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Review of Unbreakable (James Newton Howard)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you were enamored with the score to The Sixth Sense and would be interested in a more thematically and instrumentally engaging variation on the same ambient spirit.

Avoid it... if you expect the scores that came from the James Newton Howard/M. Night Shyamalan collaborations of the 1990's to offer the same harmonious appeal as those in the 2000's.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Unbreakable: (James Newton Howard) It was perhaps impossible for writer and director M. Night Shyamalan to equal his 1999 hit The Sixth Sense the following year, but he kept many of the core elements of that surprising success together in an effort to continue the magic in Unbreakable. Retaining actor Bruce Willis in the sympathetic and dramatic lead, Shyamalan would once again explore elements of the supernatural, telling the story of Willis' security guard as he slowly realizes that he has superhero powers. The forced revelation at the end of the film somewhat cheapens that exploration, and while the film was not heralded as the success that The Sixth Sense was, it nevertheless pleased fans of the director's thoughtful films. One aspect of The Sixth Sense that returns completely in Unbreakable is its atmosphere, from the bluish filters that give the film a chilling look to the quietly suspenseful tones of James Newton Howard's score. Howard's work for The Sixth Sense, while restrained in its tone, played a significant role in perpetuating the eerie ambience of Shyamalan's haunted characters, and the equation would not change significantly in Unbreakable. In a basic sense, you could likely interchange several of the cues between the two films without any detriment to either, and many casual listeners would have difficulty distinguishing between the soft string and piano tones of the delicate underscore portions of either. In Unbreakable, though, the story has implications that affect the entire world, and not just one character and his family, so Howard employs a broader range of instrumentation and volume. His score thus retains the atmospheric appeal of The Sixth Sense while also offering more ambitious thematic and instrumental ideas. For significant portions of Unbreakable, the familiar, harmonious repetitions of string and piano patterns progress at low volumes, hinting at the film's two primary themes and auxiliary "mystery" motif with regularity.

These themes and motifs cause Unbreakable to be a more engaging listening experience than The Sixth Sense. A five-note piano motif is used to accentuate the mystery of the story and the Willis character's contemplative moments (as well as some of the family interaction). A "hero's theme" is employed sparingly, introduced on strained strings and trumpet with some trepidation in "Weightlifting." When transferred to layered strings and boosted by the full ensemble in tow, this theme becomes a muscular, though troubled representation of a reluctant hero with an identity crisis. These full statements are offered in "The Wreck" and "The Orange Man," both scenes of heroic actions, the latter of which being the highlight of the film (and, arguably, the score). A motif for Samuel L. Jackson's character of Elijah is provided first for viola early in the film but eventually builds into a menacing bass string performance in the "Mr. Glass" revelation cue. The final and most controversial theme in the film is an overarching one for the entire story, not quite rooted in the characters' frame of mind but perhaps embodying the superhero element of the story in its full glory. This theme is a simplistic progression that accompanies "Visions" and extends into "Unbreakable" and "End Title." Its heavy drum loops and contemporary light percussion place it a bit closer to the 90's new age realm than the 80's techno that some have labeled it with. With a synthetic choral effect at the start of each repetition of the phrase, the overall sound of the robust performance imitates the style of Enigma's ultra-cool selections from the era. The piano introduces this theme in all three performances, and this delicate incarnation of the theme floats throughout the entire score as well. Despite the synthetic tones of these title theme performances, there are few electronic elements to be heard in the rest of the score. Also existing in only the shadows is the choir, which plays a much smaller role in Unbreakable than it had in The Sixth Sense.

Overall, Unbreakable is a more intelligent score than its predecessor, but its disembodied spirit on album once again fails to translate into a viable listening experience unless you're specifically in the mood for a Shyamalan-inspired atmosphere. The ten minutes of music from "Reflection of Elijah" to "Hieroglyphics," including the discovery of the hero's theme in between, are as good as this score gets in the listenability department. The remainder includes a few outwardly suspenseful moments of tension, and even the full statements of the two main themes contain enough dissonance to cause a feeling of unease. On album, Unbreakable obviously suffered from the lack of superhero mental strength on the part of the distributor when conducting early pressings of the 45-minute score-only album. Promotional copies and a handful of commercial copies were pressed with the wrong music on a product that looked otherwise completely normal for a James Newton Howard score release. People fortunate enough to discover this little mystery of its own were treated to eleven famous Connie Francis songs (including "Where the Boys Are") from the early 1960's when they played their Unbreakable CDs. This manufacturing mishap simply entailed the assignment of the wrong music to be pressed on the product; it's a rare day when any great volume of any product is screwed up so badly. The quantity of this defective pressing was never revealed, though collectors of Connie Francis music have been rumoured through the years to be seeking these early pressings as collector's items. Since the packaging and the CD itself exhibit the same exact features as the correct Unbreakable products with the Howard score, there's no way to know if you have a defective CD until you start hearing Francis sing. If that happens, then at least you know that you have a collector's item worth more than the original score's price. As for Howard's score for Unbreakable, there is a significant following of all of the music from the Shyamalan/Howard collaboration, this included. Both The Village and Lady in the Water would eventually prove, though, that superior variants of this same creepy musical atmosphere were still to come.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 40:23

• 1. Visions (5:57) • 2. Reflection of Elijah (4:08) • 3. Weightlifting (3:43) • 4. Hieroglyphics (2:01) • 5. Falling Down (2:27) • 6. Unbreakable (3:23) • 7. Goodnight (2:25)

• 8. The Wreck (3:46) • 9. Second Date (1:31) • 10. School Nurse (1:22) • 11. Blindsided (1:55) • 12. The Orange Man (2:29) • 13. Carrying Audrey (2:36) • 14. Mr. Glass/End Titles (7:40)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

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