The Last 2001 CD Review: The Musketeer
The Musketeer ***
DAVID ARNOLD
Decca 440 014 920-2
17 tracks - 49:41
The Musketeer is one of those Hollywood high-concept things that
admittedly sounds pretty neat on paper: apply Hong Kong fight choreography
to the classic Alexandre Dumas tale of the heroic quartet of French freedom
fighters. But like most of those neat-sounding ideas, the fun drains away
with every finger that gets inserted into the pie, and by the time it hit
screens, it was a casualty of the unfortunate Tinseltown tendency to water
down ideas by trying to pander to perceived mass-audience tastes.
How, then, to review David Arnold's score? It's exactly what you would
expect for such a film, and that's partly the problem -- it's basically
a critic-proof piece of music, designed to be exactly what the film needs,
and nothing more. And for what it is, it isn't bad. Arnold knows the 19th-century
orchestral idiom inside and out, and at the very least, it sounds like
he enjoyed himself. The theme for the heroic D'Artangan is catchy and infectious
in the grand ol' Korngold style, and it pops up just enough throughout
the score one thinks that you may not need to take the whole affair very
seriously.
But then the rest of the score unspools, and it becomes apparent that
Arnold is working in just one gear -- Big. There's the Big Hero Theme,
the Big Action Cues and the occasional Soft Romantic Moment (Scored in
the Key of Big). Arnold is pretty good at the splashy action stuff, and
his cue titles seem to indicate he was enjoying himself immensely ("Fight
Inn," "Jailhouse Ruck"). But these days, a little of this kind of thing
goes longer than it used to, and by the time you hit the Big Climactic
Cues ("Scaling the Tower," "Ladder Fight"), there's the inevitable sense
of deja vu, seeing as Arnold's been basically laying on the same musical
approach throughout -- just louder this time.
I liked Arnold's themes, cheesy and annoyingly straightforward as they
are, and I appreciated his sense for the musical style that the film required
of him; he gives a trendy, mediocre film the sheen a sheen of professionalism
and panache that it really doesn't deserve. But I do wonder what he'd do
if he was given the chance to do the same material differently. I'd like
to believe that the results would be spectacular, and I'd love to be proven
right about that. -- Jason Comerford
The Musketeer would like to wish you a Happy New Yearís Eve!
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
|
