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Review of Throw Momma From the Train (David Newman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you were specifically impressed by David Newman's
entertainingly quirky manipulation of Bernard Herrmann's suspense mode
in the context of the film.
Avoid it... if a wild collection of sound effects (led by slide whistle), skittish woodwinds, mysterious harp and piano figures, and constant Herrmann borrowings in undulating strings on album could possibly make you contemplate killing someone.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Throw Momma From the Train: (David Newman) The
night was sultry. In one of the two lead roles in the 1987 black
comedy Throw Momma From the Train, Billy Crystal plays a writer
struggling to complete that first sentence of his novel. While teaching
a writing class, he meets a hopelessly repressed Danny DeVito, and
through a set of unlikely circumstances, they follow the guidelines of
Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train on the path to murdering
an undesirable person in the other man's life. In the case of Crystal's
writer, the target of disdain is his ex-wife, who supposedly stole one
of his stories and became rich off of it. On the other hand, DeVito's
character lives with his insufferable mother who berates him constantly
and with colorful language. While Crystal originally has no intent to
murder the old woman, DeVito actually follows through on his murderous
intentions, putting the seemingly more sane man in the positive of
reciprocating the favor. After living with his student and her mother,
the writer decides that the latter is a work of evil and begins to
himself dream of executing the crime for real. With top talent spread
throughout the production, Throw Momma From the Train was a
financial success that led to several lucrative careers for those
involved. Two specific contributors excelled particularly well in the
film, the first being Barry Sonnenfeld, whose cinematography yields some
outstandingly creative shots that truly accentuate the concept's
connections to Hitchcock. And then there was Anne Ramsey in the role of
the mother, delivering a performance so wickedly entertaining that she
earned an Oscar nomination for her efforts. Several of her incredibly
rude, barked lines, culminating in "Get away from me, you horse's ass!"
to Crystal, have become pop culture favorites. These sequences may only
amount to ten minutes in the film, but they overshadow the clever script
and wild camera work to represent Throw Momma From the Train in
the collective memory. The film marked the first major studio assignment
for David Newman, too, and the composer initially had difficulty
striking the right balance of comedy and suspense in the quasi-parody
score. There was clearly an intention to emulate the style of Bernard
Herrmann's music for several Hitchcock projects, and Newman effectively
lightens that memorable sound to such an appropriate balance of sinister
dread and perky laughs that he launched himself into a career in this
genre that would include dozens of comedy projects over the subsequent
decades.
The most basic tool from Herrmann's trademark style that Newman borrows and manipulates in Throw Momma From the Train is a sense of swirling surrealism. Mostly through strings, Newman uses these skittish, rising and falling figures to define both the thematic core and background personality of the work. Listeners encounter this technique immediately at the start of the film, "Main Title" perhaps the closest homage to Vertigo in the score. You hear Psycho, Frenzy, and others influencing the remainder of the motifs, all of them using the string section to dance with uncertainty through elongated ostinatos. The main theme represents a more cohesive statement of this down and up movement, sometimes layering multiple performances of the idea from woodwinds on top of the major expression of the melody in the forefront. Newman continues to run through several cyclical motifs later in the score, one each for the two men's fantasies of killing. These three and four-note motifs stew and agitate with almost obnoxious persistence, a perfectly nagging reflection of their urges. More often than not, however, Newman returns to his primary theme as an extremely malleable tool with which to punctuate individual shots. Equally important in Throw Momma From the Train is the composer's selection of instrumentation, which uses a standard orchestral ensemble at its base but is really dominated by his unique application of funny noises and rhythmic mayhem, some of which seemingly inspired by Jerry Goldsmith. A slide whistle is the most obvious contributor, a silly, whimsical element to represent the bizarre relationship between DeVito's nerd and his mother. Occasional synthetic atmosphere boosts the eeriness of the actual faux-killing sequences. Harp and struck percussion accents are reminiscent of Alan Silvestri in "magic" mode of that era. Extreme dexterity is exhibited by the woodwind section, too, all such players rolling enthusiastically (with almost devilish delight) through Newman's rhythmic waves. Perhaps not surprisingly, when removed from context, the most entertaining portions of the music for Throw Momma From the Train come when Newman allows the bass strings to throw their weight behind the Hermannesque figures, though these passages are relatively few. The muscular brass renditions of the main theme in "Car Chase" are also of interest. On the whole, it's a competent and affable parody score, very well handled by Newman but ultimately better appreciated in the movie. Long unavailable on album, Throw Momma From the Train was finally treated to a 35-minute release of only 1,500 copies by Intrada in 2007, a likeable but not significant listening experience that will please enthusiasts of the film's dark humor. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 35:33
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes extensive information about the score and 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 Throw Momma From the Train are Copyright © 2007, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/26/12 (and not updated significantly since). |
