Filmtracks: The Walk (Alan Silvestri)

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Written 5/20/25

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Buy it... for twenty minutes of lovely, James Horner-inspired orchestral drama led by compelling piano rhythms and ethereal choir representing Alan Silvestri at his most sensitive.

Avoid it... if you cannot tolerate the completely incongruent and obnoxious French and caper modes that Silvestri provides to the first half of the narrative, a distracting and abrasive diversion from this score's heart.

Silvestri

The Walk: (Alan Silvestri) Believe it or not, there are actual people who call themselves high-wire artists by profession, and one of the most famous such daredevils is Frenchman Philippe Petit. In the early 1970's, after a youth of circus performing, he illegally trespassed to span the towers of the Notre-Dame Cathedral, Sydney Harbor Bridge, and World Trade Center, earning international fame that led him to a successful career displaying his talents legally. Enamored by Petit's success, director Robert Zemeckis offered a biographical film about the man in 2015, concentrating the most on his well-planned 1974 walk between the World Trade Center towers. Since the buildings were still under construction, he and a motley crew of assistants were able to pose as construction workers to gain access to, carefully prepare for, and bring equipment to the top of the towers. Not only was Petit successful in spanning the towers, but he crossed back and forth several times, posing for astonished crowds below while police waited for him at either end of the steel cable that had been brilliantly attached to both rooftops. The film spends a significant amount of its running time exploring the man's youth in France as well. It received critical praise, especially for its phenomenal renderings of the World Trade Center, which had been destroyed by religious zealots many years before the film was shot. But it only managed to break even financially, showing warning signs for Zemeckis' career. Under no threat was his collaboration with composer Alan Silvestri, who had walked the wire with the director on each of his projects since 1984. The soundtrack for The Walk required disparate music for the various parts of its narrative, and Silvestri handled them as separate entities rather than making any serious attempt to merge the styles of these portions. The outwardly ethnic French material for the early scenes gives way to caper-appropriate heist music from a big band during the mischievous portions of the narrative. Then, the composer develops the dramatic and ethereal music for the walk and its aftermath, tones that had been previewed before in flashbacks at the start of the film. The disjointed nature of early material really diminishes the impact of the second half when heard as a whole, unfortunately. It's a score that eventually rewards the listener, the twenty minutes of superb drama at the end a payoff for awkward 56-minute presentation overall when separated from the film.

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A 110-piece orchestra graces The Walk, though don't expect the majority of the work to flex such muscle. The French material is largely confined to the main character's own theme while the big band explosions of enthusiasm occupy the midsection of trespassing scenes. The latter was particularly poorly received by critics at the time of the film's debut. The rest of the score is where Silvestri shines, though. Much of it sounds like composer's music for the "Cosmos" television series blended with heavy James Horner influence; the latter comes from the piano rhythms and slight vocal tones that supply the wonder of the main theme. Synthetic accents to the rhythms are tastefully applied as well. Fans of raw Silvestri action can skip directly to "Time Passes" and "The Arrow" for comfort zone enjoyment. There is some unique mischief early in "The Arrow" that represents everything from Mouse Hunt to The Witches, and this mode continues early in "We Have a Problem." Expect no surprises from Silvestri's instrumental ensemble during the score's smooth second half; while the big band and French portions were somewhat unique at the time for the composer, the rest is highly familiar. Interestingly, tolling chimes represent the World Trade Center but not Notre-Dame upon the first view of each, denoting the ultimate gravity of the feat involved with the former. There are three themes in The Walk, and while the main one for the actual walking on wire and personal perseverance does appear at the start of the picture, it is largely withheld until after the other two themes are expended. Those secondary ideas consist of a theme for Petit's past and another for the caper shenanigans. The Petit theme is stereotypically French in its use of light accordion, clarinet, mandolin, and lazy brass. It offers circus-like tones at 0:37 into "Young Philippe" and is not terrible but out of place compared to surrounding music. It extends into something of a romantic identity in "Two Loves" with the French tones. This material carries over directly to "The Towers of Notre Dame" and expands into a notably upbeat outburst for the Petit theme itself. It bows out with one more positive, full rendition at end of "It's Something Beautiful" but does appear again in the action during the midsection of "They Want to Kill You." The caper theme, meanwhile, brings an obnoxious 1960's mood from a big band that doesn't really work with the rest of the score because it isn't subtle enough and retains none of the other sections' character. The over-the-top attitude of these cues is simply overwhelming.

The caper theme interrupts the main theme abruptly at two minutes into "Pourquoi?" with an utterly awful transition on album. It again suddenly changes the score's mood at 0:28 into "The Towers of Notre Dame" and dominates "Spy Work" but with more 1970's flavor mixed into this performance. The main theme of The Walk represents the stunt work itself and the wonder of the capability and experience. It's not the most obvious or memorable of themes, but it's a decent representative in Silvestri's dramatic style. An underlying piano motif of wonder increases its intensity based on the thrill of the moment. Fragments of this piano motif introduce portions of the main theme in "Pourquoi?," and the motif focuses at 1:14 with a hint of vocal ambience as the theme really emerges. This motif and overlaid theme start "Young Philippe" with lovely whimsy and are provided slightly synthetic, suspenseful atmosphere in "It's Something Beautiful." Silvestri affords the theme very slight allusions in "Full of Doubt" and follows his traditional action mode with synthetic ticking with the theme in "Time Passes." The piano motif briefly informs the snare-tapping suspense rhythms of "The Arrow" while the theme stews throughout the background of the compelling action in "We Have a Problem." The opening of the score is reprised nicely at the start of "The Walk," the theme nicely restrained but lovely on piano, strings, and voices throughout this cerebral cue. The idea resumes the same mood in "I Feel Thankful" with some light comedy mixed in between, and a resounding rendition with voices and brass at 5:32 is a lovely, mystical highlight. Both the piano motif and main theme receive a thriller mode in "They Want to Kill You," Silvestri's double snare hits defining this sequence before another dramatic moment of choral relief. Full development of the theme and its rhythm feature in "There is No Why," ending on another mystical note. The idea builds to magical close at 1:41 in "Perhaps You Brought Them to Life (Given Them a Soul)," Silvestri continuing to ponder the dramatic piano and choral version of this material for the remainder of the cue. As mentioned before, the final five cues exhibit the attractive, Horner-inspired, dramatic core of The Walk, but it takes a long time getting there. On album, the experience needs edited to extract these portions from the highly distracting French and caper themes. That product does include the source application of Beethoven's "Fur Elise" at the outset of "I Feel Thankful," which leads directly into the composer's action. To some degree, the same discord of quality would plague Silvestri's Allied the following year, but the dramatic contents of The Walk are much superior. Be patient and ready to rearrange a custom listening experience for this one. *** @Amazon.com: CD or Download

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For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.42 (in 45 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.3 (in 40,383 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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