Category: Film

Tis the Season for “Star Wars”

Posted on by filmscore80

First, I’m sorry for not posting more in the past few months, this semester has been crazy with exams and teaching.  I’m still hopeful for posting few more entries here in the waning days of 2010, starting with my review of Alexandre Desplat’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I score.  But for the time being I would like to veer slightly off the “film music” course again, though considering the level of much of the music in the films to be discussed below, I think I’m on safe ground for blogging. 

Dear reader, it’s almost Thanksgiving, so that can only mean one thing: Star Wars.  “What,” you ask?  You see, fearless reader, it was at this time of year that the darkest day in Star Wars history came to pass: November 17, 1978.  On that day, lo those many years ago, the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special aired on CBS stations nationwide.  And it is for this reason that every Thanksgiving-tide, it is the duty of all Star Wars fans to remember the day with a celebration of all that is good with the saga…in the hope that one day the black stain of the Special shall be removed – though, in all honesty, if you watch the Special with RiffTrax commentary, it is almost bearable…almost.  

To this end, I have been working over the past year to assemble the ULTIMATE Star Wars marathon.  Beginning with the question of what material is available on DVD that a fan can watch to completely immerse one’s self in Lucas-verse, I have scoured the internet and Amazon.com to cull all relevant materials together into one uber-listing.  Obviously, one can select to watch various materials as they wish, and one can even mess with the ordering itself.  One interesting variant I’ve read about is to watch Episodes IV and V and then hop back to watch I through III, in this way the big reveal of Vader as Luke’s father is not foreshadowed, and the events leading to Anakin’s fall is played as a flashback of sorts.

But if you are a purist and want to view everything in chronological order based on events in the films themselves, then I have assembled a list achieving just that.  Included, for your amusement/enjoyment/torture are: all six main theatrical films, all materials related to the Clone Wars (two animated series and one film), the DVD releases of material from the Droids and Ewoks animated series from the 1980s, the two live-action Ewok films (Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor) also from the 1980s, and in the name of being complete…the infamous Holiday Special.  I have also indicated future material where it has been speculated, just leave room for future growth.  So without further adieu, the ULTIMATE Star Wars Marathon (with my own “chapter” titles):  

A Saga Begins:
            Episode I: The Phantom Menace
            Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 
The Clone Wars:
            Clone Wars (2003) – Volume 1
            Clone Wars (2003) – Volume 2, Chapter 21
            The Clone Wars (2008) – Film and Television Series (see below)
            Clone Wars (2003) – Volume 2, Chapters 22-25
 
A Faustian Bargain is Struck and a Hero Falls:
            Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 
A New Empire and Rebellion Begins:
            Droids animated series films (see PDF below)
            The Untitled Live Action Series, hopefully to begin in 2012
 
The Rebellion:
            Episode IV: A New Hope
            Star Wars Holiday Special
            Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 
The Ewok Adventures:
           Ewoks animated series films (see PDF below)
           Caravan of Courage
           The Battle for Endor
           
An Empire Overthrown and a Hero Redeemed
            Episode VI: Return of the Jedi 

It’s a lot of material, I know.  At last count, with the continuing Clone Wars series, it is pushing over 40 hours.  Let that sink in…over Forty Hours.  And once both The Clone Wars and the untitled live-action series are done with, there will be well over 100 additional hours of material to watch (that’s if the live action series ever materializes).  

The hardest part about this marathon, though, is navigating the Clone Wars materials.  There are two different Cartoon Network series to work through, and the current series likes to jump around in time so that new episodes sometimes take place before prior episodes and one has to remember earlier material to put them in the proper context.  And while the Clone Wars film that was released in 2008 is basically taken as the zero point for the series, there have been two episodes that take place just prior to it.  To assist in any chronological viewing of the Clone Wars materials, I have assembled rough chronological listing of the episodes, one that adheres to the airing order as closely as possible, but also putting later episodes in order should they come before earlier ones.  But I will freely admit, I am guessing at some of the ordering, but it should at least demonstrate some logical coherence.  Though if anyone can help refine parts by pointing out little details, I gladly welcome it.

In the PDF linked below, I have divided the episodes into story arcs (the names are my own), and you’ll notice there are a few single episodes that are part of a larger grouping (the Pantora and Senate Intrigue arcs).  I have also grouped together two second season episodes that are homages to films by Akira Kurosawa, a major influence on George Lucas.  These are mainly stand alone episodes that are part of a larger trend in season two towards episodes that reference genre films and styles (noir, western, monster movie, and submarine films).  This is also why I titled the final arc of season two as “Once Upon a Time in Space.”  The story is of young Boba Fett’s quest for revenge against Mace Windu, and the score has a theme that is a call out to Harmonica’s theme from Once Upon a Time in the West. 

Finally, if you need a break from heavy drama or lame 80s cartoons, you can watch one of a number of Star Wars related media.  There is the Empire of Dreams documentary (available in the first box set release of the original trilogy in 2004) or the recently released film Fanboys, which makes one nostalgic for the optimism surrounding Episode I prior to its release.  There are also the numerous episodes of either Family Guy or Robot Chicken that spoof/parody the Saga.  Think of these as a way of stepping back from the abyss and gaining perspective during what is undoubtedly a major undertaking. 

Below you’ll find links to PDF files listing all that films and TV episodes that I’ve talked about.  Note: The Clone Wars episodes are current up through November 19, 2010, though I’ve speculated on how the latest and the following episode are to fit in based on information found on StarWars.com. 

Good luck, and may the Force be with…always.

Ultimate Star Wars Marathon

Clone Wars Ordering

P.S. – For those curious, the two Kurosawa homages, “Lightsaber Lost” is taken from Stray Dog and “Bounty Hunters” from Seven Samurai.

N.B. – The episode numbers in the PDF film are in the standard 3 digit number format where the first number is the season and the second two and the episode number in the season sequence.

The Social Network Score Review

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One of the most intriguing scores coming into the Fall movie season for me was Social Network with a score by Trent Reznor and his often collaborator Atticus Ross.    I say intriguing because I am always interested to hear when a pop/rock/etc artist enters into the world of film scoring.  The results can sometime be amazing like with Jonny Greenwood’s There Will Be Blood, or you can end up with some very forgettable film/music experiences.  Thankfully, Reznor and Ross have crafted a wonderfully evocative score that compliments Fincher’s film, with cinematography by Jeff Croneweth (who has made a name for himself separate from his legendary father Jordan Cronenweth), perfectly.

I must first admit that while I’m familiar with Trent Reznor and his work as Nine Inch Nails by name, I have never actually heard any of his work prior to this score.  As a teenager growing up during the period when NIN was among the most popular acts, I did not listen to them.  After hearing this score, though, I am curious enough to possibly check out some of his more recent work.  The film, after a prologue, and score album opens up with what is my personal favorite track, “Hand Covers Bruise.”  The track begins with what sounds like ambient noise or distorted guitar, giving the listener a very unsettled feeling.  It gives no hint of tonality and leaves one prepared for a much different melody than what eventually enters.  When that melody enters, the noise is revealed to be a sound texture that provides a backdrop for what is a very melancholy piano melody.  It is spare and lonely, much like the erstwhile protagonist of the film, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The melody itself might give one a feeling of innocence if it were not for the ambient noise underneath, which is really how the whole film is shot and structured.  The color palette of Fincher and Cronenweth is very subdued, dark even (especially in the Harvard scenes), which really makes the blues of the Facebook logo, when seen as in the shots of the Facebook office, pop off the screen.  As Fincher has stated in interviews, he wanted to do an “odd John Hughes-style movie,” and this is a perfect example of it.  The film and its score is dark and ambient, but tracks like “In Motion” (second on the album and used during an early montage juxtaposing Zuckerberg hacking and building a “Hot or Not” type site with party scenes taking place at the Harvard Finals Clubs that he so badly wants to join) manage to combine modern-day ambient/electronic sounds with those that sound more at home in an ’80s film like Hughes made or even War Games.  In many cues from the album, it almost sounds like like Reznor was purposefully trying to evoke sounds that would be at home on an 8-bit NES soundtrack, which would fit well with the generation under examination in the film (which is also my generation, though I am 4 years older than Zuckerberg).

It’s hard for me to compare this score to previous work because, as I said, I don’t know Reznor’s catalog at all.  But within the score I heard brief moments that reminded me not only of other scores, most notably The Dark Knight, but also pop/rock tracks like Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” (off of their Meddle album) and also the electronic work done by Radiohead.  Reznor and NIN are roughly contemporary with Radiohead so I’m guessing there is more back and forth going on there rather than clear influence.

But that isn’t to take anything away from this score.  It has quickly entered into my short list for Oscar nominations, though I worry about the whole “two composer” rule with the Academy, not to mention that supposedly two tracks are reworked from Reznor/Ross’s previous work Ghosts I-IV along with the arrangement of Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King.”  All of these things might give the Academy a perfect excuse to disallow yet another great score by a non-traditional film composer.

And speaking of the Grieg, that is probably the most curious choice made by the composer and filmmaker.  According to an interview with Pitchfork, Fincher wanted to have a piece of music that would fit the Edwardian setting of the Henly Royal Regatta Club.  But neither the piece nor the composer has anything to do with the Edwardian period of Britain (roughly 1900-1910, though some include up through the end of WWI), but it was a choice by both parties, and despite this anachronism, I do enjoy the arrangement.  A better choice, though, might have been something by Holst or Elgar.  Could you imagine “Mars” or the middle section from “Jupiter” in an electronic version for the scene?  This small misstep aside, though, both score and movie fly along as the actors deliver what is one of Aaron Sorkin’s best scripts since the days of Sports Night and The West Wing.

If you haven’t already seen the movie or picked up the score album (only $7.99 on iTunes), I highly recommend both.  Along with both the film and score for Inception, this is one of the best film/music experiences of the year and really demonstrates what can happen when both filmmaker and composer are on the same page.

If you are curious, my Oscars short list so far includes: Alice in Woderland (Danny Elfman), Robin Hood (Marc Streitenfeld), The Karate Kid (James Horner), Inception (Hans Zimmer), and The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross).

The Film Musicologist’s Bookshelf

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About a month ago, friend of the Temp Track and fellow blogger Herr Vogler posted this over at his cyberdomain in which he details what books he feels a film composer should have on his/her shelf.  In this post I intend to do the same but for the aspiring film music scholar.

The term “film musicology” or “film musicologist” has been tossed around for about ten years to describe what it is I and others like me do, and while “film” might seem to limit the scope to just that, it is a useful catch-all term (I prefer the term “media scoring” to describe the object of my study, personally, but to each their own).  I have just recently encountered an article by William H. Rosar in the Journal of Film Music (which has an annoyingly irregular publishing history) entitled “Film Studies in Musicology: Disciplinarity vs. Interdisciplinarity” which traces some of the history and trends of the field.  I have yet to finish the article, but in what I have read he really strives to get to a core problem of the field and how it relats to this term, “film musicology:” many of the people working within the field are not trained “musicologists.”

Now, I feel that this should in no way hinder people working in the field, Herr Vogler is a trained composer and theorist but is a very intelligent and insightful scholar who has helped me greatly as I’ve delved into the field.  What Rosar is talking about is how the field developed and the “interdisciplinary” nature that the field has.  At any given Music and the Moving Image conference you’ll have scholars from musicology, music theory, film studies, literary studies, and any other field that might have a tangential connection to film or music.  What this has done, though, has made it hard to find a consistent way in which scholars approach the subject.  Since the field developed in an era already familiar with post-modern critical theory and interdisciplinary approaches, it was a sort of academic Wild West.  To that end, I would recommend looking at the Rosar’s article (found in JFM Vol. 2, No. 2-4, 2009, p. 99-125) for a sort of overview of how the current field developed in the 1980s up to the present, and hopefully some ideas for new directions (I’ll let you know how it all turns out once I finish reading the article).

But for the new scholar trying to get a feel for the field, or good reference materials to have handy, I would recommend some of the following titles.

“The Core” – Books that I would recommend for everybody:

Mervyn Cooke – A History of Film Music and James Wierzbicki – Film Music: A History: These two books were released around the same time and I really do view them as complementary titles that one should at least flip through and know the basics of.  The Cooke is a “great composers, great scores” chronological approach that is a very traditional way of doing history while Weirzbicki takes a cultural/technological viewpoint to telling the history.  Both volumes are easily available in paperback from Amazon and are a great starting point for the bookshelf.

Rick Altman – Silent Film Sound: Silent film music was always a problem in earlier studies (see Predergast – Film Music: A Neglected Art and other earlier works), but what Altman achieved in his study is a more complete understanding of how music interacted with early films and developed into the form that would give way to sound films.  It is an exhaustive study that I still haven’t read every word of, but while Cooke and Wierzbicki treat the subject at some length, Altman focuses exclusively on it.  To really understand the complete history of film music and sound, Altman has to be included in the discussion.

Michel Chion – Audio Vision: Translated from the French by Claudia Gorbman, Chion lays out a model for talking about sound in relation to film and really helps to add to the overall terminology  and approach to audio-visual studies.  As a bonus, it is relatively short, though it can be a be a bit obtuse at time.  That could be a by-product of translation, though.

A Book on Semiotics and Music – I can’t really recommend one book here because there are many different approaches to musical semiotics.  You might want to begin by obtaining a basic book that covers many different approaches to semiotics in general and from there find the method that makes the most sense to you.  I personally go by Nattiez’s Music and Discourse but I know that it does not work for everyone.  But is a basic understanding of semiotics strictly necessary?  Maybe not, but it does help to have a basic model under which to analyze the relationship between music and image.

Other Books that provide models and ideas:

Royal S. Brown – Overtones and Undertones: Brown covers a lot of film theoretical ground here, but his prose can be a bit dense.  What is really great about this book are the interviews with composers at the end.

Claudia Gorbman – Unheard Melodies: Most scholars point to Gorbman as the starting point of the field in the 1980s, and reading Rosar it is easy to understand why.  The book is out of print and expensive to get a hold of, but it is worth tracking down through your local library via Interlibrary Loan.  She lays out a good theoretical model for talking about narrative film music that still largely holds today, though some have challenged it.

Scholars whose work you should search out:

Not everybody has published a book or even a book that is easy to get a hold of, but if you have access to a good library with ILL services and subscriptions to databases such as JSTOR or RILM, then you can find a wealth of articles to read.  Names to look for, besides those already mentioned, include: Kevin J. Donnelly (or K.J.), Robynn Stilwell, Caryl Flinn, David Neumeyer, James Buhler, Kathryn Kalinak, Gillian B. Anderson…and that’s just what some call the “first generation” of film music scholars.  Another good resource is the on-line journal Music and the Moving Image which is edited by the same people who run the yearly conference of the same name at New York University (Anderson and Ron Sadoff) along with the above mentioned Journal of Film Music.

There are some other books that are about specific composers and scores (such as those listed on Herr Vogler’s list), and I would at least checkout the Scarecrow Film Score Guides series.  I’ve only looked through the ones for Batman and Forbidden Planet, but they both seemed like good ways to approach film music from a musicological perspective.  One that is as concerned with the music itself as it is the history of the composer, film, and the  circumstances surrounding the project.

As with any academic discipline, there is a balance to be struck between global knowledge about a field and more specific knowledge related to your defined niche.  That is why I have the “core” books which provide a global view (and do it very well), and have left out more specific books related to composers, periods, etc.  And since “film musicology” is still a new field that is interdisciplinary by its very nature one will also need books on film theory, music theory, and many other possible fields depending on the film subject.

I hope this has been of help to you, my readers.  Your humble blogger has yet to publish anything outside of this web space, but stay tuned as my dissertation begins to take shape – over the coming years…

FSFT5 – Movie Power Ballads!!!!

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I know…you’re shaking your head and wondering when I’ll get back to real content…soon, I promise!  But I stumbled upon this tonight and it just begged to be followed up on.  Clearly, in this video, the singer/songwriter is following in the model of late 80s, early 90s power ballads.  In my mind, he’s truly playing in the model of Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” which came even later, but which took the tropes of the early 90s and updated them.  Regardless, it got me thinking, of all the wonderfully cheesy, over-the-top power ballads written for movies, which ones would make my all time list.  But let me say this, though…I love a good power ballad.  I love the over-the-top quality of them, and I just live in anticipation of the modulating bridge.  Even in the above faux-Terminator, as soon as the bridge kicked in I just burst out laughing with glee.

So I make this list in pure nostalgic bliss for the bygone era of the power ballads.  I truly miss you.

#5: Highlander – “Who Wants to Live Forever”:  All you need to know is that this was recorded by Queen, and while it feels like it never really gets started, it does feature a sweet power ballad guitar solo.

#4: St. Elmo’s Fire – “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)”:  Oh my, this song is just 80s cheese through and thought.  It’s so cheesy that it should come with a doctor’s warning.  The 80s-tastic synths, the earnest vocals, pleading with the listener.  It’s not quite a power ballad – though it is a ballad – but it’s just too good to pass up…

#3: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves – “Everything I Do (I Do It For You)”: I used to love this song as a kid – who am I kidding I still love it.  I was but a wee lad when this film came out, and I listened to this song over and over.  It has everything a great power ballad needs: a great bridge, epic guitar parts, and the slow build to the moment when the singer screams out his pain and love…oh, and it features a piano being played in a forest.  Epic.

#2: The Running Man – “Running Away With You (Restless Heart)”: From the man who brought you “St. Elmo’s Fire” comes this earnest track about running away with the woman you love, which plays after Ah-nold tears through an evil game show, killing all that get in his way.  Kinda clashes, but the song is “great”…

#1: Armageddon – “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”: The previous songs all reach for epic-ness, and many get darn close, but none reach the epic level of Aerosmith’s contribution to Michael Bay’s film.  We have orchestra, we have the epic guitars, bridge, plus it’s written by Diane “Over the Top Song” Warren.  She also penned the theme song to Enterprise and many other epic songs.  Besides, with this song, the entire world was in danger, so how could that not win?

Honorable Mention:

These songs were left out mainly because they weren’t really ballads, but they do have power and rock!  Cue the montages!

Rocky III – “Eye of the Tiger”: If there is one song from the annals of film that screams “training montage” it is “Eye of the Tiger.”  If you can’t get psyched listening to this song, you need to have yourself checked for a pulse.

Footloose – “Holding Out for a Hero”:  Ah, Jim Steinman, you knew I had to include at least one of the songs he wrote on this list.  Enjoy.

I promise, next week I’ll get back to serious discussions of an academic nature…maybe.

Take us away Kenny Loggins!

Film Score “Friday” Top 5: Music Performance Scenes in Film

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Loyal Readers, I would like to announance that I am one step closer to earning my PhD.  I’ve finished my comprehensive exams…though I still have to see if I pass or not.  But for now, I’m just happy that’s over with.  And in honor of that, I shall grace you with a Film Score Friday list…though it is already Saturday.

While I was studying, I had the chance to view Hot Tub Time Machine – hey, I needed some “stupid” in my life considering I was trying to learn and remember over 2,000 years of music history – and there is a scene towards the end in which one of the lead characters performs the Black Eyed Peas song, “Let’s Get it Started.”  But you see, these guys are back in 1986 and obviously the song doesn’t come out for another 20 years or so.  Well that reminded me of another classic movie music performance, Michael J. Fox’s “Johnny B. Goode” from Back to the Future.  So that got me thinking, what other good music performances from films can I find?  Well, in a rather short, but I feel awesome edition of FSFT5, that is my task.  But it is late and I’m tired, so I’m making it short.

In at #5 is the aforementioned sequence from Hot Tub Time Machine.  The movie pulls so many tropes from Back to the Future (and even stars Crispin Glover) that a music sequence like this was inevitable, and, like the movie itself, they managed to actually pull it off.  “This song’s from the future, but since you’ve been good…you get it early.”

#4: There are some movies I pull out just to watch certain scenes, and 2005’s Hustle and Flow is one that I watch just for the song scenes.  There are three great sequences in which the lead character’s songs are made, but I still like the first the best, “Whoop That Trick.”  That it shows the act of song creation adds some power to the whole thing, and I love how it slowly comes together is great.  Unfortunatly I couldn’t find a clip of it on the youTube so you’ll just have to find the movie yourself.  It’s a good film, so watching it will not be a waste.

#3: And speaking of songs coming together, the scene in Ray (2004) in which the titular character records his first hit song, “Mess Around,” is also great, if only to hear the producer try to sing.  Warning: the audio sucks on this.

#2: The Back to the Future scene slides in at the two spot.  My favorite line is still, “You know that new sound you’ve been looking for?  Listen to this!”  Unfortunatly I could not find the exact clip from the film, so this will have to do:

#1: And coming in on top is one of the best scenes from Casablanca in which the Nazis get the smack down music style!  Two things before the clip: 1) if you haven’t seen this movie…go now and see it, and 2) if you don’t understand the relevance and significance of the two song, well…you really need to learn your history.

Well that’s all for now.  I hope to see you all in the near future.

Film Score “Friday” Top 5: On Second Thought, Ranking the ‘Star Trek’ Scores

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So after the bevy of new Star Trek releases in the past months (reviewed here), I’ve decided to go back and reevaluate my Trek score rankings from last summer (here).  Of course, having thousands of miles of driving in which to listen to 11 Trek scores, three of which are two disc sets, helps in the decision-making process.  But a simple top five list doesn’t seem right, especially since my top choices are substantially unchanged.  No folks, here at The Temp Track, we strive to give you, our readers, only the best.  So today, and sorry for it being a bit late this week, Film Score Friday Top 5 goes to 11.  It’s 6 louder.

Before I get to the list, let me preface these proceedings with this thought.  On the whole, each and every one of these scores is good, obviously some are better than others, but on the whole, the Star Trek scores are remarkable in that they all have some good qualities that help them rise above most film music.  Not even the Trek films can make this claim (I’m looking at you Final Frontier…oy what a crap fest).  So it was actually kind of difficult once I left the top five to rank the remaining six scores, there is wiggle room and the scores could easily be ranked higher or lower depending on which way the wind blows. 

And one final caveat, since there have been so many releases of the scores, not to mention bootlegs floating around, here is a list of the scores I used in my listening evaluations:

The Motion Picture – 20th Anniversary (Sony)
Wrath of Khan – Expanded Edition (Film Score Monthly)
Search for Spock – Expanded Edition (Film Score Monthly)
Voyage Home – Original Release (MCA)
Final Frontier – Expanded Score (Bootleg)
Undiscovered Country – Original Release (MCA)
Generations – Original Release (Crescendo)
First Contact – Expanded Score (2 Disc Bootleg)
Insurrection – Expanded Score (Bootleg)
Nemesis – Expanded Score (2 Disc Bootleg)
Star Trek – Deluxe Edition (2 Disc Varese Sarabande)

So, with all of that said, let’s go the tape:

#11: Star Trek Generations – Dennis McCarthy:  McCarthy was one of the most frequently used composers on the many Star Trek TV series from Next Generation all the way up through Enterprise.  And since he had worked so much on the adventures of the crew of the Enterprise-D it seemed natural that he would score their first big screen adventure.  The result was a mixed bag to say the least.  There are a few good moments in the score, and some good themes, but on the whole…well it seems like McCarthy wasn’t really sure what to do now that he had such a big canvas to work with.  The opening track on the album, “Star Trek Generations Overture,” is a great fanfare and deserves to be on any Trek film score retrospective album, but after that…*shrug.*  The Overture contains the two good themes, the fanfare and the contrasting theme featured  in the next best track, “The Nexus/A Christmas Hug,” but two good themes and a few good tracks aren’t enough to lift this score from the No. 11 position on our countdown.  The biggest problem it seems is that McCarthy wasn’t sure how to develope the themes once he wrote them.

#10: Star Trek First Contact – Jerry Goldsmith: Though really it’s Jerry and his son Joel Goldsmith, which does make it feel slightly uneven at times.  And while I do enjoy much of Joel’s TV work, he’s not his father.  The score has many good moments, but it also relies heavily on a four note motive that Goldsmith recycled from his Final Frontier score, of which I don’t begrudge him, it is his theme after all, and given the shortened post-production schedule that necessitated his bringing his son into the mix, I wouldn’t be surprised if that is partially why the motive got reused.  But despite this, there are things to like in the score, the cue “The Dish” is vintage Goldsmith, deftly mixing electronic instruments and sounds with orchestral instruments, and his music for the titular first contact of humans with aliens is a beautiful moment, albeit it is a moment that features the recycled theme from Final Frontier.  Some days, I guess you can have your cake and eat it too.

#9: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – Leonard Rosenman: There are many moments to like in this score.  Rosenman’s main title theme is a great addition to the Trek pantheon, and the “Whale Fugue” is a nice musical moment, but this score has always been dragged down for me by the inclusion of the 80s-tastic tracks contributed by the Yellowjackets.  They kind of work in the film, but I didn’t think they were really necessary, and I always skip them when I’m listening to the album.  They just clash with everything else, and I guess the producers deemed it necessary to help establish the time period, but considering that it was contemporary to when the film was released, did we really have to?  Maybe a proper score release might change my feelings, but for now, it’s No. 9.

#8: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock – James Horner: Most of the thematic material for this film is recycled from Horner vastly superior score for Wrath of Khan, which is okay since the film is largely an extension of that film, but the one new theme he does bring in, his Klingon theme, is not very good and is but a shadow of Goldsmith’s Klingon theme from The Motion Picture. But there is one thing that does help this score, and that is the cue “Stealing the Enterprise.”  It’s a great cue for what might be the best scene in the entire movie.  I won’t say that it alone validates a purchase of the new release, but it is a good excuse none the less.  I actually had a good moment during my drive home with this score  As I’m listening to “Stealing the Enterprise,” the rest of my family, whom I had passed some miles back coming out of a rest area while we were on our way to visit family elsewhere, finally caught up to me.  I happened to glance in the rear view mirror to see the mini-van coming up behind me right as the cue was building up.  It was a wonderful geek moment.

#7: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – Jerry Goldsmith: Terrible movie, good score.  A familiar formula, though still not Jerry’s best on the Trek franchise, but still a worthy entry.  As mentioned, one of the primary themes of the film makes many appearances in First Contact, and to a lesser extent Insurrection and Nemesis, but this is where it began.  There is so much wrong with this film, that I had forgotten most of it until I went back and watched it for the first time in years a few weeks ago.  But Jerry wrote some great themes for this score that still hold up, and the cue “A Busy Man” utilizes them to great effect.  One of the best parts about this score is that Jerry brought back his Klingon theme and his version of the main title (which had since become the Next Generation main title), and we missed them both greatly.  As Jeff Bond argues in his book on Trek music, hiring Goldsmith was one of two good ideas that Shatner made when making Final Frontier.

#6: Star Trek Nemesis – Jerry Goldsmith: I sometimes go back and forth and to what is my favorite score of the NextGen movies.  Some days it’s Nemesis, others its Insurrection, but for today, Nemesis is in the sixth position.  There isn’t a whole lot to say about this score.  Once again, Jerry comes up with great new material, his Reman theme is especially a delight and takes full advantage electronic sounds.  One could say that Goldsmith was cribbing from Howard Shore’s Isengard theme in his over the top trombones in this score, especially during some of battle scenes with the Reman battle cruiser Scimitar.  It is notable that Nemesis was one of Goldsmith’s last scores.  Only his rejected Timeline score and Looney Tunes: Back in Action came after it.

#5: Star Trek Insurrection – Jerry Goldsmith: So why is Insurrection currently my favorite over Nemesis?  Because I find Jerry Ba’ku theme so charming and lovely.  Okay, that’s not the only reason, but it is the primary reason.  The version of it found in the Main Title cue as the camera is panning over the idyllic Ba’ku village and then following the people through it is a great sequence and Goldsmith scored it so perfectly.  It is essentially one theme repeated several times, but his shifting orchestration keeps it fresh and interesting.  It is a good score and is tonally consistent with the other NextGen films, which thanks to the changing composers of the Original Series films, could never find a steady sound, with the exception of the two that Horner scored.  If there is one flaw with so much of the Trek music, it is that so many different composers worked on them.  Thanks to that, you had many different themes floating around and a new main title for almost every film.  Well, that was until Jerry took the reins again.

#4: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – Cliff Eidelman:  Following the script that worked so well for Wrath of Khan, the director and producers of VI went out and found a young, unknown composer for Undiscovered Country and it worked out quite well.  Eidelman, was told to model parts of the score on Gustav Holst’s The Planets, which is very evident in the open title sequence, but Eidelman really does make the material his own.  What is also so remarkable is just how dark this score is.  With the exception of moments in the main titles and the sequence in which the Enterprise leaves spacedock, the score is pretty uniformly dark until the very end.  Eidleman also borrows from some of Horner’s sound in his music for the two vulcans in the film, Spock and Valeris, played by future Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall (and yes, hopefully that is the first and last time that show will ever be mentioned in this blog space).  If there is a score I would love to be the next official expanded release, it is this one.

#3: Star Trek – Michael Giacchino: I keep talking about this score, so I won’t belabor the point.  I know some people don’t like how campy and kitschy it is at times, tounge-in-cheek reference to older scores, but I find it works and fits the tone of the film well.  In that respect, I guess part of how you feel about the score also comes down to how you feel about the film itself.  And while I do have some minor quibbles with the film, I was largely pleased with the effort and am looking forward to the next one. I’m hopeful that Giacchino will stay aboard the franchise as long as Abrams and Co. is on board so that he developes the musical themes begun in this film.  If you haven’t picked up the Deluxe Edition, you better hurry up because it’s a limited run and has already sold at the Varese Sarabande website (You might still be able to pick one up from Screen Archives Entertainment, though).

#2: Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Jerry Goldsmith: So far, the only Trek score to ever be nominated for an Academy Award, and numero dos on our countdown.  I know, last summer I put it number one, but after much reflection and wrestling with my feelings, I finally decided that as good as it was, it couldn’t beat number one (of which the identity of is pretty obvious at this point).  The score has much the same flaw as the film itself, a lack of action.  And while I don’t find it to be the fatal flaw that other perceive, it does keep it from rising any further on my new list.  I still love almost every moment of the score, from the opening titles, Ilia’s theme, the Cloud sequence, and, of course, the five-minute love affair with the Enterprise itself.  It’s a great score and very much deserved its shout out from the Academy, but it’s no…

#1: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – James Horner:  KHAN!!!!!!  KHAN!!!!!!  A single fifty-nine second cue on the expanded release is what put me over the top with deciding to place Horner’s effort number one.  “Buried Alive” is just as iconic in my book as Kirk’s shout to the heavens and one cannot exist without the other.  Of course, I also love Horner’s sweeping main title theme.  I find it amusing that so many people call it “nautical” when that is exactly what Goldsmith was told to avoid in The Motion Picture.  Well, different director, different tastes, right?  There is really so much to love in this score that it is one of my go to albums on my iPod, and that is high praise indeed.

Well, that’s it.  A long list, but a necessary one.  I will be entering semester hibernation soon, so this well likely be my final Film Score Friday Top 5 for a while, but I still have some reviews to put up, especially of Varese Sarabande’s epic new Spartacus set, which might just be the single most over-the-top score release of all time.  Along with that, there are new editions of Danny Elfman’s Batman, Independence Day by David Arnold, and Outland by Jerry Goldsmith to talk about.  So there is still content to be had, but you might have to wait awhile for it.

Holy Film Score Friday, Batman! It’s the Top 5 Feature Film Scores!

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Greetings from The Temp Track on the Road!  A three-day road trip to my parents new house some 1200 miles from Temp Track plaza  provided me with plenty of time to evaluate the scores of all eight Batman feature films.  Now, some of you might be confused by that number…eight.  Well, here, fearless citizen, are the eight films under consideration:

Batman (1966, Leslie H. Martinson)
Batman (1989, Tim Burton)
Batman Returns (1992, Tim Burton)
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993, Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm)
Batman Forever (1995, Joel Schumacher)
Batman & Robin (1997, Joel Schumacher)
Batman Begins (2005, Christopher Nolan)
The Dark Knight (2008, Christopher Nolan)

 Basically, if it was released in theatres, I’m considering it here. 

Unfortunately, the hoped for information about the third Nolan film was not released at Comic-Con this past weekend, but it has been confirmed that the third film will start shooting in April of next year with a release date of July of 2012.  So, even though it’s not much, we do know that it is a go.

Despite this lack of new information, it is still well that I tackle this list this week for I have been reunited with my comic book collection.  There isn’t enough room at my current residence for the collection (especially my beloved Fantastic Four collection) so it has lived with my parents and was moved with them a month ago to a place even further away from me.  But they are none the worse for wear and after spending a few hours checking the boxes and putting things in order, my collection has established its new home.

But enough reflection on my geekdom.  Onto the five best Batman scores.  This time in countdown form.  Now, I know I’m going to make some people upset with this list, so I’ll just say sorry up front.

#5: Batman Begins (Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard) – The first score for the Nolan films, it introduced a new sound to the Caped Crusader’s universe and gave us a modern score for the films.  Zimmer/Howard gave us a score that eschews the heroic themes of Danny Elfman or Eliot Goldenthal’s scores and one based more on short motives and focused much more on sound.  It is almost minimalistic at times and the Batman music sounds like the old 1960s tv series theme passed through electronic filters and reflected through the lens of late 20th Century aesthetics.  It was a new sound for a new kind of Batman film.

#4: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (Shirley Walker) – I’ve gushed about Shirley Walker’s Animated Series scores before on this site, and Mask of the Phantasm extended all that was good about them into the theatrical realm.  With the increased budget of a larger film, Walker added a chorus to the mix and even a 90s-tastic pop song, “I Never Even Told You,” performed by Tia Carrere.  Yes, that Tia Carrere, aka the Hot Girl from Wayne’s World.  Whatever happened to her?

#3: Batman Forever (Eliot Goldenthal) – The Joel Schumacher era of the Batman franchise is dark time for Bat-fans, but one bright light of the films were Goldenthal’s scores.  They took the dark, gothic sound of the Burton/Elfman films and made it to fit the over-saturated, pop world of Schumacher’s Gotham.  And I also love some of Goldenthal’s track titles, especially “Nygma Variations,” “Batterdammerung,” and “Fledermausmarschmusik.”  The Batman & Robin is a bit of a mixed bag, though, as much of the music seems to be recycled from Forever without much change, and I’m hard pressed to find new themes for Mr. Freeze or Poison Ivy.  But for as bland as Batman & Robin is in terms of new music, Forever is a score that fresh and innovative, but also respectful for the Elfman scores that came before it.

#2: Batman Returns (Danny Elfman) – This is where people might get angry with me.  I selected this over Elfman’s original score, and then decided to put Begins on the list instead of Batman.  Well, here is my reasoning.  First, I simply like Returns more than the original.  I like the children’s chorus and Christmas feeling to the score.  Second, I love the Penguin’s theme.  One of the things about the original Batman score is that there is no Joker theme.  Go back and listen, there is tons of Batman music, snippets of “Beautiful Dreamer,” but no Joker theme.  The waltz music can be said to be associated with him, not to mention many of the Prince songs, but still, no Joker theme.  This is what you get with Returns, some great villain themes…especially the Penguin.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the Batman score, and Danny should have gotten an Oscar nomination for his efforts, but alas, I was only 9 at the time and had no power over the Acamdey…and I still don’t.  If anything, my #2 here should be combined Batman and Batman Returns, but I decided not to take the coward’s way out.  Lastly, if you haven’t already, go order this right now.

#1: The Dark Knight (Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard) – Two words: Joker Theme.  Okay, two more words: electric cello.  Seriously, in one, distorted note Zimmer establishes an entire character.  One beautiful, distorted, note.  That alone is an achievement, but to then weave that note in an out of the score so effortlessly, never let it feel old or repetitive, and never losing the menace established at the beginning of the film is nothing short of brilliant.  From that note, he builds a theme that is in many ways the evil foil of the Batman music established in the first film, full of strange accents and a dark, falling chord motif.  It is a score fit for what might go down as the best superhero film ever made.

Well, there you have it, love it or hate it.  I know this post is a bit lighter on content then some of my recent ones, but please forgive me, I’m on vacation.  Hopefully next week I’ll give you a revised list of the Star Trek film scores, but as I’ll just be getting back home on Thursday, I might be a bit late in posting.  Hope you have a good week ahead, and while these might not be the scores you deserve, they are the scores you need.

Film Score Friday Top 5: Michael Giacchino Film Score Albums

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Well, another Friday is upon us, the end of the work week and the beginning of my much overdue summer vacation – but do not be fearful, I shall update from the road.  It’s been quite the week here high atop Temp Track Plaza for it seems that my two posts from the weekend – one on Inception and other about the trailer for The Social Network – struck a chord with Google searches the world over and every record this humble blog had for daily, weekly, and monthly views have tumbled like the Berlin Wall c. 1989.

But never one to rest on my internet laurels, I have been hard at work this week in preparation for today’s edition of Film Score Friday Top 5.  And this week we are tackling film score albums by Temp Track favorite Michael Giacchino.  Mr. Giacchino has had quite a run of success lately, as chronicled elsewhere in this internet space.  He released four film scores last year along with continuing work on Lost and Fringe.  Oh, and he won a duffle-bag full of awards for his score to Up.  So, it seems that now would be a good time to look back at his still young career and give you a list of five Giacchino scores you should not be without, along with some thoughts on the rest.

In all, Giacchino has scored 17 films (that is including the end credit music for Cloverfield, the only score in the film), and ten of those can easily be had from your local iTunes store – with the exception of the deluxe edition of Star Trek.  (A list of his credits can be seen here.)  Of the remaining seven, the CD for Sky High doesn’t really have much of his music, and The Muppet Wizard of Oz has other music on the release, not to mention the disc is out of print, and the rest I can find no trace of.  Thusly, the scores under consideration here are as follows: The Incredibles, The Family Stone, Mission: Impossible III, Ratatouille, Cloverfield, Speed Racer, Star Trek (both the original and deluxe release), Up, Land of the Lost, and Earth Days.

So, here in no real order, and the five Giacchino scores you should have in your collection.

The Pixar Films: This kinda goes without saying, but I’ve gona and said it anyway.  The Incredibles was Giacchino’s first major studio work and really brought him to the attention of the rest of Hollywood.  That was back in 2004, and was released just as a little show called Lost was in its early days.  Of course, J.J. Abrams knew him from Alias, but Incredibles, with its wonderful ’60s jazz/James Bond score made many people sit up and take notice.  Prior to this, he had only four other films scores, none really notable, a number of video games credits, and his work with Abrams to his name.  Also, think that with the long development process of animated films, Giacchino was most likely brought on board as even more of a real unknown.  Ratatouille (2007) brought Giacchino his first Oscar nomination and features the composers signature wit and style.  That style and his ability to adapt to fit any genre and do so in a charming manner has helped make his a stable of the Pixar word.  This was further demonstrated with Up (2009), for which composed a score that is nostalgic and wistful, a signature of his work.  Even Incredibles can be seen in this manner, a throw back ’60s style score.  But what he captures in the scores is what can be described as the Pixar magic.  That thing that makes these films not only enjoyable for kids, but for adults also.  More importantly, though, each one of these score albums are well done and gives one a great sense of the film and scope of Giacchino’s music.  As a bonus, the purchase of Up from iTunes includes a short video interview with the composer about scoring the film.

Speed Racer (2008) – This film, directed by the Wachowski Brothers (they of The Matrix fame), was a much overlooked, CGI-in-overdrive live action film that was in and out of theatres faster than you could say, “Go, Speed Racer, go!”  I’ve mentioned the film before, and I’ll state once again that I believe it is vastly underrated because people were viewing it in the wrong way.  Go in with an open mind and some Dramamine and you might actually find yourself enjoying it.  As for Giacchino’s score, it pays its respects to the themes and sounds of the original anime series, but also features much of the Giacchino flare.  It revels in the impossibility of it all, from the fighting and flying cars to the evil corporations ruining sports…okay maybe not all of it is so impossible.  Best of all, every cue feels fresh and different from much of his other work.  Where sometimes, after listening to many of his scores, you’ll hear elements of some of his other work (mostly Lost), Speed Racer stays true to its world and is a great ride from beginning to end.  Since I first picked up this score over a year ago, it has rarely left my iPod’s rotation, and I can think of no better compliment given my Nano’s 8GB capacity.  And speaking of paying homage…

Star Trek: The Deluxe Edition (2009): I recently reviewed this, so I’ll just summarize my thoughts here.  First, do yourself a favor and if you haven’t bought either the Deluxe version just released or the original,  just splurge for the deluxe.  As an album, it holds together much better and gives you a much better feel for the breadth of Giacchino’s music for the film.  It also gives a listener familiar with all the Trek scores a sense that Giacchino is calling back to not just the music of the original series, but music from all of the franchise’s history.  It is a great score, and a great set.  In my opinion, some of the composer’s best film work.

The Best of the Rest:  Should you have some extra credits lying around, I would also recommend pick up “Roar!” from Cloverfield.  It is a twelve-minute long shout out to Akira Ifukube’s Godzilla scores that is featured during the film’s end credits (as the film proper has no score), and at 99 cents, you have no excuse.  You might also consider checking out Land of the Lost, if only to hear Giacchino references to Jerry Goldsmith’s classic Planet of the Apes score.  It has some nice moments in it, though a few times towards the end it veers a bit too close to some of his slow Lost cues.

Now, as a special bonus for those who have made it this far, I offer you a list of my top five favorite Giacchino cue titles.  I know some people don’t like his humorous titles, but I for one enjoy them.  And away we go…

5. “World’s Worst Last 4 Minutes to Live” from Mission: Impossible III

4. “Galaxy’s Worst Sushi Bar” from Star Trek: The Deluxe Edition

3. “52 Chachki Pickup” from Up

2. “End Credits Can Suck It!” from Land of the Lost

and coming it at number 1…”Matter? I Barely Know Her!” from Star Trek: The Deluxe Edition

Well, that’s it for this week folks.  I hope you tune in next week for my countdown of the Batman feature film scores (all eight of them…”Eight?” you ask, you’ll have to come back next Friday to find out).  This weekend is the yearly San Diego ComicCon and hopefully there’ll be some news on the next Bat film slated for a July 2012 release – like a title, casting…please? – so no better time than now to look back on the franchise.  So come back next week…same Bat-time, same Bat-station.

“The Social Network” – Thoughts on the new trailer

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It’s rare that a trailer really makes my ears perk up except in the case of trying to identify what score they’re stealing the music from.  But every now and then, there is a trailer that is a well done melding of music and image that is a piece of art in and of itself.  The first Inception trailers did that, as did the first Watchmen trailer (going all the way back to my first real post on this blog).  Well, as I was sitting in the theatre on Saturday anxiously awaiting my 10:50 AM (yes, I like the cheap matinees) screening of Inception to start, the trailer for David Fincher’s (he of Alien3, Fight Club, Se7en, and most recently The Curious Case of Benjamin Button fame) latest film came up – The Social Network.  The film is about the creating and founding of Facebook, mildly interesting, but the trailer…well watch it first and then let’s talk.

When I first saw it, it took me a bit to identify the song used, but after a minute I recognized Radiohead’s “Creep,” but in a, for lack of a better phrase, hauntingly beautiful choral arrangement.  And despite everything that I talked about in yesterday’s post about Inception, that song also stuck in my ear and I finally had to look it up.  It is done by a Belgian girls choir called (confusingly) the Scala & Kolacny Brothers.  But that’s not what I really want to talk about, I want to parse the trailer itself, because when a song is used well in a trailer, such as it is here, it pays to take about how it is used.  For me, it helps to identify why I had a particular reaction to the audiovisual content.

First, the song itself.  “Creep” was Radiohead’s breakout hit in 1993 (though first released the year before) that brought them to the attention of the alternative rock scene.  It features an interesting chord progression for the verses, G major – B major – C major – C minor, that –  for me – is one of the most interesting features of the song.  The arrangement itself is fairly standard, with a falsetto bridge by Thom Yorke being one of the few defining features, along with Jonny Greenwood’s guitar crushes leading into the chorus.  If you don’t know the song, just type it into YouTube and you’ll get numerous videos.

The choral arrangement featured in the trailer strips the rock instrumentation down to a lonely piano to provide a gently rocking, chordal accompaniment to the choir vocals (click here for a full video of their performance).  The overall effect is hard to put into words.  It helps to emphasize the lyrics, gives it a quasi-religious overtone, but also evokes the feel of piano artists like Ben Folds or Elton John or Billy Joel.  Also, acoustically, there is something about the nature of the range between the register of the choir voices and the piano and the differences of the timbre that gives it a space that also reinforces a quality of hearing a performance in a cathedral.  Further…there is an almost collegiate glee club quality to the fact that it is a simple choir and piano arrangement fitting with the film’s Harvard University setting.  In and of itself, it a beautiful arrangement and performance, but when it is melded with the images of the trailer, it takes on new levels of meaning.

But how is the song itself manipulated?  How are the lyrics used and interpreted?  Well, for the trailer, they begin the song with the second verse and proceed into the bridge, but then cut off at the end of the bridge to allow for some final dialogue and then end with the last line of the final chorus.  The lyrics as heard in the trailer (with famous radio edit of “very” instead of “fucking”) are:

I don’t care if it hurts
I want to have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
 
I want you to notice
When I’m not around
You’re so very special
I wish I were special
 
But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here
I don’t belong here
 
She’s running out the door
She’s running out
She run, run, run, run
Run
 
I don’t belong here.

I would hope that it is fairly evident from the editor’s careful lyric selection why this song was chosen, but I’ll go ahead and put in my thoughts.

The first two stanzas used are played against a montage of Facebook like screens: pictures, images of mouse cursors, status updates, etc.  Each scene of the montage is related in some way to the lyric itself.  For example “I want a perfect body” as we see an athlete after finishing a raise and a woman in a bathing suit climbing out of a pool, both examples of “a perfect body.”  Then for “I want a perfect soul” as we see a wedding photo and the picture of a just born infant (prominently featured the “soles” of his feet…a bit punny for my tastes).  The large implication of the two pictures is that of a wedding as a merging of two souls and that of a just born human soul.  The bigger picture of this verse being selected is a commentary on the whole idea of a “social network.”  The idea that all of our lives are so special that it warrants status updates and such informing friends and whoever what we are doing minute to minute (in my case, today announcing that I was getting an oil change…spread the news!).

The song is about longing for inclusion in a group, but eventual exclusion, “I don’t belong here,” because they’re a creep, a weirdo.  The somewhat voyeuristic first four lines of the second verse, someone longing for someone else’s life, body and soul, contrasted with their own sense of loneliness in their longing (in the second stanza) for someone, anyone, to notice when they are not there, is exactly the nature of Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites.  We want to be noticed, we feed off it.  Even blogging is a facet of this need for attention and validation of one’s life.

The last two lines of the verse, “You’re so very special / I wish I were special,” play as a digitized photo of actor Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg comes into focus.  Implying, possibly, that he created Facebook out of his own loneliness and fears, something that is somewhat hinted at in the scene that follows in the trailer as the song segues into the chorus.  He explains his wanting to do something so that he would be invited into one of Harvard’s exclusive clubs (this is a Harvard thing, like fraternities and sororities…but more Ivy League).

The balance of the trailer is a standard montage of scenes to give the audience a sense of the film’s plot, but are edited quite well to follow the pace of the song, especially as it moves into the soaring falsetto bridge (“She’s running out the door,” etc.).  The final “I don’t belong here,” is heard as the film’s title and logo, in a Facebook style, is seen.  A wonderful juxtaposition of meaning, a statement about exclusion against an image of modern society’s ultimate expression of inclusion.

A wonderfully made trailer that has made me interested to see the film itself.  Hopefully it won’t let me down like Watchmen did.

Is This The Real Life…Inception review, Part II

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This is a hard post to write.  On the one hand, my head is still swirling with thoughts about Inception, but most are related to the film itself and its structure.  I’ve fully absorbed the music and I’ve seen the film, but I’m still trying to synthesize the two into a complete whole.  The film itself is layers upon layers upon layers…upon layers.  There is the heist movie cliché of the old thief doing this one last job to settle old debts/scores/whatever so that he can finally retire.  It’s a film about reality versus dreams, and the uncanny nature of reality and memory and dreams…and the unreliability of it all.  It’s both summer action and a mediation on life and love and regrets…and how they can haunt us even while we dream…especially when we dream.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!  If you haven’t seen the film, you might want to wait to read on until you do.  Don’t worry, it’ll still be here waiting for you.

In many ways, what is referred to as “inception” in the film – the planting of a new idea into a mind in the hopes that the dreamer will accept it as their own – is like how Nolan constructs many of his films.  He shows you something right from the beginning, usually something key to the plot, if not THE key, but then leaves it.  Lets it worm into the viewer’s mind and allows them to try and figure it out.  He might return to it in flashes, but not always.  He might show it from some different angels, but not always.  But no matter how he does it, it’s there, just waiting to be explained.  The Batman films aren’t as explicit about it, but do it to some degree, but Insomnia, The Prestige, and now Inception all follows this model much more closely – Following and Memento do so also, but not as well, I think Nolan was still honing his craft.  In Insomnia, it was the image of blood seeping into cloth and for Prestige it was a forest full of top hats.  With Inception, it opens with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Dom Cobb washing up on a beach, meeting with an old man and spinning a top (something that was also part of the film’s early, cryptic website).

I have the sense that in all three of the aforementioned films that musically the composers (David Julyan for the first two, now Hans Zimmer) have tried to achieve something similar.  The Julyan scores are a bit harder to get a handle one, especially Prestige…so I’ll leave those for later and lets focus on Hans’ latest and greatest.

The first cut on the album, “Half Remembered Dream” actually begins while the logos and are on the screen.  It’s the first time since Batman Begins that a Nolan film hasn’t opened in almost utter silence (and even Begins was only a “sound” of wings flapping).  As I mentioned in my first post, this cue introduces us to two of the main thematic ideas of the score.  The first is a four note motive that has a few different harmonic settings and weaves in and out of the score and the second is what I shall call “the trombones from hell” even though I know there are more than just trombones being played.  But…eh.

Let’s pull apart that opening track for a moment because it does something very interesting.  The four-note motive is basically a pair of ascending perfects fifth a half-step apart.  Most often heard as C-G-B-F#, which means that it ends exactly a tri-tone away from the first note.  In music theory terms, that F# is exactly equidistant away from both a higher and lower C and musically doesn’t really have a logical resolution.  If the F# had come from C, we would want it to resolve up to the G, but instead it’s coming from a B, so we could hear it as merely the fifth of B.  There are two conflicting tonalities built into the motive that are never resolved because the four notes simply fold back to the beginning like the never-ending staircase that is one of the visuals present in the film.  But there are variations, at times of great stress, occasionally the motive will change to C-B-B (an octave lower)-F#, heightening the tension and maybe emphasizing the B more, but no, it loops back around to C again.  It is also heard, the first version followed by the second and then back to the first.  So C-G-B-F#-C-B-B-F#-C-etc.

Both of these versions are present in the opening track and are also the versions most heard in the film, but there is another transposed version heard only once (at least that I’m sure of, explained later)…at the very beginning of the first cue over the first logo.  This version is the motive, but transposed down a fifth to begin on F:  F-C-E-B.  This is followed in the cue by the first appearance of the trombones from hell that will soon become the most iconic part of the score.  After that cacophony subsides though, we get the motive again, but now in the soon to be familiar C version and then followed by the second variant with the high B, though the final F# is not played (at least on the album, I’ll have to see the film again to confirm that is how it plays out, again see below for more).

Given that the trombones are most associated with the dream world itself, could this cue during the logos be our movement into the dream world of the film – one that we never come out of?  Unless the motive starting on F is heard again at the end of the closing credits…which is possible.  More research is required.  It’s actually plausible that Hans does play this game because towards the end of the credit the French song that I mentioned as being present in track ten of the album (“Waiting for a Train”) comes back.  This song, “Non, je ne regrette rien” (No, I regret nothing), is an important plot device in the film, and I would like to talk a little about it because it shows just how cagey a director Christopher Nolan is.

This song is best known in a 1960 recording by singer Edith Piaf.  This is notable on a few levels.  First, in the recent biopic about Piaf, La Vie en Rose, the song is used in the final sequence when Piaf is signing it for the first time as her death is also shown via parallel editing.  Now, as many other reviews have mentioned, Dom Cobb’s wife (who is dead when the film begins) is played by Marion Cotillard, who portrayed Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose.  Layers upon layers.  Some may think that it is a cute inside reference, but given how the song as used in Inception as a cue that it’s time to get out and also for Dom is a reference to his dead wife – who still haunts his subconscious for reasons slowly explained in the film – I believe it’s more than an inside joke.  It was a cagey move on the part of Nolan about how dreams can work, how the outside world can intrude and infect them, as shown in the film when a character is dunked in water in a higher level and it starts flooding in the lower dream.  It could be that in reality that Dom’s wife looked nothing like Marion Cotillard, but because,  for him, that she is associated with the song, which is linked to Piaf’s death in La Vie en Rose, she has come to look like her in his dreamscape.  Layers upon layers upon layers.

The song itself is used as a cue for those inside the dreams to get ready to leave.  The person’s whose dream it is has headphones placed on them which are connected to an mp3 player with the song.  Then the song itself emerges into that dream, so it is in this capacity that it is heard throughout the film.  And in the end credits, if one stays long enough, it is heard towards the very end, right before a final statement of the four note motive…I think.  I wasn’t listening as intently this morning becuase I was just getting a sense of the film.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve actually put most of these thoughts together while typing this post.  The very act of writing has helped me to sort some of this out…and I have one more thought for you, loyal reader.

On the album, the first and last tracks end much the same way, with the sound being, in effect, choked off.  It’s actually not unlike an effect used in The Prestige, but that is for another time (are you watching closely?).  This sound could indicate a second level movement in the dream space.  If the first sound choke occurs right after the logos (which I can’t remember exactly) it could be our movement into the dream space of the film.  And as the sound occurs again at the very end before the credits, it is also our movement out.  So the film itself could be seen as a dream within a dream.  First is our movement into our dream space (represented by the modulation via trombones from hell of the four note motive) and then via the sound choke into the dream space of the film, which can be seen as Dom’s dream.  In this sense, then, the music of the credits, if the motive does indeed move back into the “home” F version after the last occurence of the Piaf song, moves us back into reality.

I guess all the people who left before the end of the credits are stuck forever in limbo. (See the movie to understand that)

I’ve spent most of this time on the finer technical details of music’s use in the film, ignoring the bigger picture ideas of how the music conveys the sense of the film.  I addressed that, in part, via my earlier posting, but it would help to reiterate that the music really does help to convey the sense of dreams.  From the “dreamy” guitar licks to the trombones from hell, everything is either amped up or slowed down to some sort of extreme, and the most pedestrian cue, “Mombasa,” occurs, ostensibly, in the real world of the film’s characters – though the levels of reality in the film are open to debate.

In conclusion, Zimmer’s score for Inception is a multi-dimensional work that, to an astute listener, is an integral part of the film, as is the Piaf song “Non, je ne regrette rien.”  They both assist in Nolan’s execution of the film which is a fitting conclusion to what can be seen as a trilogy of film meditating on the nature of reality and illusion: Insomnia, The Prestige, and Inception.  And these films also furthered themes present in Nolan’s first films, Following and Memento.  It is well-known that his next project with be the conclusion of his Batman trilogy and it will be interesting to see where the filmmaker and his team go from there.  Here’s hoping that Zimmer is along for the ride.