Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,275
Written 10/4/00, Revised 7/20/08
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Buy it... if you regularly appreciate the subtleties of Howard
Shore's more ambient dramatic works.
Avoid it... if you expect the shades of classicism in The
Yards to have the same appeal as Eastern Promises on album.
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| Shore |
The Yards: (Howard Shore) Five years after his
debut with Little Odessa, director James Gray's second feature
film is reportedly based on the life story of his father. After taking
the fall for a friend and doing 16 months in prison for grand theft
auto, Mark Wahlberg's lead is drawn into the underworld of organized
crime by that same friend, a honor that brings him respect but also
danger. In the industry of New York subway cars, this young man not only
learns the trade of repair, but is also sucked into the practice of
sabotaging competitors' cars. During his first mission, another man is
killed, and thus the chase and betrayal ensue. The film only received
muted praise, partly due to script problems that defied the supposedly
true nature of the tale. For The Yards, Gray upgraded his music
to include the work of Howard Shore, who, in his pre-The Lord of the
Rings days, was largely known for darkly dramatic works such as
this, Silence of the Lambs, The Game, and others. He had
established himself as capable of capturing the brooding, yet elegant
aspect of morbid, heart-wrenching topics and had therefore gained
himself a sort of cult status among some film score fans. Gray called
upon Shore to combine his usual knack for accentuating these sinister
dramas with a classical twist. The director believed heavily in the
impact that music could have on every part of his filmmaking process, so
he played selections of a specific classical genre to help stimulate the
needed mood on the set while filming. It's not the first time a director
has done this, even without the eventual use of the source music in the
finished film. Still, he wanted his drama to be inspired by early 20th
Century orchestral pieces by Holst, Ravel, and Puccini, so after using
that music on the set, he asked Shore to continue that inspiration in
his score. Shore succeeds in that task, to an extent. A certain
classical touch from 100 years past is conveyed; as a matter of fact,
Shore went ahead and worked the "Saturn, Bringer of Old Age" sequence
from Gustav Holst's "The Planets" right into his original work.
Among the composer's better known works after his Oscar
wins,
Eastern Promises is the score that
The Yards truly
foreshadows, though any listener hoping to hear the same outward
elegance will be dissatisfied. He constructs a simple, yet effective
neo-classical environment with chord progressions true to his
inspiration, establishing his pretty, though subdued title theme in
"Queensborough Hall" and working its variants into several subsequent
cues. The timid clarinet solos in this cue really offer the only sense
of hope and goodness in a score that is otherwise very bleak in its
restrained orchestral accompaniment. Much of the work broods at
minimalistic levels not much unlike many of Shore's other scores for
this type of film, though he does offer several compelling sub-themes
for the story's other main characters. Of the most interest is the
heightened emotion of "Willy." The majority of the score, like
Eastern Promises in many ways, becomes tediously repetitive after
about half of its running time on album. That does not detract from the
very low-key elegance to be heard in nearly every cue, but be prepared
for the score to lull you to sleep rather than inspire you to action
with its beauty. A close examination of the score is really necessary
for true appreciation, and you'll discover hints at nobility in several
places, especially those that make reference to the style of the Holst
piece performed in "Blackout." Shore, in a very subtle manner, calls
upon the brass to perform some of his chord progressions with a
distinctly sharp edge, replacing the need for more outward tension.
These moments present the highlights of the album, including the
striking crescendo heard at the conclusion of "Internal Investigation"
(which ends the album on a dramatic note). In its function, the score
works because of the application of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in
the lowest ranges of its instruments' capabilities. As such, the score
certainly achieves its goal of pushing the power behind the drama. On
album, however,
The Yards suffers much like many other earlier
Shore albums. It requires very close attention to fully appreciate its
best elements, including a very slight operatic vocal that whispers into
a few of the tracks. Otherwise, the score might slip by very quickly and
without much notice.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Howard Shore reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.56
(in 25 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.33
(in 101,293 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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