[Closed] Now Playing - Part XV

Yeah! See the Howard Shore thread, the director himself confirmed it in an online chat!

I think that the second movie fills in some of the details between THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. I suppose that they are going to pick and choose stories from other writings Tolkien did based in Middle Earth.

Although THE HOBBIT is obviously related to THE LORD OF THE RINGS, I've always seen theme as quite separate entities. When it comes to the music, if Shore is scoring these new films, and there's going to be some thematic overlap, I still can't help but feel that the music won't be a seamless integration with his music for THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

NP: Signs - James Newton Howard

I’m just writing out my thoughts here… this is going to be a messy post but I hope you can follow.

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I added the entire score album to my Best of the 2000's playlist... I just couldn’t leave off any of the tracks. This is simply the best thing James Newton Howard has ever composed and the best score of the 00's. This score is a brilliant example of mono-thematic scoring, theme variation, tension building, coherent start to finish scoring, intelligent horror scoring, and musical storytelling. IMHO, this score is up there with the likes of John Williams Jaws. The three note motif heard throughout the score works just like the shark motif does. It signals that the aliens are close by and plays in various volumes based on where the aliens are. The closer the aliens are to our heroes, the louder and more complex the music gets.

Also, film music is about emotional manipulation and Howard does it brilliantly in this score. A great example of that is "Brazilian Video." We all know what is going to happen. The news anchor tells us and so does James Newton Howard. Howard builds his music to the logical conclusion that we are going to see the alien for the first time and both the image and the music are going to scare the crap out of us. But even though we know all of that, Shyamalan’s wonderful direction and editing along with Newton Howard’s music still manages to scare the bejesus out of us the moment the alien steps on screen. That’s the sign of great movie making and great emotional manipulation in the music. It’s not a cheap shot but it could have easily backfired This could have easily been played with out music only for a “sting” when the alien appears on screen but Newton Howard’s music manages to make that scene work even though he is musically telling us “Ready for the monster… because here… HE… IS!!!!” Big crescendo to orchestral blast. Blam! We need to change our shorts! Brilliant!

I love the opening titles. It’s ballsy. An over the top main title piece in this day and age could have easily failed but I’m glad to see something like that in modern day cinema. You don’t get too many main titles like that anymore. For a film like this you would get something more atmospheric which wouldn’t tell you anything.

I love “Into The Basement" because of the split second switch in emotion. We get this nice, tender family theme for the last super then all of a sudden the alien motif returns. We can’t see the alien but we know he is there. Newton Howard’s music tell us that which again is why I reference Jaws when talking about this score.

Of course there is “The Hand of Fate Part’s I and II”… no further discussion is needed. It’s simply brilliant. It works on so many levels… its film music perfection. I simply LOVE those eerie strings.

The score also works brilliantly away from the film because of its coherent nature. The three note alien motif goes through some wonderful variations from mysterious to heart warming – from evil to loving. A composer who can do so much with three notes must be doing something right.

I probably over analyzed this and didn't write anything new... but I rarely praise scores in this manner.

-Erik-

And in this case you are more than right to do so. It´s impossible to over analyze Signs.
Where the frak went the Academy Award that year...?

Erik, excellent review there and a very good reading overall, i thoroughly enjoyed it. keep 'em coming!

NP : SALEMS LOT - Christopher Gordon & Lisa Gerrard



Excellent work! ( and thanks to Joep for reminding me I had this )

As for the actual mini-series....avoid at ALL costs!

NP: The Mummy - Jerry Goldsmith

I like the themes and the Egyptian sound heard in the score. It isn't anything amazing, but it is still pretty good. For some reason I rarely listen to it.

I have not yet read the Silmarillion, so I wouldn't mind it. But, I know what you mean. Some things are better left alone, to the imagination.

GOLDEN COMPASS and LION WITCH WARDROBE were both film experiences that didn't live up to the world I felt in those books. Imagination is a powerful thing, and these films (incl. parts of LOTR) so far have often forgotten how effectively the novellists they're adapting from used various narrative tricks to keep the unseen/'offscreen' world as active a part of the story as the onscreen world.

NP: Life As A House - Mark Isham

A very touching score which is brilliantly orchestrated with beautiful piano-led passages.

Actually, both play particularly well... except for the AWFULLY edited end title music. And you are right, Steven, it's a great adventure score which was almost equaled that very same year with The 13th Warrior!

-Erik-

THE MUMMY rocks. One of the last really great action-adventure scores I can remember. (Gosh, nearly 10 years - that's a worry!) Great one-two punch between that one and THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR for Goldsmith that year.

NP: The Beautiful Piano Themes of Georges Delerue

Nice compilation featuring some more obscure entries in the Delerue canon.



I'm quite chuffed someone holds my opinion in good regard! I sometimes feel like a bit of nitpicky grump who pays too much attention to detail. And you're not exactly what I would call a bad writer... (where's our Spanish friend when we need him?)

The other sequence I show of SIGNS is usually the main title, because the aggressive character of it is something you wouldn't naturally choose to do if you looked at the film's low-key opening. But starting everything off with a bang lights a fuse, and as you say, when 'The Hand of Fate Part I' comes around - you finally figure out what it is you were being promised as a viewer in that opening title.

I'd pick Island of Lost Souls but Sky Captain is no slouch either.

The former just has an overwhelming sense of power and scope, with the brass clusters and the deep string lines. Comparing it to SC is rather apples and oranges, really.

They're very good... and THE INCREDIBLES... and PRISONER OF AZKABAN... and there are others. But THE MUMMY really does strike a chord with me... probably because it's the last of the Goldsmith adventure scores I really love. (Never got into TIMELINE.) I probably think of ISLAND OF LOST SOULS as a darker film score in the spirit of epic fantasy more than an enjoyable adventure. (Actually it's a score I associate more with Herrmann's MYSTERIOUS ISLAND and Wagner than any modern adventure score.)



If you liked reading LOTR, this earlier stuff is worth reading.

It's hard to avoid being aware of a film if its around. And it's not as though a good film of this material couldn't be made, but the current movement of fantasy films hasn't given me any evidence that a film-maker interested in the genre can do it justice. I do think those earlier works call for a more poetic film-maker to take on... the films can't be structured around action setpieces and make-up extravaganzas as LOTR was. The core of it is a series of a relationships between couples over centuries - some ill-suited, some ill-fated, and some well-suited and well-fated. Rather than a Peter Jackson or a Del Toro, this sort of film needs something like what Wong Kar Wai did for the martial arts genre in ASHES OF TIME. (But with a bit more clarity.) I would love to be the one, but I don't know how possible it is to make a film in a personal style when you're operating at that altitude.

Michael, I've never read anything by Tolkien and to be honest I'm unlikely to ever do. I rarely read that kind of fantasy anymore.

I'd never say never but....?