This is another entry in my Complete Score Breakdown Series, focusing on the complete scores to films that have had abbreviated previous releases or have gone unreleased.
Today we are looking at Michael Clayton (2007) by James Newton Howard.
James Newton Howard’s score to the 2007 dramatic thriller Michael Clayton is a very polarizing work, a lot of people really dislike it and a lot of people were really captivated by it. I was completely and utterly captivated by it, it’s a mesmerizing score, one of my favorite scores by one of my favorite composers and an outstanding example of extraordinary dramatic and creative heights a composer can achieve with a nearly all-electronic score. This is absolutely the warmest electronic score I’ve ever heard; sure, there are moments of cold, precise percussion and synths but a great deal of the emotional content of the score is awesomely rendered through the careful and creative use of brilliant programming and sound design.
This is the kind of score that I could listen to all day. I had seen the movie several months back and I couldn’t remember there being too much more music than what was already represented on disc, but as I’ve begun working on these CSBs I thought I’d include Michael Clayton and pop the hood to have a look. The existing CD runs 38 and ½ minutes and the complete score in the film runs 55 minutes, yielding over 16 minutes of unreleased score. I would have hoped for more, but what I heard was terrific. It very much follows the same blueprint and sound of the CD tracks, with variations significant enough to make this complete score worthy of an expansion, in my opinion. Perhaps not enough people would be interested in an expansion for anyone to produce it, and that would be a shame, but it’s definitely on my list of hopefuls.
CURRENT CD RELEASE RUNTIME: 38min 35sec COMPLETE SCORE RUNTIME: 55min 00sec
UNRELEASED SCORE RUNTIME: 16min 25sec
Complete Score Cue Titles and Cue Times (unreleased cues named by me for the sake of identification):
+ – previously unreleased (or includes previously unreleased material)
1. Main Title (3:10) – (extended from CD version) 2. Poker Game (0:25) + 3. Chinatown (2:25) 4. Drive to the Field (1:16) 5. The Horses Pt. 1 (2:15) + 6. Just Another Day (2:10) 7. Meeting Karen (1:40) – (edited from CD track) 8. Going to Arthur (0:40) + 9. The Fixer (1:04) + 10. Arthur and Henry (2:16) 11. Caretakers (0:44) + 12. Memorandum #229 (1:43) + 13. Arthur’s Gone (0:57) + 14. Times Square (3:25) 15. Phone Tap (0:26) + 16. Looking for Arthur (1:38) 17. Suicide? (2:11) + 18. Arthur’s Wake (0:35) – (opening 0:35 of CD track “I’m Not the Guy You Kill”) 19. She’s in the City (1:45) – (CD track title “U North”) 20. Arthur’s Apartment (4:27) + 21. Mr. Verne (2:25) 22. Alone (0:53) + 23. I’m Not the Guy You Kill (6:16) 24. Horses Pt. 2 (2:08) – (CD track title “Horses”) 25. He Was Killed (0:35) + 26. 25 Dollars Worth (6:27)
Current CD Release Track Titles and Track Times:
1. Main Titles (2:12) 2. Chinatown (2:27) 3. Drive to the Field (1:35) 4. Just Another Day (2:20) 5. Meeting Karen (2:46) 6. Looking for Arthur (1:41) 7. U North (1:49) 8. Arthur and Henry (2:11) 9. Times Square (3:38) 10. Mr. Verne (2:28) 11. I’m Not the Guy You Kill (6:57) 12. Horses (2:13) 13. 25 Dollars Worth (6:27)
Hello, Riley! I see that the unreleased score had been deleted on YouTube, could you send me another link?
The unreleased score wasn't released on YouTube as far as I know. I had posted standard CD tracks from the score that are apparently now missing. Sorry, don't have the link you're looking for and I'm not even aware of its existence tbh.
This is a really fine film that deserves to be better known. Perhaps the nondescript title is partly to blame for its relative obscurity. It concerns a couple of corporate lawyers (George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson) who save their souls while dealing with an indefensible agribusiness client and another (the reliably brilliant Tilda Swinton) who loses hers amid the same dirty business. Sydney Pollack in his last (?) role is also superb as the head of the law firm. The convoluted narrative can be hard to follow, but the film demands, and rewards, a second viewing.
Having seen Michael Clayton multiple times, I confess that I don't recall the music at all. The score never got in the way and is doubtless perfectly functional, but there was nothing I ever thought would stand up to separate listening in concert or on records. What am I missing? I await enlightenment from its partisans!
This is a really fine film that deserves to be better known. Perhaps the nondescript title is partly to blame for its relative obscurity. It concerns a couple of corporate lawyers (George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson) who save their souls while dealing with an indefensible agribusiness client and another (the reliably brilliant Tilda Swinton) who loses hers amid the same dirty business. Sydney Pollack in his last (?) role is also superb as the head of the law firm. The convoluted narrative can be hard to follow, but the film demands, and rewards, a second viewing.
Having seen Michael Clayton multiple times, I confess that I don't recall the music at all. The score never got in the way and is doubtless perfectly functional, but there was nothing I ever thought would stand up to separate listening in concert or on records. What am I missing? I await enlightenment from its partisans!
I liked the film. I sort of assumed Tom Wilkinson modelled his 'revelations' ass-over-tit lawyer on Howard Beale. It had the typical classic Hawaii-Five-O McGarrett finale. As per the music, I dunno, I'll have to take another look.
This is a really fine film that deserves to be better known. Perhaps the nondescript title is partly to blame for its relative obscurity. It concerns a couple of corporate lawyers (George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson) who save their souls while dealing with an indefensible agribusiness client and another (the reliably brilliant Tilda Swinton) who loses hers amid the same dirty business. Sydney Pollack in his last (?) role is also superb as the head of the law firm. The convoluted narrative can be hard to follow, but the film demands, and rewards, a second viewing.
Having seen Michael Clayton multiple times, I confess that I don't recall the music at all. The score never got in the way and is doubtless perfectly functional, but there was nothing I ever thought would stand up to separate listening in concert or on records. What am I missing? I await enlightenment from its partisans!
Well, you could read my original description/praise for my basic summation of my love of the Academy Award-nominated score -- bearing in mind that most film score listeners don't care for it.
If you want to truly know what you're missing -- despite the fact that the acoustic nature and general tone are nothing like the rest of the score -- track down the finale track "25 Dollars Worth" on YouTube or some such. Simply stunning.
I'd normally post a link here but I'm posting from my phone and am too lazy right now. It was previously within my original post but has since been removed.
Ah, yes, the end credits. I'm afraid the music itself still doesn't speak to me, so we'll just have to acknowledge different tastes here. (Curiously he says "fifty dollars" in the film, evidently a last-minute change.)
But the dramatic context is interesting. The Clooney character (and the audience) has been through hell. His friend has been murdered, career is in ruins, his livelihood is threatened, and he escapes death himself by a hair's breadth. Then comes the really incredible (in both senses) race to untangle the mystery and bring the evildoers to justice. Whew! I could see the character coming down from a tremendous adrenalin high or maybe just collapsing in sheer exhaustion. (His adversary collapses -- a nice touch -- for a very different reason.) So I might expect a musical finale of tremendous emotional release and exaltation. Or perhaps just a sudden ending, with no music at all. Instead we get a prolonged view of Clayton's externally calm brooding in the taxi. Well, I'm sure that Mr. Howard gave the filmmakers what they wanted. I just don't see the point.
JNH certainly did give the film-makers what they wanted - they say as much in the director's commentary. They spent some two months with their composer. The music works fine in the film, although I don't think I'd listen in outside of it. Actually, I think I heard something of the King Kong layered cellos resolution in that end titles 'Taxi Driver' tribute. Apparently, to conjure up a performance, Clooney replayed the movie in his head to get his actor's angle in there. I think we can also safely assume the 5k buffer from the 80k he pleaded for was spent in the back room gambling scene - there's no relent.
Like Syriana, it seems to be about corporate poison, except it's inshore with MC, rather than offshore.
