HANNA – The Chemical Brothers
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It’s not often I find myself completely unable to finish listening to a film score due to me hating it so much, but that’s what happened with Hanna – twice. A contemporary thriller directed by Joe Wright (who previously directed the Oscar-winning Atonement), Hanna stars Saoirse Ronan as the eponymous character, a 16-year old assassin who has been trained by her father (Eric Bana) to be a perfect, and totally unlikely, slaughter machine. When Hanna is dispatched to a remote part of Europe on a mission, the baby-faced killer finds herself having to fight for her own life when she is targeted for elimination by government operatives with a covert agenda of their own. The film also stars Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams and Jason Flemyng, and has garnered generally positive reviews, not least for Ronan’s star performance. Read more…
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS – James Newton Howard
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Water for Elephants is a romantic drama based on a popular novel by Sara Gruen. It stars Twilight’s Robert Pattinson as Jacob Jankowski, a young veterinarian during the great depression who leaves his Ivy League school and takes a job with a travelling circus looking after the animals after his parents are killed. It is there that he meets and falls in love with Marlena Rosenbluth (Reese Witherspoon), the circus’s star performer – despite the fact that she is married to August (Christoph Waltz), the circus’s head animal trainer and ringmaster, who has a deeply cruel streak. The film was directed by Francis Lawrence, co-stars Hal Holbrook, Paul Schneider and Jim Norton, and has a quite lovely score by James Newton Howard, reuniting with director Lawrence after their collaboration in I Am Legend in 2007. Read more…
TESTAMENT – James Horner
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Testament was adapted from a short story “The Last Testament” written by Carol Armen. Originally conceived as a TV movie, Paramount executives were so impressed with the final product that they instead chose to release it in theatres across the country. The story concerns itself with the aftermath of a cataclysmic nuclear war. Its intimate narrative is seen through the eyes of Carol Wetherley, a mother who lives in the northern California town of Hamlin outside of San Francisco. After her husband is lost with the destruction of San Francisco, she struggles with determination and dignity to ensure the safety and continuity of her family. Yet all seems for naught as one by one her neighbors and family begin to succumb to the horrific ravages of radiation poison. The film earned critical acclaim for its intimate portrayal and was a commercial success. Read more…
THE CONSPIRATOR – Mark Isham
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
For many years I had assumed – entirely incorrectly, as it turns out – that the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth was a one-man show committed by a single opportunist. In actual fact, the events of April 14, 1865, were much more far reaching, in so much as three other co-conspirators attempted to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward on the same evening, but only Booth was successful in dispatching his quarry. Booth was killed by soldiers a few days later, but two of the other conspirators – Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt – were captured and tried. The fourth conspirator, John Surratt, was not caught and so John’s mother, Mary Surratt, was tried in his place, accused of allowing her guesthouse to be used as the base for the assassination plot to be conceived. Robert Redford’s latest film, The Conspirator, looks at these events with fresh eyes, concentrating specifically on the relationship between Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) and Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), the young attorney assigned to defend her. The film also stars Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson, Justin Long, Evan Rachel Wood and Danny Huston, and features an excellent dramatic score by Mark Isham. Read more…
ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS – Nathan Van Cleave
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Robinson Crusoe on Mars was conceived by Ib Melchoir (Angry Red Planet), who envisioned it as the first in a series of literary classics that he would update to the 20th century and adapt to an outer space setting. The film was directed by Byron Haskin (Conquest of Space) and featured stunning cinematography of Martian vistas that were designed by the brilliant team of art directors. It starred Paul Mantee (Kit) as a marooned astronaut who is forced to eject from his spacecraft due to a malfunction. Stranded on an unforgiving surface, he struggles to find food, water, oxygen and combat a terrible loneliness born of his isolation. He is eventually joined by an escaped slave (Victor Lundin), who becomes his man “Friday.” Together they must evade cruel aliens that seek to regain their lost property. Adam West of Batman fame also appeared in the film as Mantee’s co-pilot along with the monkey Mona who steals the show! Regretfully Melchoir would not realize his grand vision of an outer space series as the film just did not resonate with audiences. Read more…
YOUR HIGHNESS – Steve Jablonsky
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
While not quite a spoof in the same way that Robin Hood: Men in Tights was a spoof, Your Highness nevertheless is a lighthearted variation on those medieval costume dramas, in which damsels in distress and knights in armor do battle with dangerous enemies and fall in love in the forest. Directed by David Gordon Green, the film stars Danny McBride and James Franco as Thadeous and Fabious, a pair of royal knights – one a lazy oaf, the other a noble warrior – who team up with a warrior princess named Isabel (Natalie Portman) to rescue Fabious’s virginal bride-to-be Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel) from the clutches of Leezar (Justin Theroux), an evil sorcerer. The film also stars Toby Jones, Charles Dance and Damien Lewis, and has an original score by Steve Jablonsky. Read more…
THE HOMECOMING: A CHRISTMAS STORY/RASCALS AND ROBBERS: THE SECRET ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER AND HUCK FINN – Jerry Goldsmith/James Horner
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The Homecoming: A Christmas Story is an iconic television movie that was adapted from an Earl Hamner Jr. story starred Patricia Neal and Richard Thomas in a traditional heart-warming story of a poor rural family’s Christmas. The story takes place on Christmas Eve in 1933 during the Great Depression with the children awaiting, with great anticipation, the miracle in the barn when at the stroke of midnight all off the animals speak. The family is also awaiting the homecoming of their beloved father who had to seek employment in the city and is returning home. A snowstorm places Mr. Walton’s return in peril and the family struggles to remain optimistic as the night wears on. But this is a happy tale and when he returns with a bag of gifts all is made right as the family celebrates the joy and warmth of Christmas. The film was made on a very modest budget, but it was an immediate hit, spawned The Waltons – a highly successful television series and remains an enduring classic holiday favorite. Read more…
A Symphony of Hope: The Haiti Project
Last Saturday, March 26th, I had the honor attending the recording sessions for “A Symphony of Hope: The Haiti Project” at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, CA. The brainchild of composer Christopher Lennertz, the Symphony is musical fundraising project designed to help the people of Haiti in their desperate time of need.
A year after the terrible earthquake which destroyed the lives of thousands of Haitians, it was clear to Lennertz that the need for assistance was greater than ever. In response Lennertz came up with the idea of the “Symphony of Hope”, and invited 25 leading film composers to collaborate with him on a project to benefit the Haiti Earthquake Relief fund. Read more…
Movie Music UK Awards 2010
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EL GRAN MILAGRO/THE GREAT MIRACLE – Mark McKenzie
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I regularly have conversations with fellow film music aficionados about which composers don’t get the public acclaim, respect and – most importantly – regular assignments we feel they should. Time and again, Mark McKenzie’s name is repeated as one of those men whose music is so amazing, but no-one can adequately give a reason why he isn’t scoring the most important and acclaimed films Hollywood produces. He writes some of the most beautiful, lyrical and emotionally resonant music ever written for film – and I do mean ever written for film – but yet seems quite content to stay out of the limelight, orchestrating diligently for other composers, and writing one score of his own every couple of years. From a purely selfish point of view, this frustrates me immensely, because he quite obviously has the talent to be one of the all-time greats. As it stands, he has scored fewer than 20 films in his entire career, which spans back to 1991. Read more…
THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES – Ron Goodwin
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
It is 1910 and Lord Rawnsley, an English press magnate of the Daily Post, conceives a great contest designed to affirm to the world, English supremacy of the air. He offers an enormous £10,000 to the winner of an air race from London to Paris. This rich offer serves to bring flyers of all makes from across the world to enlist. What follows is a truly wild, zany and comedic adventure tale with many twists and sub-plots as the various flyers jockey not only for position but also for the affections of countless women. The film was conceived by writer director Ken Annakin who said “I wanted lots of gags, but also wanted to pay tribute to the inventiveness of the early aviators.” The film was a commercial and critical success securing BAFTA, Golden Globe and Oscar nominations. Ron Goodwin, the stalwart of British film scoring, was hired and took up the challenge with his usual determination. Embracing the film at face value, Goodwin deliberately wrote unabashedly to the various cultural and actor stereotypes, and so you will hear national anthems, marches, waltzes and folk songs that are woven into a wonderful and outrageous comedic tapestry. And so my friends, buckle up, and let’s fly off on our zany adventure! Read more…
RED RIDING HOOD – Brian Reitzell, Alex Heffes
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Poor old Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm must be rolling in their graves, seeing how their old fairy tale has been modernized. Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first Twilight film, has now “Twilightified” the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood in an attempt to capture the same teenage girl demographic by adding a whole load of sex appeal, rippling abdominal muscles, and brooding teenage angst to the story of wolves and grandmothers and little girls in red walking through the woods. Amanda Seyfried stars as Valerie, a young girl from a village in a remote forest who finds herself caught between Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), the man she loves, and Henry (Max Irons), the man she was promised to by her parents – not to mention the looming threat of a werewolf, who has a nasty habit of picking off villagers who wander too far off the beaten path. The film also stars Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Virginia Madsen and Julie Christie. Read more…
GWIAZDA KOPERNIKA/COPERNICUS’ STAR – Abel Korzeniowski
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
When Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2009 for A Single Man, I – like many other film music fans no doubt – went to his website to see who this hitherto unknown composer was and where he came from. There was a section on his site housing MP3s from his previous scores, one of which was the intriguingly titled Copernicus’ Star. Again, no doubt like many others, I was absolutely enthralled and captivated by the staggeringly good music from this unknown, mysterious film. One of the others who had a similar reaction was soundtrack producer Dan Goldwasser, who has since worked with the good people at La La Land Records to get a full soundtrack release – the result of which is this excellent album. Read more…
JANE EYRE – Dario Marianelli
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë’s timeless tale of love, madness and female empowerment, has been brought to life several times on the big screen, and inspired some excellent scores, most notably by Bernard Herrmann and John Williams. This new film, directed by Cary Fukunaga, stars Mia Wasikowska as the eponymous heroine, who was mistreated and downtrodden as a young girl in 17th century England, but eventually grows up to be the governess of a young girl at the rambling, imposing Thornfield Hall. Jane falls in love with the dashing master of the house, Rochester (Michael Fassbender), but as her relationship with the raffish gentleman develops, increasingly strange things begin to happen during the night in the dark and dusty corridors of Thornfield, testing Jane’s nerve, and her sanity. The film also stars Jamie Bell, Sally Hawkins and Judi Dench, and features a sumptuous, utterly beautiful score by Dario Marianelli. Read more…
L’INCORRIGIBLE/VA VOIR MAMAN, PAPA TRAVAILLE – Georges Delerue
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In L’Incorrigible, lead character Victor played by (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is the quintessential con man, totally beyond redemption, who resumes his nefarious craft following his release from prison. He rents apartments he doesn’t own, sells nonexistent fighter planes to African countries, and assumes many different guises from a gardener, lawyer, private detective, government official, and yes, even a transvestite in order to reap profit from his unsuspecting victims. Remarkably, he manages to fool his charming but very naive parole officer Marie-Charlotte (Genevieve Bujold). When Victor finds out that Marie-Charlotte’s father curates a museum that displays an extremely valuable painting, well, you need little imagination to realize what lies next! The film enjoyed modest commercial success in France. Read more…
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