Archive
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST – John Debney
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The furore surrounding Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ began almost before a shot was filmed, and continued unabated through principal photography, post-production, and the publicity process. In a nutshell, the crux of the matter was that several prominent Jewish groups accused the cast and crew, and especially Gibson, of intentionally inciting anti-Semitic feelings by portraying the Pharisees of the Jewish Temple in old Jerusalem as the ones who were ultimately responsible for causing the death of Christ (something made worse following some rather off the wall comments from Gibson’s father). As this is a soundtrack review, I’m not going to go into a great deal of detail as to why this film has become one of the most controversial in recent memory, but I do want to say this in regard to my own faith, and my view of the film: Read more…
Academy Award Nominations 2003
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 76th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2003.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- DANNY ELFMAN for Big Fish
- JAMES HORNER for House of Sand and Fog
- THOMAS NEWMAN for Finding Nemo
- HOWARD SHORE The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- GABRIEL YARED for Cold Mountain
This is the 3rd Oscar nomination for Elfman, the 7th nomination for Horner, the 7th nomination for Newman, the 2nd nomination for Shore, and the 3rd nomination for Yared. Horner previously won for Titanic in 1997. Shore previously won for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- T-BONE BURNETT and ELVIS COSTELLO for “Scarlet Tide” from Cold Mountain
- BENOÎT CHAREST and SYLVAIN CHOMET for “Belleville Rendezvous” from The Triplets of Belleville
- MICHAEL McKEAN and ANNETTE O’TOOLE for “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” from A Mighty Wind
- ANNIE LENNOX, HOWARD SHORE, and FRAN WALSH for “Into the West” from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- GORDON SUMNER (STING) for “You Will Be My Ain True Love” from Cold Mountain
The winners of the 76th Academy Awards will be announced on February 29, 2004.
BAFTA Nominations 2003
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominations for the 57th British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 2003.
In the Best Original Music category, which is named in memory of the film director Anthony Asquith, the nominees are:
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for Girl with a Pearl Earring
- ROBERT DIGGS (RZA) for Kill Bill, Volume 1
- BRIAN REITZELL and KEVIN SHIELDS for Lost in Translation
- HOWARD SHORE for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- GABRIEL YARED and T-BONE BURNETT for Cold Mountain
These are the first nominations for Desplat, Diggs, Reitzell, and Shields. It is the second nomination for Burnett, the third nomination for Yared, and is the fourth nomination for Shore. Yared previously won for The English Patient in 1996.
The winners of the 57th BAFTA Awards will be announced on February 15, 2004.
PAYCHECK – John Powell
Original Review by Nate Underkuffler
Budda-budda-bumpa. Is that what film music has become? There has been an undoubtable trend in the past decade, perhaps even for the last half of the century, of an increased use of alternative elements in film music apart from the symphony orchestra. Composers such as Goldsmith and Herrmann experimented and implemented synthesizer and other effects into their scores, later composers like Hans Zimmer in part defined themselves by it, and now a young writer like John Powell sees no inappropriateness or novelty in the idea. Powell has thus put his own spin on the techniques, and created unique soundscapes through both an orchestra and anything he can get his hands on in the studio. Nearly all of Powell’s recent scores since breaking away from Media Ventures and his productive tenure on children’s films with fellow MV student Harry Gregson-Williams have been driven by a quirky set of samples and percussion, as well as his now distinctive orchestral style. His latest score, Paycheck, continues this approach, but now adapts it for a futuristic film noir. Read more…
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING – Howard Shore
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
And so, five years after his journey began, Howard Shore’s travels through the musical word of Middle Earth and the spectacular Lord of Rings trilogy comes to an end with The Return of the King, the final installment of Peter Jackson’s groundbreaking adaptation of the classic fantasy novel by J.R.R. Tolkein. To say that Shore has come a long way is understatement indeed. Before Lord of the Rings, Howard Shore was “the David Cronenberg guy” who specialized in dark, tortured scores for dark tortured movies. Now, he is the undisputed king of the epic adventure, with the potential to become the benchmark by which all future sword-and-sorcery scores are measured. Before Lord of the Rings, Howard Shore was a well-respected, but largely unheralded member of the film music world. Now, he is a household name, with an Oscar on his mantle, who sells out concert halls worldwide. It’s been one massive ride for the quiet, unassuming Canadian – and with the strength of this final score, his stock can only rise. Read more…
Golden Globe Nominations 2003
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 61st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2003.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for Girl With a Pearl Earring
- DANNY ELFMAN for Big Fish
- HOWARD SHORE for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- GABRIEL YARED for Cold Mountain
- HANS ZIMMER for The Last Samurai
This is the first nomination for Desplat, the second nomination for Elfman, the second nomination for Shore, the third nomination for Yared, and the fifth nomination for Zimmer. Yared previously won for The English Patient in 1996. Zimmer previously won for The Lion King in 1994 and Gladiator in 2000.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- PAUL HEWSON (BONO), GAVIN FRIDAY, and MAURICE SEEZER for “Time Enough For Tears” from In America
- ELTON JOHN and BERNIE TAUPIN for “The Heart of Every Girl” from Mona Lisa Smile
- ANNIE LENNOX, FRAN WALSH, and HOWARD SHORE for “Into the West” from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- GORDON SUMNER (STING) for “You Will Be My Ain True Love” from Cold Mountain
- EDDIE VEDDER for “Man of the Hour” from Big Fish
The winners of the 61st Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 25, 2004.
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING – Alexandre Desplat
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch baroque painter who lived in the city of Delft from 1632-1675, and left behind him a legacy of art that can equal that of other Dutch masters such as Van Gogh and Rembrandt. One of his most famous works is entitled “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, painted around 1665, and currently on display in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague. Although much of Vermeer’s life is undocumented, Tracey Chevalier’s celebrated novel romanticized the creation of this famous piece of art – and is now the inspiration for the directorial debut of Peter Webber. Colin Firth stars as Vermeer, a talented yet tortured painter, trapped in a loveless marriage to the whiny, perpetually pregnant Catharina (Essie Davis), domineered by his mother in-law (Judy Parfitt), and harassed by his lecherous patron and chief source of funding, Van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson). However, into Vermeer’s household comes a young peasant girl named Griet (Scarlett Johansson), who after a while becomes more interested in Vermeer’s work, and in Vermeer himself. Gradually, the two become attracted to each other, and Griet begins to “sit” for Vermeer (resulting in the famous painting) – much to the disgust of his wife, and Griet’s potential suitor Pieter (Cillian Murphy). Read more…
ANGELS IN AMERICA – Thomas Newman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The quality of original television music in recent years has improved immeasurably. Long gone are the days when all a TV-movie could hope for was a rising star or ageing has-been hiring a small orchestra or, worse still, mocking it all up on synths at home. Now, with recent excellent works like Brian Tyler’s Children of Dune, Laura Karpman’s Taken and Michael Kamen’s Band of Brothers, the upper echelons of television scoring is equaling – and occasionally surpassing – that of the cinema. One of these scores which surpasses almost everything written for the cinema is Thomas Newman’s Angels in America, by far one of the best scores written for any medium in 2003. Read more…
THE LAST SAMURAI – Hans Zimmer
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The star of Hans Zimmer continues to grow as, year by year, he and his crew at Media Ventures continue to become attached to some of the most high profile, prestigious projects in Hollywood. With Klaus Badelt, Steve Jablonsky, and former alumni such as Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell all having successful years, Zimmer has increasingly found himself in an “over-seeing” role, or leading a team of composers in a multi-faceted approach to a project, such as this year’s Tears of the Sun. Only occasionally does Zimmer approach a score on his own: these projects being the ones which have the potential to become box-office blockbusters, or which could garner awards. The Last Samurai is one of these scores. Read more…
OPEN RANGE – Michael Kamen
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
As I write this review, it is now just over a week since Michael Kamen, the composer of Open Range, tragically died of a heart attack, at the age of just 55. In such circumstances, it is tempting to give in to sentimentality, and the fondness for which I held the man himself, and to allow it to cloud my judgment in giving what turned out to be his final score an impartial review. Kamen had taken something of a “sabbatical” during the years following the turn of the millennium, writing just three scores: Frequency, X-Men, and the amazing Band of Brothers. Even on Open Range he was not the first choice composer, being brought in as a replacement at short notice after the original score had been rejected by director Kevin Costner. Ultimately, Kamen wrote a gentle ballad to the old west, an evocative statement that celebrates the nobility, honor and steadfastness of the great American cowboy, a score which would have been just as lovely to listen to had its composer still been with us. Read more…
THE COOLER – Mark Isham
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
For all his successful forays into the world of orchestral film music, Mark Isham will always remain, at heart, a jazzer. Having grown up with a trumpet almost permanently attached to his lips, Isham has soloed with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, toured with The Beach Boys and Van Morrison, and performed as a “guest artist” on dozens and dozens of other records, as well as releasing many solo albums. Therefore, his jazz pedigree is in no doubt – but, in film at least, he rarely gets to show it. His work on The Cooler, therefore, is a wonderful change of pace. Read more…
THE MISSING – James Horner
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
After sitting out the entire summer of 2003, James Horner has exploded back onto the scene with four new scores in less than two months. The third of the four (the others being Radio, Beyond Borders and the Oscar-tipped House of Sand and Fog) is The Missing, a truly remarkable work which brings back wonderful memories of classic Horner scores from the early 1990s. And, although the stylistic elements of a dozen or so scores from his past are readily identifiable, in many ways it’s like revisiting an old friend. Yes, I have criticized other composers for doing the exact same thing in the past, but with Horner, it’s like coming home. Directed by Ron Howard and based on the novel “The Last Ride” by Thomas Eidson, The Missing stars Tommy Lee Jones as Samuel Jones, a father who returns to his home in 19th-century New Mexico, hoping to reconcile with his estranged adult daughter Maggie (Cate Blanchett). However, when Maggie’s young daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by a psychopathic leader of a cult with mysterious powers, who has been kidnapping young girls all over the American south west, father and daughter must put aside their differences and work together to get her back. Read more…
Michael Kamen, 1948-2003
Composer Michael Kamen died on November 18, 2003 in London, England, after suffering a heart attack. He was 55.
Michael Arnold Kamen was born in New York in April 1948, where he attended The High School of Music and Art and the Juilliard School, where he specialized in composition and oboe performance. After being a part of the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble with fellow composer Mark Snow as a youth, Kamen moved to England in the 1970s and found work as ballet composer and as an arranger for pop and rock bands, notably for artists such as Kate Bush, David Bowie and Pink Floyd, for whom he arranged the album The Wall in 1979.
Having already dabbled in film music during the late 1970s, Kamen began embracing cinema fully in the early 1980s, writing the music for acclaimed films such as The Dead Zone and Brazil, and the TV mini-series Edge of Darkness, before cracking the Hollywood big-time with a trio of massively successful action scores between 1986 and 1989 – Highlander, Lethal Weapon and Die Hard. Read more…
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD – Iva Davies, Christopher Gordon, Richard Tognetti
Original Review by Peter Simons
The movies of Peter Weir have had some interesting musical choices. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Maurice Jarre was his composer of choice, contributing electronic scores for films such as The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, The Mosquito Coast and Witness. For his last major movie, The Truman Show, he combined new and old Philip Glass recordings with an original score by Burkhard Dallwitz. Weir’s latest movie, the sea-faring epic Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World, follows a similar vein, with multiple composers credited. Iva Davies, Christopher Gordon and Richard Tognetti teamed up to write a score that is certainly atmospheric, and has a fair share of enjoyable tracks, yet for some reason is not very memorable. The soundtrack album is a mix of new music by the three composers, several tracks of traditional folk music, and a handful of classical tracks by Mozart, Bach, Vaughan-Williams and the like. The result is a mixed bag – in the negative sense of the word. Read more…
THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS – Don Davis
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
For Don Davis (and for quite a number of score and movie fans) 2003 has been the year of The Matrix. With the original 1999 movie becoming a surprising world-wide smash, and the May release of The Matrix Reloaded taking a staggering $281 million in the US alone, The Matrix Revolutions is one of the most eagerly awaited films of this, or any year. Equally, following the stunningly realized score Davis provided for Part II, his work on Revolutions has equally become one of most anticipated releases of the year. In a rare turn of events, the score actually meets – and in some cases – surpasses all the expectations, making it easily one of the best scores of 2003. With the talented Wachowski Brothers, Andy and Larry, picking up where the last movie finished, The Matrix Revolutions finds Neo (Keanu Reeves) somehow trapped in an unusual limbo world in between the real world and the Matrix, in which he must again battle the nefarious Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), and from which he must escape before the sentinels reach the stronghold inside the last human city, Zion. Meanwhile, the human leaders and the erstwhile crew of the Nebuchadnezzar – Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Link (Harold Perrineau), Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Lock (Harry Lennix) – begin making preparations for the imminent invasion…. an invasion which will surely mark the final battle between humans and machines on what remains of the Earth. Read more…
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