Theatrical Musical Scores
Aside from bringing the gas prices back down, I think the new machines that rent you new releases for a buck give us something to be thankful for. I like to watch movies but hate the pressure that a $5 commitment demands of my selection sensibilities.
I finally got around to viewing Will Smith’s Hancock. It was what I thought, a good idea, executed with some cheese but overall fairly humorous and entertaining. What left the greatest impact on me wasn’t the movie though, it was the musical scores. Seriously, someone owed someone because the cousin of somebody that didn’t belong at post was paid for a poor performance. Someone thinks that trumpets from a Toys-R-Us keyboard are really cool, they’re not.
This will not serve as a thorough treatment of the subject, but soundtracks/scores that have left a lasting or recent impression on me include:
Danny Elfman’s treatment in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, one of many successful colaborations between Danny and Tim Burton, makes a major contribution to creating the silly but subtly macabre nature of the film.
If you’ve seen Man on Fire (2004), you can appreciate the depth of emotion that the muscial score can help you to embelish. Isn’t that the mark of a great soundtrack? It helps make your blood race, brings you that much closer to tears or puts you on the edge of your seat. Harry Gregson-Willams is a master of creativity and the exploitation of emotions. Gregson-Williams and director Tony Scott have combined as a formidable creative duo as they continue to attack projects together.
Odly enough, John Powell isn’t a fluke, he has had worked on several other feature films, noteably the trilogy of movies created from Robert Ludlumn’s Jason Bourne books (ie The Bourne Identity), Dreamwork’s very successful Shrek, the recent Kung Fu Panda and even PS I Love You. At this moment I don’t recall the scores being that memorable or bad on those films (I haven’t yet seen PS). Being un-memorable is a compliment of sorts, this means the muscial score didn’t outshine the film, that it served its purpose to provide a back drop for the film to operate in.
Perhaps Hancock was a rushed production, maybe Powell’s normal tools were under repair during post-production or maybe several people involved with Hancock mailed it in, but the score was sub-par and was detrimental to my viewing pleasure.