[Closed] Now Playing XLVIII

NP: TRAFFIC (Cliff Martinez)

Not my favourite Martinez, but it's probably his most famous. Still, there's always something to get lost in in his textures (and I mean that in a positive sense).

I have fact-checked this post and it appears to be entirely without errors.

Principal Thor will not approve of your swearing.

NP: LA DOUBLE VIE DE VERONIQUE (Zbigniew Preisner)

A film score classic, of course, which is also familiar to a surprisingly high amount of non-film score fans.

NP: King Solomon's Mines (1985) - Jerry Golsmith

OK, so they told him to ape Raiders of the Lost Ark. Who other than Jerry Goldsmith could have gotten out of that affair as elegantly as him?

Volker

Yes, if you want to be pedantic. You could probably push it back further and say it's Newman channelling Copland channelling whatever influenced him. But Coplandesque American is Williams, and this is a Spielberg film. If you can't call that a Williams reference, then few things can.

Oh, I think it is too -- I'm just baffled by the comments that say this is Thomas Newman doing something he's never done before, when that particular 'Americana sound' has -- in fact -- been one of his trademarks for 25 years. Williams has not been the only one doing this.

There's also elements of it in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, MEET JOE BLACK, ROAD TO PERDITION etc. Here's one from SCENT OF A WOMAN:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0IriSIx4us

For me, this has always been just as much an integral part of Newman's sound as the more quirky, rhytmic stuff that everyone always brings up. Of course, in BRIDGE OF SPIES, he gets to showcase both.

Gamba Benjamin Wallfisch

Derivative as hell, but far too much fun to care.

You definitely listen to some popular scores.

I was all ready to defend Newman's honor here but you and PawelStroinski did all the work for me.

Thomas Newman - Bridge of Spies

It appeared on Spotify a couple of days ago. I'm not going to watch the film until the end of November, sadly, because that's it premieres here.

I'll start with the Americana. It's really much along the lines of The Horse Whisperer (think Montana). Sure, there could have been a Spielberg suggestion to go in that direction, but it's not an uncharted territory for Newman and I think he gets back to the original Copland, just as Williams in these cues does (though it's not as "Lincoln Portrait"-esque as Amistad or Saving Private Ryan were). But the choppy strings a la Road to Perdition's action music are there and later there is even a little suggestion of Angels in America (Sunlit Silence). I'd like to point out another similarity, though it's rather JNH channeling Newman rather than the other way around - that kind of Americana appeared in another Tom Hanks historical tentpole - Charlie Wilson's War.

This is, hands down, a Thomas Newman score. The choppy character of the action/suspense moments (with a great choral addition in End Title, sadly not featured otherwise in the score), there is some of the more quirky sadness (Rain, as Thor pointed out in his film review, has moments of pure magic) and the pure warmth of his minor-key piano/string/synth cues which I can only point out rather than describe. Not only Private Citizen is a great example of his style, but it's my favorite type of a Thomas Newman piece and I always love when he brings these out. For those who have me on Facebook, I'd point out to the link to Rollercoaster from The White Oleander, where I made a little analysis of how that kind of cue makes me feel.

What I really like about the score, with all its great orchestral writing and some cool choral bits to boot, is that Spielberg just let Newman be. It's not that, while it is most decidedly his idiom of writing film music, Newman just stayed in his comfort zone. He expanded it. The expansion of the choral material for tension (and maybe that's where Thor hears the Williams influences? There is a slight War of the Worlds element there, maybe), a return to slightly more classical scoring style, which maybe doesn't get back all the way as when he referred to his own father in The Good German and generally the Golden Age noir style (aka pre-On the Waterfront).

In another thing for consideration, maybe there is another element of why people consider Skyfall (which I find quite underrated, but as much as I love Barry's originals, I was never a big fan of Arnold) as generic and replaceable with other action scores. And this is the point where I disagree with them. Thomas Newman was always a composer of rhythm, which maybe is best showcased actually in his quirky American Beauty era. In Bridge of Spies there is a large percussion barrage in Lt. Francis Gary Powers. And that bit of (in this case quite oppressive) rhythm is also quite the staple of his style, even if we take into account something as forgotten as Red Corner. When Newman did Skyfall he did refer to the Barry style more than people think of (why doesn't anyone mention New Digs at all?), but he also really took to the percussive elements that are undeniably Thomas Newman. It's not a Powell rehash. It's been always there in his darker work.

Unless, of course, the emoticon tries to cover his ears, but in a tinnitus-infected stupor, hits his head instead.

Apparently you didn't read the handbook for tinnitus sufferers where it outlines how you should regularly remind everyone you have tinnitus.