MOVIE MUSIC UK

Original Review by Clark Douglas

Director Roland Emmerich has a reputation for helming preposterously silly cinematic epics. Films such as “Stargate”, “Independence Day”, and “Godzilla” are the highlights of his resume. Despite the goofiness of all of these movies, it could be argued that they provided a small measure of carefree fun. Take that away, and the films are completely worthless. Guess what? Emmerich decided to start taking himself seriously with “10,000 BC”, and the result is the worst film the director has ever made.

Interestingly enough, the screenplay was co-written by Emmerich and composer Harold Kloser. The film tells the story of a young mammoth hunter who is forced to go to battle with some bad guys, get the girl, wriggle out of tough situations, etc. Kloser had collaborated with Emmerich on the director’s previous film, “The Day After Tomorrow.” Many were disappointed with that score, feeling it lacked the memorability that David Arnold had brought to the aforementioned blockbusters. Nonetheless, Kloser was naturally back once again to score the film that he co-wrote, and the results are equally typical.

This isn’t a bad score, just a perfectly average one. The action music is rather typical, percussion-heavy stuff with familiar aggressive brass motifs. The quiet moments are peaceful and serene, but lack a memorable thematic hook. The “ethnic” cues featuring wailing vocals, choir, and African percussion are less interesting versions of the material written by Hans Zimmer in scores like “Tears of the Sun” and “The Power of One”. This was a potentially rich scoring assignment, but it’s surprising to discover that Kloser has written such an uninspired score for a film that he had such a personal investment in.

Rating: **½

Track Listing:

• Opening (2:43)
• Mountain of the Gods (1:56)
• Speech (3:01)
• Evolet (2:44)
• Mannak Hunt (2:08)
• Celebration (1:29)
• I Was Not Brave (1:48)
• Night of the Tiger (1:37)
• Lead Them (2:28)
• Terror Birds (3:22)
• Wounded Hunter (1:51)
• Food (1:59)
• Good-Byes (1:13)
• Sea of Sand (2:41)
• Wise Man (1:40)
• He Was My Father (1:05)
• Mark of the Hunter (2:45)
• Free the Mannaks (1:47)
• Not A God (2:35)
• You Came For Me (2:06)
• The End (3:18)
• 10,000 BC/End Credits (2:55)

Running Time: 49 minutes 11 seconds

Decca DCAB001082402 (2008)