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| CD Reviews: Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Elektra |
| Posted By: Stephen Armstrong, David Coscina on April 17, 2005 - 10:00 PM |
CD Reviews: Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Elektra
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(2003/1978) ****
DENNY ZEITLIN
Perseverance PRD003
19 tracks 1:12:48
The '70s saw the release of several great horror films, including The Exorcist (1973), The Omen (1976), Carrie (1976) and Phillip Kaufman's
remake of Invasion of the Body
Snatchers (1978). Starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams and
Leonard Nimoy, this nightmare about pod people invading San Francisco
combines expressionist camerawork, noirish lighting and eerie special
effects to evoke an unusually unsettling atmosphere of anxiety and
dread.
For the film's score, Kaufman recruited his friend Denny Zeitlin, a
psychiatrist/jazz composer whose innovative arrangements of electronic
and symphonic instruments had been drawing acclaim since the '60s. In
the CD's liner notes, the director explains: "When the opportunity to
do a score with him came up, I really thought that the film's nature of
paranoia was ideal for him. Rather than Denny as a psychiatrist trying
to cure paranoia, I thought he would be perfect to try to create
paranoia!"
Kaufman's instincts were right. With few exceptions, Zeitlin's
compositions throb with the same nervous energy that characterizes
Michael Chapman's cinematography and W.D. Richter's creepy script.
"Main Title," the album's first track, for instance, is characterized
by a schizophrenic fusion of thudding drums, piercing strings, sighing
horns and electronic noises that scrape like rusty hinges. "Angel of
Death," in contrast, may be a much less violent work, but the piece's
piano part, as it tip-toes over a bed of trembling strings,
nevertheless suggests menace. Similarly, and despite its optimistic
title, "Rescue" features a tense mélange of moaning and
screeching strings, while "Escape to Darkness" creates a phantasmagoria
of brittle notes, lush tones and distorted chirping noises.
Occasionally, however, some pretty, more lyric passages materialize. On
"Love Theme," for example, a flute and trumpet play a parallel melody
as a piano and drum sound quietly in the background. And Zeitlin's
pipes-and-strings arrangement of "Amazing Grace" imbues the hoary old
hymn with an aching, mournful beauty. By and large, however, the
composer opts more often for vinegar than honey. Or he blends them, as
he does with "Infiltration (Suite)," in which the melody from "Love
Theme" and an unpleasant electronic pulse are introduced simultaneously.
Featuring a long, recorded interview with the composer, this
commemorative disc should thrill Zeitlin aficionados. Fans of the film,
however, may be a bit dismayed, as the music performed by the
mysterious banjo-player doesn't show up. Fortunately, the quality of
Zeitlin's score should make this omission easy to
forgive. -- Stephen B. Armstrong
Elektra ***
CHRISTOPHE BECK
Varèse Sarabande 302 066 633 2
21 tracks - 45:21
Christophe Beck, most widely known for his pulse-pounding work on the
television series Buffy The Vampire
Slayer and its offspring Angel,
tackles action on the big screen with Rob Bowman's film version of the
popular Frank Miller assassin Elektra. Having been weaned on Miller's
seminal comic book work in the '80s, and having barely stomached the
bastardization of Daredevil,
I refused to see Bowman's latest inept excursion into mass
entertainment. Accordingly, I expected Beck's music to follow suit. And
while this is no Superman, I
must admit there are good moments on this disc.
Beck revealed that, in the early stages of scoring Elektra, he held sampling sessions
with the orchestra wherein he would electronically dissect and
manipulate it. The result is sonically interesting, but let's back up
for a moment. Elektra isn't
all cool synth patches and slamming beats (although it does contain its
fair share). The primary figure that represents the protagonist is a
rising four-note motif that serves as the seed to a larger theme which
underlines the tragic element of her character. As presented in the
"Main Title," it gets things off to a good start. The score moves into
a cross between atmospheric cues featuring Japanese percussion playing
even meter rhythms (more convincingly than Zimmer's Last Samurai if that's any
consolation) and sublime electronic textures. These elements actually
establish a suitable tone and definitely evoke images of the Orient and
martial arts training. Tracks like "Insomnia" also show Beck to be
sensitive towards subtleties in sound design. Fragments of the
orchestral sampling sessions can be heard amidst Chinese zithers and
temple bowls.
Where things go a little awry are on big action set pieces such as
"Ninjas" or "Kirigi," where Beck pumps up the volume with orchestral
fireworks including the now ubiquitous modernist brass clusters/whole
tone trills and aleatoric wind writing. Back when Goldenthal first
introduced these techniques in the early '90s on scores like Demolition Man, they were an
interesting departure from the standard approach toward action scoring.
But after 12 years, it's gotten a little tired. It's too bad Beck
didn't stay with the percussive approach as found on tracks like
"Gnarly Gongs," because a good amount of this score is Asian-flavored
(which is a good thing) and to be thrust out of that to good ol'
European modernist techniques is jarring.
Luckily, Elektra ends on a
good note with a lyrical rendition and more developed version of the
figure that was introduced in the opening track and melodic material
found on "The Kiss." There's a delicacy about the track where the
motive is passed around the orchestra in imitation style contrasted by
sparse piano chords. After all of the kinetics in the main body of this
soundtrack, a moving elegy was the smart way to close the disc.
Hopefully, Beck will get better assignments for action writing in the
future. I hold Bowman's directorial tastes to blame for some of the
choices made in the scoring of this film. Beck even mentions in an
interview that he found himself re-scoring the same scenes up to eight
times. This, combined with a consistent type of "sound" to the scores
of each of Bowman's previous outings (X-Files
and Reign of Fire were scored
by two different composers) says it all. --
David Coscina
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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Today in Film Score History:
March 26 |
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| Alan Menken wins his first Oscars, for The Little Mermaid score and its song "Under the Sea" (1990) |
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| Alan Silvestri born (1950) |
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| Bernard Herrmann begins recording his score for White Witch Doctor (1953) |
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| Charles Dumont born (1929) |
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| Fred Karlin died (2004) |
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| Harry Rabinowitz born (1916) |
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| John Corigliano wins his first Oscar, for The Red Violin score (2000) |
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| Larry Morey born (1905) |
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| Leigh Harline born (1907) |
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| Louis Silvers died (1954) |
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| Malcolm Arnold wins his only Oscar, for The Bridge on the River Kwai score (1958) |
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| Noel Coward died (1973) |
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| Recording sessions begin for Miklos Rozsa’s score for Five Graves to Cairo (1943) |
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| The Fall of the Roman Empire opens in New York (1964) |
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| Victor Young begins recording his score for Little Boy Lost (1953) |
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