As the film evolved through its own unsavory mutations,
Elfman's score no longer functioned in its pacing and cue structures.
The composer is no stranger to seeing his work adapted by orchestrators
or other composers on troubled projects,
Spider-Man 2 lingering
clearly in memory. Both the album for that project and the eventual
product for
The Wolfman contained Elfman's music for an earlier
version of those films, though it's interesting to note that even the
album presentation of
The Wolfman contains additional material by
Edward Shearmur and Thomas Lindgren (suggesting that there was an
initial attempt to rearrange Elfman's score before it was initially
dropped by Universal at the end of 2009). Fearing that Elfman's gothic
score represented too much of the old-school thinking that was blamed
for the lack of positive responses in test screenings of the film,
Universal turned to industrial metal veteran Paul Haslinger to perhaps
bring the contemporary feel of his two
Underworld scores to the
table. This hiring was doomed from the start, the tone of Haslinger's
synthetic music obviously not a viable match for director Joe Johnston's
picture (the director, incidentally, was always supportive of Elfman's
music). A rumor surfaced not long before Haslinger's dismissal that
veteran Elfman orchestrator and capable composer Mark McKenzie, who had
worked on the original score for
The Wolfman, was asked to
translate Haslinger's material to an orchestral recording, but that
approach was either false or abandoned. A clip purported to be from
Haslinger's effort for
The Wolfman showed up online in January,
2010, conveying a decently hip, but clearly inappropriate rock-like tone
for the film, though this short piece was eventually revealed by
Haslinger himself as a fraud. In a panic, Universal retreated to the
Elfman score it already had, but the composer could not return to tailor
that material to the final cut of the film because of his contractual
commitment to Tim Burton's
Alice in Wonderland. Thus, another
veteran orchestrator and aspiring composer, Conrad Pope, rearranged at
least 30 minutes of Elfman's music to fit with the new cut. Reports that
less than half of Elfman's material is heard in its original recorded
form in the film have not been substantiated, though it wouldn't be
surprising. The entire situation is reminiscent of the problems
experienced by Carmine Coppola, Shirley Walker, and others for
The
Black Stallion, and perhaps someday, as in the score for that
popular 1979 film, listeners will eventually see a breakdown of cue
sheet attribution in the presentation of the original and final versions
of each piece of
The Wolfman.
With all of this back story in mind, what you hear on
the 66-minute album from the Varèse Sarabande label will likely
not match the majority of what you notice in the film. Still, the music
on that CD not only ranks equal to
Sleepy Hollow in its general
tone and demeanor, but also in its quality as well, reinforcing 2008 as
an outstanding year of production for the composer. There is nothing
about the score for
The Wolfman that defines it as one of
Elfman's classics, however, its personality dominated by its somewhat
derivative Eastern European and vaguely gypsy constructs and only one
major theme of frequent (and potentially overstated) repetition. The
bulk of Elfman's ideas for the concept have been condensed into a pair
of suites amounting to ten minutes at the start of the product,
highlighted by prominent placements for the title theme. Both the
ensemble's incessant, tumultuous dwelling in the morbidly dramatic bass
region and the waltz-inspired rhythms set the stage for progressions and
solo string performances extremely similar to Kilar's 1992 score. The
rhythmic formations join exact phrases that will together force
Bram
Stoker's Dracula into the forefront of your mind when hearing this
music. The ensemble hits in "Wolf Suite Pt 1" and brass counterpoint in
"The Funeral" will alternately remind listeners of Christopher Young's
monumental horror style as well. Elfman does identify
The Wolfman
with enough of his own sensibilities to make it functionally unique,
however, his voice existing in the choral chanting and electronic
enhancement of the bass rhythm that are distinctly his own (though the
choir's employment is held to an effective minimum in the larger
scheme). The score's less oppressive material is summarized in "Wolf
Suite Pt 2," which responds to the love interests and familial turmoil
in the story with fragments of the title theme no less melodramatic.
Elfman's application of the cellos to emphasize the weight of the
burdens in the film is another aspect equal to Kilar's score. Unlike
Kilar, however, Elfman refrained from providing the troubled romance of
one part of the story with its own evocative theme; in fact, whereas the
Kilar score clearly delineates powerful themes for the monsters, the
love story, and the hunters, Elfman mostly relies upon the adaptation of
the title theme into creative, ambient variations to address the
different needs of
The Wolfman. A common rhythmic slurring effect
over thumping bass ostinatos evident in both suites on the album is a
good tool (typically under the theme) with which to foreshadow
transformations and other events. In cues like "Bad Moon Rising" and
"The Finale," this technique underlines the threat of the werewolves
with an almost rabid and primordial sense of frantic movement.
There are weaknesses and highlights in
The
Wolfman that reinforce the fact that the film, and thus the score,
has little truly cohesive development from start to end. It's not the
type of score that will tell a story in and of itself, unlike Elfman's
classics. A certain amount of stream-of-consciousness thinking prevails,
though that does still allow some noteworthy individual cues to stand
out. First comes "The Funeral," the middle of which taking the theme and
extending it into dramatic territory that is monumentally heartbreaking,
one of the few times the title theme is allowed to flow freely outside
of solo-dominated performances. Listen for pleasing Chris Young and John
Debney connections in this cue. Also of note is "The Traveling Montage,"
in which the Kilar resemblances are shattered by a more Elfman-like
romantic variation on the title theme and a thumping minor-key rhythm of
purely Elfman characteristics that will actually remind you of
Spider-Man instead. The closing minute of "The Finale" also
follows the composer's standard choral-aided crescendo formation for
ending character-centered fantasy films. The two transformation cues are
somewhat disappointing in how they handle the torment of the title
theme, though Elfman does use a meandering pitch in the brass much like
Howard Shore applies for his thrillers. There isn't much in the way of
respite from the overbearingly sinister tone of the thematic
performances in
The Wolfman. The first half of "Wake Up,
Lawrence" fails to generate much genuine depth in the connection between
lead love interests, but it does at least soften the tone a bit. A solo
operatic vocal in one cue and an occasional gong hit in the background
of a slight violin cue are among other breaks from action. Woodwinds
tend to be downplayed in either the composition or the mix. Some of the
straight killing cues feature chaos that dates back to
Nightbreed, and these selections don't exactly translate to
listenable material. On the whole, however,
The Wolfman is a
strong score as presented. It requires a technical level of appreciation
and will be of interest to those seeking to identify all the connections
to the popular Kilar predecessor. Like
Sleepy Hollow, it's easy
to get the impression that
The Wolfman will be a score that
appeals more to die-hard Elfman fans than the mainstream. With the fate
of the film initially looking grim due to poor reviews and an immediate,
steep drop-off in box office performance, such narrow appeal may indeed
become the case. For those only casually interested in this disaster
story, seek "The Funeral" and "The Traveling Montage" outside of the
summary suites. Regardless of your opinion of Elfman's product, there
has to be agreement that its removal from the picture in favor of
Haslinger's style ranks among the most ridiculous studio decisions of
this era.
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