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JACK SMITH’S TOP TEN MOST PROMINENT… SCORES

A critic deals in the abstractions of good and bad, with the assumption that any subject addressed rises to the level of those admittedly very personal variables. On the whole, contemporary filmusic does neither. For a long time, I simply wrestled with ways of saying how dismal a piece of filmusic was– or worse.

That can go from wearying annoyance to ever increasing frustration, a point where you reach, well, a sense of pointlessness. Or as some say, existential boredom, that abstraction when you’ve done all, experienced all and then choose to simply stand on the sidewalk, ignore the walk/don’t walk sign muse as the jalopies honk past, and ask, ” How many ways can you dislike a musical score, let alone, hate it?”

Now as I look back on this auspicious year, 2010, and survey the 10 Most Prominent Scores, let me count the ways. But add before the final countdown begins that contemporary composers seemed to be mired in languid melodramatic chords, alternately ominous and fruity, seamed together in a way that’s akin to `ooohing,’ `ahhhing,’ `sighing,’ and counterpointed with drums or chorus.

Melody seems to be ignored or, to be kind, elusive – dare I say unknown? Whatever the case, the sad result is a sort of continuing temp score from film to film. With one promising exception, perhaps two.

Let’s begin with:

10. The Tenth Most Prominent Score of the Year.

Salt – composed by James Newton Howard.

This generique showcase for Angelina Jolie, whose lithesome Marvel comic book figure and suction-cup lips have captured the soaring imaginations of 13-35 year-old males all over, is a glossy mix of synth counterpoint and orchestral musings. Running the filmusic spectrum, from ominous to romantic, the cues hit the mark with craftsmanship, prompting breathless emotion and whatever. The score is released as a CDR and MP3 download from Amazon. The cover of the soundtrack has a moody close-up of Ms. Jolie, a memorable keepsake of the film.

9. The Ninth Most Prominent score

The Tourist – composed by James Newton Howard

Actually a better score than the 10th Most Prominent Score, thanks to some melodic orchestral color that engenders warmth and invites listening. This background music for a thriller starring Angelina Jolie and the irrepressible Johnny Depp, however, could be for most anything – a plus for daydreaming listeners but somewhat frustrating for more discerning audiences. The cover has a much better and far more flattering rendering of Ms Jolie in profile. Put this and the above CD together at a forty-five degree angle on a shelf or tabletop and it makes for a nice display and conversation piece. My favorite cue is `The Paranoid Math Teacher.’

8. The Eighth Most Prominent Score

The Black Swan – composed by Clint Mansell

This minimalist, creepy little score compliments The Black Swan, the reigning pschosexual darling of many critics. The music, away from its source, doesn’t carry a whole lot of meaning beyond that. Personally, it’s not my bottle of choice but it has an audience, many of whom are ballet-tistas and admirers of the score’s ongoing references to classical works which attempts to dress it up quite a bit. Ultimately, it’s a sort of curiosity, like some of those swan wing-dings that pop up on now and then on Antiques Roadshow.

7. The Seventh Most Prominent Score

The Social Network – composed by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

The Social Network is the perfect score for today’s plugged in audiences. Techno, often atonal, a cacophony of dribblings that counterpoint the meaningless and very little more. Like the random vanity of postings on the internet that the film celebrates, it’s a quippy, key-boardish and joyous celebration of the emptiness of the cyberworld, where being alone with the monitor is being together with all. Or is it? Listening to the music, The Social Network projects a sense of underlying horror and under-the-covers estrangement. Now and then, a piano drops in almost as a reminder that this is music. The reference to `In the Hall of Mountain King’ evokes that dark cavern of what this score is all about. In the end, it descends into a sort of old-line campiness, recalling some of the experimental scores of the 1960s, perhaps even posing a droll question–is social media just an over-sized put-on?

6. The Sixth Most Prominent Score of the Year

Inception – composed by Hans Zimmer

“I’m not interested in the massive heroic tunes anymore. Now I’m interested in how I can take two, three, or four notes and make a really complex emotional structure. It’s emotional as opposed to sentimental. It’s not b-s heroic; it has dignity to it.”

Apparently, Mr. Zimmer said that. That said, I’ll add that Hans Zimmer has an incredible following. Now, may I say that I am truly reluctant to join in. His music has an abstraction that is very popular now, an affected and dreary lack of identity. Then eschewing the emotional complexities that this film attempts to project, the music winds up being impressive, empty sets of, say, three or four chords that evoke rather than subtly define. The music lacks narrative, thematic development, symbolic value and most of all, a sense of human involvement, something that any filmusic should have. It if `works’ within the context of the film, it’s because the music is there, and not somewhere else. Filmusic was once disparaged as wallpaper; is this what music at the movies will finally become?

5. The Fifth Most Prominent Score of the Year

The Next Three Days – composed by Danny Elfman

For a modern score, this entry from Danny Elfman has roots back to the late1960s. That’s not to say it mirrors the pop-structure of that time, but the rhythms and orchestrations are solidly traditional in respect and not unsatisfying by any stretch. Generally, there’s a tendency toward terse understatement, which is the norm these days for most films in an adult modern urban setting. It’s a temptation to compare it with other composers at work in similarly themed films–Goldsmith and Bernstein come to mind. But that was then, this is now, and the sensibilities of filmmakers have changed–or devolved — over the years so that sort of comparison, let alone accountability, falls by the wayside (doesn’t it?). The Next Three Days is a good listen, a workman’s craft of a score that’s best taken for what it is and for what it does–it enhances the on-screen action. But I can’t help but think back a very long time when someone like Herrmann could dress up a solid thriller with a score like Cape Fear. At the time of the film’s release, he wrote my old friend Page Cook and dismissed the harrowing trombones and more of Cape Fear as `Hitchcock music.’ Here now, let me ask, what has life and art become when a great composer so long ago can shrug like that, and then here we are now, me writing this, and you reading it.

4. The Fourth Most Prominent Score of the Year

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – composed by David Arnold

This traditional, heroic score would benefit from a bit more detail and development, but its earnest sense of muscularity and polish moves it along much like a score from a Columbia Pictures swashbuckler of the 1940s or 1950s. It ain’t Rozsa, Korngold, Steiner or Newman, but it’s all we really got of this genre this year, and in that respect, it’s welcomed. Besides, who doesn’t like a film and its music when there’s a talking lion that goes about in great strength doing good deeds? This score is long on magic and–no small thing these days–has a decided sweetness about it.

3. The Third Most Prominent Score of the Year

Alice in Wonderland – composed by Danny Elfman

This artful, mischievous score is a sort of wonder in itself, defining Lewis Carroll’s classic in boldly expressive terms. Musically, it piques the interest as well as the ear in unexpectedly anti-Victorian ways that match Tim Burton’s quirky colorful Wonderland images. `The Cheshire Cat’ is a memorable cue and `Alice’s Theme’ moves the score in a distinct narrative. The more robust cues round out a solid filmusic experience. Elfman works a charm of whimsy and bravura showmanship, a sort of Mad Hatter’s rhapsody for modern audiences.

2. The Second Most Prominent Score of the Year!

True Grit – composed by Carter Burwell

Burwell has worked with the Cohen Brothers several times, memorably with Oh Brother Where Art Thou? and Miller’s Crossing. This set of filmusic has a real appeal for me. Oh Brother for the incredible songs and Miller’s Crossing for a composer’s sleight of hand with Danny Boy. The main title for Miller’s Crossing weaves in and out of that film with beautiful, haunting results, framing melancholy as well as a violent friendship gone wrong. Burwell does much of the same here with True Grit. Basil Poledouris once told me that the trick for writing music for Westerns was to create music that sounded like folk music, but wasn’t. You also needed French horns. Burwell does this deftly with True Grit, turning the pages, not of folk tunes, but Protestant hymns, alas without French horns. It works like the tick-tock of a gold pocket watch and the music is handily hypnotic, binding atmosphere and characters in a sort of long ago reverence that can only be found in Westerns. The end title is a gem of a treasure, an a capella rendering of a hymn, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, sung by Iris DeMent. This is one of those rare moments where image and music fuse together in a way that only film can achieve. Iris DeMent is as singularly indelible as a ridge of lonesome pines along a sunset horizon. Excellent.

1. The First Most Prominent Score

The King’s Speech – composed by Alexandre Desplate

Personally, I like this score for three beautiful reasons: Helena, Bonham, Carter. As a critic, this is First in Prominent Scores because it actually is a score, that is to say, reel music, music for a film, a soundtrack to a movies, music that has a sense of structure, musicality and, dare I say it, an element of beauty, just like my personal three reasons for liking the score. Perhaps the music’s success lies in the film itself–it’s difficult to thread a hip-hop love theme or doo-dah dance to a subject as lofty as the British monarchy–thank God and King. What’s at work here is a minor presentation of serious filmusic from a composer who may well have a future opportunity to compose major musical works for the cinema. The elements all seem to be there: a sense of timing and drama, and perhaps a debt or two in recalling Delerue and Richard Robbins. At one point, a piano echoes the pallet of Maurice Jarre. The King’s Speech is a serious effort that merits serious applause, and optimistically portends even better from Alexandre Desplate. The King’s Speech is definitely the best of the Most Prominent Scores of 2010.

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