Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,451
Written 4/1/05, Revised 10/24/11
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Buy it... if you are a casual collector of Lee Holdridge's
typically superior dramatic work and desire a continuation of his
lyrical mastery for a challenging topic.
Avoid it... if the restrained and respectful style of Holdridge's
library of music for films pertaining to the Holocaust has never
sustained your interest beyond the composer's often attractive title
themes.
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| Holdridge |
Unlikely Heroes: (Lee Holdridge) The Moriah Film
division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center produced a series of highly
respected documentaries about the Holocaust starting in the 1990's, and
Unlikely Heroes was their 2003 entry into the efforts of those in
Hungary and elsewhere to save Jewish lives during World War II. It
follows half a dozen similar films from their studios, the best known of
which is probably The Long Way Home, which won an Academy Award
in the documentary field in 1997. Directed by Richard Trank and narrated
by Sir Ben Kingsley (these films always feature star power behind the
microphone), Unlikely Heroes was somewhat of a surprise for the
director, who had honestly believed that the series had already
exhausted all of its storylines of significant interest. But with this
2003 picture came stories of Jewish resistance rather than depressing
Jewish victimization, and continued positive reviews ensued as a result.
Joining the endeavors of Simon Wiesenthal Center once again (and his
third collaboration with Trank specifically) was composer Lee Holdridge.
One of the most underrated careers in composing for television and film
in the digital era is that of Holdridge, who, despite rarely receiving
the recognition deserved for his mass of work for television,
continuously produced outstanding music while flying under the radar
throughout the 2000's. You won't have heard Holdridge music on the big
screens at your local cineplex anytime during that decade, but you'll
likely have caught a snippet of it while searching past the biographies
and documentaries that many lazy viewers skip over when surfing the
tube. His output for television is outstanding given the usual standard
of quality that he often provides for films that don't always deserve
such music. By the middle of the 2000's, it was amazing to contemplate
what muck he was assigned to for the small screen. One such entry was
10.5, a mini-series in which a massive earthquake drops much of
the West Coast of America into the ocean, never a really bad idea
according to many in the rest of the country. Another was See Arnold
Run, an intriguing bio-picture following two eras in Arnold
Schwarzenegger's life (and viewers were privileged enough to see Jurgen
Prochnow and Mariel Hemingway do their best Arnold and Maria imitations;
both were upstaged by Roland Kickinger as the younger Schwarzenegger).
During that time, however, and extending back into the 1990's, Holdridge
became associated with these high-quality documentary and television
films about the Holocaust.
While it may seem odd at first glance to see a
Latino-born composer consistently providing some of the most compelling
music for the Holocaust, Holdridge's versatility and ability to generate
extremely respectful music for the topic has caused this largely unknown
body of strong music to exist with great effect. From
The Long Way
Home to
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the
Kindertransport, Holdridge's most elegant music exists partly in the
form of these tragic and lyrical tributes to Jewish survival. Indeed no
exception,
Unlikely Heroes offers a continuation of Holdridge's
sweeping and profound sensibilities for the subject. He begins with a
sweet theme that could easily be adapted to a soft and fuzzy film like
Splash and infuses the heavy dramatic weight in orchestration
heard in projects like
Old Gringo to create a traditional score
that has a sense of lyricism in its melodies that will appeal to ears of
many generations. Instead of becoming entrenched in the instrumentation
of the era, Holdridge instead takes liturgical melodies from several
countries' origins and attaches them seamlessly to his own beautiful
title theme. The film follows seven specific people as they resist the
Nazis in their own unique ways, and Holdridge manages to maintain
orchestral integrity throughout the entire length of the project while
interpolating more than half a dozen traditional pieces for specific
individual tales. From the solemn piano and woodwinds of the "Friedl
Dicker Brandeis (The Artist)" section to the up-tempo brass and
percussion of the "Leon Kahn (The Partisan)" section, Holdridge
exercises a remarkable restraint in his effort to maximize the respect
shown to each character. The highlights of the album, however, are
Holdridge's own opening and finale cues, in which lengthy variations on
his lovely original theme evoke the same heartbreaking emotion as the
end titles for
Old Gringo. The nearly 8-minute "Finale" (a recap
of the score's adaptations), with its piano performances serving as
interludes to the full ensemble's magic, is among the best cues of 2003
for any genre of score. A slightly belated, but highly welcomed album
for
Unlikely Heroes was released in late 2004, the first
available music from the composer on album since his resounding success
with
The Mists of Avalon three years before. The lengthy CD,
complete with source material at the end, was made available by the
specialty label Citadel for the price of a regular commercial album, and
it was still sold for the same price in the 2010's. For any casual
collector of Holdridge's work,
Unlikely Heroes is further proof
that you should scramble to obtain any new release of his typically
superior work.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For Lee Holdridge reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.77
(in 14 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.34
(in 7,825 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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