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| Jones |
Thirteen Days: (Trevor Jones) The best
historical/political thrillers typically involve mostly fiction, but
director Roger Donaldson wanted his analysis of the Cuban Missile Crisis
in
Thirteen Days to be as factually true as possible. After
conducting extensive background work on all the known details of the
interactions between President John F. Kennedy and his inner circle
during the events of October 1962, Donaldson only made small variations
in character roles, mostly to allow presidential advisor Kenny O'Donnell
(and thus, Kevin Costner) a more pronounced presence. Despite the
difficulty of maintaining tension in a story this kind --in which all
educated audience members already know the outcome--
Thirteen
Days for the most part succeeds. Outside of Costner's questionable
performance, every other element of the film was praised by critics and
audiences. The film fared relatively well in awards nominations, but
quickly lost steam thereafter and has become relatively obscure since.
Aside from
The Last of the Mohicans,
Thirteen Days
represented the best chance composer Trevor Jones had, at the time, for
an Oscar nomination. A composer and instructor of great talents, Jones
was considered at the time to be an artist on the brink of bursting
through into the elite of the film music hierarchy. His music is almost
always engaging, with a flair for dramatic themes and a well balanced
blend of orchestral and electronic styles. While his scores are
consistently strong, the majority of them have been written for films
that did not succeed as well in the box office as many had hoped, with
the only major exception being
The Last of the Mohicans.
Ironically, his most notorious work of the 1990's had been his scores
for television films and series (such as
Merlin and
Cleopatra). To be involved with
Thirteen Days, an enormous
and potentially blockbuster mainstream film, was an enticing offer for
Jones. He had not worked previously with director Roger Donaldson,
however the pairing was a success before the score was even
finished.
Working comfortably in London, Jones sent MP3s of a
synthesized version of his score to Los Angeles and Donaldson, with all
around praise resulting. The encouragement from the producers of the
film to trust Jones' judgment in scoring the film at that distance led
to a recording experience that Jones has often glowed about. The score
for
Thirteen Days was a leisurely exercise in film music
production, though none of that leisure afforded in the composition of
the music can be heard in its actual contents. There aren't many online
film score fanatics who are old enough to have maturely felt the fear of
the events of late 1962. As the history of the film conveys, at no point
was the world closer to nuclear annihilation, and the script very well
captures the paranoia of the two week Cuban Missile Crisis without
yielding too much to the nobility of America's somewhat-immature pride.
Most likely the reason for director Donaldson's immediate approval of
the music for the film was the simple fact that Jones perfectly balances
the same fear and pride in his score. Regardless of the patriotic slice
of Americana heard in Jones' title theme,
Thirteen Days is a
score running scared. Its greatest asset is its almost instant injection
of uneasiness after the statement of theme at the start of the score, as
well as the subsequent tightening of tensions as the film progresses.
With more missiles headed to Cuba and an American pilot shot down over
the enemy, Jones' score continuously drives the tension levels to new
heights. In "There Can Be No Deals," he reprises the frenetic action
rhythms of
Dark City, and the suspense reaches its climax in the
frighteningly resounding pounding of orchestral hits and metallic
percussion during "Death of Major Anderson." While some scores for
political thrillers may be difficult to grasp on album because of their
experimental instrumentation or minimalistic styles,
Thirteen
Days is conversely a difficult score to enjoy because it so well
mirrors the scope of the tensions portrayed in the film. To this end, it
is an extremely effective score.
Fans of Jones' work for epic films typically enjoy the
overwhelmingly memorable themes that accompany them. And while
Thirteen Days has a very strong primary theme, it's not the same
kind of "whistleable" tune that you will recall from his other works. It
contains a similarly simplistic set of chord progressions, but it is
dominated by strings that providing a nagging feeling of unease with
slight dissonance. Even in the statement of a heroic ending in "The Sun
Came Up Today," as disaster is averted, there is still an ominous tone
created by high range dissonance in woodwinds and strings. The only
moments of the score not to be delivered with a rumbling of bass
strings, timpani, snare, or other militaristic undertones are the
opening and closing tracks, in which the title theme is heralded by the
expected lone trumpet and lush strings. While these elements attempt to
peek through during the rest of the score, they are hindered by the
necessary and welcome pull of dissonant or rhythmic tension. With a
slightly melancholy embodiment in those last few tracks comes a
victorious and yet saddened feeling, perhaps a foreshadowing of the
assassination of JFK to occur in the following year. The outright action
scenes from above Cuba and on the open seas are scored with a pulsating
and gripping drive of percussive force, with the usual flair of Jones'
wild percussion use. A secondary theme exists in these sequences, but
their statements are so brash that it succumbs to the force of its own
instrumentation (including a slight electronic edge). Jones takes the
film's fears and throws them in your face with the amplification of the
cues, and since the music is almost constantly heard in the film, the
overall effect of
Thirteen Days could be numbing. The London
Symphony Orchestra is quite versed, ironically, in the performance of
American patriotism, and the sheer dramatic weight of their sharp
recording creates half the ambience by itself. On the whole, while the
score is both noble and unsettling, as it should be, its own heavy
weight causes the listening experience to be a bittersweet one. Despite
being ignored by major awards groups in 2000,
Thirteen Days
remains one of the most noteworthy scores of the year.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Trevor Jones reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.78
(in 18 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.44
(in 26,057 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
