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Review of Valkyrie (John Ottman)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you have longed to hear but ten minutes of John Ottman engaging in weighty and solemn melodrama of great beauty that turns a new page in his career.

Avoid it... if you expect that strikingly attractive exploration to translate into engaging tension for the remainder of the score.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Valkyrie: (John Ottman) Undoubtedly the most daunting obstacle standing in the path to success for director Bryan Singer's Valkyrie is the knowledge of the vast majority of audiences of how a story about any assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler will resolve. Despite this challenge, Singer created a partially fictional depiction (though faithfully accurate on the major details) of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's participation in a plot by several Nazi officers in early 1943 and beyond to overthrow Hitler, contain the S.S., and save Germany from its inevitable annihilation. By many critical accounts, Singer was successful in not only generating enough tension to secure audience interest, but also in shielding its lead actor, Tom Cruise, from his own reputation. Valkyrie comes at a time when World War II dramas are curiously common in mainstream cinema, and this film, like its contemporary counterparts, has once again hit the mark in its impressively realistic production values. The music for such films also presents composers with generally the same problems, usually forcing them to balance melodramatic considerations with a need for stylistic restraint. Along again for the journey with Singer for this venture is John Ottman, who serves as both composer and editor. When the assignment was announced, two thoughts about Ottman's career immediately crossed the mind. First, he had long speculated in the 1990's, a time when his career was largely defined by horror and thriller flicks, about the opportunity someday to write grand, lush (and romantic) orchestral material, and Valkyrie was a possible chance for him to explore that avenue. Second, his collectors know that one his more memorable themes (and arguably most powerful, despite its somewhat derivative nature) is the waltz he wrote for the opening of Apt Pupil, which used his usual orchestral and choral textures of that era in his career to characterize the menace of Nazi mentality. How would Ottman address those potential methodologies for Valkyrie? In terms of the melodrama, we do hear some distinctly sorrowful and attractive material, though its duration is frightfully brief. As for the spirit of Apt Pupil, Ottman treads in a different direction, choosing to restrain the tone of his score from any such outbursts of malicious intent.

While the score for Valkyrie offers a few highlights that may perhaps make the generous album worth the investment for those Ottman collectors, the confinement of these bright points to just ten to fifteen minutes in length is surprising. Ottman made a handful of stylistic choices in his foundations for the score that are dubious in their application to the subject matter. The most blatant of these choices is the substantial use of electronic accompaniment to a partial orchestra in an effort to emphasize the textural landscape of the work in its conversational and other less active scenes. Also of note is the sparse employment of motifs in a score with such scope of sacrifice. Finally, and likely the fatal blow for many listeners, the composer opted to withhold his dramatic tones except for just a couple of scenes (gravitating towards the end of the film). The keen sense of instrumental creativity heard from Ottman throughout the years has disintegrated into meandering underscore that barely registers in volume for extended sequences and therefore does little to engage the listener when heard on album. The vast majority of Valkyrie, and the entirety of its middle sequences, are handled with an extremely conservative touch by Ottman. His string ostinato for the planning scenes makes a positive impact in "Operation Valkyrie," faintly recalling the same technique used by James Newton Howard in his score for the concurrent Defiance. A theme for Hitler himself is underwhelming in its rendering. The score's striking highlight is a theme that pays tribute to the event in "They'll Remember You," with four minutes of elegant choral and string work underneath a solemn female soprano voice. This cue, aided by far lesser incarnations in "Seconds Lost" and "I'm Sorry," is precisely the kind of melodramatic material that Ottman fans have been hoping to hear from the composer, and it is indeed another page turned in his collective works. Along with the similar but restrained "Long Live Sacred Germany," Ottman finally does take advantage of the opportunity to write gripping and stirring music of weighty, romantic heart. Otherwise, however, the score is unremarkable, a considerable disappointment given the compelling script. A strong 30-minute album could have represented Valkyrie much better; at twice that length, you'll find yourself returning to only the superior opening and closing tracks.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 63:14

• 1. They'll Remember You* (4:20) • 2. Operation Valkyrie (5:11) • 3. What's This Really All About? (3:44) • 4. Bunker Bust (3:45) • 5. March 13 Attempt (3:38) • 6. Midnight Waltz* (2:11) • 7. A Place to Change (4:09) • 8. Seconds Lost (3:34) • 9. Getting the Signature (4:04) • 10. The Officer's Club - traditional, performed by Katharine Mehrling (2:37) • 11. The Way It Should Go (3:24) • 12. If I Were That Man/To the Berghof (2:21) • 13. I'm Sorry (3:04) • 14. Important Call (4:07) • 15. No More Indecision (2:31) • 16. Olbricht Gives the Order (3:18) • 17. Operation Terminated (1:16) • 18. Long Live Sacred Germany (6:13)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes Ottman's usual style of notation about the score and film.

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