CD Reviews: Red Dragon and Possession
By Nick Joy
Red Dragon *** 1/2
DANNY ELFMAN
Decca 473 380-2
17 tracks - 57:17
As the Anthony Hopkins Lecter trilogy reaches its prequel conclusion,
on reflection perhaps the greatest joy was in watching which composer names
became attached to the series. The relatively unknown (at the time) Howard
Shore essayed The Silence of the Lambs, Hans Zimmer tackled Ridley
Scott's Hannibal and now Danny Elfman enters the arena. Ironically,
whereas the filmmakers have used some of the same actors in all three movies
(Hopkins, Anthony (Dr. Chiltern) Heald and Frankie (Barney) Faison) to
preserve continuity, they have not tried to capture a unifying sound. Elfman's
score is as different to Zimmer's as that was to Shore's. If anything,
Elfman's music is closer to Shore's ominous arpeggiating underscore than
Zimmer's rich, opera-laced soundtrack.
Ironically, the film that Red Dragon has least in common with
musically is Manhunter, Michael Mann's '80s version of Thomas Harris'
source novel. There really are no parallels with Michael Rubini's and Klaus
Schulze's sterile Tangerine Dream-like electronica. Elfman, by contrast,
has conjured up old dark house melodrama; it's not the blockbuster MIB
II/Spider-man Elfman, but still has its roots within the gothic domain
of Batman.
"Logos" is a slow-burning start to the disc, with occasional outbursts
of screeching strings and the merest hint of a theme. This builds into
"The Revelation," a progressive climb up familiar Elfman scales before
becoming dominated with trembling strings at its conclusion. And once we're
in this hysterical Herrmann territory we never truly leave it. There are
moments of respite, but we never lose the air of brooding menace, and dig
those frantic pizzicato strings at the end of "Main Titles."
"The Cell" underscores Will Graham's visit to Lecter's prison, and separated
from the movie it works well. However, when married up with the celluloid
images, it is at odds with what's going on. We are so familiar with Clarice
Starling's visit to Lecter in Silence, underscored by Shore, that
when Will Graham visits the same locale in Red Dragon, the different
music is jarring. Elfman's score serves the movie well, but somehow seems
wrong -- imagine Star Wars opening with the Star Trek theme!
So, listening to the disc in isolation is arguably the best way to approach
the score.
This enhanced disc also has brief interviews with Elfman, director Brett
Ratner and Anthony Hopkins.
A gothic melodrama that errs just this side of Grand Guignol, this is
a purer form of Elfman than we've been seeing in recent years. There's
no ethnic percussion crashing around and the composer is not breaking into
new territory, but as a somber mood piece it's perfect music... for a darkened
theater.
Possession *** 1/2
GABRIEL YARED
RCA Victor 09026 63882 2
21 tracks - 67:04
One word review: lush. Okay, you deserve more than that, as does Gabriel
Yared's beautiful score to Neil La Bute's Gwyneth Paltrow romance. This
isn't new territory for Yared, as his recent career has been built on a
string of doom-laden romances (City of Angels, Message in a Bottle and
of course The English Patient). However, Possession's subject
matter did give him the opportunity to paint on two different canvases.
The story revolves around contemporary academics (Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart)
who discover the forbidden relationship that existed between two Victorian
writers. The more they uncover, the more they too become possessed by the
relationship, and start emulating it in modern day.
To illustrate this, Yared develops separate themes for the different
time periods. And as the two stories come closer together, so too do the
themes start becoming entwining with one another. Clearly, Yared began
with the whole and then worked backwards to separate the threads, but it
works beautifully. Thematically, the movie encroaches on the same romantic
time-travel territory of Somewhere In Time, and this soundtrack
makes a worthy companion piece to Barry's elegant Rachmaninoff interpolations.
The liner notes contain a complimentary narrative by LaBute, and while
he admits that his praise is in danger of becoming gushing, Yared clearly
left a lasting impression on him. Gabriel's fans can look forward to more
releases in the coming months (L'Idole, The One & Only, Les Marins
Perdus and Cold Mountain), but in the meantime just savor this
ravishing, full-blooded classical composition.
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