Music, Alexandre Desplat “It’s hard to describe how much Alexandre brought to the film. His music is so strong. Someone said to me, and I agree: He’s one of best composers for working with dialog, to really listen to the actors and how they’re speaking. He can sew music through a scene, rather than laying the music on top of it. His music is very clean, and it really helps the performances, because of where and how it comes in.
I wanted the music to be subtle. I’m very careful with music in a film. I don’t like too much temp. Sometimes you can put too much temp on while you’re editing and it’s a cheat. Or you start editing to the temp music. I like to make sure a scene works in silence. So I left it very bare. Working with Alexandre, the music didn’t get loud and bravado, but it got big and strong. He brought out the bigger nature of the film, allowing allow it to be a big movie.
Without Alexandre’s score (at the end of the plank scene), it became very upsetting when the Bird started to hit Louie. Alexandre was able to make the music inspiring; you realized when Louie was being beaten, his endurance meant he was actually winning. But it didn’t do that without Alexandre’s music.
Working with him changed the way I see things. Now, every time I watch a film I will watch it differently and I understand how much a composer influences a film. Somebody who’s not the right composer can overwhelm a film, and you’re so conscious of the music, you’re not watching the film.”
The theme is so great, I wish there were more to it. It reminds me of Newman (and yes, All The President's Men in at least one of the versions of it), in that he has this killer theme, but uses it so sparingly. Or maybe I haven't listened to the album version and all the fat on the FYC hides it more.
Skip the FYC, it does the score no justice. The score (on the album) is quite slow, languid, and subtle but also very thematic; I enjoyed it very much but it's not going to convert non desplat fans...
I saw this movie over the holiday weekend and it was a good film, not great. One of the biggest issues I had with it was that I thought it lacked emotion, but the story is amazing and made me want to check out the book which I heard was fantastic. Desplat's score is dry and boring in my opinion and brought nothing to the film. Jolie said she wanted the score to be subtle and it definitely was that, but it was so generic and void of any emotion and was a missed opportunity for something that could have been great. Desplat's had some great scores in the past but this one was a definite miss for me. I wish I could see this film with a score by another composer and see how it would have been. Anybody else have any thoughts on the score?
I had to shut the movie off - just typical Oscar stuff that doesn't interest me. I'm sure someone might have made a good film from this true story but this isn't it. I didn't care about the score at all. He's had a very busy year and done some nice work, most of which I found derivative of either other scores or HIS other scores, and that includes The Imitation Game. For me, the score where he really scored this year was The Grand Budapest Hotel. That score had some fun originality to it and didn't sound like everything else and it served the film beautifully.
I made it through the whole movie. It's a remarkable story, but told so reverentially and conventionally that it's only interesting to somebody who's never seen a prisoner-of-war movie before (which, as it happens, means my thirteen year old boys loved it). I'm not sure how such a spectacular air battle could be so boring, but this film manages it.
As for Desplat's score, I never found anything to grab onto. Jolie's point about the plank scene is a good one, and she's probably right. But the score is tucked so out of the way through most of the film that it seems to be hiding, lest it make a scene. I like several Desplat scores very much, but he wasn't given much room to show his stuff here.
(As to your point moviescore1, I don't see why any other composer would be given any more room. A different composer would write differently, yes, but I don't think there would be a significant change of approach.)
I haven't seen the movie yet but even as a big fan of Desplat I felt really underwhelmed by the score on CD. I was hoping for a big dramatic score but instead we got Desplat being his (too) subtle self (which seems to have been demanded by Jolie). I love his music to death but sometimes I wish he would just let it rip, use the LSO in all its grandeur!
Being so subtle, it will miss the Academy Awards nomination for best score.
Nah. Depends on how the movie scores with the Academy. If it gets a lot of nominations (and it likely will, as there are no obvious front-runners this year, and this has EPIC! IMPORTANT! HISTORICAL! UPLIFTING! written all over it), the score is likely to be among them, given that Desplat is an Academy favorite.
Jolie's prior film IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY also features an extremely subtle score by the talented Gabriel Yared; it was so subtle that none of the music made to original album.
With these two films, we know the type of the score Jolie prefers...
I couldn't disagree more strongly with some of the views stated here. Having read the book and found it to be the most gripping (and yes INSPIRING - sorry [sic]) page-turner in my reading history I approached the film with deep concern that Jolie would get it right. I sat in the theatre for the 2 hours and twenty minutes floored at how she nailed it! Jolie filmed the book - almost literally. She could have gone for a three-hour movie and filmed the denouement with Zamperini's alcoholism and religious conversion but perhaps there's a director's cut in the works. As is, I can appreciate her choices. So many have taken exception to the subtlety of her approach while others lament the fact that it's 'conventional, uplifting, 'Oscar'-bait, etc.) For me the key was how she nailed the book and yet DIDN'T resort to histrionics. As for Desplat's score, I thoroughly appreciated the lack of bombast. Jolie is quoted as being deeply concerned she does justice to this most amazing of true stories. She opted for restraint and good taste. I was sure there were going to be a lot of big, Hollywood blockbuster moments with a straining, soaring score to match. Thankfully, not.
I should also mention that the entire audience at the packed matinee I attended broke into an ovation at the conclusion.
I watched this excellent film last night and it was beautifully made. Can't put my finger on why it was not great. Desplat' score was barely passable, this composer receives plaudits and recognition beyond the call of Oscar. He is slightly average at best.
I'm calling it now - Best Picture. I can't remember the last time a trailer moved me to tears. Can't wait to hear what Desplat creates for it, Jolie hired Yared for her last film, she clearly appreciates great film scoring. Her simple, confident, old-fashioned style with the camera looks similar to Clint Eastwood's, which I also admire. Here's hoping she has as long a career behind the camera as him.
I thought "Unbroken" was very underrated. Under Jolie's direction the film is superb and Desplat wrote a beautiful anguishing theme for the movie, one of his best.
I watched this excellent film last night and it was beautifully made. Can't put my finger on why it was not great. Desplat' score was barely passable, this composer receives plaudits and recognition beyond the call of Oscar. He is slightly average at best.
I regret the above statement, because I hear Desplat in a new light now!
I never made it through this film, cos of the unintentionally hilarious scene where they're all queuing up to punch the main guy in the face. It reminded me of AIRPLANE. I've also never really taken to Jack O'Connell either. He just seems to wind me up somehow. But having picked the CD up dirt cheap (brand new £2), I am really enjoying the music. Parts of it remind me of his SUFFRAGETTE score, with the throbbing synth/bass line under a rising (slightly heroic) theme. It's typical Desplat, so you either like his style or you don't. I'm in Camp Former. I seem to have acquired a stack of Desplat scores on CD for some really cheap prices* (most under five quid) and I'm slowly making my way through some of them.
*Firewall, Valerian, The Danish Girl, American Pastoral, Immitation Game, Fantastic Mr Fox, Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle Of Dogs.
