversy
surrounding the film at the time of its release. Whether it was true or
not, the subject matter of Sleepers is unpleasant at best. Four
boys growing up on the west side of New York steal a hot dog wagon for
fun and the runaway cart accidentally crushes a bystander. While
consequently in a reformatory, they are sexually and physically abused
by a cruel and perverted guard. Twenty years later, in 1981, two of the
boys kill the guard and the other two, a lawyer and a journalist, become
involved in a conspiracy to cover their tracks and clear their names of
the crime. Topics of honor, religion, revenge, and morality all abound
in Sleepers, with depths of character observation that floating
the film and aided by the success of the grim plot and its genuine
depictions of the New York setting. The production represented the only
score of 1996 for legendary composer John Williams, and it also served
as his first collaboration with Levinson. For the maestro, the
mid-1990's was a period in his career when he had left behind the
adventuresome themes of action and fantasy; his projects had dwindled in
number and gravitated towards topics of a more serious and dramatic
nature. While his scores after his outstanding 1993 duo of Jurassic
Park and Schindler's List, extending through Saving
Private Ryan five years later, remain less memorable for casual film
music collectors, much of his work during that time is not only
fascinating to study, but it still characteristically continued to
garner Academy Award nominations for the composer. An odd entry for
Williams in this era was Sleepers, a score reaching outside of
his usual accessible, tonal nature and creeping in the realm of the
tormented psyche. For many collectors of the composer's music,
Sleepers is an above average entry, a crafty and understated
score that makes for a superior background listening experience. While
this may be somewhat true, Sleepers also suffers from a complete
lack of center and focus, causing its identity to be defined,
ironically, by its lack of any defining characteristics.
It's not often that Williams allows synthesizers to dominate his scores; in the 1990's and beyond, they have served in only an auxiliary role. But anyone who remembers back to Heartbeeps will recall that Williams has the capability of conjuring some really uncharacteristic sounds with an array of electronics at the forefront. He does this in Sleepers, combining his synthesizers with a traditional orchestra in methods that will likely startle you as much as the score did for veteran Williams listeners when it debuted. Along with keyboarding effects, Williams utilizes an electronic bass with a heavy hand, causing a significant portion of the score to drone as solo instruments from the orchestra meander in the distance. The harsh keyboarded tones from JFK ramble without remorse, and metallic sounds tear and rip over the score's several highly dissonant crescendos of pure noise. Williams' rhythms in Sleepers nearly save it from its own despair, frantically whipping up a frenzy in short bursts that never manage to assert themselves by the end. It is this inconsistency in sound the causes Sleepers to be disjointed beyond repair. You hear typical Williams' techniques and thematic motifs hinted at every turn, but none of them is ever established over another. The concert piece for Sleepers is the orchestral "Hell's Kitchen," which features a fragmented line of broken chords that serves as Williams' only theme from the film. Its intentionally wandering focus, even with entire ensemble in charge, makes it difficult to remember beyond its few satisfying progressions. Most of these progressions will remind of Williams' disaster themes of the 1970's. In "The Football Game," however, Williams returns to the present and offers the most interesting and enjoyable idea from the score: an all-out, rhythmically charged scherzo with rambling piano and bass highlighted by sharp brass notes and a modern percussive beat. It's unfortunate he didn't revisit this material when writing his theme for NBC's Sunday Night Football in the following decade. After this cue, Williams turns to a liturgical choral piece for "Saying the Rosary" before diving once again into the murky depths of his synthesizers. It's this kind of schizophrenic movement that causes the demise of Sleepers. You get the impression that Williams was attempting to repeat the stark suspense of Presumed Innocent and fuse it with some of the raw energy from JFK. But without a clear thematic construct, or even consistent instrumental execution, however, Sleepers fails at that task. It only leaves you with a feeling of gloomy discomfort, which was probably the intent, but it makes for a poor listening experience. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 56:24
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Sleepers are Copyright © 1996, Polygram Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/16/96 and last updated 11/11/11. |
