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Posted: |
Oct 22, 2010 - 4:14 AM
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By: |
pp312
(Member)
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I have no doubt that I could play Dragonslayer over and over until I knew every note and I would still hate it because it says nothing to me on an emotional level; it's a purely intellectual exercise. This is why I think Spartacus is great, because it gave North a huge palette to work with and enabled him to roam far and wide technically and artistically without being able to stray too far from the tonal and romantic centre of the film. In other words, it gave him room to be great but imposed just enough discipline on his work to keep him in touch with the film's audiences.
Well said! As good as North could be at getting under the skin of a film emotionally (WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF for example), he seemed to get lost at times in his own musical brilliance and produced cerebral, fascinating but emotionally empty scores. DRAGONSLAYER is one I would put in that category. In a way it's a marvel, but it hits me with a dull thud as a listening experience.
Well said back to you. "A dull thud" is exactly how I'd have described it if I had your literary brilliance. 
One has to wonder if North eventually became disenchanted with Hollywood and more interested in advancing certain areas of musical experimentation (or being true to his inner muse perhaps) than writing what would best serve the film. That emotional emptiness you mention began to intrude even as early as Cleopatra (I can well believe that Fox execs were disappointed with it), but certainly became more evident after Virginia Woolf. It's hard to believe when listening to late North that this was the man of whom it was once said that he could bring a tear to the eye faster than any composer in Hollywood. He did indeed have that gift, and I find it hard to listen to certain passages in Spartacus without getting a big lump in my throat. With Dragonslayer, however, the lump is more likely to be my gorge rising. I wonder what happened.
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I didn't get this score either the first time I heard it, in context of the film. I did, however, like the film very much, so over time I began to appreciate the score. I have owned the 45 RPM vinyl of the soundtrack album for many years (to my sensibilities, the La-La Land edition is the finer), and over time it became one of my favorite North scores. But it wasn't something that I gravitated toward right away.
Dragonslayer has always been divisive, I think, even amongst North enthusiasts. What I think it boils down to is that this score has a "heaviness" to it that is a reflection of the Vermithrax Pejorative herself. I think that some enjoy that approach whilst others find it bogs down the score.
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Posted: |
Oct 23, 2010 - 8:23 PM
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By: |
Dana Wilcox
(Member)
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This post troubles me on so many levels, indeed it does, yes.
I think it's a matter of 2nd language and wanting to start a discussion...perhaps to encourage him to see the film (which he absolutely SHOULD) and, also perhaps, to suggest ways for him to approach the music.
It's a masterpiece, regardless.
Yes, it is a masterpiece, film score or otherwise.
One man's trash is another man's treasure, as they say... Just a matter of taste. It's no more a masterpiece than it is a piece of crap, beyond the perception of the listener.
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Posted: |
Apr 24, 2012 - 8:47 PM
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By: |
pp312
(Member)
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Don't want to fan the embers again, but I happened to catch the film on Foxtel the other day and was so immensely irritated by the score's inappropriateness that I just had to tell someone (and yes, you're the lucky people). I won't comment on the music as music, but the score was just so...so...wrong! This is a story about an apprentice wizard who tries to take over when his master is slain--I mean that's basically it. North's score is about a guy who's just lost his job, his wife has left him and his son is contemplating suicide. I mean it's just the wrong score, whatever its merits. It doesn't belong. Whenever anything starts to happen that we should be getting excited about, North is writing long-held tuba notes, and it does nothing for the scene. Absolutely no excitement is added, and ultimately it becomes difficult to know exactly what we should be feeling in any given scene because the music give us no clues; it sounds indeed like a radio playing in another room.
Sorry to those people who admire the score. By all means keep listening, but you'll never convince me that this was the right score for this Disney movie. I can only echo the conclusion from the Filmtracks review: "It's disgracefully out of place...".
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